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59-415: A magazine rather than a comic book, it did not fall under the purview of the comics industry's self-censorship Comics Code Authority , allowing the title to feature stronger content — such as moderate profanity, partial nudity, and more graphic violence — than the color comics of the time which also featured Dracula stories. Running concurrently with the longer-running Marvel comic The Tomb of Dracula ,

118-592: A "zuvembie". DC comics published their own zombie story in Swamp Thing #16 (May 1975), where the deceased rise from their graves, while a soul-devouring demon appears in Swamp Thing #15 (April 1975). Around this time, the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare approached Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Stan Lee to do a story about drug abuse. Lee agreed and wrote

177-414: A comic book. Comics historian Ron Goulart describes the 16-page, four-color , newsprint periodical as "more a Sunday comic section without the rest of the newspaper than a true comic book. But it did offer all original material and was sold on newsstands ". It ran 36 weekly issues, published Saturdays from January 16, 1929, to October 16, 1930. The cover price rose from 10¢ to 30¢ with issue #3. This

236-418: A distribution/partnership agreement at DC. The company formed a partnership in 1938 with Western Publishing , in which Dell would finance and distribute publications that Western would produce. While this diverged from the regular practice in the medium of one company handling finance and production and outsourcing distribution, it was a highly successful enterprise with titles selling in the millions. Most of

295-584: A few generally poorly received original titles. Among the few long lasting series from this time include the teen-comic Thirteen Going on Eighteen (29 issues, written by John Stanley), Ghost Stories (37 issues, #1 only written by John Stanley), Combat (40 issues), Ponytail (20 issues), Kona Monarch of Monster Isle (20 issues), Toka the Jungle King (10 issues), and Naza Stone Age Warrior (9 issues). Dell additionally attempted to do superhero titles, including Nukla , Superheroes (starring

354-599: A story arc involving Green Arrow's teen sidekick Speedy as a heroin addict. A cover line read, "DC attacks youth's greatest problem... Drugs!" Through the 80s and 90s there was a break away from the Comics Code Authority. In 1984 the Comics Code Authority denied Swamp Thing issue #29 the seal of approval, DC decided to continue publishing the title without it. Some subsequent DC series including Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns , both of which premiered in 1986, would launch without ever having had

413-636: A third of the total market. Dell [had] more million-plus sellers than any other company before or since". Dell Comics was best known for its licensed material, most notably the animated characters from Walt Disney Productions , Warner Bros. , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , and Walter Lantz Studio , along with many movie and television properties such as the Lone Ranger , Tarzan , Felix the Cat , Howdy Doody , Yogi Bear and other Hanna-Barbera characters. From 1938 to 1962, Dell's most notable and prolific title

472-474: A three-part Spider-Man story, portraying drug use as dangerous and unglamorous. While the Code did not specifically forbid depictions of drugs, a general clause prohibited "All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the code, and are considered violations of good taste or decency". The CCA had approved at least one previous story involving drugs,

531-402: A total of 76 pages comprising roughly one-third of the novel. After a 30-year hiatus, Marvel commissioned Thomas and Giordano to finish the adaptation, and ran the reprinted and new material as the four-issue miniseries Stoker's Dracula (Oct. 2004 – May 2005). The entire adaptation was collected by Marvel Illustrated in 2010. Comics Code Authority The Comics Code Authority ( CCA )

590-410: A writer's credit on the first page of the story; that led to DC beginning to credit creators in its supernatural-mystery anthologies. The Code was revised a number of times during 1971, initially on January 28, to allow for, among other things, the sometimes "sympathetic depiction of criminal behavior... [and] corruption among public officials" ("as long as it is portrayed as exceptional and the culprit

649-498: Is punished") as well as permitting some criminal activities to kill law-enforcement officers and the "suggestion but not portrayal of seduction." The clause "suggestive posture is unacceptable" was removed. Also newly allowed were "vampires, ghouls and werewolves... when handled in the classic tradition such as Frankenstein , Dracula , and other high calibre literary works written by Edgar Allan Poe , Saki , Conan Doyle and other respected authors whose works are read in schools around

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708-418: Is unclear whether it was sold or given away; the cover displays no price, but Goulart refers, either metaphorically or literally, to the publisher "sticking a ten-cent pricetag [ sic ] on the comic books". In early 1934, Dell published the single-issue Famous Funnies: Series 1 , also printed by Eastern Color. Unlike its predecessor, it was intended from the start to be sold rather than given away. In 1936,

