Fred Van LenteComic Book History of Comics

This is a great book about the history of comics that had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions. It is surprisingly self-aware and easy-to-read. It is full of historical fact and appears rather dense upon first glance, but the narrative style and humor make it hard to put down. The history begins around 1900 and is mostly heavily focused upon what is traditionally considered the Golden and Silver Ages of American comics (approximately 1930s until early 1970s.) Understandably, its hard to write a history focused on the near present. However, I wish there was additional material covering the 80s and 90s. (Hopefully a future edition.) To be clear, this is not a book about superhero comics. Of course, its hard to talk about American comics without discussing superheroes, but the book just a great job of covering all of the other important genres including EC horror and the underground movement of the 70s.My only real complaint, and its a minor one, is that the book has no pretenses to objectivity when it comes to some of the creator disputes involving Siegel and Shuster, McFarlane, etc. The authors even refer to Kirby as "our hero."

A thick but approachable book, this book tells the history of comics, starting from political cartoons and "funnies," through their evolution into collections of funnies, and finally comic books. With a deft hand, the illustrations and even lettering evoke the material of each period, while maintaining a coherent metastyle across the production. Of particular note is the even hand with which the near constant efforts of censorship against comics have been portrayed. As much as this is an excellent introduction for anyone to comics, it is a must-read for any fan of the medium who wants to speak intelligently when defending it. Just fantastic.

How could this combination not be a natural? Fred Van Lente's Comic Book History of Comics not only looks over a history of a medium that is at once taken for granted and denigrated by snooty idiots but truly appreciated by those with a discerning eye, it is a pleasure to read (and examine, because it's a visual thing, after all) and educational as well. What's not to love?

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This text rips the band-aid off hard and fast...exposing the dirty politics and external controls placed on comic book writers and illustrators. If you can walk away from reading it without despising Disney and half the media power-brokers running syndicated papers, you are more objective than I am. Still, I found the text very interesting.

Great, entertaining book, and I learned a few things, even being a life-long comic book fan. "Done in the style of Larry Gonick's Cartoon History of the Universe." The parts about Jack Kirby, my hero, are laugh-out-loud funny.

Required to purchase this for a history of comics class.The book is a great read--but probably meant to be taken with a grain of salt. In order to be entertaining, there's a handful of exaggeration that newbies might find hard to gauge. Really eye-opening though, and a good introduction for further study.The art's a little sloppy--understandable, it's a big book!--but not unbearable to read.You're better off taking a class, but this is a fast, inexpensive substitute.

I really liked this book, and though it covered some of the same information that other books have covered, it covered them in comic book form--not just here and there, but extensively.