Diagram for Delinquents Update #27: I'm Interested in Some Comics

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I apologize that I didn't make the Sunday update. I was away at a conference in Boston and didn't arrive home until about 6PM on Sunday and just couldn't bring it all together in time. Also, Ken Burns' new documentary The Dust Bowl premiered this Sunday and I figured everyone would be spending their requisite documentary viewing hours with the maestro of American historical documentaries. I know I was. [Until I fell asleep from pure exhaustion. I'll finish it though!]

Let us now return to Diagram for Delinquents. Once again, I am focusing on the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency. This time we turn our attention to the testimony of lawyer and comic book publisher William K. Friedman of New York City.

Mr. Friedman had the fortune of hearing earlier testimony. He heard the position of the Senators, the grilling of Mr. Dybwad, the stumbling of Mr. Gaines, and the passion and fury of Dr. Wertham. He wasn't going to use his time catching up to questions by the Senators. He was going to get out in front early. He was a sharp attorney and astute businessman. He jumped into his testimony on agenda and wasn't intimated by any line of questioning.

Mr. Friedman is only mentioned twice briefly in Amy Kiste Nyberg's expertly crafted history: Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code. But her second mention of Friedman is right on with the one of the main arguments of his testimony. She writes:

Violent Headlines, 1954

"Fear about media effects, however, had long centered on the vulnerability of the young audience, and Gaines' argument failed to persuade the committee. Gaines also argued that violence in comic books was no different from the violence described in newspapers, which also were available to children, and he pointed out, 'Once you start to censor, you must censor everything.' Publisher William Friedman followed up Gaines' argument, suggesting that by targeting comic books, the senators seemed to be making 'a whipping boy' out of comics and ignoring other forms of media violence."

Friedman was wily and as he dodged he also threw punches. A close reading of his testimony reveals him to be slippery, keen, and a man out to protect himself and what we can only assume is a decent profit earning gig: comics! One of my favorite elements of his testimony is how he describes his relationship to comics. He is a publisher and editor on various comics, but he describes himself as "interested in some comic magazines." The use of the word is intriguing as it implies both interest in the recreational sense as well as financial.

Let's take a look at some of his testimony:

"Mr. BEASER. Mr. Friedman, will you state for the record your full name, address, and your profession?

Mr. FRIEDMAN. My name is William Friedman. I reside at 250 East 90th Street, in New York City. I am a lawyer by profession and, incidentally, interested in some comic magazines.
         
Mr. BEASER. Which comic magazines are you interested in? Are those the three, or do you publish others?
         

Mr. FRIEDMAN. Referring to the magazines which are on the board, I am interested in the company which controls Mysterious Adventures and Fight Against Crime.
         
Mr. BEASER. Have you anything to do with Beware?
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. No, I have nothing to do with the magazine Beware.
         

Mr. BEASER. Have you anything to do with the magazine Dark Mysteries?
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. Yes, but the magazine Dark Mysteries, I assist in the editing of the magazine.
         
Mr. BEASER. That is put out by─
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. It is put out by a corporation known as Master Comics ─ that particular magazine is issued by a company known as Master Comics. I don't remember if I ever had any interest in Master Comics. At least I have no interest now.
         
Mr. BEASER. You have no interest now?
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. That is right, sir, except as assisting in the editing of that magazine.
         
Mr. BEASER. That is right.
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. I am not the editor of this magazine. It is edited by people which we retain, but that is not the important point.
         
Mr. BEASER. You are the publisher of this magazine?
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. I am associated with the publisher and one of the people interested in the company as an officer of the company.
         
Mr. BEASER. Are you responsible for getting the magazine out?
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. I accept responsibility in the sense that our corporation owns that. I don't think that there is anything wrong with the type of material which is presented on this board. Now, this material is undoubtedly taken from a story with which at this moment I am not familiar. It is undoubtedly taken out of context in the story.
         
Mr. BEASER. This is the one, Mr. Friedman ─
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. May I finish?
         
