Need Help Finding Mandatory Reading for Golden Age Comics

[Mac Man]

Okay guys and gals, I'm hoping some of you might be able to lend a helping hand on a major endeavor I'll be starting shortly: My doctoral dissertation. Woo hoo!

 

I'm going to be spending a large part of my dissertation working on heroes of the Golden Age of Comics--particularly Superman and Batman (you have to love it when you get to do this sort of thing as a part of your graduate work!-). I'm probably going to keep the focus narrowed to those years leading up to and including World War II, but I won't be going any further than that. For primary source material, I'm looking at Action Comics / Superman and Detective Comics / Batman. For secondary source material, I've read Gerard Jones' Men of Tomorrow and Daniels' source books on Batman and Superman. I'm sure there are a few other books, but I'm drawing a blank right now.

 

I'm also debating about including Wonder Woman into the analysis as I dislike the notion of having only male heroes discussed. Unfortunately, I've never liked Wonder Woman, so I really know very little about her aside from some of the bare bone basics. I'll probably be including a section Spider-Man as well, but that will be a later chapter as I prepare to wrap things up, and he won't be included on my comprehensive exams as he falls outside of the narrow focus at this time. I also have a few documentaries on the history of comics as well.

 

So, if you guys could help me with any recommendations, I'd certainly appreciate it. Here are a few things I'm looking for in particular:

 

--> Secondary sources discussing the beginnings of the Golden Age of comics

--> Secondary sources discussing the origins of Superman and Batman (and Wonder Woman

--> Primary sources from the Golden Age of comics apart from the titles listed above that include significant events / developments in the stories of Superman, Batman (and Wonder Woman).

 

 

[comicdonna]

I highly recommend "All in color for a dime". Copyright 1970 by Lupoff and Don Thompson. This book may be hard to find. I would be willing to lend you my copy.

[Mac Man]

I should add that while they take place after the time that I'll be studying, 10 Cent Plague and Seduction of the Innocent are on my list as well since I will need to be able to discuss issue that followed this period.

 

And thanks for the suggestion Mike. Looks like Amazon has a few copies for cheap, so I'll be sure to check it out!

[comicdonna]

You won't be disappointed!

[Doohickamabob]

Here are some good books about Golden Age comics that are in my library:

 

-- "Comix: A History of Comic Books in America" by Les Daniels

-- "A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics," edited by Michael Barrier and Martin Williams

-- "Great American Comic Books" by Ron Goulart

-- "Comics: Between the Panels" by Duin Richardson

 

For Wonder Woman stuff, you might want to actually read the books and other writings by William Marston, who was a psychologist or psychiatrist, and apparently invented the lie detector. The way he devised Wonder Woman has a whole philosophy behind it -- one that some might describe as a little kinky. You might also look for "Women in the Comics," by Maurice Horn. It's a good summary of all the female heroes and superheroes in the Platinum and Golden Ages, and beyond. Unfortunately this book is not laid out very well and can be frustrating to read.

 

I know there are several newer books about comic history out there, but I haven't kept up. If you were interested in post-WWII, I would recommend numerous books about pre-code horror as well. (I'm also quite fond of "Foul Play!" by Grant Geissman if you have any interest whatsoever in the writers and artists behind EC Comics.)

 

It goes without saying that "The Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books" by Ernst and Mary Gerber is an indispensable resource, but it's primarily a book loaded with pictures. Lots and lots and lots of pictures....o practically every important comic-book from the Golden Age! If you want a place to size up the covers of each DC comic cover, whether it's Action Comics or Sensation or Detective or All-American or New Fun or Adventure or All-Star or World's Finest or whatever else -- that's the place to do it!

 

As for reading these comics directly, the DC Archive Editions is an awesome series of quality reprints.

[TheSurgeon]

"The Great Comic Book Heroes" (1965) has a nice introduction by Jules Feiffer about the birth of the golden age superheroes, along with reprints of first appearance stories of superman, batman, flash, plastic man, and more. It is written from his perspective as a young artist trying to break into the medium.

 

 

 

[ComicConnoisseur]

Seduction of the Innocent by Fredric Wertham.

If you google it, you can find a link to download it for free now.

[Cat-Man_America]

Steranko's History of The Comics (two volume oversized) for excellent articles and research on various heroes, genres and the GA. (thumbs u

[Mac Man]

I don't remember where I read it (maybe Men of Tomorrow?) but Marston's an interesting fellow... particularly his relationship to women.

 

And I was fortunate to pick up a copy of the Gerber Journals and they'll be nice to have as a means of analyzing the cover art for these books. Lots of great suggestions here though guys, and I certainly appreciate them!

 

[adamstrange]

I second Steranko's History of Comics as it was one of the first serious attempts to put together an actual history.

