The Celluloid History of Beatniks and Reform School Girls

Michael Barson's new book, Lost, Lonely and Vicious, collects promotional postcards of B movies from the late 1940s through the early '60s. He says these films were all sizzle, and were tame compared to their lurid, sensationalistic descriptions.

Romance comics flourished in the 1940s and '50s, with titles like Was I a Wicked Wife? and Kisses Came Second. Pop culture writer Michael Barson collects some of his favorites in the new anthology, Agonizing Love: The Golden Era of Romance Comics.

Michael Barson is the author of the new book "Teenage Confidential: An Illustrated History of the American Teen (Chronicle Books, illustrated by Steven Heller). The book traces the evolution of the "teen" and the concept of the "teenager" which didn't exist before World War 2. The book also collects teenage artifacts, like movie posters, magazine covers, and advertisements.