The New
Reprints: A Voyage of Discovery to the Golden Age of Comic Books
Part 6: DC from
the 1930s and the Originals of Marvel, Part I
This Chapter was too long so I have to present it in two parts.
This project will be presented in twelve parts. Unfortunately, I can’t change
the order, so later posts will appear first. Please try to check this out
in order! And your comments are important. Please post how you became
aware of comics and their history!
- Introduction/Comics in "real" books.
- 1960s: Reprints from the Comic Companies: 80 Page Giants
& Marvel Tales!
- 1960s: The Great Comic Book Heroes
- 1960s: The Paperback Era
- 1970s: The Comic Strips AND the Comic Book Strips!
- 1970s: DC from the 1930s and the Origins at Marvel Part I
- 1970s: DC from the 1930s and the Origins at Marvel Part II
- 1980s until Today: Horror We? How's Bayou! The EC Age of Comics
- 1990s until Today: The Archives and Masterworks
- How The West Was Lost
- When Comics Had Influence: Public Service, Education & Promotion
- Journeys End, What We Leave Behind: A Century of Comics
So let us continue our voyage to and from the
1960s and discover the world of comics once almost forgotten. Our expedition is
mostly into the world of reprints that were available OUTSIDE the
newsstands and comic book stores but we will have a few detours on the way.
While the 1970s began the earnest reprinting of comic
strips, the humble comic book was still the prodigal son who had not yet returned.
The decade began with a major event:
the comic book shot heard around the world. Jim Steranko
created and produced a remarkable two part collection of “
The History of Comics”
which was just brilliant. The super-large, black and white books, told
the story of comics in great detail, going back to their pulp
beginnings. Steranko
gave us superb images, in black and white, and told the early stories of
both DC
and Marvel. Volume 2, published in 1972,
picks up where the first volume left off, using terrific images to tell
us about
Blackhawk comics,
Plastic Man, Captain Marvel and his family. A
highlight of the second volume is a full
Spirit
story, all seven
pages. It also had a compendium of the fascinating Steranko pages from
his Marvel work. I had expected and hoped for a part 3, but it is
now 40 years later and no dice. But, in
all this time, nothing has topped this work, or the beautiful covers
created by
Steranko. And what was the price for this gorgeous huge paperback book?
$1.98.
“All in Color For a Dime” edited by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson, was published in 1972, and it featured
mostly essays that concentrated on Comic Books. Popeye, the first super-hero of them all, is also
featured. Here, in eleven chapters, authors such as Roy Thomas, Ted White and
Harlan Ellison discuss the original Captain Marvel, the war comics of the
1940s, and the second-banana heroes such as Johnny
Quick. What a great and important
read! While the book is almost all text, there is a small color section of
covers mostly from the Golden Age. The book cost $11.25 in hardcover then! Three
years later it was followed by a sequel, “The Comic
Book Book,” which covered topics such as Jack Cole and Plastic Man, Will Eisner and The Spirit, Tarzan, EC comics and Frankenstein.
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| This page is from the Color section of All in Color for a Dime.
It was important to me because I had heard that Marvel's Daredevil got
his name from this character, but I had never seen a picture of him. |
I recently asked Roy Thomas about his involvement
in “All in Color…”: “Jerry Bails sent me
Julie Schwartz's copies of the early XERO (probably #1-3), which alas were lost
in the mail when I sent them back. I
contacted the Lupoffs to get #4 forwarded, and Dick asked me to do the article about
the non-Marvel Fawcett heroes, using a few comics I had and a number that he
sent me, plus my memories... not much more.
He even gave me a title, "Captain Billy's Whiz Gang," and a
first paragraph or so of history about Fawcett, which I used virtually intact,
though he didn't seem to care to be credited for it. I was too busy when the book version was done
to revise the article at all, but I'm happy to have been a part of the
series... even though I gave Dick conniption fits with my lateness, as I related
back in AE #18. See that issue for more
quotes from me re XERO. I had to decline
being in the second book (THE COMIC BOOK BOOK), as well... I think I was
supposed to write about the "commercial" super-heroes in the old
comics, like Captain Tootsie and Volto, etc... not dissimilar to what was
eventually done in ALL-STAR COMPANION, VOL. 2.”
