LibGuides: Graphic Novels at HMCPL: Four Color Fundamentals

A Brief History of Comic Books

Comic books have become more mainstream than ever in recent years with television and movies pushing them to the forefront of popular culture, though they have been part of our literary culture for over a hundred years. The first proto-comic can be traced back to Europe in 1837 and the publication of The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck by Rudolphe Töpffer, it was translated into English and reprinted in New York five years later in 1842. The book itself was forty pages with six to twelve panels per page without color and featured descriptive text under the panels with no use of the familiar word balloons we associate with comics. The 1920's brought about a revival of medieval woodcuts which led several artists to experiment with the medium in new ways, including Lynd Ward and his works beginning with 1929's God's Man. The modern comic book rose to prominence in 1938 with with first appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1 which kicked off the period known as the Golden Age of Comics, and again in 1956 with Showcase #4 featuring the first appearance of the second Flash, Barry Allen, that kicked off the Silver Age of Comics that also gave birth to the popular Marvel superheroes in the next decade.

The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck

1842

God's Man

1929

Action Comics #1

June 1938

Showcase #4

September 1956

Fantastic Four #1

November 1961

So why did I call this Four-Color Fundamentals? Originally comics were made on four or five color newspaper presses that printed them in spot color, with one color layer at a time. Later on publishers moved to a new improved method called the Ben-Day dot printing process which used the four process colors - cyan, magenta, yellow, and black. These dots could be closely spaced, widely spaced or overlapping to create secondary colors, shading and depth. This new innovation spilled into popular culture when in the 1960's famed artist Roy Lichtenstein made several pop art pieces based on comic panels that were hugely popular and are seen as iconic today.

Crying Girl by Roy Lichtenstein, 1963

Comics have been infamous as well as famous, with a psychiatrist named Frederick Wertham writing disparaging articles about the ill effects on reading comics relating to juveniles. This culminated in the publication of his book Seduction of the Innocent and Congressional hearings that lead to the establishment of the Comics Code Authority in 1954, which severely censored comics for decades and ran several publishers out of business, most famously EC Comics which was known for such titles as Tales From the Crypt and Shock Suspenstories. Under these new guidelines the remaining publishers had to follow a specific set of rules about what content was and was not allowed with emphasis on criminal and supernatural elements. The Code was still in use up until 2011 when the last of the publishers stopped using it, instead adopting their own rating systems. You can see an original version of the complete guidelines from 1954 below:

Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.
If crime is depicted it shall be as a sordid and unpleasant activity.
Policemen, judges, government officials, and respected institutions shall never be presented in such a way as to create disrespect for established authority.
Criminals shall not be presented so as to be rendered glamorous or to occupy a position which creates a desire for emulation.
In every instance good shall triumph over evil and the criminal punished for his misdeeds.
Scenes of excessive violence shall be prohibited. Scenes of brutal torture, excessive and unnecessary knife and gunplay, physical agony, the gory and gruesome crime shall be eliminated.
No comic magazine shall use the words "horror" or "terror" in its title.
All scenes of horror, excessive bloodshed, gory or gruesome crimes, depravity, lust, sadism, masochism shall not be permitted.
All lurid, unsavory, gruesome illustrations shall be eliminated.
Inclusion of stories dealing with evil shall be used or shall be published only where the intent is to illustrate a moral issue and in no case shall evil be presented alluringly, nor so as to injure the sensibilities of the reader.
Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.
Profanity, obscenity, smut, vulgarity, or words or symbols which have acquired undesirable meanings are forbidden.
Nudity in any form is prohibited, as is indecent or undue exposure.
Suggestive and salacious illustration or suggestive posture is unacceptable.
Females shall be drawn realistically without exaggeration of any physical qualities.
Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Rape scenes, as well as sexual abnormalities, are unacceptable. Seduction and rape shall never be shown or suggested.
Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.
Nudity with meretricious purpose and salacious postures shall not be permitted in the advertising of any product; clothed figures shall never be presented in such a way as to be offensive or contrary to good taste or morals.