Mr. BEASER. Go ahead.
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. This magazine is a magazine devoted to detective stories, crime stories, and as such these pictures and the pictures in those hooks show stories of crime and of detection. Crime itself is not pretty. Detective work, police work, of itself is not delicate. I heard testimony here yesterday concerning the fact that crime should not be shown in a revolting manner. Well, I disagree with that answer because I believe the more undesirable crime is shown, the more ugly crime is shown, the less attractive it is. You can't show stories of detective work, you can't show stories of crime in a pretty state, or in a delicate state, because then I believe that it would be attractive. It would perhaps invite a susceptible mind."

"May I finish"?!?!?! Oh! The stones on this guy. Mr. Friedman will not be interrupted. And even more he cannot comment on a story that is taken out of context.

Later, Friedman tries to get to the heart of the purpose of the hearings:

"Mr. FRIEDMAN. Counselor, I think you will agree with me that every conceivable action taken ─ the time of day, the weather ─ has some sort of reaction, some sort of an impression on an emotionally disturbed child, and also on a normal child. I also read the testimony, I believe, of your Mr. Clendenen. I am sorry I was not here to hear his testimony. He also asserted he could not find any particular juvenile that was led to delinquency by the comic books that he came in contact with. I also heard the testimony, if I may, of the gentleman who was here this morning, and that gentleman in a period of his associations, years in contact with the comic books, and his study of thousands and thousands of children, in his association with Warwick, has never come in contact with one individual ─
Mr. BEASER. Are you not engaging in semantics, Mr. Friedman?
         
Mr. FRIEDMAN. I am not. I am trying to be honest in your answers.
         
Mr. BEASER. Are you not trying to say you can't point to a comic book which is a direct cause of a crime rather than talking about whether crime and horror comic books may be a contributing factor in the total scene, in the total action of a child?
         

Juvenile Delinquency on the Rise

Mr. FRIEDMAN. I did try to say before, and I am not a psychiatrist, that from what I have heard it appears to me that everything is a contributing factor to a child who is a delinquent, whether it is a rainy day, whether he has 5 cents in his pocket, or has not got 5 cents in his pocket, but I would like to come back to what I was mentioning before ─ this other witness who was here this morning also indicated there was no single incident. Now, it seems to me, gentlemen, and I am honestly trying to find a conclusion, if these comics are, as a matter of fact, harming, if they cause delinquency, I would be the first one to discontinue them. What are the facts that have been portrayed before me and before this committee that I can put my finger on to say that they do cause juvenile delinquency?"

Friedman's final statement in that volley demonstrates his deftness at arguing as he remains poised and ready for the next exchange.

A few minutes later he returns with his "whipping boy" argument:

"Mr. FRIEDMAN. The point I am making is that we attempt to make perhaps, rightfully or wrongfully, I don't know, but attempting to make a whipping boy out of one particular field of mass ─ not the Senators here, because they have asserted they were trying to find what the honest fact is ─
         
Mr. BEASER. Let me ask you a question ─
          
Mr. FRIEDMAN. Let me finish, counselor. That a whipping boy is being made out of one particular facet of the means of information devoted to crime and horror and detection work as such. But there are perhaps as many titles of so-called crime pulp magazines, as many titles also as so-called true crime detective magazines and they have been in existence for more than I can remember, for longer than I can remember. There are the movie depictions, there are the television depictions, and to make a particular whipping boy out of one facet of it and say that if these were removed from sight the others would have no impact or would not have the same impact, I am not honestly prepared to state, but I don't believe that we can make such a distinction."

And finally, Friedman closes with his opinion on this whole "hearings" business:

"Mr. FRIEDMAN. As a good lawyer you would have to come to the conclusion that you have no facts before you upon which you can make a reaction or a conclusion that the cause or the assisting cause to juvenile delinquency is the medium you might be attacking at the moment. Your very witnesses before you all came to the conclusion that came to me. First, that there was no appreciable reaction on juvenile delinquency as far as they knew, including the author. They came to the second conclusion that there be some reaction, there might be some impact, but they didn't know."

And with that Mr. Friedman extends his arm parallel to the floor, opens his hand, and lets the microphone drop to the floor, filling the room with the reverberating echo of phooom!

