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The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America
by David Hajdu

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1870771.The_Ten_Cent_Plague_The_Great_Comic_Book_Scare_and_How_It_Changed_America?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PP7xt%2B1zL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1870771.The_Ten_Cent_Plague_The_Great_Comic_Book_Scare_and_How_It_Changed_America?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12298.David_Hajdu">David Hajdu</a> 
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/19499090?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
 rating: 2 of 5 stars Lots of research went into this book. It's filled with quotations and excerpts from numerous sources from the comic world both modern and historical. If you're interested in comics, then you'll probably really enjoy this book, because, after all, there really isn't enough written about comics--despite their popularity and artistic merits.
 
 However, if you're more of a lay person, you may have some trouble. This caution would also apply if you're reading more for what happened after the governmental hearings on comic books and juvenile delinquents.
 
 I picked Ten Cent Plague up because it was receiving some really positive reviews and sounded like a very interesting investigation of comics from a society stand point.
 
 It's obvious that the author is a great fan of the comics genre, so obvious in fact, because he could not resist page after page of name dropping. Avid comic readers will probably recognize many of the names, but they're used more as page filler, often mentioned once without the text ever coming back to them.
 
 I don't think this book is complete enough to be considered a thorough history of comics (the period investigated was highly researched, but again, that listing strategy of including everyone once without any explanation was a detriment), but is also lacking an 'effect' follow up to make it a social commentary. The book follows by and large a chronological move through the comics industry with countless split trails into stories or factoids. There is no explanation of how the events related ultimately changed the country as a whole.
 
 As this was the part of the book I was most interested in, I was very disappointed.
 
 Another draw back is the lack of pictures. There is a brief insert in the middle of the book with a few black and white photographs and that's it. The majority of the book relies on text descriptions by the author. Since the real conflict was about these very images, I felt that it left something lacking in the book not to arrange for reprints to be included.
 
 If you're looking for a summary of what happened during the hearings about comics and juvenile delinquents, as well as what led up to them, then this book is probably a good fit for you. This is an area of history that has been by and large ignored and The Ten Cent Plague offers a thorough and explanatory approach. If you're more interested in what effects these hearings had on America (and not limited to a brief chapter explaining how just the comics industry changed) then you might want to just borrow this title.
 
 But you should still read it.
 <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/817438?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Lisa's review
rating:
bookshelves: 2008-reading-list, nonfiction

Lots of research went into this book. It's filled with quotations and excerpts from numerous sources from the comic world both modern and historical. If you're interested in comics, then you'll probably really enjoy this book, because, after all, there really isn't enough written about comics--despite their popularity and artistic merits.

However, if you're more of a lay person, you may have some trouble. This caution would also apply if you're reading more for what happened after the governmental hearings on comic books and juvenile delinquents.

I picked Ten Cent Plague up because it was receiving some really positive reviews and sounded like a very interesting investigation of comics from a society stand point.

It's obvious that the author is a great fan of the comics genre, so obvious in fact, because he could not resist page after page of name dropping. Avid comic readers will probably recognize many of the names, but they're used more as page filler, often mentioned o...more Lots of research went into this book. It's filled with quotations and excerpts from numerous sources from the comic world both modern and historical. If you're interested in comics, then you'll probably really enjoy this book, because, after all, there really isn't enough written about comics--despite their popularity and artistic merits.

However, if you're more of a lay person, you may have some trouble. This caution would also apply if you're reading more for what happened after the governmental hearings on comic books and juvenile delinquents.

I picked Ten Cent Plague up because it was receiving some really positive reviews and sounded like a very interesting investigation of comics from a society stand point.

It's obvious that the author is a great fan of the comics genre, so obvious in fact, because he could not resist page after page of name dropping. Avid comic readers will probably recognize many of the names, but they're used more as page filler, often mentioned once without the text ever coming back to them.

I don't think this book is complete enough to be considered a thorough history of comics (the period investigated was highly researched, but again, that listing strategy of including everyone once without any explanation was a detriment), but is also lacking an 'effect' follow up to make it a social commentary. The book follows by and large a chronological move through the comics industry with countless split trails into stories or factoids. There is no explanation of how the events related ultimately changed the country as a whole.

As this was the part of the book I was most interested in, I was very disappointed.

Another draw back is the lack of pictures. There is a brief insert in the middle of the book with a few black and white photographs and that's it. The majority of the book relies on text descriptions by the author. Since the real conflict was about these very images, I felt that it left something lacking in the book not to arrange for reprints to be included.

If you're looking for a summary of what happened during the hearings about comics and juvenile delinquents, as well as what led up to them, then this book is probably a good fit for you. This is an area of history that has been by and large ignored and The Ten Cent Plague offers a thorough and explanatory approach. If you're more interested in what effects these hearings had on America (and not limited to a brief chapter explaining how just the comics industry changed) then you might want to just borrow this title.

But you should still read it....less

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