#david hadju

[margotdarby]

Hadju vs White Jazz Boys

Hadju vs White Jazz Boys

I was looking for the hilarious trashing of 1950s TV critic John Crosby that David Hadju did 10-12 years ago in his short-lived “Famous Door” column. Crosby, if I recall correctly, was insufficiently worshipful of the Brilliant & Gifted & Tiresome Theolonious Monk on The Seven Lively Arts, a sleepy Sunday afternoon Kulturfest in 1957. Hadju was sniffy. But I found this instead. And wowee. Hadju…

View On WordPress

[travsd]

A Revolution in 3 Acts: A New Book on Radical Vaudeville

A Revolution in 3 Acts: A New Book on Radical Vaudeville

A quick plug for a book I haven’t read (yet) but sounds terrific and undoubtedly of interest to all you latter-day vaudeville fans out there, Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay, and Julian Eltinge each being such genuinely revolutionary figures, not just in pop culture but in American culture in geenral. Learn more A Revolution in Three Acts: The Radical Vaudeville of Bert Williams, Eva Tanguay and…

View On WordPress

[khilliar]

Who Came Up with this Anyway??

If one thing is clear in the creation of comic books such as Spiderman, the Avengers and even the idea for the original MAD comics, it's that no one agrees who truly came up with the original idea. In David Hadju's book Ten-Cent Plague, he discusses the origin of EC's comic book MAD. A heavily debated issue until this day, with the publisher Bill Gaines claiming that the idea for the new comic book came from him alone, while simultaneously the editor Harvey Kurtzman swore the original idea began with himself. As in most cases it's one mans word against another. While both men certainly worked together to create the comic the original credit for the idea is a matter of opinion, and is impossible to determine. Sean Howe writes in his book Marvel Comics: the Untold Story about how Marvel comics functions in a similar way; while Stan Lee is the most well known figure head of the comic franchise, he certainly wasn't the only man working there. Lee contributed an immense amount to each and every comic, writing the majority of the text for all the major comics in the Marvel Universe, and Jack Kirby's artwork covers the pages of Marvel. Because of this it's difficult for readers to understand who really came up with what. Joe Simon and Jack Kirby disagree on how the iconic character Captain America was first conceived, one believing he came up with the hero alone, the other recalling it as some kind of joint collaboration. And this was certainly not the only incident of confusion at Marvel over the creation of characters. The Spiderman debate is a widely theorized issue, between Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and, Steve Ditko, somewhere lies the true origin of this phenomenal web-slinging hero but unfortunately for fans, who came up with the idea is a concept that just can't be solidified. Stan Lee, as per usual claims to have come up with Peter Parker's character on his own, asking Kirby to draw a spider like hero but during the final stages Ditko pointed out that Kirby's work held a strong resemblance to his earlier character with Simon called the Fly (Howe 41). But there's a widely known theory that Kirby in fact pitched a spider/fly-like character to Lee and the two of them bounced these ideas off of one another, formulating the storyline of Peter Parker before continuing on in production. Neither theory is more that mere speculation, personally the later appears more plausible since this type of dynamic was extremely common in most work done between Kirby and Lee, a kind of give and take situation until a set origin was decided upon. Making the idea that Lee alone came up with the Spiderman slightly odd since it would go against everything else the two of them had ever worked on together. Does is matter who was the first person to come up with these characters, maybe not. Especially because without the script, without the artists, without the inkers, and the editors these comics would never have come about. Comic books are a collaborative effort and something Marvel attempted to recognize with it's "merry members of the mythical Marvel Bullpen" (44). In truth maybe it's better that fans can't give all the credit for these characters to one person (although Stan Lee seems to get it all anyways). Comic fans should recognize that these characters are never made by a single person, and to only recognize an individual belittles the rest of the artists that work incredibly hard on these stories.

[thetwopagespread]

Review: The Ten Cent Plague

Overview: A book (without pictures! Mom would be proud) examining the circumstances that lead to the creation of the Comics Code Authority. From early newspaper strips to the end of EC Comics, Hadju explores the history of comics censorship in great detail.

Pros: Extremely informational, answers just about all the questions one may have on the subject while staying interesting and easy to read.

Cons: A slow beginning and some dry chapters. The book does not explore the lasting effects of the Comics Code.

Good For: Those interested in this extremely important moment in both American history and the history of comics and censorship.

The Ten-Cent Plague David Hajdu Picador, 2008 4/5

Check out my more in depth review at Panel Patter

[newrepublic]

I realized then that Astaire looks better with Rogers than he would ever again look on film, because of the way Rogers looked at him while they sang and danced.

David Hadju, "How Could We Forget Ginger Rogers?"