Ink & Imagination 003: Paper, Panic & Protection: Canada’s Comic Book Crackdown

Welcome to Ink & Imagination, brought to you by Those Two Geeks.

In 1949, Canada passed one of the most unusual censorship laws in modern history: the Fulton Bill, which made “crime comics” illegal.

This episode dives deep into the fears, politics, and moral panics that fueled the legislation. We’ll explore how juvenile delinquency became a national obsession, how comics became an easy scapegoat, and what happened when Canadian Parliament decided to step in. Along the way, we’ll compare Canada’s hardline stance with the U.S. response, from Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent to the Senate hearings and the Comics Code Authority.

From silenced Canadian creators to the collapse of a local industry, this is the story of how fear reshaped comics on both sides of the border; and what it cost us in art, imagination, and freedom.

For further reading, visit this Crisis of Innocence page.

Music by Nicholas Panek from Pixabay