SOTI Contest ends December 31, 11:59pm Eastern. Discover a book and win SOTI!

[SOTIcollector]

I'm excited to announce a new SOTI discovery!

 

For years, I've been trying to hunt down the books that were mentioned in Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent, but that have not yet been identified by collectors. I'm excited to announce that one more "lost SOTI" book has been discovered. Plus, another book has been identified as a "possible SOTI" book.

 

A visitor to the Seduction of the Innocent website has identified this book, from page 388 of SOTI.

A man provides murder victims for his wife, who drinks their blood. He grabs a newsboy for her and she says over his bound body: "His throat is as white and soft as a swan's! So tender and youthful!

 

Then I did some research and came up with a book that just might be the one Wertham referenced on page 389 One man kills his wife with a poker.

 

So coming up shortly, I'll announce what these two books are. I need to get through Columbus Day weekend, which is full of family activities, and then soon (perhaps next weekend) I'll post the new discoveries.

 

That brings me to the contest. Would you like a free copy of Seduction of the Innocent? I'm not talking about one of the recent so-called limited edition reprints. I'm talking about an original 1954 or 1955 Seduction of the Innocent, yours for free.

 

I'll post the details soon. Basically, I've given away a copy of SOTI to a boardie before, just for discovering a "lost SOTI" book. And I'm going to give away another copy. So, check out those "lost SOTI" books if you'd like to win a free copy of SOTI, and I'll post contest details here when they are finalized. It'll be the usual, no-purchase-necessary, find a book and you can win type contest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[porcupine48]

[thehumantorch]

[Tri-Color Brian]

Great website! I see I can spend a few hours perusing that place. Someday I'll share with you the story of why Wertham became a psychologist...it has to do with how unprofitable his hot dog stand was...

[SOTIcollector]

Here are the "lost SOTI" books that I'm hoping somebody can identify. In fact, these are the books that could win YOU a copy of Seduction of the Innocent! They are listed with their page numbers from Wertham's book.

 

The Seduction of the Innocent website has some clues that may help you identify these.

 

 

Page 8:

Here is the lecherous-looking bandit overpowering the attractive girl who is dressed (if that is the word) for very hot weather ("She could come in handy, then! Pretty little spitfire, eh!") in the typical pre-rape position. Later he threatens to kill her:

"Yeah, it's us, you monkeys, and we got an old friend of yours here... Now unless you want to see somp'n FATAL happen to here, u're gonna kiss that gold goodbye and lam out of here!"

 

Pages 8-9: Here is violence galore, violence in the beginning, in the middle, at the end: ZIP! CRASH! SOCK! SPLAT! BAM! SMASH! (This is an actual sequence of six pictures illustrating brutal fighting, until in the seventh picture: "He's out cold!")

 

Page 9: …graphic pictures of the white man shooting colored natives as though they were animals: "You sure must have treated these beggars rough in that last trip though here!"

Page 40: The youthful reader can also acquire the technique of how to seduce a girl. First you get her boy friend away on a fictitious errand, "knowing it would keep him for most of the night." After a dance you invite the girl for "a little bite" at "a road house just over the state line":

NICKY: Here we are, Gale! A nice little private booth! Like it?

 

GALE: Yes' - (I wouldn't for the world let Nicky think I wasn't sophisticated enough to appreciate it!)

 

Then you make love to her.

 

GALE: Nicky! Let me go! All these people!

 

NICKY: You're right, honey! What do we want all these people for? Let's go upstairs to the terrace!

 

"Upstairs was a long, narrow hall with five or six doors! Nicky opened the nearest one and I found myself in a small, shoddy- looking room!"

 

NICKY: I think we'll be much more comfortable in here, don't you, honey?

 

GALE: Nicky! I want to go home! Please let me go!

 

NICKY: Home was never like this, baby! Come on, give papa a kiss!

 

 

Page 106: In a typical specimen a man-eating shark changes into a girl. You are shown the gruesome picture of an arm bitten off by the shark with blood flowing from the severed stump. And the moral ending? "No one would ever believe . . . that the ghost of a lovely girl could inhabit a shark's body..."

 

Page 111: In another comic book the murderer says to his victim: "I think I'll give it to yuh in the belly! Yuh get more time to enjoy it!"

 

Page 111: "His body was torn to shreds, his face an unrecognizable mass of bloody and clawed flesh!"

 

Page 112: In a Western comic book the "Gouger" is threatening the hero's eye with his thumb, which has a very long and pointed nail. This is called the "killer's manicure." He says: "YORE EYES ARE GONNA POP LIKE GRAPES WHEN OL' GOUGER GETS HIS HANDS ON YOU!... HERE GO THE PEEPERS!"

