ABSTRACT
An excellent route into the definition of an American identity through comic-books is to consider how the Comics Code Authority, through interaction between government and the industry, shaped what could and could not be shown. Before 1954 and the creation of the Comics Magazine Association of America, there were effectively no limits on what could be represented or who could be criticised. As discussed in Chapter 2, this all changed with the implementation of the Code and its attempts to expunge all “violations of good taste or decency”, a general heading intended to catch anything missed by the 41 specific entries. That the Code was revised in 1971 points to this as a moment of special interest, a chance to investigate how attitudes to comic-books had changed and, more importantly, why.
