Associate Professor Carol Tilley, an expert in comics readership and history, is featured in The New York Times’s Retro Report documentary, Sex, Drugs and Gore. The documentary explores two societal battles in the history of pop culture, “one over gory comic books in the 1950s, the other over sex- and violence-laden rock songs in the 1980s.”
Tilley’s comments in the documentary focus on the influence of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, an anti-comics critic and author of Seduction of the Innocent, whose testimony in 1954 Senate hearings contributed to the creation of the Comics Code Authority (CCA). The resulting censorship by CCA of stories and artwork nearly destroyed the comic book industry, with smaller publishers choosing to go out of business rather than comply. In 2013, Tilley received national attention for research findings based on a review of Wertham’s personal archives. She found numerous inconsistencies between case notes of children treated by Wertham and content in Seduction of the Innocent—including revisions, distortions, and omissions—that underpinned his case for comics as a causal factor in juvenile delinquency.
“It was a pleasure to be part of this short film that helps draw connections between two vivid moments of social panic about popular culture. As someone who is interested in comics, print culture history, and young people's reading and media use, I see resonances not only between comics censorship and music labeling, but also with challenges to video games, books, films, and virtually ever other form of popular media,” said Tilley.
Tilley’s research has been published in several academic journals, including the Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Information & Culture: A Journal of History, and Children’s Literature in Education. Her research on anti-comics advocate Fredric Wertham has been featured in The New York Times and other media outlets. At GSLIS, she teaches courses in comics reader’s advisory, media literacy, and youth services librarianship.