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If you know me, you know I get totally jazzed when I discover new information related to Seduction of the Innocent. And I'm totally jazzed. On pages 310-311 of Seduction of the Innocent, Dr. Wertham wrote, There are publicity comic books to influence adults. Sylvia F. Porter, the financial columnist, writes about a comic book got out by the American Bankers Association: "The aim is not just to amuse you. Not by a long shot. It is to mold your thinking in a specific way." If that is true of good comic books for bankers, isn't it true, too, of bad comic books for children? They mold a child's thinking in a specific way. For many years, the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide has contended that this was a reference to Peter Penny and His Magic Dollar, the 1947 comic put out by the American Bankers Association. I had this quote on my list of things to research one of these days. Was Sylvia Porter's article really referring to Peter Penny and His Magic Dollar? Or the other known Peter Penny book, Peter Penny Saves the Day? I was pleasantly surprised to find the answer in a Facebook group for freebie comics. A gentleman named Michael Styborski had posted the original Sylvia Porter article that I had intended to hunt down. Thank you, Michael! That led me to some fun tidbits... First off, here's the article, which appeared in The Amarillo (TX) Daily News, January 20, 1949 as well as the Philadelphia Inquirer, December 27, 1948. Scroll past the photo if you like, because I've transcribed the text below. Here's the text of the article, with the relevant parts highlighted in red. Industry is finally discovering the comic book – greeting it with huzzahs and hoopla, taking it over with energy and enthusiasm. After all these years, the men who make American industry are recognizing that what Popeye has done for spinach and Jiggs has done for corned beef and cabbage, the descendants of Popeye and Jiggs can do for private enterprise, the profit system, labor management relations, independent banking, and the like. It’s a top-notch development right now. And, according to my friends in the public relations field, we’re seeing just the beginnings of your education to business via the comic strip. Which makes it important for you – the target – to know what’s up and what’s ahead for you and your children. Are you curious about jet propulsion or atom-smashing, interested in X-rays or diesel engines? General Electric is publishing a comib book series on “Adventures in Electricity.” A half-dozen of the booklets are on my desk now; I’ve studied them; they’re superb. And implicit in each cartoon, behind each word spoken by the comic characters, is a song of praise for the American industry which has made such wonders possible and for the company within that industry which has helped so greatly in the job. Do you ever wonder how our banking system functions and what it really contributes to your way of life? The American Bankers Association, that eminently conservative organization of financiers, has a “Peter Penny and His Magic Dollar” comic pamphlet to tell you the teal on an A-B-C level. And it’s putting out a new one, “Peter Penny Saves the Day,” to extol thrift. And here, too, implicit in each cartoon, behind each word spoken by the comic characters is a song of praise for the American system of private, independent banks. Only a few corporations and trade associations have so far explored the medium on a major scale – but these have had astounding success. The Institute for Life Insurance, for instance, decided to experiment with the comic booklet, “The Man Who Runs Interference,” to help sell insurance to you and me. They’re now counting distribution in the millions. Borden’s, W.T. Grant Co., the Milwaukee Railroad have pioneered in the field. You need no explanation from me as to the impact of such characters as Elise the Cow. Surveys indicate that 70,000,000 Americans are regular followers of newspaper strips or comic books; “100 million people have a fixed habit of reading comics in some form,” reports “Public Relations News,” a letter privately circularized among public relations executives. It’s estimated that just the handful of corporations and associations that have tried the comics have distributed 45 million booklets – half of them through the school systems. That last is a statistic in a class by itself. And the publicity experts state: “More and more companies are learning what the government learned during the war: comics have a higher readership and greater influence on the average mind than any other form of communication.” This alone should start the avalanche. As a comic strip devotee myself, I can appreciate the meaning of this development in its entirety. And at this point, there’s nothing wrong with it. If a cartoon will intrigue a stockholder into reading his annual company report, fine; let management put it in the cartoons. If a comic booklet will show the high school student – or graduate – how the private enterprise system operates and why businessmen must make profits under this system, fine; let’s have the comic books. But there’s dynamite in this development- dynamite hidden under its purposes, dynamite obscured by the very ease and simplicity of the communication medium. Selling a product such as spinach via Popeye goes in one class. Selling an idea on profits or strikes or the like via Popeye goes in an entirely different category. So as you read the comic pamphlets that undoubtedly will be coming your way in future months, realize fully that the aim is not just to amuse you. Not by a long shot. It is to instruct you in specific things, mold your thinking in a specific way. Read between, as well as on, the lines. So as it turns out, Sylvia Porter, when quoted by Wertham, was referring to BOTH Peter Penny books: Peter Penny and His Magic Dollar and Peter Penny Saves the Day. She mentions both in her article, and at the end she is referring to the general category of promotional comics when she says that they are intended to mold your thinking. At least, that's what I make of it, but I'm a little biased because I'm always looking to discover new SOTI books. What are your thoughts? Do you agree that both Peter Penny books should now be considered SOTI books? That's tonight's discovery... more about the various version of Peter Penny and His Magic Dollar coming up soon!
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Okay, your friendly neighborhood SOTICollector is back with another rarity. You've seen me here a number of times offering copies of Seduction of the Innocent. Since that's my primary collecting focus, I usually have a few spare copies in varying conditions lying around. Something that comes my way FAR less often, and is much tougher to find, is the British counterpart to SOTI: Parade of Pleasure. And incredibly tough to find is the original dust jacket. Many of the books listed in Overstreet as "used in POP" were used only on the dust jacket, so if you're looking for the whole POP experience, you need the dust jacket. I have sold a few of these over the years, including one copy at Brass City Comic Con earlier this year. But it is REALLY tough to find copies of this book, as you'll know if you've been shopping for one. This is the 1955 US printing by Library Publishers, not the 1954 UK printing by Verschoyle. The book is complete, including all pages of comic book reproductions and even the photo of Marilyn Monroe. Other than the inside FC writing, the book is unmarked. As you can see, the dust jacket is in extremely rough shape, but it is protected by a Brodart-type sleeve and it does have all of the pictures of comics on the jacket. The book's notable defects are: writing inside FC, presumably a previous owner's name, that has been scribbled out so that it's illegible; white scuffing lower FC; waviness to the upper right of the pages that indicates water or moisture damage at one point in the book's past. With my camera I tried to capture the waviness of the pages, but didn't catch the light just right for that. It seems like the copies that have shown up for sale lately have almost all been Phil Levine copies. How many did that guy have? In any event, I looked back at the last two years of Heritage auctions for copies with the dust jacket (all of which have nicer DJ's than this). Here's what I found. US edition $836.50 on 8/12/2017 UK edition $1015.75 on 2/25/2017 UK edition $1015.75 on 11/19/2016 UK edition $657.25 on 6/26/2016 UK edition $956.00 on 2/20/2016 Boardie price for this copy $450, shipped anywhere in the US. Shipping outside the US at cost. Payment by PayPal. Returns accepted within 14 days of receipt. No HOS, Probationites, or Dark Lords of the Sith, please. Unconditional :take it in thread trumps all, but PM's are welcome if you're willing to take the chance at losing out the most affordable POP with DJ you're likely to see. If rash develops, discontinue use. Did I miss anything in my terms and conditions? If so, gentle reminders are greatly appreciated.
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