Comic books or graphic novels - what's the difference? Nowadays graphic novels is used as an umbrella term but it is a fairly new coinage first used in Richard Kyle in November 1964 in an essay in a fan magazine, though the term didn't gain any traction until Will Eisner's Contract with God in 1978 and the start of Marvel Comic's line of Graphic Novels in 1982. Graphic novels in this vein were meant to be self-contained longer stories of original material that had never before been serialized, as opposed to trade paperbacks at the time that were reprints of a complete storyarcs that were released originally over several serialized issues. Over time the term was used more and more as a general term to give comics more credibility and prestige, though in recent years there has been significant pushback from creators that the term is no longer needed with Alan Moore (of Watchmen and V for Vendetta fan) saying "It's a perfect time to retire terms like 'graphic novel' and 'sequential art,' which piggyback on the language of other, wholly separate mediums. What's more, both terms have their roots in the need to dissemble and justify, thus both exude a sense of desperation, a gnawing hunger to be accepted." as part of an article for NPR in 2016. Neil Gaiman echos the sentiment in a story presented in the Sandman Companion book where a fan told him that he wrote graphic novels, not merely comic books to which he said though the commenter "meant it as a compliment, I suppose. But all of a sudden I felt like someone who'd been informed that she wasn't actually a hooker; that in fact she was a lady of the evening."

This is just scratching the surface though, want to learn more? Though our Adult Graphics collection has a ton of fiction and non-fiction comics to browse, we also have several non-fiction titles (both graphic and general print) that explore the history and impact of comics, so if you would like to further your reading on this fascinating topic, please check out some of the following titles, as always you can click any of the titles or covers in this article to be taken to the appropriate site or catalog page:

