Skip to main content

Pulp Fictional Folk Devils? The Fulton Bill and the Campaign to Censor “Crime and Horror Comics” in Cold War Canada, 1945-1955

Resource type
Thesis type
(Thesis) M.A.
Date created
2015-12-15
Authors/Contributors
Abstract
This thesis examines the history of and the social, political, intellectual, and cross-border influences behind the “Fulton Bill” and the campaign to censor “crime and horror comics” in Canada from roughly 1945 to 1955. Many – though by no means all – Canadians had grown to believe reading comic books was directly linked with a perceived increase in rates of juvenile criminal behaviour. Led primarily by PTA activists and other civic organizations, the campaign was motivated by a desire to protect the nation’s young people from potential corrupting influences that might lead them to delinquency and deviancy and resulted in amendments to the Criminal Code passed by Parliament in 1949. These amendments criminalized so-called “crime comics” and were thanks to a bill introduced and championed by E. Davie Fulton MP. The passage of the “Fulton Bill”, however, did not subsequently produce the kinds of results expected and sought by anti-comics campaigners, including Fulton himself.
Document
Identifier
etd9407
Copyright statement
Copyright is held by the author.
Permissions
This thesis may be printed or downloaded for non-commercial research and scholarly purposes.
Scholarly level
Supervisor or Senior Supervisor
Thesis advisor: Seager, Allen
Member of collection
Download file Size
etd9407_JTilley.pdf 853.61 KB

Views & downloads - as of June 2023

Views: 40
Downloads: 1