The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
Amazon Significant Seven, March 2008: I may be alone here, but when I read Michael Chabon'sThe Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, a whole strata of American artists came to life for me. Ever since then I've been waiting for a book like David Hajdu'sThe Ten-Cent Plagueto come along and show me the contours of this world. Anyone who remembersPositively 4th Streetwill recognize in this new book Hajdu's peerless ability to weave first-person recollections with an acute perspective of America at a pivotal moment in its cultural timeline. The rise of comics as a mode of expression, an outlet for entertainment, and, rather tragi-comically, as a target for censorship, couldn't be more compelling in anyone else's hands. In deft narrative strokes Hajdu creates a colorful, character-driven story of our first real--and lasting--counterculture (if the burgeoning popularity of graphic novels is any indication) and shows why we embrace it still.--Anne Bartholomew--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.