Kodon saw its first issue released in October of 1946. In its early years Kodon was a monthly publication with short stories, cartoons, pictures and editorials. Over the years the format has changed many times and by 1960 was appearing seasonally, four times a school year. In the 1962-63 school year production of Kodon was suspended after the winter issue was deemed inappropriate, yet there was not much merit in such a claim and Kodon returned the next school year.
Kodon editor Wesley Craven knew that the fall 1962 issue of the magazine would be controversial. In "A Warning from the Editor" he wrote: "It is the conviction in this office, that, in the arts the Fundamentalist Christian world, and more specifically Wheaton, is sadly short of its potential, and far behind its contemporaries. Therefore the copy of this magazine will remain (as long as the present staff remains), free and limited only by the criteria and the boundaries of artistry." (Kodon, Fall 1962, p. 3.) After the winter issue, similarly contentious in tone, the Board of Trustees suspended the publication for the remainder of the year. An examination of the contents of those two issues suggests that they represent youthful zeal and an impatience with others who did not share their enthusiasm for the arts, rather than any show of vulgarity or offensiveness of language. In the fall of 1963 Kodon resumed publication. (Bechtel, Paul. Wheaton College: a heritage remembered. 1984. p. 265.)
In 1972 the editors planned to make a Christian board game spoof of Monopoly called "Monopoli." Lawyers for Parker Brothers held that the publication was a violation of copyright ordered all copies to be destroyed thus signaling the end of the "Monopoli" project. The name Kodon comes form the Greek word for 'bell'. |