In the 1930's and 40's, comic books were as popular as movies -- and
more influential. So much so that serious steps were taken to stop
them. Columbia University journalism professor David Hajdu (Lush Life, A Biography of Billy Strayhorn, Positively 4th Street:
The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and
Richard Farina) examines this controversy in his new book, The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How it Changed America, and illustrates it.
- Read an excerpt from The Ten-Cent Plague.