new book: Ten Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare...

[Schmakt]

And How It Changed America.

 

saw a write-up on this book in this month's Paste magazine, and I thought it looked really great. Music and comics are my two loves; I'm really excited to get my hands on this when it comes out.

 

Here's the synopsis from bn.com

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780374187675&itm=2

In the years between World War II and the emergence of television as a mass medium, American popular culture as we know it was first created—in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. No sooner had this new culture emerged than it was beaten down by church groups, community bluestockings, and a McCarthyish Congress—only to resurface with a crooked smile on its face in Mad magazine.

 

The story of the rise and fall of those comic books has never been fully told—until The Ten-Cent Plague. David Hajdu’s remarkable new book vividly opens up the lost world of comic books, its creativity, irreverence, and suspicion of authority.

 

When we picture the 1950s, we hear the sound of early rock and roll. The Ten-Cent Plague shows how—years before music—comics brought on a clash between children and their parents, between prewar and postwar standards. Created by outsiders from the tenements, garish, shameless, and often shocking, comics spoke to young people and provided the guardians of mainstream culture with a big target. Parents, teachers, and complicit kids burned comics in public bonfires. Cities passed laws to outlaw comics. Congress took action with televised hearings that nearly destroyed the careers of hundreds of artists and writers.

 

 

The Ten-Cent Plague radically revises common notions of popular culture, the generation gap, and the divide between “high” and “low” art. As he did with the lives of Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington (in Lush Life) and Bob Dylan and his circle (in Positively 4th Street), Hajdu brings a place, a time, and a milieu unforgettablyback to life.

[capt_comics]

Looks like a great book Jim

 

Looking forward to this myself

 

 

 

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

So does anyone on here know Mr. Hajdu? I assume someone does.

[precodekeith]

Looking forward to this book.

[Larryw7]

I've had this book on pre-order from Amazon for a few weeks. I can't wait to read it.

[CAP Freak]

Seems like a good read. I've been looking for a good book.