767-624: The Saturday Evening Post in late 1952 and early 1953 that emphasized the wholesomeness of its comics. From mid-1950 to Spring 1959 Dell promoted subscriptions to its non-Disney titles with what it called the Dell Comics Club. Membership was automatic with any one year subscription to such titles and came with a certificate of membership plus a group portrait of the most prominent non-Disney characters published by Dell. Dell also offered various subscription premiums during

826-690: The intellectual property rights to the Comics Code seal from the defunct CMAA on September 29, 2011. The Comics Code seal can be seen among the production logos in the opening shots of the 2018 superhero film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse , and its 2023 sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse . Binge Books announced that it had used the seal on the one-shot comic Heroes Union , produced by Roger Stern , Ron Frenz , and Sal Buscema in May 2021. Dell Comics Dell Comics

885-567: The Fab 4 , as the group's name was spelled on covers), Brain Boy , and a critically ridiculed trio of titles based on the Universal Pictures monsters Frankenstein , Dracula and Werewolf that recast the characters as superheroes. Dell Comics ceased publication in 1973, with a few of its former titles moving to Gold Key Comics . Dell was acquired by Doubleday in 1976. Doubleday

944-422: The 1940s and 1950s (in some cases these were prints of covers or other character artwork and in one instance a cel from a Warner Brothers cartoon) in what Mark Evanier has dubbed a coordinated concerted "aggressive subscription push" and offered the option of an illustrated note or card be sent to the recipients of a gift subscription for birthdays or Christmas. Multi-year subscriptions were also available (in

1003-584: The CCA Seal of approval, and the DC Vertigo imprint in 1993 covered areas including horror and did not launch with CCA approval. A late adopter of the code was Now Comics , which began displaying the Code seal on titles released in early 1989. The CCA rejected an issue of the Marvel Comics series X-Force , requiring changes to be made in 2001. Instead, Marvel stopped submitting its comics to

1062-481: The CCA's argument for denying approval was deemed counterproductive. "That was the only big issue that we had" with the Code, Lee recalled in a 1998 interview: I could understand them; they were like lawyers, people who take things literally and technically. The Code mentioned that you mustn't mention drugs and, according to their rules, they were right. So I didn't even get mad at them then. I said, 'Screw it' and just took

1121-545: The CCA. Bongo Comics discontinued using the Code without any announcements regarding its abandonment in 2010. The CMAA, at some point in the 2000s, was managed by the trade-organization management firm the Kellen Company, which ceased its involvement in 2009. In 2010, some publishers, including Archie, placed the seal on their comics without submitting them to the CMAA. Archie Comics President Mike Pellerito said that

1180-461: The Code seal off for those three issues. Then we went back to the Code again. I never thought about the Code when I was writing a story, because basically I never wanted to do anything that was to my mind too violent or too sexy. I was aware that young people were reading these books, and had there not been a Code, I don't think that I would have done the stories any differently. Lee and Marvel drew criticism from DC head Carmine Infantino "for defying

1239-615: The Comics Code Authority (CCA), basing its code upon the largely unenforced code drafted by the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers in 1948, which in turn had been modeled loosely after the 1940 Hollywood Production Code , also known as the "Hays Code". Before the CCA was adopted, some cities already had organized public burnings and bans on comic books. The city councils of Oklahoma City , Oklahoma , and Houston , Texas , passed ordinances banning crime and horror comics, although an attempt by Los Angeles County , California ,

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1298-483: The Crypt . Wertham dismissed the code as an inadequate half-measure. Comics analyst Scott McCloud , on the other hand, later commented that it was as if, in drawing up the code, "the list of requirements a film needs to receive a G rating was doubled, and there were no other acceptable ratings!" In one early confrontation between a comic-book publisher and the code authorities, EC Comics ' William Gaines reprinted

1357-552: The Dell-produced comics done for Western Publishing during this period were under the Whitman Comics banner (later also used by Gold Key Comics ); notable titles included Crackajack Funnies (1938–1942) and Super Comics (1938–1949). Comic book historian Mark Carlson has stated that at its peak in the mid-1950s, "while Dell’s total number of comic book titles [was] only 15% of those published, it control[ed] nearly

1416-585: The First debuted in Dracula Lives! #3 (Oct. 1973), created by Marv Wolfman and John Buscema . Painted covers of the series were done by artists including Boris Vallejo , Neal Adams , and Luis Dominguez . Text and photo articles were mostly of the Count's various film appearances. The title of the magazine's letter column was "Dracula Reads!" An annual publication titled Dracula Lives! Super Annual

