Publishers then formed the Comics Code Authority, which forbade "lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations."
Here's a sampling of pre-Code comic-book art culled from the pages of The Horror! The Horror! Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read!.
Above:
The Horror! The Horror!
Written by Jim Trombetta (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), with an introduction by R.L. Stine, The Horror! The Horror! Comic Books the Government Didn't Want You to Read! comes bundled with a DVD of a 1955 TV documentary, Confidential File, that focused on horror comic books.
Images courtesy Abrams ComicArts.
All rights reserved.
Authors: Hugh Hart