Find more from Gag Me with a Toon 3 in “Artists Jessicka Addams, Roman Dirge and More Talk Nostalgic Cartoons at Meltdown's Gag Me with a Toon 3.”

“I was incredibly happy to hear two weeks ago that the Comics Code Authority is finally dead,” said Jon Schnepp, director of Metalocalypse, at the opening night of Gag Me with a Toon 3 at Meltdown Comics.

The Comics Code Authority was essentially a self-censorship wing of the comic book industry instituted in the 1950s. When D.C. and Archie Comics, the last remaining holdouts, dropped the Code in January, it signified a death that comic book fans would not mourn.

“I was so inspired,” said Schnell of the news. “I was like, yeah, I'm glad it's dead, so I wanted to make a little tribute painting. I drew it in bad penmanship, as bad as I could, but made it look as real as possible and then put blood and bruises all over it.”

We asked Schnepp if he thought that there might be changes in store now that no major publisher would boast CCA approval.

“Yes and no,” he said. “I think that they already were changing and this is sort of getting rid of something that wasn't necessary anymore. For the last ten years, they had this code there and it was like, why are we even using this code. It's sort of like companies finally realizing that we don't need to self-censor ourselves and we don't need this outmoded branding. I think it was getting rid of this carcass that was sticking around for a long time.”

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