 

Pages 114-115: A four-year-old boy in Florida looked through his brother's comic books and his mother found him under a tree stark naked, with a long knife in his hands. Stunned, she asked him why he had undressed himself, and what he was doing. He replied, "The man in the comics did it." Later he showed her pictures where some "Mongols" had a white man stripped naked and one of them had a long knife to cut out the American's tongue.

 

Page 137: I can match this almost verbally [Note: Did Wertham mean 'verbatim'?]: "Let's see you try to take me, you big brave coppers!" says a comic book on my desk.

 

Page 159: In a recent comic book which has the "Seal of Approval of Comics Magazine Publishers," and is sold in New York subways, you learn that after a robbery you can escape more easily if you shoot out the source of light; you learn how to trade in guns; how to hijack ammunition; how to impersonate regular soldiers (I have had several cases of young people doing just that); and, of course, how to torture and kill a "squealer."

 

Page 159: In one which has the "Seal of Approval of Comics Magazine Publishers" young men fake disease to get out of the army.

 

Page 159: "Didn't I bluff my way out of the army?" says the hero-criminal. "Got a medical discharge without having anything wrong except indigestion! If you work it right, no doctor in the world can prove you're bluffing!" It's likely this is the same one mentioned in the prior reference.

 

Pages 159-160: One Western comic gives an illustrated lesson in foul fighting (he "chopped a powerful rabbit punch") and brutality (he "rammed his knee into Mossman's face with a sickening thud" and then, when his victim was on the ground, kicked him in the face).

 

Page 160: Another comic book shows how a youngster can murder for profit. He gets a job as a caddy, loses the ball, then kills the player when he goes searching for it.

 

Page 160: "Fixing" of sporting events has recently been front-page news. I have one accused boy under psychotherapy right now. In comic books that is old stuff: "Here's 500 now, and you'll get 500 when it's over!"

 

Page 161: Forgery is, of course, also described in comic books. The preferred method is to pick up a blotter which has been used and copy the signature with the aid of a mirror.

 

Page 161: From one book you can learn how to cut through the glass and break into a store and how to stop the noise when you do break in: "Pile the blankets on to smother the noise!"

 

Page 162: A man's pocketbook is stolen on the subway. Millions of little boys learn how to do that: "Did someone shove a newspaper in your face? And were you shoved from the rear at the same time? I can see that's what happened. The pickpocket got it while you were upset by the shove." Lesson completed.

 

Page 162: How to steal a woman's pocketbook is outlined, too. According to the stories it may be done skillfully and peacefully, but if that does not work, just hit them over the head.

 

Page 162: In some comic books it is shown how the youngest tots are picked up bodily, held upside down and shaken so that the coins will fall out of their pockets.

 

Page 162-163: Often comic books describe real crimes that have been featured in the newspapers. In adapting them for children the following points are stressed: the daring and success of the criminals is exalted; brutal acts are shown in detail; sordid details are emphasized; if there are any sexual episodes they are featured. In 1952 three men escaped from a penitentiary. They stole cars, evaded the police, kidnapped people, held up a bank, and were finally caught in New York where they were living with three girls. A real children's story! In the first picture there is an unmade bed, a half-nude man and a girl. The prison break is described like a heroic feat. The ease with which you can steal cars in the country from a farmer is pointed out to youngsters who do not know that yet. One of the criminals boasts to a little boy that he has killed fifteen or sixteen people, "I lost count."

 

Page 163: The girls living with the criminals are featured, two of them hiding behind a shower curtain. There are seventy-six pictures of exploits; in the seventy-seventh picture the police take over with a cheap wisecrack.

 

Page 182: In one comic book with a story on "the man who shanghaied more than 1,000 men from the San Francisco docks," there is suddenly - unrelated to the story - an illustration showing large in the foreground only the lower part of a girl's legs, in net stockings and very high-heeled red shoes.

 

Page 185: Adolescent girls are not helped by this bit from a love comic: "How long can a beautiful woman wait for love? Is it a crime to take passion where it is found - regardless of mocking faithfulness? (For the thrilling answer see page 17.)"

 

Page 231: A ten-year-old boy was found hanging from a door hook, suspended by his bathrobe cord. On the floor under his open hand lay a comic book with this cover: a girl on a horse with a noose around her neck, the rope tied to a tree. A man was leading the horse away, tightening the noose as he did so. The grief-stricken father said, "The boy was happy when I saw him last. So help me God, I'll be damned if I ever allow another comic book in the house for the kids to read!"

 

Page 234: Where in any other childhood literature except children's comics do you find a woman called (and treated as) a "fat slut"? NEWLY IDENTIFIED!

