The crime fighter/superhero The Phantom, aka “The Ghost Who Walks, Man Who Cannot Die,” appeared first in February 1936 in The New York Journal as a comic strip. Thus predating the arrival of Superman by more than two years; two years in “comic books publishing time” is a long, long while (provided that in the […]
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Category: Comic Book Culture
The Marvel Age of Comics 1961–1978 by Roy Thomas (2017)
Marvel Comics of New York, originally founded as Timely Publications in 1939, is one of the most important comic book publishers worldwide. Comic book fans all over the world are grateful for superheros as Captain America or the Sub-Mariner. And particularly for superheros of “a somewhat other kind,” as the mostly troubled, eccentric and characters […]
Tarzan, Jungle King of Popular Culture by David Lemmo (2017)
Some writers of fiction seemingly are blessed with a fathomless imaginative power, which is the basis for many science fiction and adventure stories. In the case of Tarzan (of the Apes), it is also owed to the very adventurous and at times fast-paced biography of the author of the Tarzan tales, Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875 […]
The Mythology of the Superhero by Andrew R. Bahlmann (2016)
Since by now the superhero has become an intrinsic part of the popular culture in Western civilization, a closer look at the reasons why this has happened makes sense. Although his appearance can be traced down exactly to the early and mid-1930s in the US, his mythological origins go way back. Bahlmann encounters the superhero […]
75 Years of DC Comics. The Art of Modern Mythmaking by Paul Levitz (2017)
Any superhero comic book fan will know about the previous three huge books celebrating the Golden Age, the Silver Age and the Bronze Age of DC Comics. Those three volumes, big as they are, were merely a small part of what the current new edition of 75 Years of DC Comics The Art of Modern […]
The Bronze Age of DC Comics by Paul Levitz (2015)
The third volume of the DC chronicles is out and shows the company’s changing face and politics in the years 1970-1984. As the Golden Age and the Silver Age were focused on the development of DC comics until the year 1970, the current edition is labeled the “Bronze Age“ and demonstrates how the comic artists […]
Bending Steel. Modernity and the American Superhero by Aldo J. Regalado (2015)
By examining interviews, trade magazines and even testimonies, letters, memoirs and other personal data author Regalado seeks direct impact of the superheroes on the real lives of actual people. Or rather, he aims to find out just how “the big forces of American modernity shaped the lives of Americans on an individual level and how […]
Winsor McCay. The Complete Little Nemo by Alexander Braun (ed.) (2014)
Not just comic art fans but any student of popular culture or architecture will be delighted by this edition. Winsor McCay’s inventions of perspective, his psychedelic and fantastic renderings of breath-taking strange environments are presented here for the first time ever in the complete edition containing every (really every!) 549 episodes of Little Nemo. Who, […]
75 Years of Marvel Comics. From the Golden Age… by Roy Thomas and Josh Baker (2014)
After two big books on DC Comics, Taschen presents a heavy, heavy book on the other major name in comic publishing: Marvel Comics. Both publishers together dominate the US comic book market, approximately up to 80 percent of all superhero comics sold come from these two big players. The book on 720(!) pages commemorates not […]