Batman Unmasked: analysing a cultural icon by Will Brooker
Call Number: G 741.509 BRO
ISBN: 0826449492
Publication Date: 2001-09-18
Over the sixty years of his existence, Batman has encountered an impressive array of cultural icons and has gradually become one himself. This acclaimed book examines what Batman means and has meant to the various audiences, groups and communities who have tried to control and interpret him over the decades. Brooker reveals the struggles over Batman's meaning by shining a light on the cultural issues of the day that impacted on the development of the character. They include: patriotic propaganda of the Second World War; the accusation that Batman was corrupting the youth of America by appearing to promote a homosexual lifestyle to the fans of his comics; Batman becoming a camp, pop culture icon through the ABC TV series of the sixties; fans' interpretation of Batman in response to the comics and the Warner Bros. franchise of films.
The Caped Crusade: Batman & The Rise of Nerd Culture by Glen Weldon
Call Number: G 741.5973 WEL
ISBN: 1476756694
Publication Date: 2016-03-22
A witty, intelligent cultural history from NPR book critic Glen Weldon explains Batman’s rises and falls throughout the ages—and what his story tells us about ourselves. Since his creation, Batman has been many things: a two-fisted detective; a planet-hopping gadabout; a campy Pop-art sensation; a pointy-eared master spy; and a grim and gritty ninja of the urban night. For more than three quarters of a century, he has cycled from a figure of darkness to one of lightness and back again; he’s a bat-shaped Rorschach inkblot who takes on the various meanings our changing culture projects onto him. How we perceive Batman’s character, whether he’s delivering dire threats in a raspy Christian Bale growl or trading blithely homoerotic double-entendres with partner Robin on the comics page, speaks to who we are and how we wish to be seen by the world. It’s this endlessly mutable quality that has made him so enduring. And it’s Batman’s fundamental nerdiness—his gadgets, his obsession, his oath, even his lack of superpowers—that uniquely resonates with his fans who feel a fiercely protective love for the character. Today, fueled by the internet, that breed of passion for elements of popular culture is everywhere. Which is what makes Batman the perfect lens through which to understand geek culture, its current popularity, and social significance. In The Caped Crusade, with humor and insight, Glen Weldon, book critic for NPR and author of Superman: The Unauthorized Biography, lays out Batman’s seventy-eight-year cultural history and shows how he has helped make us who we are today and why his legacy remains so strong.
Comic Book Rebels by Stanley Wiater; Stephen R. Bissette
Call Number: G 741.5 WIA
ISBN: 1556113552
Publication Date: 1993-07-31
No longer just kid's stuff, today's comic books are hip, contemporary entertaining and seriously collected. Here, in twenty original interviews, leading figures in the field discuss how, approaching the graphic novel from an often daringly radical taboo-breaking perspective, they transformed it into a significant medium - at once art and literature - of our popular culture. Every stage of the medium's evolution is represented here, from the underground "comix" creators of the 1960's to the giants of independent publishing today. Each interview is accompanied by a representative piece of art work that the rebel in question helped create, as well as a portrait of the interviewee by co-author Bissette, a comic book rebel himself (please see back flap). In their own words, these visionary creators tell their compelling and often outrageous stories of taking on an industry that at first disdained or even discouraged them, offering readers a rare opportunity to meet the forces behind the transformation of a whole art form.
Comix: A History of Comic Books in America by Les Daniels
Call Number: G 741.5 DAN
ISBN: 0876900341
Publication Date: 1971-01-01
An overview of the history of American comic books and how the art form as evolved over time and influenced popular culture. This book is recommended for teens and adults.
The Comic Book History of Comics by Fred Van Lente; Ryan Dunlavey
Call Number: G 741.5973 VAN
ISBN: 1631409255
Publication Date: 2017-08-29
The inspiring, infuriating, and utterly insane story of comics, graphic novels, and manga is presented in comic book form! The award-winning Action Philosophers team of Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey turn their irreverent-but-accurate eye to the stories of Jack Kirby, R. Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman, Alan Moore, Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Fredric Wertham, Roy Lichtenstein, Art Spiegelman, and more! Presented in all-new color! This book is recommended for teens and adults.
EC Comics: Race, Shock & Social Protest by Qiana Whitted
Call Number: G 741.5355 WHI
ISBN: 0813566312
Publication Date: 2019-03-08
