the publication of Seduction of the Innocent grew, so did the call for government intervention. The ‘Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency of the Committee on the Judiciary’ opened in Manhattan federal court on April 21, 1954. Bill Gaines had to cancel his entire line, except for MAD, which became a magazine to escape censorship. Thanks to writers and cartoonists like Al Jaffee, Will Elder, Frank Jacobs and Mort Drucker, MAD soon became well-known for a certain urban Jewish sensibility. MAD had a huge influence, helping to pave the way for modern comedy as we know it.

The Marvel Age

The comic book industry took awhile to fully recover from the damage that Wertham had wrought. That changed when Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber) decided to developa new type of superhero book. For 1961's Fantastic Four, Lee teamed with his frequent collaborator, artist Jack Kirby (born Jacob Kurtzberg), to create a group of superheroes who weren't sunny or optimistic like rival company DC's heroes. One member of the Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm (aka The Thing) felt like a freak because cosmic rays had transformed him into an orange, granite-skinned monster. With Ben Grimm, Lee and Kirby were using a superhero as a metaphor for Jews, African-Americans, and other minorities.

During this period of rapid growth, Martin Goodman's company, once known as Timely, would officially be named Marvel Comics, and this era would be remembered as the "Marvel Age" of Comics (roughly 1961-1970). Throughout this period, Lee and/or Kirby created or co-created many classic characters, including