The ten-cent plague : the great comic-book scare and how it changed America / David Hajdu.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [407]-412) and index.

-- Society iss nix -- It was work -- Crime pays -- Youth in crisis -- Puddles of blood -- Then let us commit them -- Woofer and tweeter -- Love--LOVE--LOVE!! -- New trend -- Humor in a jugular vein -- Panic -- The triumph of Dr. Payn -- What are we afraid of? -- We've had it! -- Murphy's law -- Out of the frying pan and into the soup.

"In the years between World War II and the mid-1950s, the popular culture of today was invented in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. But no sooner had comics emerged than they were beaten down by mass bonfires, congressional hearings, and a McCarthyish panic over their unmonitored and uncensored content."--Cover, pages4.