Entertaining Comics Group (EC Comics) is perhaps best-known today for lurid horror comics like Tales from the Crypt and for a publication that long outlived the company’s other titles, Mad magazine. But during its heyday in the early 1950s, EC was also an early innovator in another genre of comics: the so-called “preachies,” socially conscious stories that boldly challenged the conservatism and conformity of Eisenhower-era America. EC Comics examines a selection of these works—sensationally-titled comics such as “Hate!,” “The Guilty!,” and “Judgment Day!”—and explores how they grappled with the civil rights struggle, antisemitism, and other forms of prejudice in America. Putting these socially aware stories into conversation with EC’s better-known horror stories, Qiana Whitted discovers surprising similarities between their narrative, aesthetic, and marketing strategies. She also recounts the controversy that these stories inspired and the central role they played in congressional hearings about offensive content in comics. The first serious critical study of EC’s social issues comics, this book will give readers a greater appreciation of their legacy. They not only served to inspire future comics creators, but also introduced a generation of young readers to provocative ideas and progressive ideals that pointed the way to a better America.
Invisible Men: the Trailblazing Black Artists of Comic Books by Ken Quattro
Call Number: G 741.5973 QUA
ISBN: 1684055865
Publication Date: 2020-12-15
The life stories of each man's personal struggles and triumphs are represented as they broke through into a world formerly occupied only by whites. Using primary source material from World War II-era Black newspapers and magazines, this compelling book profiles pioneers like E.C. Stoner, a descendant of one of George Washington's slaves, who became a renowned fine artist of the Harlem Renaissance and the first Black to draw comic books. Perhaps more fascinating is Owen Middleton who was sentenced to life in Sing Sing. Middleton's imprisonment became a cause célèbre championed by Will Durant, which led to Middleton's release and subsequent comics career. Then there is Matt Baker, the most revered of the Black artists, whose exquisite art spotlights stunning women and men, and who drew the first groundbreaking Black comic book hero, Vooda!
James Warren: Empire of Monsters by Bill Schelly; Neal A. Adams (Artist); Steve Ditko (Artist); Alexis Toth (Artist); Al Williamson (Artist); Wallace Wood (Artist); Bernie Wrightson (Artist)
Call Number: GB WAR SCH
ISBN: 1683961471
Publication Date: 2019-02-26
This heavily illustrated biography features eye-opening — often outrageous —anecdotes about Warren, a larger-than-life figure whose ability as a publisher, promoter, and provocateur make him a fascinating figure. In addition to Forrest J. Ackerman’s Famous Monsters of Filmland, he published Help!, a magazine created by MAD’s Harvey Kurtzman, which featured early work by John Cleese, Gloria Steinem, Terry Gilliam, Robert Crumb, and Diane Arbus; Creepy and Eerie magazines, with covers by painter Frank Frazetta and comics art by Steve Ditko, Wallace Wood, Bernie Wrightson, Al Williamson, and many others. His most famous co-creation, the character Vampirella, debuted in her own magazine in 1969, and continues to be published today.
Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier; Neil Gaiman (Introduction by)
Call Number: GB KIR EVA
ISBN: 081099447X
Publication Date: 2008-03-01
Jack Kirby created or co-created some of comic books’ most popular characters including Captain America, The X-Men, The Hulk, The Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor, Darkseid, and The New Gods. More significantly, he created much of the visual language for fantasy and adventure comics. There were comics before Kirby, but for the most part their page layout, graphics, and visual dynamic aped what was being done in syndicated newspaper strips. Almost everything that was different about comic books began in the forties on the drawing table of Jack Kirby. This is his story by one who knew him well—the authorized celebration of the one and only “King of Comics” and his groundbreaking work. This book is recommended for teens and adults.
Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe
Call Number: G 741.5973 HOW
ISBN: 0061992100
Publication Date: 2012-10-09
741.5973 - History of American Comic Books. Throughout this decades-long journey to becoming a multibillion-dollar enterprise, Marvel's identity has continually shifted, careening between scrappy underdog and corporate behemoth. As the company has weathered Wall Street machinations, Hollywood failures, and the collapse of the comic book market, its characters have been passed along among generations of editors, artists, and writers—also known as the celebrated Marvel "Bullpen." Entrusted to carry on tradition, Marvel's contributors—impoverished child prodigies, hallucinating peaceniks, and mercenary careerists among them—struggled with commercial mandates, a fickle audience, and, over matters of credit and control, one another. For the first time, Marvel Comics reveals the outsized personalities behind the scenes, including Martin Goodman, the self-made publisher who forayed into comics after a get-rich-quick tip in 1939; Stan Lee, the energetic editor who would shepherd the company through thick and thin for decades; and Jack Kirby, the World War II veteran who'd co-created Captain America in 1940 and, twenty years later, developed with Lee the bulk of the company's marquee characters in a three-year frenzy of creativity that would be the grounds for future legal battles and endless debates.
Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones
Call Number: G 741.5097 JON
ISBN: 0465036562
Publication Date: 2004-10-12
