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Author: Wagner, Geoffrey
Title: PARADE OF PLEASURE: A STUDY of POPULAR ICONOGRAPHY in the U.S.A.
Place Published: New York
Publisher:Library Publishers
Date Published: 1955
Description:

192 + [12] illustrated pp., including 12 pp. of black & white and color reproductions of comic book covers and pages. (8vo) red cloth, cover vignette in gilt, with illustrated dust jacket. First American Edition. Good to very good in fair dust jacket. Jacket is heavily chipped, particularly the rear panel, which has losses of about 1/3rd and some tape repairs to verso; cloth binding has white residue to bottom edge of front panel; crossed-out ownership inscription to front pastedown, water-warp to top corner of textblock. Still, a better than usual copy of an increasingly uncommon book, in the rare dust jacket.

British-born New Yorker Geoffrey Wagner rails against American mass media, including comics, which he calls "the marijuana of the nursery." After first responding to Bill Gaines' notorious "Are You a Red Dupe" editorial as printed in Haunt of Fear #26 ("Now it is apparently considered 'Communist' to criticise comic-books in the USA today"), Wagner attacks EC with special gusto: "Tales from the CRYPT specialises in necrophiliac stories... No. 34 [features the] attempted rape of a pretty girl who, to elude the monster, throws herself out of the window...." He also inveighs against comic-book misogyny ("The booklet shows a girl's hand being amputated by an axe... liberally bedewed with drops of carefully drawn and coloured blood"), fascistic overtones ("Batman is another of these Fuhrer incarnations, hooded, begauntleted with a strong right in place of the normal processes of the law"), and the propaganda and racism of war comics ("Dirty gook buzzards! I'll show you crummy bums how a man fights a war!").

Parade of Pleasure was released in the UK in 1954 but wasn't released in the States until 1955, after the advent of the Comics Code, limiting its influence on American readers. It is useful to pre-Code scholars mostly for its insights into the international response to Yankee comics, which, despite import bans, traveled the globe with alarming ease. Parliament debated the scourge of American comics in 1951-52, with much concern about the "Americanisation of British Culture," as related by Martin Barker in John A. Lent's Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar Anti-Comics Campaign (Farleigh Dickinson: 1999).

Parade of Pleasure is often considered a sort of unofficial companion to Seduction of the Innocent, as Wertham and Wagner shared the same concerns about media effects on youth. PoP is a much scarcer book, however, and it's especially challenging to find with the dust jacket. The jacket is an integral part of this book's appeal, as many of the comics listed in Overstreet as "used in PoP" are used only on the jacket photo.

A limited edition of 100 softcover and 15 hardcover catalogues are available. Over 200 pages, fully illustrated. Fun reference, great keepsake. Softcovers $40, dust-jacketed hardcover with limitation plate $200. To order, contact ivan@pbagalleries.com or call 415-989-2665

R. Crumb says, "I found [PBA's catalogue] so interesting that I am saving it for the texts that accompany the comics which were put up for auction. This is some of the best commentary I've yet seen on the quality of the content of comic books. I especially enjoyed the reviews of the post-war horror comics. Great. Priceless."

Consignments welcome for PBA's Spring 2021 Comic Book sale. Pre-Code Horror, Golden Age and Silver Age comics, original art and ephemera sought. Send inquiries to ivan@pbagalleries.com or call 415-989-2665