Comic Books Absolved of Role in Vampire Hunting Spree

In 1954, Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis (The City of the Dead) was the scene of a series of bizarre events in which local children gathered to hunt the Gorbals Vampire.

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.

The children’s behavior resulted in a “moral panic” among adults, who blamed American comic books – especially Tales From The Crypt.

The government responded to the clamour by introducing the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955 which, for the first time, specifically banned the sale of magazines and comics portraying “incidents of a repulsive or horrible nature” to minors.

Now several participants in the 1954 vampire hunt are reporting that when they were children, some Glasgow parents threatened children with an “Iron Man” bogeyman, and the only monsters with iron teeth were in the Bible (Daniel 7:7) and in a school poem; when they were students they didn’t even have access to comic books or to television.

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