 

I've just finished reading this http://www.amazon.com/Creators-Superheroes-Thomas-Andrae/dp/1932563539/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311917058&sr=8-1

 

It's an excellent work by a long time comics fan who's also a Berkley professor. It incorporates the most recent revelations from the last couple years.

[PreHero]

The Steranko Volumes and Thompson/Lupoff books are great reading, as are the various books by Mike Benton, Ron Goulart and Les Daniels. Other options are:

* Batman & Me by Bob Kane

* 60 Years of DC Comics (Daniels)

* Overstreet Price Guide has has many articles over the yrs.

* Amazing World of DC Comics (magazine)

* Comic Book Marketplace (great mag, esp the early issues)

* Alter Ego (both old and current) or Comic Book Artist magazines

* Comics: the Golden Age and The Golden Age of Comics (1980s magazines).

* Comics Buyers Guide (if you can find them, they had some good articles).

* Fanzines from the 1960s and 1970s (more obscure, but I suspect there's some great info there)

[Forbush-Man]

I will third Steranko's History of the Comics. (thumbs u

 

I'd also recommend Comic Book Marketplace

[Jeffro.]

Forrest,

I have a whole bunch of Comic Book Marketplace issues but they are all from after the re-boot, around issue 22 I think. I'm missing a few but you're welcome to borrow any that you need. Maybe when can connect at a Plainville show sometime.

[Mac Man]

I'd definitely be interested in taking a look at some of the CBM magazines as I know they had some great interviews with the different creators (I'm thinking about the dueling interviews between Bob Kane and Jerry Robinson in particular).

 

 

[sfcityduck]

Okay guys and gals, I'm hoping some of you might be able to lend a helping hand on a major endeavor I'll be starting shortly: My doctoral dissertation. Woo hoo!

 

I'm going to be spending a large part of my dissertation working on heroes of the Golden Age of Comics--particularly Superman and Batman (you have to love it when you get to do this sort of thing as a part of your graduate work!-). I'm probably going to keep the focus narrowed to those years leading up to and including World War II, but I won't be going any further than that. For primary source material, I'm looking at Action Comics / Superman and Detective Comics / Batman. For secondary source material, I've read Gerard Jones' Men of Tomorrow and Daniels' source books on Batman and Superman. I'm sure there are a few other books, but I'm drawing a blank right now.

 

I'm also debating about including Wonder Woman into the analysis as I dislike the notion of having only male heroes discussed. Unfortunately, I've never liked Wonder Woman, so I really know very little about her aside from some of the bare bone basics. I'll probably be including a section Spider-Man as well, but that will be a later chapter as I prepare to wrap things up, and he won't be included on my comprehensive exams as he falls outside of the narrow focus at this time. I also have a few documentaries on the history of comics as well.

 

So, if you guys could help me with any recommendations, I'd certainly appreciate it. Here are a few things I'm looking for in particular:

 

--> Secondary sources discussing the beginnings of the Golden Age of comics

--> Secondary sources discussing the origins of Superman and Batman (and Wonder Woman

--> Primary sources from the Golden Age of comics apart from the titles listed above that include significant events / developments in the stories of Superman, Batman (and Wonder Woman).

 

 

 

Your description of your dissertation is a little vague. I could probably help more if I knew your major and the topic of your dissertation. Obviously, all of the primary pre-war to early war Batman and Superman stories are available in the DC Archive books, and the newspaper strips have been reprinted recently as well.

 

Throwing darts, I'd suggest that if you are focusing on the way that Superman was portrayed going into WWII, a key primary source you will want for Superman is the Look Magazine dated February 27, 1940 with the two page "what if" strip about how Superman could end WWII. This story contrasts nicely with the way in which DC kept Superman out of WWII, by having him declared 4-F for bad eyesight (See Superman 25 and the daily newspaper comic strips for February 16-18, 1942).

 

[As an aside, I've always found it interesting that DC came to the conclusion that having its characters in WWII settings hurt sales because kids were looking for escapism from war stress, and by sometime in 1943 had laregly banished the war from its pages (or at least covers). I wonder if this helped DC maintain a stronger position post-war than some of its competitors who were more war-centric.]

 

If your focus is on the creation of the superhero concept, with a focus on Superman and Batman, then I think you need to take a look at Superman's pre-comic book incarnations in the Siegel fanzine and the mid-1930s comic strip (not drawn by Shuster), as well as at the Dr. Occult stories.

 

Similarly, for Batman, I'd suggest you look at the Phantom and also the Prince Valiant strips where Val impersonates a Demon to strike fear in the hearts of wrongdoers.

