|  | | | Customer Reviews: | | | Average Customer Review:
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
 A Witch Hunt by Any Other Name Aug 21, 2009
Stop me if you've heard this weepy song heard at least once a week in many comic book stores nationwide: "I used to have X title, but my Mom accidentally (or intentionally) pitched the books out." Those of us that like comics all have all sung that song. For me it was the first printing of the Star Wars movie adaptation, a few Sergeant Rocks, an equal number of Howling Commandos and a representative sample of Batman, Spiderman, Avengers, Ghostrider and Superman.
No, I wouldn't solve any financial problems with my collection and I don't really blame Mom, because like most ten-year old boys I didn't really understand what I had beyond something fun to read until I lost it. I do blame a certain stepfather who cut up my Star Wars books for the pictures to paste up on a board that was intended to encourage me to work out more as discipline for stupid petty crap no one remembers why it was important. What made comic books so hated among adults even in the 1970s that it was OK to appropriate things we bought with our own allowance money and perpetrate nothing less than a property crime?
I had to grow up and get back into comics as an adult to learn the name I sought: Frederick Wertham PhD. Pity, the man is long dead, but the hate and anger is very black. It would almost be worth committing grievous sins to get assigned to his room in Hell. Well, at least David Hajdu captured the silly and frightening times of the 1950s where we hunted Reds (almost) and comic books into extinction in his book The 10-cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America.
I became progressively angrier with long dead people with each passing page as my mind made connections to other examples of American fear mongering that are more recent. Witch hunting didn't just die out when Sen. McCarthy embarrassed himself on TV; turn on the news and see if there are parallels. The principles are the same: lie about the enemy, exaggerate the threat and play to parents who aren't monitoring their own kids. That I got angry says all that needs to be said about the technique in the book: excellent.
I spent a whole night in one sitting reading this book on my Kindle racing through first person accounts of the poor kids coerced by people willing to believe anything written by a man with a PhD. Hajdu makes his case very clear that Wertham's book The Seduction of the Innocent was based on almost no actual science with double blinds or other responsible study. Simply put, the "trusted expert" blamed comic books for bad kids, when all kids good or bad read comic books invalidating the thesis in any responsible experimentation regime.
But, it was the 1950s and who needs responsible science that may rock the boat in a society still at war with everybody? Parents didn't even try to understand that societies change or they die and that comic books popular with their children were just something different, not bad. I kept my eyes open for the inevitable hypocrisy of black and white doctrinaire platforms whether it was comic books or a strict interpretation of Islam. People still collected and hid their comics from parents while Dad hid his Playboys.
Hajdu's best scenes came out of the interviews with the kids who burned their books, because someone twisted their arms, and the comic book creators ruined by the televised hearings. However, as fascinating as the book is retelling what happened and possibly why, the book didn't make as good a case for comic books being good as is now the accepted opinion. While some of the reasons for comics being positive things are included in explanations of why comics became popular in the first place, I felt an epilogue chapter that explains with footnotes how American thought on comics has changed now that the fear mongers changed gears to go after in order: Rock, TV, The Passion of Christ, Rap, Video Games, Muslims and now healthcare reform was in order.
I wanted to hear from the experts who'd been voices in the wilderness during hearings that use such phrases like Catharsis, Emotional Preparation for Adulthood, Interim Step to Full Literacy and Mythic Archetypes. These words are said about all art forms that show works that don't always conform to the silly and safe notion that we must protect our kids from everything. Well, the one omission aside The 10-cent Plague is one must read book.
Now, where did I leave my time machine for going back to rescue my comics?
[...].
The Birth and Worth of Comic Books Jul 19, 2009
Mr. Hajdu's book is another great example which dispels the conservative, halcyon notion that our culture was so much better before the psychedelic, anti-war, free-love 1960s. The birth and explosion of comic books during the 1920s through 1950s was the first assault by youngsters against the adult world's puritanical codes of conduct. As seen through present-day eyes, the political and religious attempts to link comic consumption and juvenile delinquency is laughable. Over-zealous Anthony Comstock-like acolytes resort to mocking the First Amendment by going on witch-hunts and public book burnings; reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Mr. Hajdu gives fair treatment to the outrageous, reckless excesses by comic book publishers, many who were only in it for the money, as well as the young artists trying to develop a new medium. The book is a wonderful historical snapshot and written in a highly entertaining fashion. This work is not only for people who have an interest in comics.
 Engaging read is an eye-opener Jul 05, 2009
Hajdu's book chronicles the heyday of the comic book industry in America and how it came to a sudden end thanks to a witch-hunt style persecution in the 1950s. I was in the dark about this dark chapter in American history, before reading the book and found the story to be intensely interesting and also extremely disturbing.
Hajdu's descriptions of both the comic books and the different players involved in this drama are so vivid that they bring this colorful tale to life. Beginning with the birth of the comic book industry, Hajdu chronicles its growth and then shows how such a successful industry was brought down by a few lunatics.
