Currently Reading Wednesdays Week 2

(Welcome to what I hope will continue to be a regular feature of this blog, Currently Reading Wednesdays. I'll talk a bit about what I'm reading, and also a little bit about what I'm planning to read next.)

Currently I am reading Demanding Respect by Paul Lopes. It's another book about comics history, this time a summary of the major events of Twentieth Century to Early 21st century American comic book publishing. It's kind of incredible, to me today, to see what lengths people would go to demonize comics back in the early 50's. They seduce the youths into a life of crime! Their crummy art will rot kids' eyes! They're turning our children into fascists, and also they're backed by the communists. It'd be pretty laughable if the anti-comics crusade weren't so successful. Anyway, I don't think I like this book quite as much as I liked Haunt of Fears, but it's got a broader scope, covering everything from the start of Superman to the 60's alt-comix scene to about 6 years ago, which is when the book was published. So, I'm gonna say that if you're in need of a general lowdown of the American comic book industry, check it out! There are probably worse books on the subject you could read.

Next time, on Currently Reading Wednesdays: I think I might like to check out Akira next. Or maybe something by Pauline Kael? And I still haven't gotten to those text adventures. Who knows?