Comics Code Authority Adoption

The Comics Magazine Association of America formed the Comics Code Authority in September 1954, at the height of a moral panic over graphic violence and horror imagery in comic books that coincided with United States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings and the publication of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent, both of which increasingly called for government regulation of the industry. Comic book distributors and wholesalers refused to carry or handle any comic lacking the Code's seal of approval, effectively making them the industry's own enforcement arm; some publishers thrived within the restrictions while others cancelled titles, refocused entirely on code approved content, or went out of business.