Finished by; JK, DV, & BT

After reading, and being transported by, Michael Chabon’s Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, I added David Hajdu’s Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America, to my reading list.

Hajdu’s coverage of comic-book fear and censorship to the 1940 and 1950’s is well-researched, filled with compelling personal accounts and anecdotes, and eminently readable. For readers who want to explore the history embedded in Chabon’s Pulitzer-Prize winning book, for pop-culture history buffs, for those interested in youth culture and censorship, or just anyone who likes a well-written account of a little-known phenomenon, I highly recommend this book. ( )

How can anyone talk about EC comics (peace be upon them) and not even mention the EC chapter in Warshow’s Immediate Experience? It does not compute. In fact, you could remove the second half of the book and replace it with the IE chapter and it would be just as informative.

I.love.comics. I have ever since I started collecting them as a kid, going for the gold right from the start. ECs and WWII-era DCs. Loved em, love em still. Haven’t even looked at them in years.

Ten-cent plague is best when it’s describing the personalities of the people who started the comics--a gallery of immigrants, hucksters and the disenfranchised. The comics were subversive and populist and, after a brief era of championship, the bouncers at the gate of high culture did everything they could to keep them out.

There’s the usual long bits about Wertham and his crusade to wipe out comics but very little discussion on how comics changed America. How could they, since the producers of comics said they really had very little impact on culture and, if your kids were JDs, then it was your parenting skills and not Captain Marvel. ( )

Examines the state of U. S. comics books from their inception as Sunday strips in the early 20th century up through WWII and into the mid 1950s, when public adversity to the violence, sex and general “depravity” of comics led to legislation, outcry, and the almost total collapse of the industry, especially the creative elements of it. The book leans heavily towards portraying the scare as a witch hunt, although it does admit that some of the 50s comics were excessive, and concedes some of the psychological reasons for parents’ fears. Discussion of sex and violence in comics, some mild profanity.

First, I have to admit that I am not a comic book expert or collector. I do have a modest collection of Black Hawk (Blackhawk) comics, but only because they were my favorites when I was a kid. I really did not read this work due to any overwhelming interest in comics. I did read them growing up and well remember the hysteria surrounding them in the 1950s. I will admit though that I did read quite a number of them during that time period. My parents liked peace and quiet and found that giving me a comic would shut my never ending talk up for a bit. I did read this book though because I do have a great interest in censorship in any form, and I am interested in the particular era covered by this work.

The author has certainly done some wonderful research with this offering. He gives us a very nice discussion of the history of the comic book in America, which I found quite interesting. I am sure that most comic enthusiasts will be aware of this information, but I was not, so I enjoyed it and learned. After his history he goes into the, as I said, “hysteria” which showed its ugly head every so often as to the effect this particular art form had upon the youth of our nation. Particular attention is made to the period of the late 1940s and the 1950s when the real trouble began.

Post war America was in many ways, a rather scary place. For those of you not there at the time, you need to remember stories of The Red Scare, The Bomb, Eugene McCarthy, women asserting themselves in the work place, The Yellow Peril, population upheavals, transformation after a world wide depression…and the list goes on. Among the “evils,” or so it was thought, was an increase in juvenile crime. The term “Juvenile Delinquent” became a part of our everyday vocabulary. Naturally, people needed something to blame these problems on. If a communist was not handy, or jazz music was not being played on the radio, then something else had to do. It this case, the comic book was chosen. I suppose since the beginning of time, young folk have rebelled a bit against the system or their elders, and since the beginning to time the elders have sworn up and down that the young are going to hell in a hand basket. When you think about it, this process is still going on. This is the natural way of thing; always has been, always will be.

The author has given us a wonderful study of how a thought, a word, a picture, a story can be twisted and used by the powerful to meet their own needs and justify their own ends. In this case the PTA, politicians, preachers, the church, the Boy and Girl Scouts, schools, educators and the local village idiot all got in on the act. Priest, preachers, congressmen, psychiatrists, the news media, parents, George who worked at the local barber shop, all had an opinion. The author weaves a wonderful readable tale chronicling all of this. Now make no mistake; this is not what I would classify as an “easy read.” This is probably more of a scholarly work that a piece of popular history. It is easy to consume and teaches though, and holds the reader’s interest.

All in all, I found this to be a remarkable read. I learned new things and it certainly gave me much more food for thought. For history buffs, pop culture enthusiasts, comic collectors, and the generally curious, it would be hard to beat this one. Highly recommend this one.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks ( )