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| Comix- A History of Comic Books in America, by Les Daniels; graphics by Mad Peck Studios |
Redartz: Good day, everyone! Anyone for a history lesson? I always am, especially when it's comics history. Which brings us to today's topic: learning about comics and the creators behind them.
Shortly after I first got hooked by the comic bug, early in 1974, I found this book on sale in the 'cutout's section of a Walden Books (remember them?). I'd never heard of the author, and was at the time unaware of the alternative comics referred to by the title's term 'comix'. Nonetheless, a quick browse through the book convinced me to buy it. Imagine, a book ABOUT comics, illustrated with the actual comics! Yes, there had been other histories; Steranko had his "History of Comics". There was Jules Feiffer's "The Great Comic Book Heroes". But overall, there weren't that many books yet about the medium of comics, or the wide variety of subjects found therein. So, long story short, "Comix" became my first comics history lesson.
And it was a rich lesson indeed. Published in 1971, early in our illustrious Bronze Age, "Comix" reached waaaay back to Richard Outcault and his "Yellow Kid", and followed up with a fascinating tour of comics throughout the 20th. Century. Writer Daniels gives the prose a bit of a countercultural feel (certainly to be expected, given the pop cultural background of the late 60's/early 70's). Yet it also reads as an engaging , entertaining overview of comics history; filled with fascinating anecdotes. Consider some of the chapter headings: "The Birth of the Comic Book". "Dumb Animals". "The E.C. Revolution". "The Comics Code Controversy". "Mighty Marvel". "Underground Comics". Yes, Daniels touched all the bases here. And it was pure manna for this comics-starved kid.
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| An example of a 40's "Crime" comic |
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| Jack Cole. Amazing composition... |
This book was my first exposure to EC Comics, to Golden age comics, to crime comics, to underground comics. So many genres I'd never dreamed of. Here, for the first time, I was introduced to some of the towering figures behind some of the stories I'd enjoyed: Will Eisner, Carl Barks, Harvey Kurtzman, Basil Wolverton. Further on, Daniels revealed to me the work of later creators such as Trina Robbins, Robert Crumb, and Gilbert Shelton. The story of the Comics Code Authority, and Fredrick Wertham? All that was in there as well. Oh, so much to absorb...
And it was easy to swallow this informative medicine: Daniels sweetened it with a generous dose of actual comics. Not only individual panels and pages, but many entire stories; color and black/white! He included some excellent examples, well chosen to give the reader a dose of the very best comics have to offer. We find Jim Steranko's entire story "At the Stroke of Midnight"from Tower of Shadows #1 (only complaint; wish this had been a color selection).
"A Visit With the Fantastic Four" by Lee and Kirby. From EC- "A Little Stranger" by Graham Ingles. A complete Barks Uncle Scrooge story. An early Two-Face story from Batman. Several great horror tales from Warren publishing. A "Mad" story by Wally Wood. An EC war story by Kurtzman. A Jack Cole Plastic Man story. And much, much more. Truly, it was an embarassment of comic riches. I devoured every page.
Les Daniels, through this book, lit the spark of interest for the vast wonders of comics past and present. He showed me how much more there was besides superheros and funny animals. Daniels put the works of the masters before me, identified them, and through them fired a fascination that continues to this very day. For this, I owe him immensely. Les Daniels, years later, produced a fine book about Marvel Comics; if memory serves Doug and Karen once discussed that tome over at the BAB. As much as his first book affected me, his later one is something I also need to add to my library.
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| Two DC 'funny animals'; Fox and Crow |
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| A cool EC house ad |
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| A last word from Robert Crumb... |
Before reading this book, I loved Spider-man and the Fantastic Four; Batman and Superman. After reading it, I loved Comics. So now I ask you; was there any book about comics that roused your interest? Where did you first learn of the early names and faces of the medium? How did you discover the early tales of our heroes, and their predecessors? Tell us all about your 'history texts'...
Redartz: Most likely, if we were to take a peek inside our longboxes, check our bookshelves, or open up our tablets, we would find a wide variety of superhero comics. Tales of adventure and daring, loaded with characterization, drama and fancy costumes. If we delve a bit deeper, we might find some humor comics. Maybe some Archies, or some vintage Charlton/Gold Key tv funnies. And if we keep going, way into the back of that longbox, we just might find some horror books.
Horror comics have a very long history, going way back to the late Golden Age. In the 50's, they had a veritable Renaissance in the form of EC Comics. "Tales From the Crypt", "Haunt of Fear", "Shock Suspenstories"; these books and others kept countless kids wide-eyed at night. Filled to the grim brim with work by such comics masters as Wally Wood, Harvey Kurtzman, and Graham Ingles, those classic EC's still command a big following even today.
Ah, but this isn't "Back in the Atomic Age"! And, even though EC Comics never made it out of the 50's ( with the exception of Mad, which is another story), the horror genre (and it's sister the science fiction genre) kept on going. Going, that is, right through the 60's and well into our beloved Bronze Age.
Although those books tended to get overshadowed by the superhero comics, the horror comics still attracted some big creative names. At Marvel; think of all those Kirby and Ditko monster tales from the early 60's. Stories that many of us discovered in 70's titles such as "Uncanny Tales", "Vault of Evil" and "Where Creatures Roam". Anthology titles, featuring several short stories by various creators; some all reprint, some with new stories included. Indeed, as the Bronze age dawned, some great new stories were being produced at the 'House of Ideas'. Steranko had an incredible story in "Tower of Shadows" #1. There was work by Wrightson, Wood, Adams, Buscema, and many others. All 'hidden' away in the dark corners of the horror comics shelf.
Oh, and DC was even more 'horrific'ally inclined. They had quite a few such titles in the Bronze age: "Unexpected", "Witching Hour", and the twin pillars of "House of Secrets" and "House of Mystery". And DC went way beyond Marvel in continuing new chillers, all through the seventies you could find them. Alex Toth, Alex Nino, Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, all the top names of the comics field brought ghastly life to the stories in those books. Adams and Wrightson, in particular, seemed to have a lock on cover art for those DC horror titles. There's more beautifully eerie artwork on display there than in Rod Serling's Night Gallery!
Meanwhile, the other comics publishers of the era were busily putting out packages of fright-fraught fun. Charlton ("Dr. Graves", "Scary Tales") , Gold Key ("Twilight Zone"), even Archie ("Madhouse", "Chilling Adventures in Sorcery"). At any spinner rack you haunted, you could count on finding sevefral horror books lurking within.
Some were excellent, some were fairly dreadful. But they were always fun, and ideal for a late night sleepover with flashlights after the parents were asleep. I
didn't pick up many of them at the time, though. My loss. I now love to
grab them up, often found on the cheap in quarter boxes. We often talk of books which "the cover made us buy"; well, there are many fine examples of spookily spectacular art to be found throughout the Bronze age. Now let's open the vault and have a look at some...
Although I'm late warming up to this genre, I love anthologies, and these are fun reading and often inexpensive as well. Hard to argue with all that. How about you? Any mavens of the macabre among you?