Monday, March 24, 2008

Hey Kids! Comics!

The Washington Post Book World has interesting (albeit short) reviews of Mark Evanier's Kirby: King of Comics and David Hajdu's The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America. You can go see the Post article here.

I've been a fan of Mark Evanier's for years, though I've not yet ordered his Kirby bio -- I plan to, though I was sorta trying to hold out for the 250,000 word tour-de-force he says he's writing. But I've had Hajdu's book pre-ordered for ages. While comics have finally regained their mainstream acceptance and "cool" (even as sales sag), comics fans have still never properly recovered from the smear of Dr. Wertham and his Seduction of the Innocent. Hadju's book is one of the first 'mainstream' books aimed squarely at the issue, and I can't wait to get my hands on it. I'm hoping it lives up to my admittedly high expectations of it.

Hajdu's book couldn't come at a better time for me, in fact, because I've been in an E.C. Comics state of mind. I'm still making my way through volume 1 of The Complete Vault of Horror, from Russ Cochran's gorgeous boxed sets sold in the late 1980s. I read them all twenty years ago, and only recently decided to slowly make my way through them again. I'll get back to you with a full report on them later. Good Lord! *choke!*