 

I'm really floundering without knowing what your focus is on. There's a lot of primary and secondary material worth looking at depending on what your topic is.

[rodan57]

Just out of interest, is this a history Ph.D.?

[Mac Man]

Okay guys and gals, I'm hoping some of you might be able to lend a helping hand on a major endeavor I'll be starting shortly: My doctoral dissertation. Woo hoo!

 

I'm going to be spending a large part of my dissertation working on heroes of the Golden Age of Comics--particularly Superman and Batman (you have to love it when you get to do this sort of thing as a part of your graduate work!-). I'm probably going to keep the focus narrowed to those years leading up to and including World War II, but I won't be going any further than that. For primary source material, I'm looking at Action Comics / Superman and Detective Comics / Batman. For secondary source material, I've read Gerard Jones' Men of Tomorrow and Daniels' source books on Batman and Superman. I'm sure there are a few other books, but I'm drawing a blank right now.

 

I'm also debating about including Wonder Woman into the analysis as I dislike the notion of having only male heroes discussed. Unfortunately, I've never liked Wonder Woman, so I really know very little about her aside from some of the bare bone basics. I'll probably be including a section Spider-Man as well, but that will be a later chapter as I prepare to wrap things up, and he won't be included on my comprehensive exams as he falls outside of the narrow focus at this time. I also have a few documentaries on the history of comics as well.

 

So, if you guys could help me with any recommendations, I'd certainly appreciate it. Here are a few things I'm looking for in particular:

 

--> Secondary sources discussing the beginnings of the Golden Age of comics

--> Secondary sources discussing the origins of Superman and Batman (and Wonder Woman

--> Primary sources from the Golden Age of comics apart from the titles listed above that include significant events / developments in the stories of Superman, Batman (and Wonder Woman).

 

 

 

Your description of your dissertation is a little vague. I could probably help more if I knew your major and the topic of your dissertation. Obviously, all of the primary pre-war to early war Batman and Superman stories are available in the DC Archive books, and the newspaper strips have been reprinted recently as well.

 

Throwing darts, I'd suggest that if you are focusing on the way that Superman was portrayed going into WWII, a key primary source you will want for Superman is the Look Magazine dated February 27, 1940 with the two page "what if" strip about how Superman could end WWII. This story contrasts nicely with the way in which DC kept Superman out of WWII, by having him declared 4-F for bad eyesight (See Superman 25 and the daily newspaper comic strips for February 16-18, 1942).

 

[As an aside, I've always found it interesting that DC came to the conclusion that having its characters in WWII settings hurt sales because kids were looking for escapism from war stress, and by sometime in 1943 had laregly banished the war from its pages (or at least covers). I wonder if this helped DC maintain a stronger position post-war than some of its competitors who were more war-centric.]

 

If your focus is on the creation of the superhero concept, with a focus on Superman and Batman, then I think you need to take a look at Superman's pre-comic book incarnations in the Siegel fanzine and the mid-1930s comic strip (not drawn by Shuster), as well as at the Dr. Occult stories.

 

Similarly, for Batman, I'd suggest you look at the Phantom and also the Prince Valiant strips where Val impersonates a Demon to strike fear in the hearts of wrongdoers.

 

I'm really floundering without knowing what your focus is on. There's a lot of primary and secondary material worth looking at depending on what your topic is.

 

I have to confess to being somewhat vague about it as I wanted to try and keep things as simple as possible. The reading list I'm compiling right now is aimed at developing my comprehensive exams list (which is essentially pre-research phase for the dissertation itself). That's part of why I'm keeping it a little broad in scope for right now. Obviously it will tighten more in its focus once I begin writing the dissertation itself.

 

The other reason that I'm not going too far into detail as to where I'm going with the work is due to the advice of a few mentors of mine (who know what I'm aiming to work on). There are a few elements to what I'm doing that have not been discussed before either in comics or the greater field of literature. As a result, I'd like to try and keep a lid on some of the specifics as I'd actually like to try and market the dissertation into a book once it's complete.

 

That said, I definitely appreciate your feedback. I thought I remember Jones discussing some of Sigel's pre-Superman fanzine articles and this will also be an area I'll need to spend some more time on.The Shadow is a "key" figure in part of my discussion, but I was not tracking the bit about Prince Valiant. That seems like something I'm definitely going to need to look into further. Fascinating stuff!

 

[Mac Man]

Just out of interest, is this a history Ph.D.?

 

Ph.D. in Literature & Criticism

[Ze-man]

Just out of interest, is this a history Ph.D.?

 

Ph.D. in Literature & Criticism Ph.D in combining my two interests!

 

Fixed that to better reflect the truth!

 

 

[Scrooge]

If the Shadow is a key figure, what do you have on your reading list as far as he is concerned?