User blog:Nausiated/The Comic Book Code Authority and its Effect of Westerns

So as I'm plugging through comics from 1955, the year that the Comic Book Code Authority came into effect governing content in comic books, I've been noticing its effect on the various stories I've been reading, mostly westerns.

Western tales from that point where not unaccustomed to show a bunch of on panel gunfights where countless outlaws would be gunned down by the hero. These were not overly gruesome deaths there was little to no blood. The violence in comic books at the time (by today's standards) is very tame by comparison. Even horror stories while claimed to have been "gruesome" are pretty tame by today's standards. But the 1950s were a different time, there was a great deal of fear and xenophobia in the United States at the time due to the Cold War. When it came to battling juvenile delinquency that was "rampant" at the time people needed a scapegoat -- they always do, be it movies, video games whatever -- and comic books were the target of this fear. Ultimately the government said to the comic book industry: govern yourself or be banned outright.

So the industry complied and as a result it was heavily neutered. What it did to western stories? Well what was already kind of boring got even more tame. Western heroes were more inclined to fist fight or use other means other than gunning down their opponents. Shooting guns out of their hands, and blasting their gun belts off. The villains typically met their end off panel, usually by other happenstance means, such as being trampled to death in a stampede or falling down a water fall, always off panel.

It all makes for some pretty boring stuff coming up I can tell you all that much.