[That last part of made up for dramatic effect.]

So this leads me to the video below. It features the Executive Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Charles Brownstein. Charles discusses the continued concept of the moral panic over media violence and its impact on children. He emphasizes how the medium has changed, but the arguments seem to remain the same. From comic books to video games the questions still are: What is the impact? & Who is responsible? 

A final note: Charles mentions the term "Amicus Brief" in his interview. The full Latin term is amicus curiae and translates as "friend of the court". Applied, it translates as a written brief given to the court by a third party with a strong stake or interest in a particular case, but who are not a party to the action. If the court grants permission for the brief to be filed the document typically shares a viewpoint with the party filing the brief and one of the acting parties in the case. Consider it a helping hand from an party with similar goals or beliefs. Amicus briefs are often submitted in civil rights cases.


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Diagram for Delinquents Update #26: We Just Don't Know

Editorial Advisory Board

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As previously mentioned, one particular source will be a sort of “star” in our documentary. That source is the transcript and recording of the Hearings Before The Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency Of The Committee On The Judiciary United States Senate Eighty-Third Congress Second Session Pursuant To S. 190.

There are a few key and well known stars of these hearings that are most often cited: Senator Kefauver, Dr. Fredric Wertham, William Gaines, and even Milton Caniff and Walt Kelly.

There are also lesser known individuals whose presence and testimony greatly informed the final report produced by the Committee.

During the mostly sedate and professional proceedings a few moments rise to the surface as... "bristly exchanges".

Gunnar Dybwad

Two very interesting exchanges involve the testimony of Gunnar Dybwad, Executive Director of the Childhood Study Association of America and Dr. Lauretta Bender, Senior Psychiatrist at Bellvue Hospital and member of the Editorial Board of the National Comics Companies. During the testimony of Mr. Dybwad Senator Kefauver became highly agitated over the apparent conflict of interest of individuals that were advocating for comic books through their respective organizations or titles while also being members of comic book advisory boards established by publishers in an effort to assuage fear and anger about the issue of comics, crime, and juvenile delinquency. Later during the hearings Dr. Bender was subjected to similar questions regarding conflict of interest, though she fared better than Mr. Dybwad.

Hennings on right

There is also the presence of Committee member Senator Thomas C. Hennings of Missouri. At one moment during the hearings Senator Hennings demonstrates what I believe is the true nature of the Committee's work. From my readings I have concluded that the Committee was not on a witch hunt; they were not out to ruin the comics industry, or sniff out insidious individuals with secret agendas. Actually, quite the opposite, the Committee seems to hone in quite early on the notion that this whole ordeal is one with a financial motive whose impact has become a social concern.

The Senate Subcommitte on Juvenile Delinquency, represented by Senator Robert C. Hendrickson of New Jersey, Senator William Langer of North Dakota, Senator Estes Kefauver of Tennessee, Senator Thomas C. Hennings, Jr. of Missouri, and counselors Herbert J. Hannoch and Herbert Wilton Beaser called to order hearings to investigate, discover, and act, in some way upon, a major concern in the United States: juvenile delinquency at its relationship to comic books. Senator Hennings, quite humbly, reiterates this goal as he thanks Mr. Henry Schultz, General Counsel for the Association of Comic Magazine Publishers, for his testimony (see video below).

This is quite an appropriate statement from Senator Hennings if you consider his other work. He took interest and action in matters regarding ethical behavior and transparency by the U.S. government and its officials. He was a proponent and protector of civil rights.

In line with that, Senator Hennings had been a prominent critic of Senator Joseph McCarthy. In Donald J. Kemper's book Decade of Fear: Senator Hennings and Civil Liberties, the author illustrates the longstanding disapproval that Hennings had of McCarthy:

“In the early 1950 's Hennings began, undramatically but persistently, to oppose Senator McCarthy. In sum, he contributed as much as any single public figure to McCarthy's decline in power. His opposition had personal as well as political basis, for to him McCarthy embodied much that was personally and politically distasteful. McCarthy's crude discourtesy, his practice of name calling, his pursuit of personal vendettas, and his accusations based on flimsy evidence offended the Missourian's sense of decency, while the fever McCarthy fomented against the expression of any but the most orthodox and "patriotic" sentiments violated Hennings' commitment to the broadest liberty of thought and expression. Despite the very immediate danger of becoming involved in a personal feud with McCarthy, Hennings vigorously opposed him and, eventually, succeeded in lessening his impact on public life.”