741.5097 - History of North American comic books. By the author of The Comic Book Heroes, Killing Monsters, and scores of successful comic books and screenplays, Men of Tomorrow is the first book to tell the surprising story of the young Jewish misfits, hustlers and nerds who invented the superhero and the comic book industry. Among the characters in this vibrant panorama: · Jerry Seigel and Joe Shuster, the goofy myopic creators of Superman, who sold the rights to the Man of Tomorrow for $130 to…· Harry Donenfield, former pornographer and con-man, and his partner, Jack Liebowitz, founder of DC Comics, who went on to help build Steve Ross's legendary Warner Communications· Batman's Bob Kane, who rose to fame and fortune in a career based entirely on lies and self-promotion· Mort Weisinger, the ruthless editor of Superman, who suffered a nervous breakdown when he tried to be a superhero himself · Plus Stan Lee, founder of a new kind of hero, including Spider-man, at Marvel Comics; Will Eisner, whose creation "The Spirit" has become a cult classic, and many, many more. Springing unheralded out of working-class Jewish immigrant neighborhoods in the depths of the Depression, these young men transformed an odd mix of geekdom, science fiction, and outsider yearnings into blue-eyed chisel-nosed crime-fighters and adventurers who quickly captured the mainstream imagination. Within a few years their inventions were being read by 90% of American children and had spawned a new genre in movies, radio and TV that still dominates youth entertainment seventy years later. Drawing on exhaustive research, including interviews with friends and relatives of the creators, Jones reveals how the immigrant experience and the collision of Yiddish and American culture-forged in the crucible of two world wars-shaped the vision of the make-believe hero. He chronicles how the comics sparked a frightened counterattack that nearly destroyed the industry in the 1950's and how later they surged back at an underground level, to inspire a new generation to transmute those long-ago fantasies into art, literature, blockbuster movies and graphic novels. Animated by the stories of some of the last century's most charismatic and conniving artists, writers and businessmen, Men of Tomorrow brilliantly demonstrates how the creators of the superheroes gained their cultural power and established a crucial place in the modern imagination.
Panthers, Hulks and Ironhearts by Jeffrey A. Brown
Call Number: G 741.5 BRO
ISBN: 1978809212
Publication Date: 2021-01-15
Marvel is one of the hottest media companies in the world right now, and its beloved superheroes are all over film, television and comic books. Yet rather than simply cashing in on the popularity of iconic white male characters like Peter Parker, Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, Marvel has consciously diversified its lineup of superheroes, courting controversy in the process. Panthers, Hulks, and Ironhearts offers the first comprehensive study of how Marvel has reimagined what a superhero might look like in the twenty-first century. It examines how they have revitalized older characters like Black Panther and Luke Cage, while creating new ones like Latina superhero Miss America. Furthermore, it considers the mixed fan responses to Marvel’s recasting of certain “legacy heroes,” including a Pakistani-American Ms. Marvel, a Korean-American Hulk, and a whole rainbow of multiverse Spidermen. If the superhero comic is a quintessentially American creation, then how might the increasing diversification of Marvel’s superhero lineup reveal a fundamental shift in our understanding of American identity? This timely study answers those questions and considers what Marvel’s comics, TV series, and films might teach us about stereotyping, Orientalism, repatriation, whitewashing, and identification.
Pulp Empire : a secret history of comic book imperialism by Paul S. Hirsch
Call Number: G 741.5973 HIR
ISBN: 022635055X
Publication Date: 2021-07-12
In the 1940s and ’50s, comic books were some of the most popular—and most unfiltered—entertainment in the United States. Publishers sold hundreds of millions of copies a year of violent, racist, and luridly sexual comics to Americans of all ages, until a 1954 Senate investigation led to a censorship code that nearly destroyed the industry. But this was far from the first time the US government actively involved itself with comics—it was simply the most dramatic manifestation of a long, strange relationship between high-level policy makers and a medium that even artists and writers often dismissed as a creative sewer. In Pulp Empire, Paul S. Hirsch uncovers the gripping untold story of how the US government both attacked and appropriated comic books to help wage World War II and the Cold War, promote official—and clandestine—foreign policy, and deflect global critiques of American racism.
The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
Call Number: G 741.5973 LEP
ISBN: 0385354045
Publication Date: 2014-10-28
741.5973 - History of American Comic Books. Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer Jill Lepore has uncovered an astonishing trove of documents, including the never-before-seen private papers of William Moulton Marston, Wonder Woman’s creator. Beginning in his undergraduate years at Harvard, Marston was influenced by early suffragists and feminists, starting with Emmeline Pankhurst, who was banned from speaking on campus in 1911, when Marston was a freshman. In the 1920s, Marston and his wife, Sadie Elizabeth Holloway, brought into their home Olive Byrne, the niece of Margaret Sanger, one of the most influential feminists of the twentieth century. The Marston family story is a tale of drama, intrigue, and irony. In the 1930s, Marston and Byrne wrote a regular column for Family Circle celebrating conventional family life, even as they themselves pursued lives of extraordinary nonconformity. Marston, internationally known as an expert on truth—he invented the lie detector test—lived a life of secrets, only to spill them on the pages of Wonder Woman.