 

 

 

[SOTIcollector]

The Contest!

 

I've been pretty fortunate lately that I've been able to acquire a couple spare copies of SOTI. I'll give one of these away on or about January 1, 2017.

 

Your assignment is to look for the "lost SOTI" books, listed above. If you are the first one to positively identify one of these books, and email or PM me with your verifiable results, then you're entered in the contest. It's that easy. For each book you identify, you get one entry in the contest.

Deadline for submissions is 11:59pm Eastern time on 31 December, 2016.

 

On or about January 1, I'll select a random winner from all the correct entries I've received. These are books that have eluded collectors for years, so I don't expect a flood of entries. You've got a good shot at winning a copy of SOTI for free. It'll be a 1954 or 1955 US or UK edition of SOTI of my choosing. It will not be the so-called "limited edition" modern printing.

 

So far, there is one person in this contest: the gentleman who recently identified this book:

A man provides murder victims for his wife, who drinks their blood. He grabs a newsboy for her and she says over his bound body: "His throat is as white and soft as a swan's! So tender and youthful!"

 

It was his recent discovery that inspired me to create this contest, so I figured it's only fair that he get an entry into the contest.

 

If nobody discovers any more "lost SOTI" books between now and January 1, this gentleman wins the book. If you're the only one to discover another "lost SOTI" book between now and the end of the year, then you've got a 50% chance of winning.

 

THE CONTEST ENDER -- BONUS!!!

Here's a kicker that I thik you'll love. Do you want a particularly rare copy of SOTI? Here's a difficult but not impossible task. Be the first to identify FIVE of the "lost SOTI" books listed below and submit five entries in this contest. If that happens, the contest ends immediately and you win a 1954 first printing of Seduction of the Innocent, with the bibliography! In case you're not familiar with the story of the bibliography, the bibliography page was removed from nearly all copies of SOTI prior to its distribution. SOTI itself is tough to come by, but a copy with the bibliography is particularly scarce.

I'm giving away ONE copy of SOTI in this contest, so if you or somebody else correctly identifies five "lost SOTI" books, the contest ends right away and this rare edition goes to that person.

 

No purchase necessary. Just read comics! And you were going to do that anyway, right? And, if you enter the contest, I'll need your permission to post you real name OR your screen name here and on the SOTI website when I post the books that you discovered.

 

I think I've covered all the necessary rules, but I reserve the right to modify the rules if necessary. If modifications are needed, I'll post them here.

 

Questions? Post here or send via PM.

Now get reading, and GOOD LUCK!

 

[Scrooge]

Hi,

 

I love it. And congrats on having IDed a couple more entries in the book.

 

What's the range of books Wertham cited in the book? In other words, from what time period would the as-yet-IDed references come? 194? to 195? That would help (somewhat) narrow the field of research.

[SOTIcollector]

Hi,

 

I love it. And congrats on having IDed a couple more entries in the book.

 

What's the range of books Wertham cited in the book? In other words, from what time period would the as-yet-IDed references come? 194? to 195? That would help (somewhat) narrow the field of research.

 

Wertham started his research in 1948, and few if any of the books he referenced came from before that. If memory serves, everything identified so far has come from 1947-1953.

[SOTIcollector]

I'm excited to announce... MORE DISCOVERIES!

 

Discovery #1:

Collectors have known for years that copies of SOTI with the bibliography are tough to come by. The book's publisher, Rinehart, feared lawsuits from the comic book publishers and had the bibliography page sliced out before the book was distributed. I read an interveiw with Wertham, where the doctor indicated that he didn't even know the bibliography had been removed until purchasers complained to him that they had been sold mutilated copies of his book. The copy with the bibliography that's in my personal collection is a copy that had been sent to a reviewer in advance of publication. So what I wasn't certain about was: did the copies with the bibliography ever actually make it to store shelves, or did they get stopped before that? I wondered if perhaps reviewers and some libraries had copies shipped to them, but stores didn't get the copies with the bibliography.

 

This weekend, I was flipping through the copy of SOTI with bibliography that I was planning on giving away if somebody were to ID five SOTI books. I had flipped through it previously, but had not checked every one of the 400 pages. Yesterday I found that tucked inside the book is the original receipt from its purchase in May, 1954! So I now feel confident in saying that at least SOME copies, or at least this copy with the bibliography, did make it to a store shelf.

 

Now that I've found the receipt, I'm not so sure this is the copy I'll be giving away. Of course, that doesn't mean I'll back out on my promise to give away a copy with the bibliography to somebody who identifies five "lost SOTI" books. It just means I might have to find a different copy to give them, because I really like this one with the receipt showing its origin.