1475-495: The Random House publishing group in 2008. Ballantine Books was merged with Bantam Dell in 2010. In 2013, Random House merged with Penguin to form Penguin Random House . After Dell ceased publication, a number of its obscure characters were brought back in independent comics . In August 2016, InDELLible Comics was formed in tribute to the public domain characters orphaned by Dell. In July 2017, All-New Popular Comics #1

1534-562: The association because they didn't want their less controversial offerings to serve as "an umbrella for the crime comic publishers". When the Comics Code was formed in 1954 in reaction to Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent , Dell again refused to join and instead began publishing in its comics a "Pledge to Parents" that promised their editorial process "eliminates, rather than regulates, objectional [sic] material" and concluded with

1593-471: The best–almost cost him his job. When his pencilled stories came in, the characters were dressed on one page only. A woman who was an inker, a woman, Terry Szenics, later had to draw clothes on the characters on the remaining pages." Although the CCA had no official control over the comics publishers, most distributors refused to carry comics which did not carry the seal. However, two major publishers of comics– Dell Comics and Gold Key Comics –did not display

1652-527: The book's host introduces the story "The Stuff that Dreams are Made of" as one told to him by "a wandering wolfman". (All-capitals comics lettering made no distinction between "wolfman" and "Wolfman".) The CCA rejected the story and flagged the "wolfman" reference as a violation. Fellow writer Gerry Conway explained to the CCA that the story's author was in fact named Wolfman; he asked whether it would still be in violation if that were clearly expressed. The CCA agreed that it would not be, as long as Wolfman received

1711-510: The case of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories , at one point in the 1940s subscriptions for up to five years were offered). In 1961, Dell issued two atypical, comic-book like paperbacks without coloring, with cardboard covers and heavier-weight paper than standard comics, and selling for one dollar when most comic books were 12 cents: the 116-page The Flintstones on the Rocks and the 117-page Huck & Yogi Jamboree One historian describes

1770-482: The code defunct . The Comics Magazine Association of America (CMAA) was formed in September 1954 in response to a widespread public concern over graphic violence and horror imagery in comic books. It named New York magistrate Charles F. Murphy (1920–1992), a specialist in juvenile delinquency , to head the organization and devise a self-policing "code of ethics and standards" for the industry. He established

1829-416: The code did not affect his company the way that it did others as "we aren't about to start stuffing bodies into refrigerators ." DC Comics announced on January 20, 2011, that it would discontinue participation adopting a rating system similar to Marvel's. The company noted that it submitted comics for approval through December 2010, but would not say to whom they were submitted. A day later, Archie Comics ,

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1888-635: The code", stating that DC will not "do any drug stories unless the code is changed". As a result of publicity surrounding the Department of Health, Education and Welfare's sanctioning of the storyline, however, the CCA revised the Code to permit the depiction of "narcotics or drug addiction" if presented "as a vicious habit". DC itself then broached the topic in the Code-approved Green Lantern / Green Arrow #85 (Sept. 1971), with writer Denny O'Neil and artist Neal Adams beginning

1947-427: The comic book wholesalers, who, as one historian observed, "served as the enforcement arm of the Comics Code Authority by agreeing to handle only those comics with the seal." Publisher William Gaines believed that clauses forbidding the words "crime", "horror", and "terror" in comic book titles had been deliberately aimed at his own best-selling titles Crime SuspenStories , The Vault of Horror , and Tales from

2006-418: The company partnered with McClure Syndicate in which Dell would finance and distribute publications that McClure would produce and edit on behalf of then-company executive Max Gaines and editor Sheldon Mayer . Among the titles Gaines oversaw were The Comics , Popular Comics and The Funnies . Gaines would leave McClure, and by extension, Dell in 1939, in order to set up All-American Publications with

2065-468: The competing company formed when Western ended its partnership (see below). Responding to pressure from the African-American community, the character Lil' Eightball (who appeared in a handful of Walter Lantz cartoons in the late 1930s and in those initial appearances constituted what animation and comics historian Michael Barrier described as being a "grotesquely stereotypical black boy")

2124-513: The continuities of the two titles occasionally overlapped, with storylines weaving between the two. Most of the time, however, the stories in Dracula Lives! were standalone Dracula tales by various creative teams. Later issues of Dracula Lives! featured a serialized adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel , written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Dick Giordano . Copyrighted as simply Dracula Lives , without an exclamation point, but commonly known by its trademarked cover title, Dracula Lives! ,

