Association of Comics Magazine Publishers

The Association of Comics Magazine Publishers (ACMP) was an American industry trade group formed in May 1947 and publicly announced on July 1, 1948, to regulate the content of comic books in the face of public criticism during this time. Founding members included publishers Phil Keenan of Hillman Periodicals, Leverett Gleason of Lev Gleason Publications, Bill Gaines of EC Comics, Harold Moore (publisher of Famous Funnies) and Rae Herman of Orbit Publications, as well as distributors Frank Armer and Irving Manheimer.George T. Delacorte, Jr., founder of Dell Publishing, which included Dell Comics, served as president, and Manhattan attorney Henry E. Schultz, president of the board of Queens College and a member of the New York City Board of Higher Education, as executive director.

The ACMP was formed after "accusations from several fronts charged comic books with contributing to the rising rates of juvenile delinquency", and city and county ordinances had banned some publications though these were effectively overturned with a March 29, 1948, United States Supreme Court ruling that a 64-year-old New York State law outlawing publications with "pictures and stories of deeds of bloodshed, lust or crime" was unconstitutional. Regardless, the uproar increased upon the publication of two articles "Horror in the Nursery", by Judith Crist, in the March 25, 1948, issue Collier's Weekly, based upon the symposium "Psychopathology of Comic Books" held a week earlier by psychiatristFredric Wertham; and Wertham's own features "The Comics ... Very Funny!" in the May 29, 1948, issue of The Saturday Review of Literature.Spencer, West Virginia held a comic-book burning on October 26, 1948; after the Associated Press reported on this, copycat comic-book burnings followed around the country, particularity in Catholic parishes.

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