The lunchtime lecture held Kirk O'Brien focused on the history of comics and censorship. It was really interesting seeing how the government thought that the negative influence of comics was so wide reaching they believed direct interference was necessary. It was really interesting seeing how comics translated the mood of the times into their work. I feel like with traditional art, general moods or ethos of larger periods are always a subtler subtext to the piece. With comics, I feel like it's more directly connected with the audience, and the artwork and content more explicitly relates to the times. For example, the controversial EC comics were dealing with opioid addiction and police oppression. Even though the Comic Code Authority became a tool of oppression that squashed the political ideas they didn't like, the underground, subversive comic movement kept these controversial ideas alive. I'm really interested in the intersection between the government and art. The previous lessons about censorship of artists such as Robert Mapplethorpe were really eye opening. Comics, of course, have a different history of censorship, since comics are not really a "traditional" form of art. The Comic Code Authority had a direct influence on the growth of American comics, and it was interesting seeing how the 1950s, a time of a fear of communism and racial equality, was so far reaching. We often learn about this time period in the context of the suppression of political activists, and it was interesting to see how it affected comics. I found it especially interesting when O'Brien read out the Senate guidelines of what themes would cause a comic to get banned, including:
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March 2019
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