The Ten-Cent Plague cover

The Ten-Cent Plague

by David Hajdu

An informal and personal description of the rise and fall of comic books in the '40s and '50s, with a focus on the Educational Comics (E.C.) company run by Gains, father then son (M.C. then William). The fall came in two steps, the first in the '40s and aimed at crime comics, and the second in the '50s and aimed at almost all comics, but with emphasis on horror comics.

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Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?