Tonight I went to a bookstore in D.C. that was hosting the author of the book, "The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America". It was a wonderful event, with the author, David Hajdu, reading exerpts from his book and engaging in a discussion with the 30 or so people at the bookstore about what he called "An American art form".
It was interesting discussing about the book burnings, the Congressional Hearings and the over 100 pieces of legislation at the local and state levels that outlawed the selling and distribution of comic books.
An interesting point was brought up regarding the creation of the Comics Code Authority. How, in an attempt to save itself, the industry essentially committed suicide by having to adhere to the rules of the CCA.
It was a different experience for me, in that I was talking with people about comics on a serious level outside of a comic convention. Some people were talking about Mark Evanier's new book about Jack Kirby (which I still have to buy) as well as some of us are actually in the CBLDF and talked about the Gordon Lee trial, Wertham, modern day censorship, govt. crackdown on video games and other media and other such topics. It was a good mix of people.
After the discussion and Q&A, we were able to get our copies signed. I've read the first few chapters on the train ride home (combination of me being a fast reader and it being a long ride home) and I highly recommend this book to those who have an interest in comics as an art form. Reading about the individual stories of many artists and writers who lost their careers and are still hurting because of what happened is truly sad. Mr. Hajdu referred us to the book's appendix that has the names of people that worked in the industry back then, most of whom never worked within it again.