“Jerry Robinson’s The Comics, An Illustrated History of Comic
Art,” (1974) was a wonderful, detailed look at the
history of comic strip art, by an artist himself. This was a 250 page, highly
illustrated black and white book which had wonderful color section. It was a bit of a disappointment
in only one way, Robinson was one of the greatest and most important comic book
artists, the first to draw the Joker and Robin in the Batman
series. Yet, there isn’t a piece in here about comic books. Sigh.
Robinson discussed the artists and even the technology that
drove the art form at the beginning of the century. He divides the book into several
chapters, such as “A New Art Form.” “The Golden Age” (which for him was 1910-1919)
and the “Cavalcade of Color.” In each chapter he allows artists including,
Milton Caniff, John Hart, Leonard Starr to leave their comments about the era.
Charles Schulz: When people talk about "putting
meaning" into comic strips, too often they mean political meaning or refer to crime. In the first case, it seems
to me that the meaning is directed into too narrow an area; in the second, it
deals with something which plays a relatively minor role in the lives of most
people.
It is
surprising, therefore, that so many cartoonists working in such a marvelously
flexible medium have not dealt more closely with the real essential aspects of
life such as love, friendship, and day-to-day difficulties of simply living and
getting along with other people.
Comic strip language is notoriously simple, and, of course, this is
understandable when one considers the small space to which we are confined in
the newspaper. As strips have been reduced in size, due to newsprint shortage
and other such difficulties, dialogue has been reduced and real conversations
have all but disappeared.
Lack of
space, however, is not the only reason for this. I believe that a more
important reason is simply a lack of desire and imagination. One of the most
delightful aspects of life is conversation. Talking with a new friend,
discovering new ideas, and learning about each other can be one of the great
experiences of life.
Good writers know this and make use of it in other
media. I have been trying to introduce this into the Peanuts strip for the past several years because I feel it is an
area that has not been well cultivated.
Dark Horse, in 2011 published an updated and totally redone version of this book. of this one entitled, “Jerry
Robinson’s The Comics, An Illustrated History of Comic Art 1895-2010.” Wow, this a very different book, in
full color throughout. There is so much added, including the strips that gained
popularity since the first addition such as Doonesbury. Robinson, in the second edition also touches
on certain themes that were taboo in the past, such as the integration of
comics, an important subject.
After Robinson's volume, comic books would no longer be dismissed. Pierre Couperie’s “A History of the Comic Strip”
(1968), was written with Maurice Horn. This book doesn’t just reference
comic strips that were
American, it acknowledges and explains the European influence on the
media. This
had been ignored in most other books, including the ones I presented in
the
introduction. For some reason, the progression of comic illustrated
storytelling
is most often presented as a totally American art form, and creators
consistently looked to England to have their
efforts validated partially because of an inferiority complex and
because Europe had developed their own comics. To fully understand the
evolution comic
books this book takes us to the mid 1800s. Rodolphe Topffer, a
Frenchman, was an early innovator
of the
comic strip and he was able to foresee the future: the “comic book” and
the “graphic novel:” In describing the comic book as a novel he wrote:
“The drawings
without their text, would have only a vague meaning; the text, without the
drawings, would have no meaning at all. The combination of the two makes a kind
of novel, all the more unique in that it is no more like a novel than it is like
anything else.”
Topffer understood that the drawings and the text must be
symbiotic. Some may dispute this, but it makes no difference whether the text
is in balloons or at the bottom of the page. What is important is that they are
dependent on each other, not where they are placed.
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| This scan is from
"Rodolphe Topffer, The Complete Comic Strips" Compiled, Translated and
Annotated by David Kunzle. University Press of Mississippi, 2007. $65 on
Amazon |
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Les Daniels authored,“
Comix, A
History of Comic Books in America”
in 1971. By today’s standards, this would not be considered great
reprint book. It is
in black and white, with a small color section, and the comic pages
printed
two on a page that had to be turned 90 degrees to read. But it was truly
a gold mine then of Golden Age material. Daniels fully discusses the
history of comic BOOKS. Of course, he leads
off with what will become the obligatory essay on the
Yellow
Kid (featured at the beginning of all books about comics), but he swiftly gets into
Superman, comic books and the Golden Age.