A short photo insert in the center of the book presents some pictures of key players and some of the comic books mentioned. If I had one complaint about the book it was that for a book about such a visual medium there were not enough pictures. Hajdu's descriptions were great, but the book could have used a second photo insert showing more of the specific comic books mentioned in the book.
5 of 7 found the following review helpful:
 Reads Like a Draft Jun 09, 2009
I first learned of this book through an interview with the author on NPR. The interview was very interesting, and I knew that I had to get The Ten Cent Plague on my reading list.
Unfortunately, I found this book a profound disappointment. I'll lead off by saying that TTCP isn't a bad book, it just wasn't nearly as good as I thought it would be. The book has rather slow, awkward pacing, and many of the anecdotes sound so similar that the book gets rather monotonous during the middle section.
My biggest critique of the book, however, is that it doesn't deliver on the second part of the subtitle: "How It Changed America." By the end of the book, the reader isn't left with much of an impression as to how the story really did change America. We're not even left with much of an impression about what many in the comic book industry thought, since the author focuses most of his attention on a single company (EC Comics) to the exclusion of nearly everything else.
The epilogue and appendix are especially disappointing. After 300 pages, I expected the epilogue to tie Hajdu's story back in with contemporary America. Instead, the reader is treated to a self-indulgent, worthless snippet whose only point was to let everyone know that Hajdu managed to get an interview with Robert Crumb. Even though I like Crumb (and loved the documentary), he's hardly a stand-in for American culture.
Hajdu also treats the reader to an appendix that's a massive list of those "who never again worked in comics after the purge of the 1950's," which might lead the prospective buyer to think that he's about to read a story akin to the Hollywood blacklists of the McCarthy era. The problems here are two-fold: first, there was no official "purge," in the McCarthy sense; comics as an industry, rather than individual artisans, were targeted. People lost jobs from companies that closed, not because of any attack directed toward targeted individuals.
Dwight Eisenhower's glum picture is even featured prominently on the cover, suggesting he was somehow involved in the "Great Comics Scare." Eisenhower is mentioned twice in the text, both times in passing.
Second, Hajdu treats the vast majority of these people as names on a page. Those that are actually mentioned in the text are often mentioned only in passing.
We're never really treated to a good discussion as to why some comics survived (Superman, Batman, etc.,) that were under fire, while others did not. It's taken that, if you're reading the book, you know those made it while others didn't and no more need be said. We're also not really treated to much discussion about what the lack of some titles and the endurance of others meant to American pop culture.
If you're a big fan of comic books, you'll no doubt get a little more entertainment value than the average reader, since there are names in here that will mean something to you. Most readers will find the Senate hearings interesting, and I found the story of the emergence of Mad Magazine quite interesting.
To sum up, The Ten Cent Plague isn't bad, but it certainly isn't everything it could have been. Other publishers than EC could have been discussed more, and the writing could have been tightened up considerably. Overall, the text felt lazy and poorly edited to me.
The Fall of Comics in America Jun 07, 2009
Have you ever wondered why the American comic book scene is dominated by costumed superheroes? There are other countries with well-developed comic book industries such as Japan, France, and Italy to give just a few examples. In these countries, comics are produced on a wide variety of topics and genres for every type of reader. Why is it that America does not have this type of mature comics industry?
The answer to that question lies in this book. There was a time in American history when American comics covered a wide variety of genres. In the 40's and 50's, American comics were at their peak in terms of creativity and variety. However, in this period of history, Americans became increasingly concerned about the growth of child crime in this age. Of course it would be difficult to link this growth in crime to real factors such as the violence of World War II or the Korean War, or the severe paranoia surrounding the Cold War, or the social disconnect caused by the growing trend of Americans moving to the suburbs, or the increase in the number of families in which both parents worked. These real factors would have been much too difficult to work with. Instead America found a scapegoat: comics.
By the 50's when the pressure really heated up in the war on comics, the trendiest genre was horror. In these horror comics, the theme was used to make criticism of the existing order in America where everything was painted as just cheery, but through these comics, children got an insight into what really lay beneath the surface of a perfect suburban America. In fact these comics were perhaps the only form of media in which children could get the message that it was OK to disagree with the status quo. This message was very comforting for millions of children. However, there were many people who were not comfortable with this, and the fact that this message was delivered through graphic depictions of murder, blood, and horror made it an easy target for a squeemish American public. The rest is history.
I really recommend this book. It will give you insight on how certain social issues can become scapegoats in difficult times. This could happen even in our time, so it is necessary to know how this can come about and how it can be prevented the next time it happens.
|
| |
|
![Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51V%2Beipy8-L._SL75_.jpg "Up (4 Disc Combo Pack with Digital Copy and DVD) [Blu-ray]")
![Across the Universe [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51T24FuHPEL._SL75_.jpg "Across the Universe [Blu-ray]")
![Underworld Trilogy (Underworld / Underworld: Evolution / Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51F27VzUl%2BL._SL75_.jpg "Underworld Trilogy (Underworld / Underworld: Evolution / Underworld: Rise of the Lycans) [Blu-ray]")
![Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51RQUEopdlL._SL75_.jpg "Shakira: Oral Fixation Tour [Blu-ray]")