Secret Identity Crisis by Matthew J. Costello
Call Number: G 741.5309 COS
ISBN: 9780826429988
Publication Date: 2009-03-01
Secret Identity Crisis follows the trajectory of the breakdown of the cold War consensus after 1960 through the lens of superhero comic books. Those developed by Marvel, because of their conscious setting in the contemporary world, and because of attempts to maintain a continuous story line across and within books, constitute a system of signs that reflect, comment upon, and interact with the American political economy. This groundbreaking new study focuses on a handful of titles and signs that specifically involve political economic codes, including Captain America, the Invincible Iron Man, Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD, the Incredible Hulk to reveal how the American self was transformed and/or reproduced during the late Cold War and after.
Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham; James E. Reibman (Introduction by)
Call Number: G 155.92 WER
ISBN: 0848816579
Publication Date: 2004-01-01
Result of 7 years of scientific investigation into the effects that comic books have on the minds and behavior of children who come in contact with them. His ideas on the harmful effects created by media-induced violence resonate with those who are concerned by the searing of our cultural fabric. This book is recommended for teens and adults.
CBLDF Presents: She Changed Comics by Betsy Gomez
Call Number: G 741.5973 SHE
ISBN: 1632159295
Publication Date: 2016-10-11
SHE CHANGED COMICS celebrates the women who changed free expression in comics, with profiles of more than sixty groundbreaking female professionals and interviews with the women who are changing today's medium, including RAINA TELGEMEIER, NOELLE STEVENSON, G. WILLOW WILSON, and more! SHE CHANGED COMICS also examines the plights of women imprisoned and threatened for making comics and explores the work of women whose work is being banned here in the United States. A must for readers of all ages, students, and educators. This book is recommended for teens and adults.
Super black: American pop culture and black superheroes by Adilifu Nama
Call Number: G 700.452 NAM
ISBN: 0292726740
Publication Date: 2011-10-01
Super Black places the appearance of black superheroes alongside broad and sweeping cultural trends in American politics and pop culture, which reveals how black superheroes are not disposable pop products, but rather a fascinating racial phenomenon through which futuristic expressions and fantastic visions of black racial identity and symbolic political meaning are presented. Adilifu Nama sees the value--and finds new avenues for exploring racial identity--in black superheroes who are often dismissed as sidekicks, imitators of established white heroes, or are accused of having no role outside of blaxploitation film contexts. Nama examines seminal black comic book superheroes such as Black Panther, Black Lightning, Storm, Luke Cage, Blade, the Falcon, Nubia, and others, some of whom also appear on the small and large screens, as well as how the imaginary black superhero has come to life in the image of President Barack Obama. Super Black explores how black superheroes are a powerful source of racial meaning, narrative, and imagination in American society that express a myriad of racial assumptions, political perspectives, and fantastic (re)imaginings of black identity. The book also demonstrates how these figures overtly represent or implicitly signify social discourse and accepted wisdom concerning notions of racial reciprocity, equality, forgiveness, and ultimately, racial justice. This book is recommended for teens and adults.
Super Boys by Brad Ricca
Call Number: G 741.5973 RIC
ISBN: 0312643802
Publication Date: 2013-06-04
741.5973 - History of American Comic Books. Drawing on ten years of research in the trenches of Cleveland libraries, boarded-up high schools, and secret, private collections, and a love of comic books, Brad Ricca's Super Boys is the first ever full biography about Superman’s creators. Among scores of new discoveries, the book reveals the first stories and pictures ever published by the two, where the first Superman story really came from, the real inspiration for Lois Lane, the template for Superman’s costume, and much, much more. Super Boys also tracks the boys’ unknown, often mysterious lives after they left Superman, including Siegel's secret work during World War II and never-before-seen work from Shuster. Super Boys explains, finally, what exactly happened with the infamous check for $130 that pulled Superman away from his creators—and gave control of the character to the publisher. Ricca also uncovers the true nature of Jerry’s father’s death, a crime that has always remained a mystery. Super Boys is the story of a long friendship between boys who grew to be men and the standard that would be impossible for both of them to live up to.
The Supergirls by Mike Madrid
Call Number: G 741.5973 MAD
ISBN: 1935259032
Publication Date: 2009-09-01
