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The Classic Era of American Comics
Nicky Wright Manufacturer: Prion Books ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover  General
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ASIN: 185375336X |
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The Classic Era of American Comics
Nicky Wright Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill/Contemporary ProductGroup: Book Binding: Hardcover History
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ASIN: 0809299666 |
Book Description
In terms of both words and images, the American comic book had a tremendous impact on popular culture. Comics could be funny and cute, or they could be bizarre, morbid, risque (acute accent), violent, and bursting with the subconscious desires of youth culture. The Classic Era of American Comics is a celebration of the golden era of American comics and the wonderful art and stories it produced. This volume takes a look at the pioneers of the comic book and the industry's founding connections with sleazy pulp magazines; the campaign for censorship in the fifties; the unstable and oftentimes unfair relationship between artists and publishers--how comic artists' work wasn't considered art at the time; and, of course, the exciting comics themselves.The Classic Era of American Comics covers all of the genres--superheroes, westerns, crime, horror, war, science fiction, girl comics, animal characters, and more. It is vibrantly illustrated with more than 400 stunning color images and includes a foreword by Joe Kubert, editor of Sgt. Rock, illustrator of Hawkman, and producer of Fax from Sarajevo.
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A Classic Book about a Classic Era.......2000-10-30
The Classic Era of American Comics begins where comic books almost ended. With Fredrick Wertham, "Seduction of the Innocent and the congressional hearings that followed the publication of that book.
When writer address the history of a specific character in Comics they briefly go over the history of comics. Mr. Wright and Mr. Kubert take their time and give a much fuller history of the events that created comic books. Also included are many colorful old pictures of comic strips, and later, comic books. Dividing the book into sections, they not only cover the very beginning of comics that we know, but comics that have been forgotten. Also included are sections of Animal comics, Jungle comics with "good girl Art" and many other forms that have come and gone. All with splendid pictures.
But the most important aspect of this book was context. Often glossed over, Mr. Wright emphasizes the role Fredrick Wertham had in ending an era of comics. In his book, "Seduction of the Innocent" published in 1955, Mr. Wertham contended that comic books were evil. He claimed Superman was a Nazi. He also claimed that Batman and Robin were gay and just reading about them caused children to become gay. Most important, he claimed that reading comics caused Juvenile Delinquency. A major target, of course, was the EC horror comics. In this very balanced book, Mr. Wright and Mr. Kubert show some of the artwork that should have been aimed for an adult audience. Soon, congressional hearings were held and congress forced the industry to censor itself. The censorship was so heavy it almost destroyed the industry. Rather than just going after ghouls and goblins, or giving a rating system that would put adult comics out of the reach of children, the new Comic Code went after ideas such as civil rights, anti war sentiments and the evils of drug use. It took 15 years before an anti drug theme could return to comics. It certainly ended an era.
I had two, small disappointments with the book. Often the author would refer to specific covers or events but not reprint them. Basil Wolverton's Mad covers and Mac Raboy's Captain Marvel Jr. covers are two examples. Also, much of the artwork did not give creative credit to the artists who drew them and sometimes the year was left out. These should be considered minor points.
If you do like this book my I suggest that you also read Jim Steranko's The History of Comics Volume I and II.
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