I don’t usually review books from big names and/or publishers. I prefer to help out the struggling author, the unsung genius trying to find his or her feet in the world of publishing.
But, sometimes—just sometimes—a big-name book really grabs me, and I feel the need to share it.
Dr. Werthless by writer Harold Schechter and artist Eric Powell is just such a tome. https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Werthless-Studied-Murder-Industry/dp/1506744362/ref=sr_1_1?hvqmt=p&mcid=c9a3d9c8d6d73deda9dd804b89eb394d
Dr. Werthless is biographical, non-fiction graphic novel, rendered in a similar style to Schechter and Powell’s earlier Did You Hear What Eddie Gein Done? In fact, the infamous serial killer/grave robber Ed Gein appears in the narrative, as he was interviewed by the title character: the notorious psychiatrist Fredric Wertham.
Dr. Wertham is best known for Seduction of the Innocent, a book that I read as a teenager. It’s no exaggeration to say that Seduction of the Innocent severely crippled and nearly destroyed the booming comic-book industry; comics wouldn’t fully rebound until their second ‘Golden Age’ in the nineteen-nineties. How long did the comics industry flounder in the shadow of Wertham’s hatred for it, you ask…?
Seduction of the Innocent was first published in nineteen fifty-four. But, I’ll get more into that later.
Schechter and Powell do a fine job of telling Wertham’s life story, detailing both his incredible strengths and his deplorable flaws. While I knew—as does every student of comic-book history—about Fredric’s mad crusade against sequential art, there was also a lot about him that I didn’t know.
For starters, Wertham became renowned for his ability to at least interview—if not effectively treat—serial killers. He spoke to them as people, without judgment or fear, and got them talking in ways that other therapists could not. His work with the likes of Robert Irwin, Albert Fish, and Ed Gein shed a great deal of light on the mind of the serial killer.
While he was known for his affability and compassion with murderers, Fredric Wertham was nevertheless poison to his peers. Stubbornly opinionated and often neurotic, he was viewed as brilliant but unstable. Despite his shortcomings, Wertham took it upon himself to start a psychiatric clinic for underprivileged youth in Harlem. Since many of his clients proudly refused to be treated for free, Wertham began charging twenty-five cents per session, earning him the nickname ‘Dr. Quarter.’
The founding of such a clinic—particularly in the nineteen-forties—took iron will and force of personality. For this, Wertham deserves historical acclaim …
Unfortunately, it was his time at the free clinic that led to the manic obsession for which Fredric Wertham will be forever known: his unreasoning, blistering hatred of comic books.
The early fifties was known as the ‘Golden Age’ of comics. Detective Comics (DC) had its vaunted superhero universe. EC Publishing produced some of the finest horror and ‘true crime’ comics ever seen, many of which are reprinted to this day. (The incredibly popular “Tales from the Crypt” television show is based on the books by EC.) Dell Publishing had the rights to Disney characters such as Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, as well as many other ‘funny animals.’ Business was booming, and culture-defining tales were being spun on a daily basis.
It’s unclear as to exactly when Wertham’s obsession with comics began, but it appears that it came from his time running his free clinic. He began to link comic reading to anti-social behavior, using an almost laughable formula: Anti-social youths read comic books, therefore comic books cause anti-social behavior. It’s the same flawed reasoning that money-grubbing televangelists such as Jimmy Swaggart and Pat Robertson would later use in regards to heavy metal music, horror films, and role-playing games. (For more on this topic, check out this brilliant interview with my better half: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhxUdyfMdyE )
Wertham’s assertions would probably never have flown today because there was no control group! He never created an isolated group of test subjects to prove his ‘cause and effect’ theory; his ideas were purely anecdotal. Indeed, Wertham’s base assumption—that children are ‘blank states’ and all negative behavior comes from outside influences—was never an idea that he bothered to test. Wertham simply did not believe in the innate depravity of the human heart, and—rather than testing his skepticism—he went on a mad crusade attacking said ‘outside forces.’
Seduction of the Innocent was never extensively peer-reviewed. It was not influential because psychiatrists took it seriously; rather, it was influential because hysterical parents did. Instead of testing his ideas in a clinical setting, Wertham ‘tested’ them in the court of public opinion.
Facing massive pressure from parents, the comics industry soon found itself operating under an onerous censorship regime known as ‘The Comics Code Authority.’ Gone now were most horror comics, and the few that survived were pretty toothless, much like the PG-13 horror films of the nineties before the rise of After Dark Productions and A24 Studios.
Only Dell refused to bow to the CCA, but that was because Dell’s books were fairly tame anyway. Rather than submitting their books for code approval, Dell instead opted to insert its own ‘Pledge to Parents’ inside every cover.
It wasn’t until the eighties that the industry began to push back. DC Comics launched its iconic, adults-only line of comics with such titles as “The Swamp Thing,” “Hellblazer,” and Neil Gaiman’s “The Sandman.” The rules began to relax a little, allowing for darker characters such as Wolverine and the Punisher. Horror and dark fantasy comics slowly crept back with such titles as “Eerie” and “Heavy Metal,” skirting around the code by marketing themselves as ‘magazines’ rather than ‘comic books.’
It wouldn’t be until the nineties—with the founding of Image Comics—that Wertham’s fascist legacy finally got flipped one big, fat bird: Image refused to submit its books for code approval. Honestly, classic books like “Spawn” and the “The Maxx” wouldn’t have been approved anyway, but it was the raw, visceral nature of their storytelling that made them legendary.
Marvel Comics was the last publisher to drop the code in the early two thousands, rendering it officially extinct. Most books today will have some kind of label stating such things ‘Rated T for Teen’ or ‘for mature readers only.’ Books with explicit art usually come in plastic bags, which is common sense.
Still, a once-proud element of America’s unique cultural heritage wallowed in the darkness of censorship for four decades. How many epic tales were never told? Or, if they were told, got watered down so badly as to lose their effectiveness?
Schechter and Powell did a fantastic job of rendering Wertham’s story—both the good and the bad—into a riveting, beautifully-illustrated narrative. Their summary of Wertham’s life and work is spot on: If there is a tragic element to his life, it is that this limitation—his monkey-see-monkey-do view of human behavior—has so thoroughly overshadowed his many admirable traits. Fairly or not, in the world of comicdom, he will always remain …
“Dr. Werthless.”
I enjoyed reading this non-fiction graphic novel myself, for it introduced me to a fascinating and flawed historical figure who left the public with an equal measure of good deeds and exploitive fanaticism.
I always found his story both fascinating and grim at the same time. THANK you for reading!