- April 2, 2012: Another Hanging
Observant contributor Dave Reynolds noticed that this cover of Lone Rider #3 is just as good a fit as Rangers #38 for this quote:
"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.
"
Dave found another comic that comes really close to what's described. Check out the cover to Lone Rider #3 below. There aren't a lot of covers that depict hangings, and even fewer that depict women being hanged.
On this cover, the woman on the horse is about to be hanged, and there is a man causing the hanging, so this part is consistent with what Wertham wrote. However, the man is not leading the horse away.
Could this be another "Lost SOTI" comic? Is this quote from Rangers #38, Lone Rider #3, or another book? Feel free to e-mail us your thoughts on the matter.
- April 2, 2012: Mystery Squared
The mystery regarding "Mysteries of Paris" has been solved. Why is it that Wertham's description of The Mysteries of Paris
doesn't seem to match the comic book? See the Classics Illustrated page for details.
- October 7, 2011: Another Lost SOTI Reference Located... (and it was right under our noses)!
Another comic book reference in SOTI has been located, thanks to the sleuthing work of Brad Sultan. Brad found that the following quote from SOTI page 387:
A young soldier "keeping watch in his foxhole in Korea" is exterminated by a ghost:
"The fangs and talons of the evil witch sank deeper into the jugular vein and then came out, withdrawing
rich red blood. The young man sank forward, face up, dead!
comes from Black Cat Comics #39, already a known SOTI book!
- August 11, 2011: Another Lost SOTI Comic Discovered?
For more than half a century, the source of the following quote in SOTI has been unidentified.
"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.
"
A comic book has been discovered that comes really close to what's described. Check out the cover to Rangers Comics #38 below. There aren't a lot of covers that depict hangings, and even fewer that depict women being hanged.
On this cover, the woman on the horse is about to be hanged, and there is a man causing the hanging, so this part is consistent with what Wertham wrote. However, the man is whipping the horse and not leading it away.
Could this be another "Lost SOTI" comic? Feel free to e-mail us your thoughts on the matter.
- August 1, 2011: Details of another Lost SOTI Comic!
Check out the scans from one of the recent Lost SOTI comics that has been discovered. See the Lost SOTI page for scans
from True Love Problems and Advice Illustrated #11.
- July 3, 2011: Another Lost SOTI Comic Discovered!
A comic book featuring Captain Marvel was recently discovered to be one of the "Lost SOTI" comics! Details will come, either at this website or perhaps in 2012 when the Wertham film
"Diagram for Delinquents" is released. See the next news item for more on this film.
- July 3, 2011: Wertham Film Production Has Begun
Production has begun on "Diagram for Delinquents," a film about Dr. Wertham and SOTI.
The film crew has already interviewed SeductionOfTheInnocent.org webmaster Stephen O'Day, and has posted an excerpt from that interview here.
There's lots more to come, so be sure to check out the status updates at robertemmons.blogspot.com.
- June 13, 2011: Yet Another "Gay Batman" Comic Located?
Batman #67 might well be another "lost SOTI" comic book!
One of the assertions made by Dr. Wertham in Seduction of the Innocent was that Batman and Robin were gay lovers.
In bolstering this claim, made on pages 190 and 191 of SOTI, Wertham states, "Like the girls in other stories,
Robin is sometimes held captive by the villains and Batman has to give in or 'Robin gets killed.'"
For more than half a century, the source of this quote has been unknown to comic book historians, scholars and collectors.
Thanks to the research of Hector Guerra, the source of this quote may now
be identified. The exact scene described by Wertham occurs in Batman #67, as illustrated below.
The argument that Batman #67 is a "lost SOTI" book is compelling, noting that
- The date of Batman #67 falls within the range of dates of other comics Wertham criticized.
- The situation Wertham describes, in which Robin is kidnapped and Batman is required to do the villain's bidding, occurs in this comic.
- The exact quote "Robin gets killed." occurs in this comic.
However, it's also possible that a similar situation COULD have occurred in another Golden Age Batman book. A three-word quote is not proof positive.
The only way to ensure with certainty that
Batman #67 is the book to which Wertham referred is to check all of the Batman stories from 1946 to 1954 (including Detective and World's Finest) to make
sure that this simple three-word quote does not appear elsewhere. For now, we'll call this a "suspected" SOTI book.
In the past five months, three DC comics have been identified as "lost SOTI" comics: Batman #64, World's Finest #44 and Gang Busters #3.
If Batman #67 turns out to difinitively be one of the lost SOTI books, that will make four.
For details on the other recently-discovered "gay Batman" comics, see our News Archive.
