UPDATE! The Last One Left TURNED Off The Lights!

Mike Gold

ComicMix's award-winning and spectacularly shy editor-in-chief Mike Gold also performs the weekly two-hour Weird Sounds Inside The Gold Mind ass-kicking rock, blues and blather radio show on The Point, www.getthepointradio.com and on iNetRadio, www.iNetRadio.com (search: Hit Oldies) every Sunday at 7:00 PM Eastern, rebroadcast three times during the week – check www.getthepointradio.com above for times and on-demand streaming information.

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36 Responses

  1. Brandon Barrows says:

    I've been seeing this everywhere and some sites are acting as if this was a major revelation, or somehow shocking. I honestly didn't know that ANYONE still used the code.By the way, would it be out of line to ask what book Now submitted that they vetoed? Now would have been pretty new during the time frame you mentioned and the only books I can think of they were publishing then are Speed Racer translations, Astroboy translations, Ralph Snart and maybe the first Syphons volume. Of those, I'd guess the obvious choice of Ralph Snart.

  2. Mike Gold says:

    Brandon, I don't recall. Sorry about that, chief. Ralph Snart would indeed be the obvious choice. The publishers weren't too happy about the so-called independent publishers getting newsstand distribution — I always assumed that the so-called majors simply didn't want anybody else eating up rack space.

    • Brandon Barrows says:

      Probably right on the money, and if not, in the right area. Ralph Snart, odd as it was, was pretty popular so I guess they were right to worry. My otherwise non-comics reading brothers both read it, and I remember our mother buying it for them at the drug store.

    • Marc_Hansen says:

      Ralph Snart had the code from 1989 until it's last NOW issue in 1993. Only a couple of issues were rejected (due to language) in 1989, but these were edited to comply. The 6-page story that made fun of the code was done in 1989 and rejected (it finally appeared in a direct-market issue in 1992). The story pointed out the moral hyposcracy of the code; mindless violence and big-boobed, spandexed heorines were fine but not the word "turd". Ralph Snart could do a keg bong but he couldn't say "fart".

      • Brandon Barrows says:

        Straight from the horse's mouth. Thanks for clarifying RS's involvement with the code, Marc.

  3. Tony Isabella says:

    Ironically, when the Code tried to censor a silly little joke in the last issue of PLOP! (of which I was the editor), Joe Orlando and I told them that we would replace the offending panel with a text description of the panel and the explanation that the Comics Code people were idiots. The Code backed down and the panel ran as drawn.

  4. Anonymous says:

    I see the parade of idiots who think they are intelligent because they live in echo-chambers continues on this forum, as it does throughout the rest of dumbed-down America. The comic code, like the Hayes code before it, PROTECTED children…children whose world-view is programmed into them as a child, and who later become adults, capable of doing great damage, to themselves, and to society as a whole. This protection has now been removed, evil has won again. The end of America is near. Those who fell for the deception all those decades ago, and DIDN'T pass legislation protecting children from the predators among us, instead allowing the industry to "self-regulate", just like Wall Street and the big banks "self-regulate". How is that working out for you FOOLS! And, in a classic bait-and-switch, the self-regulation was watered down over time, and now finally eliminated. You idiots deserve everything you are going to get. The police state, the falling standard of living, the loss of freedom. You asked for it, you are going to get it all. You are going to be "free" to produce your stupid little comics, as you scan your retina's to fly to Comic Con, pay 80% of your income in taxes, and allow militarized police to kick in your doors. What are you going to do about it cowards? Your heroes only exist in fantasy-land. When the jack-booted thug is raping your wife or daughter because you didn't pay your carbon taxes, you will expect a mutant to appear and save you. I'm a comic producer, and I gladly operated and will continue to operate by the code. Or, perhaps I am the fool, and I should lead the RACE TO THE BOTTOM! No standards, screw the kids, let's sell-out our future for a quick buck today. Yes, why not show 6 year-old's having sex with corpses, after killing a "bad guy". As long as the message is, Don't Do Drugs After Having Sex with a Dead Body or an Animal kids, what possible harm could come from showing this to children? I mean if I make it all glitzy, and showy…I know, my sex hero could have cool claws come out of his wrists!

    • Steve Chaput says:

      First off, why hide your identity if you truly believe what you say? Secondly, try the decafe!

    • Mike Gold says:

      You are a member of the CMAA? Really? Is the line "What are you going to do about it cowards? Your heroes only exist in fantasy-land. When the jack-booted thug is raping your wife or daughter because you didn't pay your carbon taxes, you will expect a mutant to appear and save you." part of their official policy now? Screw the caffeine. Lay off the crack.

