#the big takeaway to me is that this kind of censorship first effected & then relied on industry consolidation to operate

[girderednerve]

hey speaking of the comics code authority, if you're interested in that history you should read my favorite article about how it worked in practice, shawna kidman's 'self regulation through distribution: censorship and the comic book industry in 1954.' it's interested in industry structure, mechanisms of enforcement, and the specifics of comic book distribution, rather than focusing on content changes, which are widely covered elsewhere. it is also a good time

abstract below cut

In 1954, comic books faced a public controversy over allegedly immoral content and simultaneously suffered a sharp decline in sales. The major publishers responded to both of these problems with the implementation of a code of censorship that enabled and justified aggressive self-regulation. Although most accounts of censorship focus on texts and cultural contexts, this article shows the extent to which the regulation of mass media necessarily involves vast and powerful infrastructures of enforcement. In particular, it highlights the critical role that distribution played by organizing the industry’s basic infrastructure and by functioning as a central mechanism of self-regulation.