Talk:Fredric Wertham

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Now I'm in over my head. I/You/We need to copy this article to a new to be titled, "Fredric Wertham", as this was the man's name. I/You/We will then need to redirect this article to the new copy. I will gladly do this myself, once I know how to do it. Please reply here. Two halves

Done- all you have to do is use the 'Move Page' command from the Wikipedia menu on the left hand side of the article- the redirecting, moving of talk page etc is all done automatically. quercus robur
Thank you Quercusrobur. I feel like I have been taught to fish :).

Contents

[edit] Lambiek article - copyvio

I was about to add a link to the Lambiek Comiclopedia article on Wertham when I noticed that it's virtually identical to a previous revision of our article. Though our article has a lengthy edit history, it looks to me like the bulk of the text was copied from Lambiek in this revision - which, not coincidentally, also removed a previously added link to the source. This is no good and the article needs a major rewrite, which I'll attempt. (Of course if Mr./Ms. 205.185.193.168 also contributed the text to Lambiek, that's another story, but I can't assume that.) --Hob 23:30, 2004 Aug 1 (UTC)

[edit] New York Comic Art Convention invitation

I heard that the NYCAC invitation basically was a trick to let old fans get their revenge on Wertham, and Wertham was completely unprepared of these personal attacks for a book he wrote 20 years ago. I am not sure about this, but if that is the case, I think that was a rather weasely invitation.)

Wertham had commented on comics in his more recent book A Sign for Cain, so he had re-stated his views in a work not too many years before the Convention appearance. And he had been involved at that point for years in many social and political issues via involvement with public forums. He wasn't unused to controversy or defending his views. And it was a legitimate invitation because he asserted in Seduction that he had seen no sign of anyone who had read comics when younger harbored any affection for them once maturing; fandom's existence refuted that and it is fair for them to show him that his assumption was not fully valid. Dgabbard (talk) 18:10, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Uber fan Dwight Decker in an e-mail to me expressed doubt this incident ever happened. Or maybe it is mis-remembering the appearance at a 1966 New York comic con by the Comics Code Administrator Leonard Darvin who was heckled when he defended the Code in a debate with Don Thompson (the transcript is reprinted in Alter Ego #55 [December 2005], pp.47-52).Dgabbard (talk) 17:16, 4 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] G.Glorious Godfrey as a Wertham rip-off?

I'm almost tempted to put in the article something like that in the section "Wertham in fiction"

-- Something similar happened in the DC Comics Legends story-arc, in which Darkseid attempts to turn the Earth people against their heroes using his mind-controlling minion, Glorious Godfrey. Godfrey presented himself as truly concerned for the "bad role model" that heroes represented for children with their misuse of violence, and aided by his mind-controlling voice, convinced the people to banish all superheroic activity on the Earth, for the sake of the children. They were the children themselves, not touched by Glorious powers, to stick around their heroes, undercovering his plot. -- DrTofu83 11:14, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Parallel to Video Game Violence fears?

I'm certainly not going to put up any unverified arguments on this or anything, but have there been any comparisons between the panic about comic books with the panic about video games? I'm seeing a lot of parallels here, but I don't want to edit the page with my opinion or anything. If anyone finds anything on it (might not be appropriate to this article even, I'm not sure) they should put it up. Magicflyinlemur 09:35, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sexuality

aren't there humors that he was gay or something? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 200.241.255.250 (talk) 16:24, 21 September 2007 (UTC)

No.Dgabbard (talk) 18:10, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] attitude toward remedy

It may be true "Wertham always denied that he favored censorship or had anything against comic books in principle" but his own comments at the time don't fully support that. Beyond the content he also targeted the form itself as being harmful. He also at times while not outright calling for a ban spoke of comics being so harmful that he seemed to be making a public health argument for them needing to be removed from the diet of reading, much like unsanitary conditions in food preparation. It is easy to cherrypick his comments to support a point of view on where he stood, since he was inconsistent Dgabbard (talk) 18:10, 26 March 2008 (UTC)