He doesn’t just discuss the well known characters such as
Batman, but he discusses
Blackhawk and Chop-Chop,
The Spirit and Ebony
, Captain Marvel
and Steamboat Willie, and many others. Daniels
writes about the genre of Funny Animals, which he calls Dumb Animals,
and the 1960s and 1970s Underground comics. He also examines EC comics
and crime comics, such as Lev Gleason’s “
Crime Does Not Pay” that
led up to them. The book contains many stories and, finally, a
Crime Does Not
Pay tale is one of them.
Daniels writes: “Gleason
and Biro also brought a new and very controversial slant to comic books with
Crime Does Not Pay. Beginning in 1942, this comic book featured factual
accounts of conflicts between criminals and the law. In a broad sense, this was
the same theme the superheroes had explored. Conflict is, after all, the basis
of plot, but Crime Does Not Pay, minus the fantasy element, really sharpened
the impact. The tone was sternly, even dogmatically realistic, and grim details
were never lacking. The story reprinted here, "Baby Face Nelson vs. The U.
S. A." (No. 52, June 1947) represents this publication during its period
of greatest popularity. The artwork is by George Tuska. It seems certain that
the intention of this comic book was sincere; certainly its new approach was
successful, as it gained huge circulation during the postwar years. Perhaps as
a result of the mixed emotions it inspired, perhaps because comic books had
been around long enough to gain general recognition, there were rumbling
resentments against the industry as a whole.”
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| These are not two pages put together by me, this is how the pages were printed, two on a sheet. |
Daniels then looks at the aftermath of the Comics Code and discusses how publishers tried to reinvent adult comics with Humbug and the Warren Publications titles of Creepy and Eerie. It would take until 2009 for
Humbug to be reprinted. Creepy, which was widely available in the 1960s, began being reprinted in 2008 by Dark Horse.
On the left is a copy of the original
page from Humbug #9, 1958. The image on the right is from the Humbug
book from Fantagraphics, 2009.
This is as good a place as any to bring up this point. I
know many of us are collectors and having the originals is a good thing. Many originals are worth a lot of money. But keeping and reading the reprint books
do have a few advantages:
- Often, the reprint
books are clearer, sharper and just plain easier to read.
- All the issues are in one
place.
- The books are not fragile
like old comics. Old comics also may lose some value with use and they tear
and stain easily.
- They are cheaper
than buying the originals. Further, if you like the comics and want to
keep them to read, keep the reprints and sell the comics! Of course, for collectors,
you’d only sell the comics you are not attached to.
- Many dealers have told us that when a Masterwork or reprint comes out the comis in those titles go down greatly in value.
Oh, yes, there is a chapter on Marvel!
Sadly, Les Daniels died on Nov. 5, 2011, at his home in
Providence, R.I. He was 68.
I don’t want to underestimate the importance of these volumes;
they were the beginning of a long list of successful and interesting books
about COMIC BOOKS! And the Golden Age!
DC Travels from the
1930s to the 1970s
Bonanza Publishing published four books in 1971 that
finally brought us back to the Golden Age of
Superman, Batman, and Captain Marvel (Shazam). These three had volumes
released which presented stories “From The 30s to the 70s.” Superman and Batman were DC characters;
Captain Marvel was a creation of Fawcett Publications, purchased by DC. What a
treasure it was to get these books! The
volumes contained stories that were spread out over 30 years, mostly in black
and white. There were some color features, (“36 Pages in Full Color”), but these older
stories were just wonderful. The books presented many of the origin stories, not
just of the heroes, but also of the villains such as the Joker, and the supporting
characters, such as Alfred the butler. Some of the tales in the Batman volume (including his first appearance from Detective Comics #27, as well as the Alfred story
referred to above) were reprints from anniversary and 80 page
giant issues from the '60s, which had been traced from their original Golden
Age printings.
