(Cross-posted from Street Prophets)
This is stirring some comment in the geek-o-sphere. DC Comics has decided to drop out of the Comics Code Authority. The CCA was established back in the 1950s as a way to head off government censorship during the anti-comics hysteria generated by Frederick Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent.
The idea was that the Big Comic Book Publishers promised to police themselves to ban unwholsome material from their books. That way newstands and drugstores and mom & pop grocery stores could carry them without fear that the local Guardians of Morality would come after them with torches and pitchforks. (The only major publisher who didn't sign on to the Code was Dell, who figured their reputation was already do squeaky-clean that they didn't need it).
The rules laid down by Comics Code were pretty much tailored to ban everything published by EC Comics, whose incredibly gorey crime, war and horror comics were Wertham's chief target. (According to legend, the Code shut down everything EC published except for MAD, which it re-vamped into a magazine format to bypass the Code).
The first blow against the Comics Code came in the early '70s. Stan Lee wanted to write a Spider-Man story about drug abuse; but under the Code, no depiction of drugs were permitted -- not even to preach against them. Stan felt the issue was important enough to go with the story anyway. That issue of Amazing Spider-Man ran without the CCA seal, and the Heavens did not fall. The CCA acknowledged that Stan was right and modified the code.
With the rise of the Direct Market, comics publishers were no longer limited to newstand sales but could sell their books in specialty stores. The CCA label became less important. Both Marvel and DC began publishing seperate imprints of comics for "Mature Readers" which ran without the CCA's approval.
In 2001, Marvel went cold turkey and pulled the CCA seal off all it's books. Ten years later, DC Comics is now following suit.
That leaves Archie Comics as the sole member of the Comics Code Authority. Now Archie is the most wholesome publisher in the universe; but in recent years they have become more willing to test the boundaries. Last year saw Archie participating in an Interracial Kiss, and welcoming Riverdale High's first openly gay student; events which would have scandalized the Wertham-Era CCA. So maybe the Comics Code Seal will be gone for good.
Update: I read this morning that Archie is pulling out of the Code too; so that seems to be effectively the End of the Era.
Another Update: According to an article on Newsarama.com, the Comics Code may have already been dead for a while now; we just haven't noticed. Appearently, Kellen Company, the trade organization management firm contracted to run the CMAA (the parent organization of the Comics Code Authority), hasn't managed it since 2009. Archie Comics confirms that they haven't bothered even sending any of their comics to the CCA for review for over a year, because the board was simply rubber-stamping everything they recieved.
DC had been publishing many of its comics without the seal for a while now; reserving it for its high-profile books like SUPERMAN and its line of specifically kid-oriented books like TINY TITANS. The reason why they're pulling out now seems to be simply that their dues in the CMAA are running out and they're not bothering to re-up.
I can't help but wonder what Bill Gaines would have done with the idea of Zombie Censors...