 

Discovery #2: I'm excited to announce that yet ANOTHER "lost SOTI" book has already been identified by a boardie! This boardie correctly identified the book that Wertham wrote about on page 234 of SOTI, when he wrote, "Where in any other childhood literature except children's comics do you find a woman called (and treated as) a 'fat slut'?" I expect to be able to post details by next weekend! This boardie is now in the running for a copy of SOTI!

[sfcityduck]

Great thread!

[Vorpal]

Discovery #2: I'm excited to announce that yet ANOTHER "lost SOTI" book has already been identified by a boardie! This boardie correctly identified the book that Wertham wrote about on page 234 of SOTI, when he wrote, "Where in any other childhood literature except children's comics do you find a woman called (and treated as) a 'fat slut'?" I expect to be able to post details by next weekend! This boardie is now in the running for a copy of SOTI!

 

Isn't that from (the infamous) CSS #22? Somebody posted up pics of that story the other day, and I think I remember reading that line.

[SOTIcollector]

Discovery #2: I'm excited to announce that yet ANOTHER "lost SOTI" book has already been identified by a boardie! This boardie correctly identified the book that Wertham wrote about on page 234 of SOTI, when he wrote, "Where in any other childhood literature except children's comics do you find a woman called (and treated as) a 'fat slut'?" I expect to be able to post details by next weekend! This boardie is now in the running for a copy of SOTI!

 

Isn't that from (the infamous) CSS #22? Somebody posted up pics of that story the other day, and I think I remember reading that line.

 

Your memory of that story is really close! In that story, In it the husband calls his wife a "fat slob." Missed it by two letters.

 

Keep trying, though! I'd love to see some more of these "lost SOTI" books uncovered!

[SOTIcollector]

Here's the first newly-discovered SOTI book. This one has to get a "qualified SOTI book" designation, I'd say.

 

On page 389 of Seduction of the Innocent, Dr. Wertham wrote, "One man kills his wife with a poker." That describes perfectly what happens in Witches Tales #20. See below.

 

This book certainly could be the one Dr. Wertham was referencing. It's from the right time period (1948-1953), and we know that Wertham referenced other books published by Harvey. The terminology used in the book (calling the weapon "a poker" rather than "a fireplace poker") matches what Wertham wrote.

 

However, it's entirely possible that somewhere in another book from that time period, another husband killed his wife with a poker. So we'll have to call this a "possible use in SOTI" book unless other evidence comes up.

 

 

[Tri-Color Brian]

I checked out a copy with the bibliography from a library in the early 1990s. I wanted to keep it, report it lost, and just pay for the book, but I was too honest to do that. As far as I know it is still on the shelves...

[SOTIcollector]

And there's the next new discovery.

From page 388 of SOTI:

A man provides murder victims for his wife, who drinks their blood. He grabs a newsboy for her and she says over his bound body: "His throat is as white and soft as a swan's! So tender and youthful!"

 

Carl Henderson wrote to say that had had just identified this book. Here's what he found.

 

 

I could identify the book where Carl found these panels, but I thought it might be more fun to let a clever boardie figure it out. Post it if you know it. If there are no correct answers when I check in tomorrow, I'll identify the book.

 

 

[porcupine48]

And there's the next new discovery.

From page 388 of SOTI:

A man provides murder victims for his wife, who drinks their blood. He grabs a newsboy for her and she says over his bound body: "His throat is as white and soft as a swan's! So tender and youthful!"

 

Carl Henderson wrote to say that had had just identified this book. Here's what he found.

 

 

I could identify the book where Carl found these panels, but I thought it might be more fun to let a clever boardie figure it out. Post it if you know it. If there are no correct answers when I check in tomorrow, I'll identify the book.

 

Dollman 38

[SOTIcollector]

Dollman 38

That's the one! Nice work!

 

[porcupine48]

my first noprize!

[SOTIcollector]

my first noprize!

Hmmm. As I recall, a no-prize gets you, well, absolutely nothing. Okay, eventually Marvel started sending out no-prizes as empty envelopes. Instead of an empty envelope, how about if is send you a page from SOTI? Just PM me your mailing address and I'll mail you an actual page from a copy of SOTI. I still have some pages left from this post.

Destruction of the Innocent post

Winning a page from SOTI beats a no-prize because it's an actual prize, right?

[SOTIcollector]

Oh, and great news. I haven't had a chance to post the news yet of the new SOTI discovery by fifties, and I already have another SOTI discovery to announce! Did you know that there's a previously-undiscovered variant of one of the SOTI books? Mine was just graded by CGC and is on its way to me. Details to come soon.