M. J.’s Reviews > The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America > Status Update

'I would dress the women well in elegant clothes, and the men would have beautifully tailored suits, and they would be living in a nice house somewhere, and they would go out for a nice walk, and she would push him in front of a truck.

There were no happy couples, except for the girl and the truck driver in the end, and something terrible would happen to them, probably'
– Jack Kamen

Can't blame them for trying to criminalize jungle comics, those are bad. Although some talented artists have worked in the genre, the stories are boring. I was impressed there was a light dispute between Inger and Eisner over Sheena's creation. I'm with Jack Cole on this, let the work speak for itself, and in this case, it's not very good work lol
Anyway, ban Tarzan!

Finally getting to the EC Comics transmutation from christian company to socially aware crime & horror publisher. Wish I could read a memoir / biography of one these artists / editors (or something like it), they're too interesting...

I mean, in an industry so full of opportunism and backstabbing, Bill Gaines gotta be one of the coolest "golden age" comics people, along with Cole, Kirby Severin. I'm really fond of his rebel and awkward persona, the way he clumsyly, but surely, built a safe space for artistic expression. It's also endearing that he kind of "ruined" it for everyone too with his honest answers at the comic book trials lol.

I feel kind of weird the way I hunger for juicy gossip about these men and women who have been dead for decades, the whole M. C. Gaines / Bill Gaines family drama is so amusing to me, the turn from the father's forgettable Educational Comics, bible stories, to the scorned son's legendary Entertainment Comics, vicious crime and horror comics, is narrative gold.

Apparently, other than creating the crime genre in comics Charles Biro also had a pet monkey on his shoulder while writing and this is the kind of old comic book trivia I'm here to discover. Hope the monkey was treated well and had a cool gangster name.