The Ten Cent Plague

David Hajdu, author of The 10 Cent Plague was recently on The Colbert Report. Hajdu's book is an excellent account of the comic book scare of the 1940s and 1950s. Comic books were alleged to corrupt America's youth and lower their intelligence, making them prime targets for leftist manipulation. Congress held hearings and, like the more famous HUAC investigations, ruined many talented artists. The parallels to the video game controversies are uncanny and equally preposterous.