2183-595: The depiction of narcotics being used, regardless of the context, whereas the Deadman story had depicted only a wholesale business transaction. Confident that the original government request would give him credibility, and with the approval of his publisher Martin Goodman , Lee ran the story in The Amazing Spider-Man #96–98 (May–July 1971), without CCA approval. The storyline was well received, and

2242-416: The early 21st century. The CC formation followed a moral panic centered around a series of Senate hearings and the publication of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham 's book Seduction of the Innocent . Members submitted comics to the CCA, which screened them for adherence to its code, then authorized the use of their seal on the cover if the book was found to be in compliance. At the height of its influence, it

2301-425: The latter as "a collection of drawings with text (there’s not a word balloon to be found). But there are drawings that are sequential which tell stories.... [T]his was intended for Huck and Yogi’s adult fans. Of which there apparently were more than a few, given the format and high price — $ 1!" In 1961, Dell became the first comic book company to increase its cover prices, raising the prices to fifteen cents; this

2360-506: The magazine ran 13 issues from 1973 to 1975. With sister titles including Monsters Unleashed! , Tales of the Zombie and Vampire Tales , it was published by Marvel Comics ' parent company, Magazine Management , and related corporations, under the brand emblem Marvel Monster Group. The character Lianda first appeared in Dracula Lives! #1. The character Turac first appeared in Dracula Lives! #2 (Sept. 1973). The character Nimrod

2419-674: The now classic credo "Dell Comics Are Good Comics." Bart Beaty in his book Fredric Wertham and the Critique of Mass Culture describes a concerted campaign by Dell against publication of Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent to the extent of recruiting several of the companies that it licensed characters from (including Warner Brother Cartoons, the Lone Ranger Inc. and Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc.) to send letters of protest to Wertham's publisher Stanley Rinehart . Dell in this period even burnished its image by taking out full-page ads in

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2478-500: The only other publisher still participating in the Code, announced it also was discontinuing it, rendering the Code defunct. The vast majority of advertisers had ceased making decisions on the basis of the CCA stamp over the past few years, according to a January 24, 2011 Newsarama report. Most new publishers to emerge during this time did not join the CCA, regardless of whether their content conformed to its standards. The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund announced that it would acquire

2537-565: The premiere of Deadman in Strange Adventures #205 (Oct. 1967), which clearly depicted the title character fighting opium smugglers (as well as the name "Deadman" being classed as a violation that was eventually allowed). However, Code administrator Leonard Darvin "was ill" at the time of the Spider-Man story, and acting administrator John L. Goldwater (publisher of Archie Comics ) refused to grant Code approval because of

2596-421: The seal, because their output was subject to a higher authority: their licensors which included Walt Disney and the producers of many TV shows aimed at children. Some publishers thrived under these restrictions, while others adapted by cancelling titles and focusing on code-approved content; still others went out of business. In practice, the negative effect of not having CCA approval was lack of distribution by

2655-623: The story " Judgment Day ", from the pre-code Weird Fantasy #18 (April 1953), in Incredible Science Fiction #33 (February 1956). The reprint was a replacement for the Code-rejected story "An Eye for an Eye", drawn by Angelo Torres , though "Judgment Day" was itself also objected to because of the central character being black , despite there being nothing in the Code which prohibited a black protagonist. The story, by writer Al Feldstein and artist Joe Orlando ,

2714-452: The story to run. Soon after, however, facing the severe restrictions placed upon his comics by the CCA, and with his " New Direction " titles floundering, Gaines quit publishing comic books to concentrate on Mad . The following shows the complete Code as it stood in 1954: Writer Marv Wolfman 's name was briefly a point of contention between DC Comics and the CCA. In the supernatural-mystery anthology House of Secrets #83 (Jan. 1970),

2773-466: The world". Zombies, lacking the requisite "literary" background, remained taboo. To get around this restriction, Marvel in the mid-1970s called the apparently deceased, mind-controlled followers of various Haitian supervillains " zuvembies ". This practice carried over to Marvel's superhero line: in The Avengers , when the reanimated superhero Wonder Man returns from the dead, he is referred to as

2832-460: Was a de facto censor for the entire U.S. comic book industry, with most comics requiring a seal to be published. By the early 2000s, publishers bypassed the CCA and Marvel Comics abandoned it in 2001. By 2010, only three major publishers still adhered to it: DC Comics , Archie Comics , and Bongo Comics . Bongo broke with the CCA in 2010. DC and Archie followed in January 2011, rendering

