In the years between World War II and the emergence of television as a mass medium, American popular culture as we know it was first created--in the pulpy, boldly illustrated pages of comic books. Comics spoke to young people and provided the guardians of mainstream culture with a big target. No sooner had this new culture emerged than it was beaten down by church groups, community bluestockings, and a McCarthyish Congress. This book opens up the lost world of comic books, its creativity, irreverence, and suspicion of authority, showing how--years before rock 'n' roll--comics brought on a clash between children and their parents, between prewar and postwar standards.