The introductions, all by E. Nelson Bridwell, were very
interesting. Perhaps the most compelling part of the books was to see how the
characters changed, especially after the Comics Code was introduced. Batman, for example, became less dark and the stories
got lighter. Superman became less of a wise-guy and more interplanetary.
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This was an important reprint. If you recall I wrote in chapter 3, The Great Comic Book Heroes that a lawsuit had prevented anyone from printing the Origin of Captain Marvel, or any other of his marvel tales.
Finally, I get to read his complete origin! |
All in color for $11. Bonanza Books in 1976 also gave
us
“Secret Origins of the Super DC Heroes.” At
first glance, I was happy to see another book that had Golden Age stories in
it. Sadly, there were far too many Silver Age origin stories, including
Superman from 1975. Many of the Golden
Age origins, including the ones of the
Flash, Green Lantern, Superman, Plastic Man, Captain Marvel
and Batman had shown up in other reprints, including the
The Great Comic Book Heroes. This book of secret origins had previously “unreprinted” stories
from
Batman #47, and the Golden Age origins of
Green Arrow, Hawkman and the Atom. Carmine Infantino wrote the introduction.
When published, these were the only Golden Age reprints available in
bookstores. They were placed in the "Humor" section. And, with two
exceptions, it would remain that way for the rest of the decade.
The next book of Golden Age reprints to be found in bookstores during
the 1970s was probably more famous for its introduction than its
stories. Gloria Steinem, a leader for the civil rights for women, wrote
the
introduction to Wonder Woman, typing her into
the ongoing “woman’s movement.” She wrote that Wonder
Woman “symbolizes many of the values of the woman’s culture that
feminists are now trying to introduce into the mainstream.” Ms. Steinem never mentions bondage as one of
their goals.
Here's another small detour from the book store. By the mid 1970s, Comic Book Stores were
becoming common. Soon there would be 10,000 of them, now we have less than 3,000. Since they had
more space for comic book related material, more reprint comics began to come
out. Marvel was now regularly publishing,
Where
Monsters Dwell, Beware and other comics featuring stories from
their 1950s Atlas Era. By the mid 1970s about 25% of Marvel’s output
were reprints. None were from their Golden
Age of the 1940s.
As the new Comic Books stores opened they all had their own price lists,
which
would later be called price guides. These lists were rexographed or
mimeographed using the cheapest forms of reproduction available at the
time. The lists were not
made to last long, their inventory and pricing changed almost daily.
Their lists became invaluable, revealing important information!
In 1979 and 1980 DC gave us a taste of the Golden Age with
three trade paperbacks: America and War,
Mysteries in Space and Heart Throbs. These comics feature the “best” of
war, science fiction and romance comics respectively. The volumes also featured
complete checklists for their respective genres.
Not all the stories were from the Golden Age of the 1940s
and early 1950s, some were Silver Age Tales.
But we are running out of space, so I have to divide this topic into two
chapters. Too bad, I won't have the space to explain the importance of
the next two panels to our voyage of discovery until next time.
Or how a few stamped, self-addressed envelopes began to uncover the mysteries of the Golden Age.
Things are really beginning to heat up now, Barry. Roll on the next instalment. I'm surprised you haven't had more comments about these labours of love, but I'm sure your readers are appreciating them none-the-less.
ReplyThanks Kid, and thanks for you help again.
ReplyI notice people respond on other sites, I guess they are shy about responding here. I am very interested in finding our about their experiances, especailly those in other countries.
Wonderful. The original Steranko history, though, did not have the title on the cover. That was added for later printings.
I just recently sold my copy of the Batman volume. Never had or even saw the Wonder Woman or Secret Origins volumes.
I can't tell you how influential ALL IN COLOR...was for me! I was able to tell Dick Lupoff a few years back though, and Don Thompson some years before that.
Here's a piece I published 6 years back on a few of my influences. http://booksteveslibrary.blogspot.com/2006/01/comic-book-books.html