Seduction of the The Influence of Comic Books on Today's Youth by Fredric Wertham.

There are well over 200 fanzines in current distribution, originating in almost every state in the U.S. as well as in Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, Spain, and Sweden. This is the first book about them. Few persons outside the science fiction field (where, historically, fanzine publication appears to have begun) know the meaning of the portmanteau word, fanzine (amateur fan plus magazine). Fanzines are published, written, and illustrated by young persons, usually well under 30, and bear such names as ANDROmeda, BeABohema, Comickazi, Granfalloon,and Varolika. The history of the genre is brief, dating from the 1930s, but many of the publishers and contributors have achieved considerable distinction as writers, including Poul Anderson, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Lupoff. Coming to this serious study of an unusual subject with his considerable expertise in the field of violence, Dr. Wertham has been struck, first, by the nonviolent, creative aspects of the genre and, second, by the amateur status of fanzines. His conclusion, which will surprise many readers, is that herein may lie a message for our unheroic age.

In 1955 a New York City court sentenced Puerto Rican immigrant and teenage gang member Frank Santana to twenty-five years to life for second-degree murder. Fredric Wertham (1895-1981), one of the most influential authorities on child psychology in the twentieth century, was outraged and felt compelled to write The Circle of Guilt . He had conducted multiple interviews with Santana and created an extensive psychological profile on him. Wertham saw unsettling patterns in the ways in which the case was reported, investigated, and deliberated. Media portrayed the victim, a white teenager named Bill Blankenship, as a "model boy" and reported the killing as "unprovoked." In the furor surrounding the case, Santana was often called a "hoodlum." Wertham suspected otherwise. In The Circle of Guilt , the psychiatrist uncovers a paradigm of fear, racism, distrust, and prejudice. He argues that the press's presentation of the case reflected extreme cultural bigotry. Wertham also reveals Blankenship's activity within teen gangs and asserts that Santana's actions were shaped in part by his unmediated exposure to mass media. This reprinted edition includes a new introduction by history professor William Bush that places both the crime and Wertham's work into cultural and historical context. Bush argues that much of what Wertham decries in mass media and its impact on justice and race applies equally today. Longtime chief of psychiatry at Bellevue Hospital, Fredric Wertham authored Seduction of the Innocent . William Bush is visiting assistant professor of history at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.