Book talks about when comic books were under attack: review

Book talks about when comic books were under attack: review
"The Ten-Cent Plague"
By David Hajdu (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Hey, Kids! Dad was an abusive drunk, mom had a public boyfriend and angelic, blond-haired little Lucy hated them all.

So she shot dad, planted the gun, lied her face off in court, and the judge gave mom and paramour Stevie the hot squat. The last panels in the story "Orphan" show Mom and Stevie dying in the electric chair (separately) and one happy Lucy.

All this and more for a dime. Shock Stories, Entertainment Comics Group, April/May, 1954.

There were worse comics out there, dripping with crime, gore, sex and terror and leading to state and local censorship laws, church and school-inspired book burnings, thuggish youth posses policing malt shop magazine racks and televised U.S. Senate hearings.

Even "Archie" comics fed school yard pyres under codes that, evenly applied, would have torched some of the world's great literature.
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h7za_462FHUE_kvN5snJKdC47zPw

Why Do Comic Book Readers Exist?

Why Do Comic Book Readers Exist?:

The main challenge of self publishers in the comic book industry is to understand that the art component is but a piece of the action. Currently, the perspective most self publishers, and even established ones have is a focus on products alone and not marketing. These publishers and creators believe that all that is required to sell a comic book is a product."

Steve Gerber Dead at 60.

Stephen Ross "Steve" Gerber (born 20 September 1947, St. Louis, Missouri - died 10 February 2008, Las Vegas, Nevada) was an American comic book writer best known as co-creator of the satiric Marvel Comics character Howard the Duck.

Other major works include Man-Thing, Omega the Unknown, The Phantom Zone, Void Indigo, Shanna the She-Devil, Tales of the Zombie, Marvel Spotlight: Son of Satan, Defenders, Marvel Presents: Guardians of the Galaxy, Foolkiller, The Legion of Night, Nevada, Sludge, A. Bizarro, and Hard Time, as well as long runs on Sub-Mariner and Daredevil.

He was among the 1970s wave of writers such as Steve Englehart, Don McGregor and Doug Moench who took often minor characters and helped create a writerly Renaissance. At the time of his death, he was writing Countdown to Mystery: Doctor Fate for DC Comics, having briefly worked with a version of the character in 1983.

He was also known for including lengthy text pages in the midst of a comic book story, such as in Man-Thing, Howard the Duck, Son of Satan, Defenders, and his graphic novel, Stewart the Rat.

In 2007, Gerber was diagnosed with an early stage of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and attempted to get on a waiting list for a lung transplant, while continuing to work. On February 10, 2008, Gerber died in a Las Vegas hospital from complications stemming from his condition.




technorati tags: comic book publisher , comic book collectors , old comic books , comic book merchandise , comic book collector , comic book collections , comic back issues , new comics , marvel comic , marvel comics , marvel heroes , comic