Comic Book Myths come to life?

OK, this is an interesting tidbit that I just came across today, Apparently back in 1954, over in Scotland, there was a vampire-hunting posse of youngsters who were, ah “staking out” a particular cemetery at night thinking that there were vampires there.

When Pc Alex Deeprose was called to Glasgow's sprawling Southern Necropolis on the evening of 23 September 1954, he expected to be dealing with a simple case of vandalism.

Titles like Tales from the Crypt were accused of corrupting young children

But the bizarre sight that awaited him was to make headlines around the world and cause a moral panic that led to the introduction of strict new censorship laws in the UK.

Hundreds of children aged from four to 14, some of them armed with knives and sharpened sticks, were patrolling inside the historic graveyard.

They were, they told the bemused constable, hunting a 7ft tall vampire with iron teeth who had already kidnapped and eaten two local boys.

Needless to say, not only was there no actual vampires, but as it turns out there was never any mention of a creature matching the description of the Gorbals Vampire in any of these EC comics cited. Further, there actually is, a monster similar in appearance (with iron teeth) that is from the Bible (Daniel 7.7) and in a poem that was taught in local schools.

As can be expected, no one wanted to pay attention to the actual facts as the media and political frenzy that followed was loudly demanding that action to be taken to prevent even more young minds from being polluted by the terrifying and corrupt American comic books.

Needless to say, it was shortly after this that Fredric Wertham’s book, Seduction of the Innocent, hit the shelves in the U.S., which, as we all know, lead to the CCA, and a couple of decades of repression for our industry.

Go Figure