Senator Hennings eventually led hearings investigating ethical violations of Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1952.

McCarthy

Two years later America was watching McCarthy's communist witch-hunt play-out on television in the news and through his own broadcasted hearings which became popularly known as the Army-McCarthy Hearings. Coincidentally, the Army-McCarthy hearings began airing the day after the Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency opened.

Fortunately, reason won out over panic and fear and McCarthy again found himself the subject of an investigation when in August of 1954 a Senate committee was formed to investigate his actions. In September the committee released a unanimous report calling McCarthy’s behavior as a committee chairman inexcusable, reprehensible, vulgar and insulting. By December the Senate passed a resolution condemning McCarthy for abusing his power as a senator.



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Diagram for Delinquents Update #25: The Wild Spree of the LaughingSadist

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There is, has been, and will always be one driving debate within media studies:

How does media affect society?

The question of does media affect society is certainly answered: Yes.

How, is another story.

The center of the historical debate in our documentary is: Did comics have any correlation to the rise of juvenile delinquency in the mid-twentieth century United States? And if so... how?

Regardless of if they actually did or not, something was certainly done about it in a effort to make sure it wouldn't happen again... At least not through comic books.

When one browses the wide selection of Crime Does Not Pay covers, one can easily see why a lot of people were upset about what children were perusing on the drugstore racks, keeping securely folded and tucked in their back pockets, and pouring over as they were hidden away in the safety of their bedrooms.

Let's hear what Wertham and Azzarello have to say about the seductive powers of comic books:



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Diagram for Delinquents Update #24: To Fear, or Not to Fear, That is the Question.

In celebration of Halloween, this blog focuses on fear.

In the 40s and 50s fear was abound. We had just come out of a devastating economic and social crisis, we entered another world war, crime rates were rising, and finally, the residual effects of World War II and what was happening politically and idealistically around the world was seeping into the social psyche.

There was a palpable national fear that had people hyper-focused on protecting democracy and our children (the physical manifestation of our nation's future).

This fear took shape within the government and society: Hoover, McCarthy, McCarran, the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Wertham, Kefauver, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee To Investigate Juvenile Delinquency in the U.S., and of course.... us.



We were afraid. We saw what was going on in the world and how it was invading our shores. We needed, wanted protection. And we wanted to protect those we love: our children.

Organized crime and radical political thought and agendas were tearing apart the moral fabric of our nation. They were destroying the home, the family. Popular media such as movies, music, and even worse, comic books, were influencing our children. We were looking at a full implosion of what America was built on and stood for and certain authorities were not going to let that happen. There was a real problem that needed real fixing.

Or was there?

To use poor Hamlet again: "The play is the thing."

Who were we trying to flush out? And were they a real threat?

What was the origin of all this fear and paranoia? Were these threats real? Inflated? Manipulated?

Much of Diagram for Delinquents will be addressing the juvenile delinquency scare and debate in the 40s and 50s. During this period children were a developing culture, a recognizable set in society, a direct marketing target. The mass media became a force between child and parent; and parents competed with peer and mass culture. So any threat to the family became highly controversial as to avoid the loss of traditional family structure. Local and national groups, like The Children's Bureau, believed that mass culture, particularly films and crime comic books, were responsible for the rise of juvenile delinquency in the U.S. Part of the discussion inferred that social class was a contributing factor in the structural and cultural interpretations of delinquency and that lower-class values had infiltrated youth culture.

To shed light on that we have interviewed individuals that have studied the era and this phenomenon. Most importantly may be Dr. James Gilbert and his ground-breaking book: A Cycle of Outrage: America's Reaction to the Juvenile Delinquent in the 1950s. The book is a rich study of the impact of popular culture on society, an issue that will forever be a discussion in the world.

