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Show 'Crime Comics' Are for Adults NEW YORK. Controversy be-tween be-tween the Detroit Police department, which recently banned "crime" comic books, five of which have since been banned by the Indianapolis Indianap-olis police, and the publishers of these books rages with undiminished fury. Both sides are standing firm In their convictions. Interviewed Individually, these comic book publishers, without exception, ex-ception, claimed that their particular particu-lar . books were less objectionable than others banned. None denied that there are comic books that are "obscene," "Inflammatory," "vulgar," "vul-gar," "inartistic" or all four. Several, basing their self-defense on "freedom of the press," declared that because their books dealt with "true" crimes they are harmless, that they are written for adults and that the publisher Is not responsible for the welfare of children who happen hap-pen to read his books. Crime comic books, publishers said, have been brought out in quan. tity only In the last two years simply sim-ply to satisfy the appetites of ex-GIs. ex-GIs. "We do It by formula, not malice," one said bluntly. "A cop, a killer, a gun and a girL" Cause of Investigation Prosecutor James N. McNally of Detroit, interviewed by telephone, said that his comic book investigation investiga-tion began when the police were seeking to stop the sale of a toy gun used In fake hold-ups. "We found," he said, "that the manufacturer manu-facturer advertised fn comic books. We began looking Into 350 of these books and ended up banning the 38 our censor bureau found most objectionable. ob-jectionable. The two distributing companies handling them willingly agreed that these books would no longer be sold. We therefore plan no criminal action against the publishers." pub-lishers." The day after McNally's action. Mayor Al Feeney of Indianapolis banned S of 2C0 books his special Investigator had rounded up. He received the promise of cooperation from local distributors. One Asks for Hearing "So far," Mr. McNally said, "only one publisher has asked for hearing. hear-ing. That Is the National Comics group, publishers of Cangbustcr Comics, which It temporarily re moved from the banned list pending a hearing. A for the public, we've had nothing but praise from hundreds hun-dreds of citizens all over the country." coun-try." - In New Y' the American Civil Liberties announced that it had communicated with Detroit's police commissioner, Harry S. Toy, objecting to "the police office setting set-ting Itself up as censor and guardian guar-dian of public morals." "We're glad," Jack Llebowitz, of the National Comics group, which publishes 30 other books, said, "that something Is being done to apprise those publishers who are not cognizant cog-nizant of their responsibility that things can't go on unchecked. But we feel that our book was mistakenly mistak-enly banned In Detroit as It Is in Indianapolis, although we're willing to make changes." John Byrne, editor of "Wings Comics," "Jumbo Comics" and "Fight Comics." which have been banned, felt that his books "represent "repre-sent in 1948 what Nick Carter and Tom Swift used to represent," but added, "We don't edit our maga-zlnes maga-zlnes for children.'" |