Looking for books (about comics)

[Eto]

Hi everyone,

I am looking for interesting books about comics. So far I've got these two on my list:
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Suggestions are welcome!

[babyblob]

Slugfest - Inside the epic 50 year battle between Marvel and Dc

Marvel Comics The Untold Story.

Those are two that are really good.

[Mister Mets]

True Believer and Supergods are interesting.

Slugfest - Inside the epic 50 year battle between Marvel and Dc

Marvel Comics The Untold Story.

Those are two that are really good.

I definitely agree.

A weird one I got was the Slings & Arrows Comic Guide, which has a lot of commentary on 20th Century comics. Used copies aren't too bad.

Twomorrows Publishing has a lot of in-depth commentary, although that largely depends on your interest.

[MRP]

A few to consider...

Will Eisner-Shop Talk
Eisner/Miller
All in Color for a Dime
All the Marvels by Douglas Wolk
Invisible Men: The Trailblazing Black Artists of Comic Books
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
From Girls to Grrrlz by Trina Robbins
Why Comics? From Undergrounds to Everywhere by Hilary Chute
The Steranko History of Comics Vol. 1 and 2
Comics as Art: We Told You So by Tom Spurgeon

-M

[foxley]

Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics:The Invisible Art is the seminal work that explains how comics work as a storytelling medium, which is far more complex than it looks on the surface.

His followups, Reinventing Comics and Making Comics, are also interesting but not on the same level as Understanding Comics.

[Eto]

Thanks everyone!

[Jim Kelly]

SEDUCTION OF THE INNOCENT by Fredric Wertham. Originally from 1954, but my copy is from 2004.

Yes, this book caused a lot of bad things when it came out; however, no one else was writing about comic books back then. And Wertham gives a great deal of information about comic books in his text that you won't get anywhere else. Sure, he does it to support his bias--but if you filter that out, you can learn a lot about the industry as it used to be. I first found a copy of this book at the library back in the 1970s, with a lot of the pictures torn out by people who had taken it out before me. My current copy is intact with all the pictures in the middle, but in black and white (did the original have colour pictures, I'm not sure, I should research that).

ALL IN COLOR FOR A DIME (1970) was the first book on comics I got (also from the library, but I ordered my own copy immediately) and that had a follow up edition which was just about as good from many of the same writers, THE COMIC BOOK BOOK (1973).

Ron Goulart was one of the writers in those, but he also did his own books on comics. The one that I have and used a lot (before more modern technology made it moribund) is his GREAT HISTORY OF COMIC BOOKS (1986), with chapters covering the history of U.S. comic books up to the date of the publication.

The granddaddy of those was Jules Feiffer's THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES from 1965, which had reprints of many classic comics which you couldn't get anywhere at the time. I got my copy in the 1970s, but there is also a re-issue of this without the reprints.

Those classic works--and add to them the two volumes of STERANKO'S HISTORY OF COMICS (1970 and 1972)--are probably not very useful as far as data on comics. The authors made errors in their facts. But they are all great reading material. ALL IN COLOR FOR A DIME is one of the greatest books I ever read just for the pleasure of reading.

You also have the books from Stan Lee (with comic book stories included): ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS (1974), SON OF ORIGINS OF MARVEL COMICS (1975), BRING ON THE BAD GUYS (1976), THE SUPERHERO WOMEN (1977). Maybe Stan Lee's accounts of how all these comics were produced is a work of creative fiction, but it's great fun to read his purple prose.

INVADERS FROM THE NORTH (2006) by John Bell is a good overview of the history of comics in Canada. GIVE OUR REGARDS TO THE ATOMSMASHERS (2004) is like a more modern version of ALL IN COLOR FOR A DIME, with essays from writers about the comics they loved from different eras.

I have THE ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO WORLD COMICS (2005) by Tim Pilcher and Brad Brooks, which I picked up for cheap from the Book Warehouse. This is a book I will take off the shelf whenever I'm interested in finding out about comics from other places in the world.

And I've got 500 GREAT COMIC BOOK ACTION HEROES (2002) and 500 COMIC BOOK VILLAINS (2004) both by Mike Conroy. These are handy for a run-down on different comic book characters. And while they are mostly about U.S. comics, they also include international characters. I like to flip through these and discover any characters I don't know about.

[CaptainEurope]

I enjoyed this. It's not deep analysis, but a perfect thing to spend a few minutes with before bed time.

[Eto]

Thanks everyone.
This is my current list:
(I've ordered Marvel Untold, therefore it isn't on the list)
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