    • Christopher Back says:

      Did you ever read the issue The Green Lantern where Kyle Rayner came home and found his girlfriend stuffed in a fridge drawn in such a way that it gave the idea that she had been dismembered? Here is a newsflash for you: the Code forced DC to make a gruesome scene even more gruesome to get the seal. There was an issue of the 90s Supergirl where a demon named Buzz is grabbing a girl's butt (and maybe even kissing her) with a dead girl with needles and/or a knife in her back and guess what the Code approved it with no problems. That simple truth is that rating systems DON'T work. From the Hayes Code, CCA, MPPA, ESRB, and the ones on TV. Because they can be bought off or parents don't care enough to read or even understand what they mean. IIRC wasn't there that one wacko neocon woman who was upset about parents bringing their kids to see the Watchmen movie because it was rated R and then in true neocon form blamed the studios and the theaters for it? There is a great documentary called This Film Has Not Yet Been Rated which shows just how corrupt the MPPA really is. The ESRB is even a bigger joke, and the TV rating system is just beyond stupid. I've been watching some classic Western TV shows and almost everyone is rated TV-14 (because the heroes back then smoked, drank beer and whiskey, and shot the villains) and these are shows like Maverick, Lawman, Gunsmoke, Have Gun-Will Travel, and Wagon Train. If B&W TV Western heroes could drink, smoke and kill people (and have sex during commerical breaks) why can't comic book super-heroes?And if you got any guts why don't you use your real name or an username like everyone else here? If you're afraid that you might lose some potentional customers, if you make a comic that I like then I'll buy it, if I don't like it I don't buy it. I grade the quality of the work not the social-economic-political beliefs of the writers and artists.

    • Jeff Alan Polier says:

      Troll, thy name is anonymous.Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but the only publishers who had been using the code were Marvel, DC, Archie, and Bongo. Of those, Bongo is the youngest of the companies. The others have been around all my life and probably all of yours. They know what works and aren't going to take a sudden turn into craziness just because they stopped subscribing to an antiquated method of rating their comics. Marvel & DC have been publishing "offensive" comics for decades through Code-less imprints such as Vertigo and MAX. And, good grief, does anybody, ANYBODY, really expect Archie to start doing "adult" comics now that they've dropped the code? I can't really speak for Bongo's content since it is rare that I read any of their publications. I may not be a fan but I haven't read anything from them that would gain an "R" rating, either.Then there are the, very literally, dozens of publishers who never bothered with the code. A lot of it, frankly, isn't appropriate for kids. Heck, there's stuff that isn't appropriate for me, and I'm almost 38. The Code going away isn't going to change what they're doing since they didn't care, anyway.

      • Christopher Back says:

        Marvel hasn't been using the Code for any of their books for years they went with a self-imposed rating system like the ERSB (the rating board for video games BTW), Bongo stopped messing with it a year or two ago. DC had been quietly dropping it from several of their main titles (other than the Johnny DC line and Action Comics, Superman, Dectetive Comics, Batman, Justice League of America and maybe Wonder Woman (I'm not 100% sure on that) pretty much the bulk of the DCU titles have been published without Code approval for at least 5 years now.

    • Brandon Barrows says:

      With writing as poor as yours, no wonder you felt the need to hide your sad little identity. You're a comic "producer"? I've never heard anyone in the comics industry refer to themselves that way, so pardon me for doubting you.And by the way, the comics you draw in your basement aren't subject to the code.

  5. Christopher Back says:

    DC has been moving away from the CCA for years, when I was reading DC I notice several of their titles stopped having the CCA stamp, and these weren't Vertigo titles these were several of the DCU titles like The Green Lantern, The Flash, JSA, Hawkman, The Green Arrow, The Legion of Super-Heroes other than the various Superman and Batman titles along with the JLA and Wonder Woman were the only titles that had it. So I can't say that I'm surprised DC did this they've been doing it for years.

  6. mike weber says:

    Heh. I remember the infamous "ringing telephone" montage in "Agent of SHIELD" – Steranko took up half a page or so with fragmented drawings – Contessa Valentina's lips, things like that – making it very clear what Nick and Val were up to, and the final image was a telephone off the hook.The Code made them replace it with a ringing phone.Years later, someone (i forget who) used basically the same setup at a similar narrative point – and drew the phone at the end very definitely off the hook.

  7. mike weber says:

    Heh. I remember the infamous "ringing telephone" montage in "Agent of SHIELD" – Steranko took up half a page or so with fragmented drawings – Contessa Valentina's lips, things like that – making it very clear what Nick and Val were up to, and the final image was a telephone off the hook.The Code made them replace it with a ringing phone.Years later, someone (i forget who) used basically the same setup at a similar narrative point – and drew the phone at the end very definitely off the hook.

