Was Wertham Right?: Comics as Antisocial and Subversive

If comic culture could say that it has a bête noire, it would be the psychologist Fredric Wertham. He looms over it like no other. One of the first major critics, or indeed commentators,¹ of the increasingly popular art form, Wertham’s often reactionary message caught the attention of the mainstream and helped bring about a strict industry-wide censorship code. Wertham attacked the genre with a singular vehemence that bordered on the pathological. Perhaps it is telling that a psychologist tapped into a broader and increasing anxiety over the effects of popular culture as it had begun to take hold after