"Throw a little Hot Rod Red in there..."

Monday night, I hope to get to Politics and Prose Bookstore here in Washington, DC, for an author talk and signing. David Hajdu will discuss his book The Ten Cent Plague - The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America. I haven't finished it yet, but what I've read so far is good. I've previously read and recommend Hajdu's Positively Fourth Street which detailed the Greenwich Village Folk Scene in the early 60s. Dylan doesn't come off too well, as I recall, but I suppose he might've been something of a jerk in those days. Maybe not as much as the book indicates, but still.

Anyway, I haven't collected comic books in over twenty years, but I still enjoy classic hardbound versions of titles I read back in the 80s. I especially enjoy contemporary graphic novels, as well. My Mad Magazine archives back then probably would've rivaled Bart Simpson's, if not Al Jaffee's personal stash. Bill Gaines, creator and editor of Mad, played an important role in the pop culture landscape of the 40s and 50s, especially, and consequently in Hadju's book.

On a related note, in a little less than a month, on May 2nd in America, one of the most anticipated summer movies premieres: Iron Man.

Co-Created by Stan Lee, Iron Man was another key character in the early 60s revolution of more nuanced, flawed superheroes such as the more famous X-Men and Spider-Man.



Iron Man had an adventure in Vietnam (the film adaptation alters this to Afghanistan). The character's alter-ego, billionaire engineer and industrialist Tony Stark, was also an alcoholic. Pretty serious stuff for an alleged kiddie book, but Marvel pushed the envelope again (as Hadju's book details) after the crackdown that led to the Comics Code Authority.


Casting troubled but brilliant actor Robert Downey, Jr. as Stark was a masterstroke of marketing and talent. (Among others, noted professor, pundit, and comics enthusiast Larry J. Sabato lobbied heavily for the role.) I hope this film plays not just to the fan boys but to a broader mainstream audience and a franchise results. Downey could use the hit (and stabilizing work); Marvel, who has dealt with bankruptcy recently , could use the solid revenue stream. Iron Man is the first major film adaptation Marvel has financed through its own production company. Previously, they've sold the rights to the characters and only received licensing money from ancillary products.

Comics have come a long way and their impact on popular culture half a century after the era discussed in Hadju's Ten Cent Plague is tremendous. Worthy of a whole other book, in fact.

Trailer 1



Trailer 2