  8. heymcdermott says:

    What I haven't read yet is whether this means the Comics Code Authority itself will still be in existence? I would think not, as it was organized and financed by its member publishers… but bureaucracies have a way of perpetuating themselves after their natural lifetimes.

    • Mike Gold says:

      That's a good question. The Code was a vehicle of the Comics Magazine Association of America, which may or may not continue limping along without a real practical agenda. If so, The Code will probably remain on the books just in case the Saturday Evening Post becomes relevant again. The CMAA is a fart in a blizzard, representing DC, Marvel, Archie, and maybe a few others in their newsstand endeavors.

  9. heymcdermott says:

    What I haven’t read yet is whether this means the Comics Code Authority itself will still be in existence? I would think not, as it was organized and financed by its member publishers… but bureaucracies have a way of perpetuating themselves after their natural lifetimes.

    • Mike Gold says:

      That's a good question. The Code was a vehicle of the Comics Magazine Association of America, which may or may not continue limping along without a real practical agenda. If so, The Code will probably remain on the books just in case the Saturday Evening Post becomes relevant again. The CMAA is a fart in a blizzard, representing DC, Marvel, Archie, and maybe a few others in their newsstand endeavors.

  10. heymcdermott says:

    Is the newsstand distribution model even valid anymore? Well, wait, I'm presuming the chains like Borders (bad example?) and Barnes & Noble still have their magazine racks jobbed and can return unsold periodicals, so the comics they carry would still be considered "newsstand." Hey, my local Borders still use spinner racks so the comics can get all creased up by casual readers at the coffee shop. At least these stores don't seem to be concerned about whether their comics have the seal.Who knows, maybe the CMAA will rebrand itself as a trade association.

    • Mike Gold says:

      The CMAA IS a trade association. The fact that you didn't know that is a testimonial to their effectiveness. Newsstand sales are viable — look at Archie and Boom Kids and the "family jewels" titles at Marvel and DC — and as Archie leads the way in magazine format newsstand and big box sales, I think there's a real place for newsstand sales. Big-box sales of traditional format comic books, not so much. Borders is coughing up blood, B&N is marginally better. Magazine racks, and particularly comics racks, are high-maintenance and low-profit. But digest and magazine formats have a future, particularly comics that appeal to the younger end of the audience.

      • heymcdermott says:

        Being not in the biz, I would not have known that thanks. If indeed the big book chains will be tanking soon, it would indeed behoove more publishers to find a format that would get them back into more general stores. I had thought that TV Guide going to magazine size was an indicator that digests were on their way out, at least at Point-of-Purchase racks. I would think companies would be exploring a thick magazine in the Shonen Jump model, with new material that gets better treatment in later trades (a reversal of the "hardcover-paperback" model). But you probably couldn't maintain the same price point when you're paying talent for original content vs. running foreign reprints.Me, I'm just trying to write a critical essay on the two Spider-Man concept albums of the 70s. Precious little published info about what audience these were intended for beyond young fans. I managed to correspond with Roy Thomas and Rene Auberjonois (voice of Spidey), and neither could recall anything about them. Any long-time pros on this site know anything?

  11. Steve Chaput says:

    I've got to be honest and admit that i didn't even know the Code was still in existence. Maybe because, except for an occasional Bongo title I haven't picked up a book with a Code stamp in years. Mark Evanier had a very good piece on the 'end of the Code' recently, which I highly recommend. As he says, most of us hated the Code but it might have saved the industry we blame it for hampering.

  12. Steve Chaput says:

    I've got to be honest and admit that i didn't even know the Code was still in existence. Maybe because, except for an occasional Bongo title I haven't picked up a book with a Code stamp in years. Mark Evanier had a very good piece on the 'end of the Code' recently, which I highly recommend. As he says, most of us hated the Code but it might have saved the industry we blame it for hampering.

  13. Christopher Back says:

    I have read recent Marvel Comics that have an "Executive Producer" in the credit box.

    • Brandon Barrows says:

      That's the guy who signs management's checks. He doesn't have anything to do with actually producing comics. Alan Fine used to be CEO of Marvel Toys and was promoted to CEO of Marvel Characters, Inc (which, at least before Disney, I believe everything Marvel ultimately rolled up to before rolling up to Marvel Entertainment) in 2007. He's not a comic creator, he's an executive manager.

  14. Christopher Back says:

    I should also add that I'm not saying Anonymous is or is not working for Marvel (or DC for that matter as well).