In Cycle of Outrage, Gilbert writes:

“Even if there was an increase in delinquency, status crimes, and real crimes by adolescents during the 1950’s, the public impression of the severity of this problem was undoubtedly exaggerated.”

The book shows us that the the great fear of juvenile delinquency in the 1950’s rests on three important factors:

1. An unmeasurable but probable increase in juvenile crime and attention to those crimes
2. A shift in law enforcement agencies to crack down on juvenile crime
3. Changes in youth behavior were interpreted as criminal behavior

It is an emotional, important, and complicated discussion. One that may yield some answers, but continues to leave questions. One question is: What is happening within the American family in the forties that it seems like children are becoming increasingly out of control? Here's a part of that question and answer:



Next week look out for some words from award winning comic book author Brian Azzarello!

Diagram for Delinquents Update #23: We Are Now Broadcasting Live From...

The San Diego Comic Con begins in two days. THE comic con of comic cons.

I so wish we could be there to bask in all the splendor of this most magnificent festival of comics, media, and popular culture.

The things we could see, the people we could meet... It would be glorious.






Oh, wait....







I forgot...





WE ARE GOING!


Thanks to fellow documentary filmmaker Patrick Meaney and Sequart, the Diagram for Delinquents crew will be on the grounds at the 2012 San Diego Comic Con.

You will be able to see and meet Patrick and the Sequart team at their fantastic panel on Thursday. Image fans will not want to miss this exclusive panel highlighting the forthcoming Image documentary. Here are the details:

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8:00-9:00 The Image Revolution Documentary— Twenty years ago, the seven biggest artists in comics created a company that revolutionized comics. Now, director Patrick Meaney (Grant Morrison: Talking with Gods) and producer Jordan Rennert (Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts) are telling the company's story in a new documentary produced by Sequart and Respect Films. Get a first look at the film, and talk about the highs and lows of Image history with a couple of special guests. Moderated by F. J. De Santo (The Spirit). Room 32AB
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The Diagram for Delinquents crew have some important things lined up too, and perhaps the most important is our interview with Bradford W. Wright, author of Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Dr. Wright's book will be the historical backbone of our documentary. He will take viewers from the 30's to the present as he details the evolution of comics and comics readership in American society.

We are also very excited to be meeting back up with our friends from Broadcast Thought who we had the pleasure of interviewing last summer. If you recall, Broadcast Thought is a group of physicians, specializing in forensic, child and adolescent, and adult psychiatry, who provide expert consultation to the media and entertainment industries.  They are both medical professionals and fans of film, television, comic books, and other mass media as well as experts on the Wertham and his work in Seduction of the Innocent.

The gentlemen of Broadcast thought will be heading two panels at the Comic Con this year and both seem equally exciting, thoughtful, and not least of all, fun!

From figures.com:

"After unprecedented audience response to previous presentations, the doctors of Broadcast Thought, H. Eric Bender, M.D., Praveen R. Kambam, M.D., and Vasilis K. Pozios, M.D., return to San Diego Comic-Con to lead two panels.

On Thursday, July 12, 2012, from 8:00 pm to 9:30 pm in Room 7AB , they team up with the star of TV’s Killer Instinct, Mark E. Safarik, M.S., V.S.M., FBI Ret., Supervisory Special Agent, Behavioral Analysis Unit, to present Zombies, Vampires, and Werewolves on Trial: The Forensic Psychiatry of the Dead, the Undead, and the Unlucky. The forensic psychiatrists determine whether these monsters are actually competent to stand trial for their killings or even not guilty by reason of insanity. The doctors offer fascinating real life medical and mental health takes on the lore of these flesh-eaters, blood suckers, and wild beasts, while Mr. Safarik compares the grisly behaviors of these fictional characters to those of real life predators.

