WI: Comics Code Authority never revises and still remains in place

Mr. Flay

Gone Fishin'
In OTL, it began to falter in 1971, was in-name-only by 1980, and disestablished in 2011. What if it was still in place today, with all the same restrictions as in 1954?
 
Comics would work around it. They already were doing so once they moved from newsstands to dedicated comic shops. If the big two keep clinging to it, then they'll fail or go niche and the authors will try something else.
 
Didn't some comics just publish anyway, just without the Comics Code seal on them? Fairly sure I saw this on a documentary about the history of comics. It was either DC or Marvel - could have been both, actually...
 
+It would have to revise or it would be replaced. Short of an ASB *making* the Big Two follow the standards to the letter (at which point, they would go under and be replaced by companies free to do as they pleased), eventually the cultural revolution would push against the censorship of the Authority and un-approved Comics would be the norm.
 

Mr. Flay

Gone Fishin'
Comics would work around it. They already were doing so once they moved from newsstands to dedicated comic shops. If the big two keep clinging to it, then they'll fail or go niche and the authors will try something else.

+It would have to revise or it would be replaced. Short of an ASB *making* the Big Two follow the standards to the letter (at which point, they would go under and be replaced by companies free to do as they pleased), eventually the cultural revolution would push against the censorship of the Authority and un-approved Comics would be the norm.

So, assuming the Comics Code was able to continually strongarm the Big Two, what year do you think they would each go under?
 
Big boost for non-Big Two publishers. You'd see figures like Alan Moore and Frank Miller branching out into independent/alternative work a lot sooner. You could probably make a pretty entertaining timeline about a sorta alt-Image Comics that appears in the 70s or 80s - maybe something founded by Kirby instead of his jump to DC, with a grab bag of modern comics' great weirdos - Ditko, Moore, Miller, Shooter, maybe throw Jim Steranko in there. In the alternative, maybe Charlton Comics (noted OTL for creator freedom) is the vehicle, in a world where Ditko never leaves and ends up running the show.
 

Mr. Flay

Gone Fishin'
+Thought of something else. What if the code only grew in power, until it was able to either outlaw or conquer independent publishers? Could comics become a thing of the past entirely in America? (I'm trying to invoke the worst possible scenario here.)
 
So, assuming the Comics Code was able to continually strongarm the Big Two, what year do you think they would each go under?

There was a slump in the late 70s that nearly did them in in OTL, and they were saved primarily by cutting, a few good series, and a changing business model of shifting from newsstands to comic stores[1]. So if they're stuck in the Silver Age creatively, definitely by then, and probably in all likelihood sooner.

[1]It's endlessly debated whether the comic book store was a curse in disguise that cut off their biggest mainstream exposure and left them increasingly insular in exchange for a bubble, or if the newsstand market (which was never the most comics-friendly) was going to collapse anyway and it was move to dedicated stores or bust.
 
+Thought of something else. What if the code only grew in power, until it was able to either outlaw or conquer independent publishers? Could comics become a thing of the past entirely in America? (I'm trying to invoke the worst possible scenario here.)

Unlikely after the mid-70's, when photocopiers were cheap enough for anyone to publish bootleg comics. And if the Supreme Court was willing to uphold the First Amendment for the Pentagon Papers and The Progressive's hydrogen bomb article, I don't see them upholding a federal comic-book ban.

Hmm, maybe a Federal tax on comics could get past the Court 4-3, arguing that it's straight-up Commerce Clause not prior restraint. But that would still just drive them underground. "Steal This Comic Book" ?

Also, no matter how lame Disney and Archie and Twinkie-Age superhero comics are, they will still be published and sold to all the kids of the Silent Majority parents who've pushed Congress to pass these laws.
 
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If the Code stays in place, you probably won't have the influx of ex-2000AD British artists in the 80s, such as Moore or Ennis, given that greater creative freedom was one of the main pull factors.
 

Mr. Flay

Gone Fishin'
Unlikely after the mid-70's, when photocopiers were cheap enough for anyone to publish bootleg comics. And if the Supreme Court was willing to uphold the First Amendment for the Pentagon Papers and The Progressive's hydrogen bomb article, I don't see them upholding a federal comic-book ban.

Well, as long as they continued to convincingly pass off Seduction of the Innocent, then the possibility remains. Imagine a police raid conducted on any comic shop or other place suspected of harboring non-Code-approved comics.

Also, no matter how lame Disney and Archie and Twinkie-Age superhero comics are, they will still be published and sold to all the kids of the Silent Majority parents who've pushed Congress to pass these laws.

Well, I kind of meant "superhero comics", sorry.
 
Also, no matter how lame Disney and Archie and Twinkie-Age superhero comics are, they will still be published and sold to all the kids

Really should read the new series of Archie cross over comics
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Really should read the new series of Archie cross over comics

In Mr. Flay's Wertham-triumphant ATL, it'd be more like "Archie & Pals team up with The Wonder Twins to stop an outbreak of graffiti in Riverdale (Shape of ... a Paint-scraper! Form of ... Turpentine! ) ; then they all celebrate with delicious Hostess Fruit Pies (Jughead has three, what a pig)."
 

Mr. Flay

Gone Fishin'
In Mr. Flay's Wertham-triumphant ATL, it'd be more like "Archie & Pals team up with The Wonder Twins to stop an outbreak of graffiti in Riverdale (Shape of ... a Paint-scraper! Form of ... Turpentine! ) ; then they all celebrate with delicious Hostess Fruit Pies (Jughead has three, what a pig)."
You win an Internet award!
 
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