2891-422: Was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1986, who formed Bantam Doubleday Dell as its US subsidiary. Bertelsmann acquired Random House in 1998 and renamed its US business after the acquisition. After the merger, Bantam was merged with Dell Publishing. In 2001, Random House purchased Golden Books' book publishing properties effectively reuniting the remnants of Dell and Western Publishing . Bantam Dell became part of

2950-840: Was also collected in 2006 as part of Essential Tales of the Zombie: Volume 1 ). In 2010, the complete series (including the letter columns ) was reprinted in the Marvel Omnibus title Tomb of Dracula Volume 3 (which included The Tomb of Dracula magazine #1-6 and The Frankenstein Monster #7-9). Issues #5–8 and 10–11 featured a serialized adaptation of the original Bram Stoker novel , in 10- to 12-page installments written by Roy Thomas and drawn by Dick Giordano . Following Dracula Lives! cancellation, an additional installment appeared in The Legion of Monsters #1, for

3009-518: Was an allegory against racial prejudice , a point which was necessarily nullified if the lead character was not black. After an order by code administrator Judge Charles Murphy to change the final panel, which depicted a black astronaut, Gaines engaged in a heated dispute with Murphy. He threatened to inform the press of Murphy's objection to the story if they did not give the issue the Code Seal, causing Murphy to reverse his initial decision and allow

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3068-458: Was deemed unconstitutional by the courts. In his introduction to Archie Americana Series Best of the Fifties , editor Victor Gorelick reminisced about the code, writing, "My first assignment, as a new art assistant, was to remove cleavages and lift up low cut blouses on Katy Keene ." He also wrote of Archie artist Harry Lucey that, "His sometimes suggestive storytelling–and he was one of

3127-584: Was discontinued as one of the featured characters in the Lantz anthology comic book New Funnies ; the last appearance of the character was in the August 1947 issue. In 1948, Dell refused an invitation of membership in the nascent Association of Comics Magazine Publishers . The association had been formed to pre-empt government intervention in the face of mounting public criticism of comic books. Dell vice-president Helen Meyer told Congress that Dell had opted out of

3186-633: Was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA enabled comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States . The code was voluntary, as there was no law requiring its use, although some advertisers and retailers looked to it for reassurance. Some publishers including Dell , Western , and Classics Illustrated , never used it. Its code, commonly called "the Comics Code", lasted until

3245-619: Was published in 1975, reprinting stories from the magazine. Much of the material in Dracula Lives! was reprinted in a Marvel UK weekly reprint title of the same name. It eventually merged with the Marvel UK Planet of the Apes weekly, and with issue #60 the title became Dracula Lives Featuring the Legion of Monsters . All 13 issues of Dracula Lives! were collected for an Essential Marvel edition in 2005 ( Dracula Lives! #1-2

3304-487: Was reduced to a nickel from issue #22 to the end. In 1933, Dell collaborated with Eastern Color Printing to publish the 36-page Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics , considered by historians the first true American comic book; Goulart, for example, calls it "the cornerstone for one of the most lucrative branches of magazine publishing". It was distributed through the Woolworth's department store chain, though it

3363-729: Was soon lowered to twelve cents. In 1962 the partnership with Western ended, with Western taking most of its licensed properties and its original material and creating its own imprint, Gold Key Comics . While most of the talent who had worked on the Dell line continued at Gold Key, a few creators like John Stanley stuck with Dell and its new line. Dell also drew new talent to its fold, such as Frank Springer , Don Arneson, and Lionel Ziprin . Dell Comics continued for another 11 years with licensed television and motion picture adaptations (including Mission: Impossible , Ben Casey , Burke's Law , Doctor Kildare , Beach Blanket Bingo ) and

3422-528: Was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publishing , which got its start in pulp magazines . It published comics from 1929 to 1973. At its peak, it was the most prominent and successful American company in the medium. In 1953, Dell claimed to be the world's largest comics publisher, selling 26 million copies each month. Its first title was The Funnies (1929), described by the Library of Congress as "a short-lived newspaper tabloid insert" rather than

3481-448: Was the anthology Four Color . Published several times a month, the title (which primarily consisted of standalone issues featuring various licensed properties) saw more than 1,300 issues published in its 23-year history. It often served as a try-out title (much like DC's Showcase ) and thus the launching pad for many long-running series, a number of which (such as The Twilight Zone ) were continued not by Dell, but Gold Key Comics ,

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