The guidelines focus exclusively on crime and horror comics. Within a short time, the genre is no longer commercially viable. The imposition of the Comic Book Code bankrupts many of the horror and crime publishers, and many of the artists and writers leave the business for good. The most notable failure is E.C. Comics, which loses every title but one, Mad, which it republishes as Mad Magazine to avoid the Code. In the '60s, pop artist Roy Lichtenstein uses comic book images for large-scale paintings, and an underground, uncensored comic book industry flourishes, refocusing interest on earlier comics of all types.
Collectors now prize the crime and horror comics of the postwar era.
Jack Cole in particular is now esteemed as one of the most expressive and imaginative artists in the history of the comics. Pulitzer Prize-winning comic artist Art Spiegelman names Cole's work as a primary influence.