| Description | This series comprises records relating to Barker's research into the 1950s campaign against children's horror comics. In the 1970s Barker was teaching a student who began researching comics. Barker began to look into 1950s horror comics and was intrigued that the campaign against horror comics had resulted in legislation. Barker undertook this research primarily between 1978 and 1984, during which he acquired and was given materials from the campaign from some of those who were deeply involved in it. Barker's research resulted in his book A Haunt of Fears The strange history of the British Horror Comics Campaign.
Britain's earliest comics date from the 1870s. Comic strips and illustrations followed and by the beginning of the 1900s anti-comic sentiment in Britain began with comics blamed for lowering literacy rates, growing violence among children and devaluing British culture. This continued in the following decades. In the 1940s and 1950s, Dr Simon 'Sam' Yudkin created the National Council for the Defence of Children, later known as the Council for Children's Welfare. In May 1953, the Council for Children's Welfare called a meeting in Beaver Hall, London due to growing concerns about horror comics, so the different groups could meet and discuss comics. The meeting was attended by the public, parent groups and smaller groups. From this meeting the Comics Campaign Council was founded.
Largely made up of Council for Children's Welfare members, associates of Yudkin, who were also Communist Party Great Britain (CPGB) members, the campaign was pro-British culture and anti-American culture, claiming crime and horror comics encouraged crime and violence among children. The Council embedded CPGB ideals in its work, with important CPGB member and organiser Sam Aaronvitch helping shape the campaign to the party's goals. The CPGB funded the campaign. As the campaign developed, its rhetoric transformed and focused more on morality and protecting British children. The campaign placed the blame on inexpensive, imported American comics, ignoring that British publishers were creating cheap, and sometimes poorly done, reprints. The council devised and published bulletins, reports, evaluations and participated in conferences, meetings and exhibitions all campaigning against comics.
Peter Mauger, National Union of Teachers (NUT) member, Comics Campaign Council and CPGB member, helped influence the NUT to support the campaign resulting in the NUT's 1953-1954 touring exhibition of dangerous comics and related work against children's comics. Other members of the Comics Campaign Council included Diana Sinnott St John, British Communist Party member, and member of Association of Assistant Headmistresses and George Henry Pumphrey. Pumphrey wrote articles and books such as Children’s Comics A guide for parents and teachers, campaigning against comics.
Another influential work was Psychiatrist Frederic Wertham's 1954 The Seduction of the Innocent which claimed that depictions of violence, crime and horror in comics was a danger to children. Wertham's work was influential in the anti-comic's sentiment in Britain. While the Government was apprehensive, the campaign had many supporters and succeeded in the creation and implementation of the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955. The act placed restrictions on the content of comics and publishers could face prosecution and fines. The first prosecution under the act, however, was not until 1970. It is believed that in 1954 Under-Secretary of the State of Home Improvement Sir Hugh Lucas-Tooth held up Pumphrey's copy of A Haunt of Fear no 1 comic book in parliament as he moved the second reading of the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act.
This series includes comics, press cuttings, correspondence, notes, and reports. During his research for A Haunt of Fears, Barker performed interviews and was given records by some of the important figures in the campaign; George H Pumphrey, Comics Campaign Council publicist and Headmaster, Joe Benjamin, Youth Worker and editor of the Comics Campaign Council’s bulletins, Sam Aaronvitch, and Peter Mauger. |