One of my favorite organizations, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fun, offers this insightful story about writer Max Allan Collins and the dreaded near-destruction of the comic book industry in the 1950s.

about the news that Dr. Frederic Wertham, the evil psychologist who whipped people into a frenzy over comic books corrupting their kids, made up much of his information in his book, "Seduction of the Innocent."

Collins offers a list, with cool cover photos, of his idea of the most controversial comic covers of all time.

A portion of the Huffington Post story follows:

FROM THE HUFFINGTON POST SITE:

Like a lot of people who work in comics - or who just grew up in the second half of the twentieth century loving "funny books" - I was not surprised to learn that Dr. Frederic Wertham had, in his famous 1954 anti-comic book screed Seduction of the Innocent, "manipulated, overstated, compromised and fabricated evidence." On February 19, the New York Times reported this conclusion, reached by University of Illinois Assistant Professor Carol L. Tilley, who examined Wertham's papers at the Library of Congress.

Wielding his psychiatric credentials as a cudgel, Wertham used the media, including that nascent sector called television, to insist that comic books were inherently for children, and that adult content could, in fact did, warp young minds. Comic books like Crime Does Not Pay were intended to teach youngsters the methods of criminals and the glorification of murder. Horror comic books twisted young minds with scenes of violence and gore, while Batman and Wonder Woman encouraged homosexuality - after all, Bruce Wayne lived with a young boy, and Wonder Woman frolicked with her sisters on an island. And Superman, well, he was obviously the personification of the Nazi super-fascist - never mind that a couple of Jewish kids from Cleveland created him.

For the comic book industry, the 2013 exposure of Wertham comes a little late. Millions of comic books were sold monthly in the post-war '40s and early '50s, but that number dwindled drastically after the efforts of Wertham and other moral crusaders led to the creation (yes, in 1954) of the Comics Code Authority, a self-censoring board of comic book publishers. So restrictive were the guidelines - really, rules - that several of the top companies went out of business, including EC Comics (whose Tales from the Crypt, among other horror titles, were in particular Wertham whipping boys) and Lev Gleason Publications (Crime Does Not Pay, another Wertham favorite).

Wertham was even the star witness at a Senate Hearing on juvenile delinquency, in that same key year of 1954. Many lawmakers paid him heed, and in some states the words "crime" and "horror" were banned from comic-book covers. The irony is that many comics readers were not children.