Then, on Saturday, July 14, 2012, from 7:30 pm to 8:30 pm, join Broadcast Thought again in Room 7AB as they present Unlocking Arkham: The Forensic Psychiatry of Batman’s Rogues’ Gallery. Applying real-world psychiatric diagnostic criteria, they explore the mental disorders that affect popular characters such as Two-Face, Harley Quinn, the Riddler, the Joker, and many more. The doctors examine the difference between psychotic and psychopathic villains, and in the process, boldly determine who truly belongs at Arkham Asylum."

If you're at the Con this year, stop by their panels... You won't regret it.

Also, I wanted to share this clip with you featuring the doctors of Broadcast Thought talking about Wertham, psychiatric practices, media, and research methods:

Diagram for Delinquents Update #22: KAPPPPPPOOOOOOM!

In the past few days there has been an EXPLOSION of updates for Diagram for Delinquents.

Most of which is the acquisition of new interview subjects for the film.

Our next interview trip will include meetings with James Gilbert and the legendary Roy Thomas.

It looks like the crew will be traveling south in two weeks to first interview James Gilbert, author of the very important book A Cycle of  Outrage: America's Reaction to the Juvenile Delinquent in the 1950's. Dr. Gilbert's book is an exploration of popular culture and its impact on American society and behavior. It is an expertly crafted historical analysis on the decade that we will spend the most time on in our film: the 1950's. As a study in youth culture and juvenile delinquency, it is an original. The book was Oxford University Press' entry for the Pulitzer Prize.

Also, and most importantly, as far as I or Dr. Gilbert know he is the only living person to have interviewed Dr. Fredric Wertham... twice! This will most certainly provide a unique perspective of the man! It is one I am excited to capture on film.

From there, we will be off to meet with Roy Thomas. Certainly Mr. Thomas' reputation precedes him. I mean, this was Stan Lee's first successor as Editor-in-Chief at Marvel! He is one of the most prolific writers in comics, turning in scripts for both D.C. and Marvel Comics and he is a recent inductee into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame.

Roy's roll in the film is essential and multi-tiered.

First, he was there for the transition of comics coming out of the crime and horror trend of the fifties into the silver age of the sixties. This was the rebirth of the superhero in American comics.

During this period Roy was a part of Jerry Bails' comics fanzine Alter Ego. As a comics fan, writer, and illustrator, Roy was a frequent contributor.

He later transitioned into the comics business in the mid-sixties. This makes Roy part of the elite class of comics fans that transitioned into comics creators.

In 1997, Roy resurrected Alter Ego and it is still being published.

As a writer at D.C. and writer/ editor at Marvel, Roy will be able to share his experiences with creating comics and more importantly creating comics under the Code.

Needles to say the crew and I are excited to be traveling to see these important players in our story!

Also, we have received interview confirmation from Richard Arndt, who has written an in-depth story in Alter Ego on the Comics Code. Richard's article is rich with detail and anecdotes. He has really distilled the period and the code into a comprehensible narrative and I am confident he, along with Amy Nyberg, will do the same for Diagram for Delinquents.

Finally, I am ecstatic to announce that Bradford W. Wright, author of Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America has agreed to be in the film! Dr. Wright's contribution to the film will be tremendous as his book is an essential outline and analysis of comics from the forties through today. I am looking forward to working with him as he will be the narrative backbone of the film.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, the final act of the documentary will explore comics creation and readership today. I want to know who the cutting edge comics writers and writing for and how they see the evolution of comics over the past six decades.

As an example of what that part of the film will be like, please enjoy this brief clip of the great Matt Fraction (X-Men, The Invincible Iron Man, Thor, Fear Itself, Casanova, Defenders and my personal favorite run EVER The Immortal Iron Fist!) on the lobotomization of comics:

Diagram for Delinquents Update #21: Parents Just Don't Understand

Hello Diagram for Delinquent Supporters!

It's been sometime since we've had a blog update regarding the film. I've been busy working at the University, teaching, creating theater installations, and the like (A lot of which is helping save Rutgers-Camden!) but fear not, the film is constantly being worked on in the background. While there might now be much output right now, input is in full force. Such are the ebbs and flows of production. When the semester ends in early May, you will see a major increase in production output just as you did before the Fall semester began. Research and writing is still being conducted as is securing the final round of interview subjects.

