To some the comic book industry seems to have left the industry gasping for a liferaft to cling onto. Seems that for an industry that has seen so much success, the history of comic books, has apparently been confounded by some dumb mistakes. The first could have very well been the coining of the name"comic books". in general, that comic books contained comic or funny material,which we all know, is a far stretch from reality. Comic bookscan be very somber, dark or adventurous magazines. Perhaps there should be another term coined to better describe this literary package we all know as comicbooks. To date, no other user-friend term has been suggested for use in the comic book industry. A second misdirection came when magazine prices started to rise.Instead of increasing comic book prices, like other successfulmagazines did, the comic book industry decided to cut pages to keep the then current price tag of 10 cents. This brought on theimpression that comic books were "cheap" by definition, andneglected the fact that a dime was a lot of money at one time(steak & eggs cost 35 cents). This presented the image thatcomic books were just for kids. An individual by the name of Dr. Frederick Wertham, published a book entitled "Seduction of the Innocents". Through the use of unscientific research andassumptions, he stated that all the nation's ills were directlyrelated to kids reading comic books (ah hmm, what?). Central to his thesis, was the misassumption that comic books were strictly for kids. The more adult material, it was irrationally assumed, was aimed at our sweet, naïve innocent children. Yes, we do have to protect our children, but it still bothers me to no end, that certain self-righteous individuals believe their lot in life is to make the rest of the planet adhere to their own personal beliefs. If this were the case, then our great country would have never been founded. With this wildly irrational attack on the comic book industryand many congressional leaders jumping on the bandwagon, comicbooks were gaining a bad reputation. The comic book industry publishers at this point, could have banded together anddeclared that comic books, like movies, were not "just forkids". It should have been stated that the wide range of comicbook genres represented was target to as wide a range of readers. All but one of the publishers (William Gaines,publisher of EC Comics) buckled under to this Congressional Investigation and the Comic Code Authority was created. This governed the content of comic books and ensured that for thenext 15 years or so, the literary content would not rise muchabove that of pablum for the mind. Therefore another slide intoincredibility for the comic book industry took place. Can the comic book industry be saved? Very possibly, but only if and when the individuals in charge of the industry realise some of the mistakes they have made. About the author:John Andersen is the owner and editor of a website built around one of his childhood passions.