`TRIUMPH' AGAINST THE HORROR COMICS

Alew code published in U.S.
THE "horror comic" industry appears this week to be collapsing under the impact of sustained attacks in the United States and Britain.
In the United States a small minority of publishers are holding out against a new code just issued by Judge Charles Murphy, a Catholic who only a few weeks ago was appointed by the Comics Magazine Association as its official censor.
But in Britain—according to a report in the Daily Mail on Tuesday — the publication of horror comics has ended.
Mr. Arnold Louis Miller, "principal publisher here of these periodicals," told the Daily Mail that he will sell no more, and said that "effectively that means there will be no more of them in this country."
Mr. Charles Neale. secretary of the Newsagents' Federation, greeted Mr. Miller's decision by saying: "This is grand news. A triumph."
Mr. Miller is also quoted as saying : "It is all over and 1 am not sorry.
"In recent weeks I have been meeting with increasing opposition, politically and from the trade.
"The printers have not wanted to print the comics, and the distributors haven't wanted to handle them.
"To get co-operation I had to pay over the odds all along the line. . . .
"What with one thing and another, the game is no longer worth the candle."
`Nobody left'
Recently, says Laurence Wilkinson in the Daily Mail, a Leicester firm announced in the trade Press its decision to withdraw from the horror-comic trade, and Mr. Arnold Miller's last major rival, a Glasgow publisher, stated at the week-end that he, too, will handle no more.
"That," said Mr. Miller, "means that there is nobody left," Judge Murphy's code, published last week-end, would abolish every feature of horror comics which has come under criticism.
It prohibits any pictures which create sympathy for or glorification of the criminal to the detriment of law and order.
Information about crime methods are banned. So too are pictures of violence, particularly actions involving knives and guns.
The use of the words "horror" and "terror" and of profanity are also forbidden. as well as attacks on religion or race.
Dealing with sex, the code says that "females shall always be drawn realistically, without any exaggeration of any physical qualities."
The president of the association points out. however, that three of the 27 publisher members of the association have not yet agreed to the code.
Another warning came the other day from Mr. George Riley, a professor at Georgetown University, when he spoke in Peoria, Illinois.
The real fight in the comics' battle is yet to come. he said. if Judge Murphy is to succeed in his efforts to clear up the mess, he will have to have the support of the parents of America.
Parents' job
Speaking of Judge Murphy, he said : "I am thoroughly convinced of his integrity and ability. If any one man in America can curb the comic-book menace, Judge Murphy can.
"But I wish I had as much faith in the Comic Book Association as I have in Judge Murphy. Remember that these arc the men who only yesterday were the worst offenders of the code.
"Let them live with their newly found purity awhile before they send out Press releases. They have no reason to fly through the air like angels now just because the American people forced them to reform."
Mr. Hughes remarked that while Judge Murphy will he independent in his decisions on comic book matter, the only sanction he will have to keep offenders in line will be economic pressure. Only if parents see to it that stores stock and their children read comic books that have the code's seal of approval will the publishers fall into line.