Part 48 (2/2)
She pulled hiainst her He just let himself, and she held hi of buying Empire Comics? Do you have a million dollars?”
Joe nodded ”And a box of dirt,” he said
”Dirt from Czechoslovakia?” Tommy said ”Can I touch it?”
Joe nodded Toertip, as at a tub of cold water, then plunged in his whole hand to the wrist
”It's soft,” he said ”It feels good” He began toClearly he was not yet ready to give up on this box of tricks
”There's not going to be anything else in there,” Joe said ”I'ht, that the box should weigh so much more, now, than it had when the Golem was still intact He wondered if other dirt, extra dirt, had coinal load, but this seeht, had quoted so in Hebrew to the effect that it was the Goleht; unburdened of it, the earthen Goleht as air
”Oop,” To Perhaps the giant's clothes had settled to the bottole of paper, with some words printed on one side It looked familiar to Joe
”Emil Kavalier,” Tommy read ”Endikron-endikrono-”
”My father's,” Joe said He took his father's old calling card from Tommy, ree Itbefore, in the breast pocket of Alois Hora's enormous suit He reached in and took a handful of the pearly silt, pondering it, sifting it through his fingers, wondering at what point the soul of the Golem had reentered its body, or if possibly there could beit down so heavily
17
The Subcoate Juvenile Delinquency of the Senate Judiciary Committee was convened in New York City on April 21 and 22, 1954, to look into the role played by the comic book business in the manufacture of delinquent children The testimony offered by witnesses on the first day isthe experts, publishers, and criists called on the twenty-first, three stand out-to the degree that the hearings are remembered at all- in the public memory The first was Dr Fredric Wertham, the considerable and well-intentioned psychiatrist and author of Seduction of the Innocent, Seduction of the Innocent, as, morally and popularly, a motive force behind the entire controversy over the pernicious effects of coth, sohout and alive, ablaze, with outrage I Werthaed inventor of the coraphic line of horror coenuity defended Finally, that day, the subcommittee heard from a society of newspaper cartoonists, represented by as, morally and popularly, a motive force behind the entire controversy over the pernicious effects of coth, sohout and alive, ablaze, with outrage I Werthaed inventor of the coraphic line of horror coenuity defended Finally, that day, the subcommittee heard froo's Pogo's Walt Kelly and Sareat Milton Caniff, ith humor, sarcasm, and witty disdain, co thes, and Kefauver to be publicly and deservedly crushed, should the senators so deign to do Walt Kelly and Sareat Milton Caniff, ith humor, sarcasm, and witty disdain, co thes, and Kefauver to be publicly and deservedly crushed, should the senators so deign to do
The events of the second day of testimony, to which Sam Clay had been summoned, are less well known It was Sammy's misfortune to folloo extreal, the publisher of a line of cheap ”educational” books that he advertised in the back pages of comics, who first denied and then admitted that his coraphers, lists of the names and addresses of children who had responded to his company's ads The second reluctant witness was one of the pornographers in question, an al walleyed loser naed off with the excuse that he could not legally testify to anything since he was under indict by the State of New York By the time that Sammy appeared, therefore, the mind of the subcommittee was even more than usually preoccupied with questions of vice and immorality
The key portion of the transcript of the proceedings reads as follows: senator hendrickson: Mr Clay, are you familiar with the comic book characters known as Batman and Robin?
MR clay: Of course, Senator They are very well known and successful characters
hendrickson: I wonder, could you attempt to characterize their relationshi+p for us?
clay: Characterize? I'ether, isn't that right? In a big mansion Alone
clay: I believe there is a butler
hendrickson: But they are not, as I understand it, father arid son, is that right? Or brothers, or an uncle and a nephew, or any relationshi+p of that sort
senator hennings: Perhaps they are just good friends
clay: It has been some time since I read that strip, Senators, but as I recall, dick Grayson, that is, Robin, is described as being Bruce Wayne's, or Batman's, ward
hendrickson: His ward Yes There are a number of such relationshi+ps in the superhero comics, aren't there? Like dick and Bruce
clay: I don't really know, sir I- hendrickson: Let me see, I don't exactly recall which exhibit it was, Mr Clendennen, do you-I thank you
Executive Director Clendennen produces Exhibit 15
hendrickson: Batman and Robin The Green Arrow and Speedy The Human Torch and Toro The Monitor and the Liberty Kid Captain America and Bucky Are you familiar with any of these?
clay: Uh, yes, sir The Monitor and Liberty Kid were my creation at one time, sir
hendrickson: Is that so? You invented theht or nine years ago, I believe
hendrickson: And you have created a nus over the years, have you not?
clay: Pairings? I don't
hendrickson: The-let me see-the Rectifier and Little Mack the Boy Enforcer The Luonaut and Jason The Lone Wolf and Cubby
clay: Well, those characters-the Rectifier, the Luonaut-they were already, they had been created by others I just took over the characters, you see, when I went to work at the respective publishers
hendrickson: And you immediately provided them, did you not, ards?
clay: Well, yes, but that's standard procedure when you've got a strip that isn't, that s up You want to attract readers The kids like to read about kids
hendrickson: Isn't it true that you actually have a reputation in the co particularly partial to boy sidekicks?
clay: I'm not aware-no one has ever- hendrickson: Mr Clay, are you familiar with Dr Fredric Wertham's theory, which he testified to yesterday, and to which, I ive a certain ah soht, that the relationshi+p between Batory of pedophilic inversion?
clay: [unintelligible]
hendrickson: I'm sorry, sir, you'll have to- clay: No, Senator, I must have missed that part of the testimony
hendrickson: And you have not read the doctor's book, I take it
clay: Not yet, sir
hendrickson: So you have never been aware, personally, therefore, that in outfitting these ht trousers and sending theether, you were in any way expressing or atteical proclivities
clay: I'm afraid I don't these are not any proclivities which I'm familiar with, Senator With all due respect, if I entlemen, let us move on
18
In all his life up to this afternoon, Sa house on a ept stretch of Jersey shoreline, on the night before Pearl Harbor was attacked, when he fell first a beautiful and then evilthat he did mostly because it seemed to be expected of him After the clerk released hi as if the contents of his head had been blown like the liquor of an Easter egg through a secret pinhole, to face that puzzled roo Americans But before he had a chance to see whether they-strangers and friends alike-would avert their eyes or stare him doould drop their jaws in horror or surprise, or would nod, with Presbyterian primness or urbane co of harboring this dark youth-corrupting wish to pad around his statelyjackets; before, in other words, he got a chance to begin to develop a sense of who and what he was going to be from now on-Joe and Rosa bundled him up, in a kidnapperly combination of their overcoats and bunched newspapers, and hustled hied hiraphers, down the stairs, across Foley Square, into a nearby chophouse, up to the bar, where they arranged hilass of bourbon and ice, all as if according to so-established set of protocols, known to any civilized person, to be followed in the event of a fa homosexual, on television, by members of the United States Senate