It Came From Connecticut

Connecticut boasts of being the birthplace of the comic book, and a new exhibition at the Connecticut Historical Society in Hartford seeks to explore the claim. Ninth Art takes a trip to the Constitution State.
26 January 2004

'Heroes, Heartthrobs and Horrors: Celebrating Connecticut's Invention of the Comic Book' is the name of the latest exhibition at the Connecticut Historical Society. The title sounds a bit pompous, but the exhibit explains that it's not as crazy a claim as it might seem.

The state was home to five major publishers: Quality, Charlton, Fawcett, Fiction House and Eastern Color Printing. It was at the Waterbury-based Eastern Color Printing in 1933 that Harry Wildenberg and Max Gaines folded a single sheet of newsprint into sixteen smaller pages, creating the current comic book size. The next year, the publication of FAMOUS FUNNIES #1 marked the first comic of original material. It was sold exclusively at newsstands, and initially lost money, though by the seventh issue the book was making a profit.

The exhibit is in a single room in the Historical Society building, which sits tucked away on a quiet street in Hartford. Large wooden cutouts of famous and obscure comic characters are scattered throughout. Exhibit Developer James Jenson explains that the exhibit has been years in the making, pre-dating his arrival. While researching a possible exhibit on growing up in Connecticut, staff came across the one comic book in the Society's library. "An old issue of CAPTAIN MARVEL, where he comes to Hartford. They found out it was published by Fawcett here in the state, which led to more research and discovering all this background.

"[The exhibit] appeals to a wider audience than we usually draw. We've tried to make it family oriented, which is hard, because what appeals to kids won't necessarily appeal to adults. Plus there's an enthusiastic crowd which has its own pre-conceived ideas about what the exhibit should be."

The result is a family friendly exhibit that explains the process of creating and printing a comic book, with displays of comics and memorabilia that explain the non-superhero genres once popular in comics. The primary focus of the exhibit is the 1930s through to the 1960s, as that's when most of the Connecticut-based companies were active. The state's role in censorship is also explored, along with a copy of the Comics Code that wraps around a semi-circle of benches - the perfect place to read a comic from a nearby bin. Along with giving kids the chance to dress up as characters, it's the most kid-oriented part of the exhibit.

A television plays a loop of old movie and TV clips of various characters. For me, getting to listen to a number of old radio broadcasts from the thirties and forties featuring Buck Rogers, The Blue Beetle, The Mysterious Traveler, Captain Midnight and Plastic Man was one of the highlights.

The best recording, though, is the 'Plastic Man Song', one of many songs from the late 60s and early 70s featuring comic book characters. Jensen said that there were many others, including an entire 33 1/3 record on the Justice League, but the 'Plastic Man Song' was something unique. How many songs have a chorus like, "Always in great shape for the shape he's in", and lines like, "He's a real good guy in a bright red suit / and he always wears goggles and a belt that's a beaut"? I kept waiting for a tab of acid to be dispensed.

There are two videos, which every adult aficionado would do well to check out. One is 'What Can Comic Books Teach Us?' and featured interviews with Will Eisner, Trina Robbins and Dick Giordano, alongside writer/historian William Foster III and Henry Jenkins, the Director of MIT's Comparative Media Studies Program.

The interviewees talk about who used to read comics, the many genres that used to be produced, stereotypes and the Comics Code. Giordano reveals that he "loved drawing Westerns, because you never needed a ruler", and it's pointed out that Kirby's fascination with outsiders led him to draw several stories about anti-Semitism without making any specific mention of Judaism.

The video's highlight is Professor Jenkins' defence of Frederick Wertham; Jenkins argues that Wertham was not some right wing kook railing against violence, but a psychologist who was deeply affected by what he saw as comics' content, the fascist logic of might-makes-right, racial stereotyping and homosexuality. This is why the comics code does not simply restrict violence and profanity, but is primarily about regulating ideology. The argument is stronger in the context of the issues that people have raised, but there is little evidence offered or given that the Comics Code made any real difference.

Another video looks at some of the people working in the industry, from engraver Daniel Paul Jocis and colour separator Mildred Marsh, to Charlton editor and artist George Wildman. The interviewees talk primarily about their experiences working in the 40s, 50s and 60s, and the documentary manages to give a unique impression about what the industry was like as a workplace and as an environment.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the documentary is the discussion of Charlton and its owner John St Angelo, who had his entire company onsite at a campus in the town of Derby. Giordano claims that the company could have dominated the business if they had put some money into it. Talking about the company's six-acre complex, Wildman says, "We started right from my desk, the idea, the concept, all the upfront work, to the shipping dock which was in the back where the books went out and we shipped all our products East of the Mississippi with our own fleet of trucks."

There's more to the exhibit than what's on display. As Jensen points out, an exhibit is useful in terms of an introduction or an overview, but it's not always the best place to go into a great deal of depth and context. To that end, the society is using its website to make available a lot of the material and research that went into the exhibit. There's a great deal of material about the various publishers, including histories, timelines, and links to additional resources.

Historical Society Researcher Andrew Goldstein has two essays on the site, one of which, "Depravity for Children - Ten Cents a Copy: Hartford and the Censorship of Comic Books, 1948-1959", is an excellent examination of the time and issues of censorship. Goldstein has also contributed "Comics 101: A (Brief) History of Comic Books in America," though it focuses mostly on mainstream comics, with just a few mentions about the underground and alternative comics scenes.

The society hopes that the website will be a major destination for people researching comics for years to come. The bibliography of major sources alone is an excellent starting point for any future comics scholar. This is a really great exhibit, not just for what it represents - an historical society taking the time and effort to celebrate and examine comics as an art form - but for what it is. It serves as an excellent reminder to all of us that the history of American comics is still being written.

Heroes, Heartthrobs and Horrors is on exhibit until April 25th. Every weekend during the exhibition period, the society is hosting activities for children and families. On February 9th, Amy Nyberg, author of Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code, will lead a panel discussing censorship. On March 11th, writer and comedian Arie Kaplan will lead a discussion on "How Jews Created the Comic Book."

For more information, including hours and admission prices, visit the Connecticut Historical Society website at www.chs.org.

Alex Dueben is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer.

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