Alarmist theories linking comic books and juvenile delinquency gained currency in the 1950s and brought on decades of wary self-censorship by publishers, author David Hajdu said at an observance of Banned Books Week at Hartford Public Library.
Congressional hearings and media hype, including a highly promoted series in The Hartford Courant entitled Depravity for Children: 10 Cents a Copy, heightened the hysteria, Hajdu said in a conversation with Julia Pistell, a Hartford writer, improviser, teacher and public relations consultant. Pistell and her comedy improv troupe, Sea Tea Improv, also performed at the event, sponsored by the library and the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut on September 23, 2014.
Comic books and graphic novels were the focus of Banned Books Week observances across the country.
Hadju has written several books, including The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America. He is also the music critic for The New Republic and a professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
