A Sacramento city ordinance from 1949 that bans the distribution of many comic books to minors is under review, as local officials move to repeal the law. The regulation, which prohibits giving comic books with depictions of crimes such as arson, murder, or rape to anyone under 18, has not been enforced in recent years.
Lecho Lopez, owner of JLA Comics in Sacramento, expressed support for repealing the ordinance. “It’s a silly law,” Lopez said at his store. “A lot of good things come out of comic books.” He credits comics with helping him avoid gangs and improve his reading skills while growing up with dyslexia.
This week, a City Council committee voted unanimously to advance both the repeal and a proposal to designate the third week of September as “Sacramento Comic Book Week.” The matter will go before the full council for a vote.
In the mid-20th century, concerns about comic books’ influence on children led several cities across the United States to enact similar bans. While these laws remain on record in some places like Sacramento, they are rarely enforced today.
Comic book author Eben Burgoon started a petition calling for Sacramento’s ban to be overturned. At a city council hearing Tuesday, he said comics “have this really valuable ability to speak truth to power.” Burgoon added that outdated laws could threaten the medium: “These antiquated laws kind of set up this jeopardy where bad actors could work hard to make this medium imperiled.”
Burgoon also highlighted Sacramento’s active comic community and annual events such as CrockerCon at a local art museum.
Sam Helmick, president of the American Library Association, commented on the issue: “There is no good reason” for such bans and argued that it “flies in the face of modern First Amendment norms.”
Jeff Trexler, interim director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, noted that efforts to censor new media have occurred throughout U.S. history. He cited New York’s film commission from the 1920s as an example and stated: “Every time there’s a new medium or a new way of distributing a medium, there is an outrage and an attempt to suppress it.” Trexler believes Sacramento’s ban likely would not withstand constitutional scrutiny based on past court decisions regarding similar policies.
Research into whether exposure to comic books leads to violent behavior remains limited. However, Christopher Ferguson—a psychology professor at Stetson University—said studies involving television and video games do not show evidence linking them with increased aggression among youth.
Benjamin Morse, who teaches media studies at University of Nevada Las Vegas and previously worked at Marvel Comics, emphasized that even comics featuring violence can deliver positive messages. “Spider-Man is a very mature concept,” Morse said. He explained how stories about loss and responsibility can resonate with young readers.
Lopez recounted how his mother bought him his first comic book when he was nine years old. Reading comics helped him develop literacy skills thanks to their visual storytelling format: “The only thing that I was really able to read that helped me absorb the information was comic books because you had a visual aid to help you explain what was going on in the book,” Lopez said.
At this week’s hearing Burgoon added that comics offer more than entertainment alone.
