If Only These Guys Had Seen Modern Comics!

Time to get educational on your butts, as Slay Monstrobot brings to you an actual made-for-TV documentary of the evil of crime/horror comics books!

Made in late 1955 for the syndicated series Confidential File, host Paul Coates takes us along on his jeremiad against the funny books and the vague but definitely evil influence they have on the youth of America.

It's half an hour, but well worth your time.



A couple of notes:

*This was filmed after the formation of the Comics Code, but every single comic book Coates shows us is older, at least a year before the Code was formed. Every title they show was canceled well before the documentary aired. Hey, why show current comics when you can whip up a bigger fervor with the old ones that are just laying around?

*Yes, this was directed by THAT Irvin Kershner. I'm not picking on him--just because he directed it doesn't mean he agrees with Coates--but I am amused that a "comics are too graphic and violent and ribald" documentary was directed by the same guy who directed Robocop 2, Empire Strikes Back, and Never Say Never Again.

*No, I have no idea what the "sexual aberration so shocking I couldn't mention even the scientific name on television" was. But damn, I'm dying to find out...(of course, since you couldn't even say the word "pregnant" on TV back then, the bar for what you can't mention is pretty low...)

*I think we can all agree that the true horror was--the way those kids were treating those comics!! OMG, kids, stop rolling those up and shoving them in your pockets and hiding them under wet cardboard in the woods!! Do you have any idea what those are going to be worth?!?!

Hat tip to Blastr (sigh) and SyFy (sigh) for tipping us to this gem. Now, if only you guys could learn to spell? Blastr?? Really??