Comics are the Work of the Devil!

Perhaps comparing comic books to Hitler would make us laugh in this day and age, but a half-decade ago millions of people were taking it very seriously. Frank Werthham wrote in his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent that comic books bred juvenile delinquency. This book set into action a chain of events that led to many American children being forced to throw their beloved comic books into church-held community bonfires.

Shortly after World War 2, comic books were a hit. The comics industry employed over 1000 writers and artists, and an estimated 80 to 100 million comic books were sold each week.

The major comic book publisher at the time, EC Comics, did work mostly in the horror and crime genres. Many of the published titles included gruesome artwork such as severed heads and pools of blood. As time went on, concerned parents, backed by religious and community leaders, revolted. The climax was when EC's publisher Bill Gaines stood in front of a senate committee to explain how an illustration of a man holding a severed head could be in good taste.

David Hajdu's new book, The Ten-cent Plague, details the trials and tribulations of the comic book industry in the decade after World War 2. It is a spectacularly frightening look into a witch hunt that cost many their livelihoods.

Many of us were not alive when these events transpired. Others were likely very young and could not comprehend what was going on around them. Regardless of who you are, I urge you to pick up this book and read it from beginning to end. No other books better capture the events that have so greatly influenced North American culture.