FAMILY CIRCLE MAGAZINE - APRIL 17, 1942

Most comic book historians believe that one of the great turning points in the comic book industry began in the early 1950's with articles in the Ladies Home Journal, Wertham's "Seduction of the Innocent", Wagner's "Parade of Pleasure", and the Hearings before the United States Senate Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency which ultimately led to the Comics Code Authority and censorship of the contents of comic books. Many comic book publishers ceased to exist in the wake of the anti-comic book hysteria, aimed primarily at crime and horror books, but also targeting many of the superhero and other comic books of the day. Travel back in time ten years, however, and you would find that at least one leading magazine of the day was praising superhero comic books and the effects they were having on juveniles. The April 17, 1942 issue of Family Circle magazine, in an article by H. Dyson Carter entitled' "Are the Comics Bad for Children?", concluded that the superheroes of the day "...occupy a rightful and harmless place in your child's scheme of things; that juvenile taste in entertainment changes very little from generation to generation; and that, to sum it up, parents are taking the comic-book craze more seriously than it deserves."

So, why is this being included in the Golden Age Batman site? Because the magazine has an early cover appearance of Batman and Robin! To put this cover appearance in proper chronological context, any parent wishing to confirm or refute the opinions of Mr. Carter and Family Circle would have gone to the newsstands and picked up copies of Detective 62, Batman 10 and World's Finest 5. It appears that Family Circle obtained the Batman and Robin images used on the cover from the cover of Batman 9. The article contains images from the covers of All-Flash 1 (Flash), New York World's Fair 2 (Superman) and Sensation 6 (Wonder Woman). The story also contains images of Hop Harrigan and Buck Rogers from sources unknown.

You will find the cover of Family Circle Magazine from April 17, 1942, below.

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This site was created by William F. Jourdain. The contents of this site are copyrighted © 1996-2001, William F. Jourdain except for those characters and symbols which are the copyrighted works and trademarks of DC Comics, Inc. or any other person or entity claiming copyright and trademark rights to the contents of Family Circle magazine. No part of this page or any other part of the Golden Age Batman site may be reproduced or copied without express permission of the author. The author is not responsible for the content of any page or site which may be linked to this site and has had no input into the content of said linked site or sites.