Attention central Ohio comic nerds! Tomorrow evening in Columbus, there’s a free event you do not want to miss: a talk by creator Stephen R. Bissette on “Swamp Thing and the Birth, Life, and Death of the Comics Code.” Here’s the description from Ohio State’s Wexner Center for the Arts:
Veteran comics artist, writer, editor, publisher, and Center for Cartoon Studies instructor Stephen R. Bissette is perhaps best known for his landmark collaboration with writer Alan Moore and artists John Totleben and Rick Veitch on DC Comics’ Saga of the Swamp Thing (1983–87). Many credit that run as a catalyst to the demise of the Comics Code Authority (1954–2011), the mainstream comics industry’s self-regulatory institution formed in response to social, commercial, and Congressional pressure after the spring 1954 publication of Seduction of the Innocent by psychologist Dr. Fredric Wertham. On this 60th anniversary of Wertham’s book and the Comics Code’s initiation, Bissette reflects upon the controversy, launch, and impact of the Code and its eventual dismantling.
The lecture, co-sponsored by the Wexner Center and the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, is free and open to the public. It will be held at 7 pm tomorrow, April 29th, in the Wexner Film/Video Theater, 1871 N. High Street on the OSU campus. If you can get there a few hours early, also check out the current exhibits at the neighboring Billy Ireland (1813 N. High Street) before they close at 5 pm!
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Contributing Editor Maren Williams is a reference librarian who enjoys free speech and rescue dogs.