I am currently off to London, leaving tonight, but I wanted to provide you with a couple of updates before I left.

The first, and perhaps most exciting, is we finally have the film's poster complete! For those that are receiving the poster as part of their donation gift, printing will commence when I return later this month.

The poster was designed by the fabulous artist Joe D!. He created the poster for my last film De Luxe: The Tale of the Blue Comet. I was more than happy and impressed with the art deco homage he crafted for that. I was ecstatic! So when it came time for another poster I ran straight to Joe D!. You can see more of his work at his website Secret Underground Headquarters.

As you know, there will be multiple animated sequences in the picture. One set and style will be created for the courtroom re-enactments of the Senate Subcommittee Hearings on Juvenile Delinquency. We've seen a sample of that already. And you'll be seeing a moving example soon!

The other animations will be for the opening credits and inter-titles. The inter-titles will deal with story transitions as well as the historical backdrop of the film. For instance, the 50's were a tumultuous time in America. While the issue of juvenile delinquency was occupying the American home and streets so was the Korean War and the Civil Rights Movement. These and so many other things are important to the story. I will be working with Joe D! on those sequences. And all you have to do is take a look at his opening titles he created for the X-Men: First Class contest and your mouth will start watering. His piece lit the internet on fire. Take a look:


X-Men: First Class Title Sequence from Joe D! on Vimeo.

As Joe D! began work on the poster he asked what I was looking for. As usual I gave him carte blanche, only asking that he keep it PG for a wide audience.

I must admit, his response was a little puzzling and seemed to contain so many ideas that I was left wondering if the thing was going to look like a giant bowl of overcooked oatmeal. Though, knowing Joseph, it was going to be a delicious overcooked bowl of oatmeal. Here's what Joe D! had to say:

"I think I mentioned one idea a while ago, where the poster looks like a E.C. pulp-horror cover, with everything the Code banned, stuff like gay vampires, drug using zombies, violent murderers and maybe a boob or two, what do you think?"

This is where my PG suggestion came in!

Joe D! followed with:

"I've already sketched out the layout. Its very much a Frazetta "King of the Hill" composition http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c58/dragoneyes001/frazetta007.jpg with you and a damsel-in-distress being cornered by a horde of golden-age comic book monsters with references to the Code http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/detective-short-stories/12-1.jpg. Wertham's face is in the back ground in spooky/magic green not unlike the Great and Powerful Oz. I'll be working on it this weekend, with the finished version to you by Monday or Tuesday."

Whew!

And after finishing the poster, here is what Joe D! had to say:

"Yay! This is (hopefully) the finished poster for Robert A. Emmons Jr's new documentary, "Diagram for Delinquents: Fredric Wertham and the Evolution of Comic Books". It was quite the challenge fitting as many Comics Code breaking images on just one composition without being explicit (Dr. Emmons wanted to keep it "PG"). My favorite has to be the zombie dressed as the mom from The Fresh Prince's "Parents Just Don't Understand" music video, so it's both undead (FORBIDDEN!) and disrespectful towards parents (ALSO FORBIDDEN!)."

So, without further delay, I present to you the poster for Diagram for Delinquents: Fredric Wertham and the Evolution of Comics Books: (click poster to enlarge)

Now, secondly, the final quarter of the film is going to deal with the current state of comics. Particularly comics readership. But to arrive at that I will be asking comics creators about what type of audience they are writing and drawing  for today. To connect back to the comics that the first half of the film will be profiling I am interviewing creators that are making the most sophisticated comics, but more than that, I will be concentrating on writers and artists that have explored crime and horror in current comics. When I return from London I will release a clip from when we sat down with Matt Fraction at the New York City comic con to discuss Wertham and comics readership.

And finally, when I return from London we will commence on building the set for our family of the fifties reenactment scenes. You know... sitting around the old tube. Kids lying on the floor reading comics... Ma on Pa's lap, dressed in apron as everyone chuckles at the day's events. Stuff like that!

I hope this gives even more of a glimpse to the types of things we will see in the future.

Cheers!

Robert