History And Criticism

The emphasis here is on American comic books. In the catalogs, see the geographical subdivisions of the subject heading Comic books for material on foreign comics.

Barker, Martin. A haunt of fears. London: Pluto Press, 1984. JFD 85-68. Traces the influence of Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent on the British comics industry. Not illustrated.

Crawford, Hubert H. Crawford's encyclopedia of comic books. Middle Village, N.Y.: Jonathan David Publisher's, Inc., 1978. 3 MDY 79-24. Attempts to cover the rise and fall of the comic book industry from the 1930s through the 1950s" Each chapter deals with a different publishing house and follows the development of its major characters through other media such as movies and television. The author includes many pertinent comments on popular culture, and discussion of themes common to comic books and classical literature. Also provides a chronological summary of the development of comic book literature 1860-1978. Index. Some color illustration; mostly black and white.

Benton, Mike. Science fiction comics: the illustrated history. Dallas: Taylor Publishing, 1992. JFE 92-2754. One of a new series The Taylor History of Comics. Each volume follows the development of various genres including horror, superheroes, etc. All include several chapters on history and development of the theme followed by a guide and checklist, bibliography and index. Consult CATNYP by author or series title for future volumes. Full color illustrations.

The Comic-book book, edited by Don Thompson and Dick Lupoff. New Rochelle, N.Y.: Arlington House, 1973. JFE 85-1975. A collection of 13 essays on comic books, comic strip characters, and the sociological impact of comic books. Covers the period 1940-1970. Illustrated in black and white.

Estren, Mark. A history of underground comics. Berkeley,CA: Ronin Publishing, 1993. JFF 93-2342. A very detailed, heavily illustrated history of underground (noncomformist, sometimes politically oriented, often sexually explicit) comics. Coverage includes artists, publishers, distributors, and much more. Indexed by subject, artist, publication. Bibliography. Illustrations in b&w and color.

The Funnies: an American Idiom, edited by David Manning White and Robert H. Abell. London:Collier-Macmillan. 1963. 3-MDY. Deals mainly with comic strips. Included here for the excellent bibliography (pp.293-304) of over 200 books, newspaper and journal articles, and theses dealing with the "comics controversy."

Gifford, Denis. American comic strip collections, 1884-1939. Boston: G.K. Hall, 1990. *R-MDY 91-2273. Not a narrative history but a chronologically arranged bibliography which traces the development of the early newspaper comic strip collections into comic book form. Entries include bibliographic and physical description, contents, authors, artists, first editorials and more. Includes title index, author/artist index.Good for early obscure titles. No illustrations.

Goulart, Ron. Ron Goulart's Great history of comic books. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 1986. JFF 87-136. Goulart, a major authority in the field, presents a history of comics 1890 to the 1980s. Illustrated mostly in black & white. Some color. Index.

Histoire mondiale de la bande dessinee, edited by Pierre Horay. Paris: P. Horay, 1989. JFG 91-873. Text in French but coverage is worldwide. Profusely illustrated in color and black and white. Gives a good overall pictorial survey of comics around the world.

Kurtzman, Harvey. From aargh! to zap!; Harvey Kurtzman's visual history of the comics. New York:Prentice Hall Press,1991. 3-MDY+ 92-7282. Kurzman has been reading, writing and drawing comic books for over 50 years. Here he treats comic books as an art form and presents his own personal opinions on comics and their artists. Profusely illustrated in color and black & white.

The New Comics Anthology, edited by Bob Callahan. New York: Macmillan, 1991. JFF 91-2120. Celebrates the best of avant-garde and post-modern graphic literature known as the "New Comics Movement." Includes samples of the work of over eighty current comic artists. Illustrations in color and black & white.

Schodt, Frederik. Manga! Manga!; the world of Japanese comics. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1983. 3-MDY 84-1061. A history of the Japanese comic book industry. Bibliography and index. Illustrations in black & white.

Smithsonian book of comic-book comics, edited by Michael Barrier and Martin Williams. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1981. 3-MDY 82-1699. A collection of sample comic book stories published before 1954. Each selection is preceded by a brief essay. Printed in full color and in a manner which closely resembles the original comic book paper. Emphasis is on humorous comic books but includes the first Superman and Batman stories.

Those were the terrible, shocking, sensational, appalling, forbidden...but simply wonderful HORROR COMICS of the 1950's, edited by Ron Barlow and Bob Stewart. New York: Nostalgia Press, 1971. 3-MDY+ 75-1796. Full color reprints of 25 stories from the controversial EC line of comic books. Includes some commentary and a artist profiles.

Waiter, Stanley and Bissette, Stephen. Comic book rebels: conversations with the creators of the new comics. New York: Donald Fine, 1992. JFE 93-10824. Authors interview twenty artists, creators, and others, including Dave Sim, Richard Corben, and Will Eisner, about what they call the "third great Comics Revolution" in the 1990's. Excellent bibliography, source material. Black and white illustrations.