A much-needed alternative history of American comic book superheroines—from Wonder Woman to Supergirl and beyond—where they fit in popular culture and why, and what these crime-fighting females say about the role of women in American society from their creation to now, and into the future. The Supergirls is an entertaining and informative look at these modern-day icons, exploring how superheroines fare in American comics, and what it means for the culture when they do everything the superhero does, but in thongs and high heels. Has Wonder Woman hit the comic book glass ceiling? Is that the one opposition that even her Amazonian strength can’t defeat? This book is recommended for teens and adults.
Superheroes!: capes, cowls, and the creation of comic book culture by Laurence Maslon; Michael Kantor
Call Number: G 741.5973 MAS
ISBN: 0385348584
Publication Date: 2013-10-01
Based on the three-part PBS documentary series Superheroes, this companion volume chronicles the never-ending battle of the comic book industry, its greatest creators, and its greatest creations. Covering the effect of superheroes on American culture—in print, on film and television, and in digital media—and the effect of American culture on its superheroes, Superheroes: Capes, Cowls, and the Creation of Comic Book Culture appeals to readers of all ages, from the casual observer of the phenomenon to the most exacting fan of the genre.
Super-history: comic book superheroes and American society, 1938 to the present by Jeffrey K. Johnson
Call Number: G 741.5097 JOH
ISBN: 0786465646
Publication Date: 2012-04-03
In the less than eight decades since Superman's debut in 1938, comic book superheroes have become an indispensable part of American society and the nation's dominant mythology. They represent America's hopes, dreams, fears, and needs. As a form of popular literature, superhero narratives have closely mirrored trends and events in the nation. This study views American history from 1938 to 2010 through the lens of superhero comics, revealing the spandex-clad guardians to be not only fictional characters but barometers of the place and time in which they reside.
The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare & How It Changed America by David Hajdu
Call Number: G 302.232 HAJ
ISBN: 0374187673
Publication Date: 2008-03-18
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. No sooner had this new culture emerged than it was beaten down by church groups, community bluestockings, and a McCarthyish Congress--only to resurface with a crooked smile on its face in "Mad "magazine. The story of the rise and fall of those comic books has never been fully told--until "The Ten-Cent Plague." David Hajdu's remarkable new book vividly opens up the lost world of comic books, its creativity, irreverence, and suspicion of authority. When we picture the 1950s, we hear the sound of early rock and roll. "The Ten-Cent Plague "shows how--years before music--comics brought on a clash between children and their parents, between prewar and postwar standards. Created by outsiders from the tenements, garish, shameless, and often shocking, comics spoke to young people and provided the guardians of mainstream culture with a big target. Parents, teachers, and complicit kids burned comics in public bonfires. Cities passed laws to outlaw comics. Congress took action with televised hearings that nearly destroyed the careers of hundreds of artists and writers. This book is recommended for teens and adults.
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
Call Number: G 741.5 MACC
ISBN: 006097625X
Publication Date: 1994-04-27
Praised throughout the cartoon industry by such luminaries as Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening, and Will Eisner, this innovative comic book provides a detailed look at the history, meaning, and art of comics and cartooning. This book is recommended for teens and adults.
Why Comics? From Underground to Everywhere by Hillary L. Chute
Call Number: G 741.59 CHU
ISBN: 0062476807
Publication Date: 2017-12-05
The massive impact that comics have had on our culture becomes more and more clear every day, from the critically acclaimed musical Fun Home, based on Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking comic, to the dozens of superhero films hitting cinemas every year. What is it that makes comics so special? What can this unique art form do that others can’t? In Why Comics?, comics scholar Hillary Chute reveals the history of comics, underground comics (or comix), and graphic novels, through deep thematic analysis, and fascinating portraits of the fearless men and women behind them. As Scott McCloud revealed the methods behind comics and the way they worked in his classic Understanding Comics, Chute will reveal the themes that Comics handle best, and how the form is uniquely equipped to explore them. This book is recommended for teens and adults.
Zorro's Shadow: How a Mexican Legend Became America's first Superhero by Stephen J. C. Andes
Call Number: G 813.52 AND
ISBN: 1641602937
Publication Date: 2020-09-15
Long before Superman or Batman made their first appearances, there was Zorro. Born on the pages of the pulps in 1919, Zorro fenced his way through the American popular imagination, carving his signature letter Z into the flesh of evildoers in Old Spanish California. Zorro is the original caped crusader, the first masked avenger, and the character who laid the blueprint for the modern American superhero. Historian and Latin American studies expert Stephen J. C. Andes unmasks the legends behind Zorro, showing that the origins of America’s first superhero lie in Latinx history and experience.