We're not going to discuss a comic book today, but rather a coffee-table style volume about comic books -- specifically, DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes by Les Daniels.
Doing the math will tell you that this book was published in 1995, and it follows the publishing history of the company that today is known as DC Comics. To be sure, there is quite a bit of information about the early days of comic books and men like Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Whitney Ellsworth, Vin Sullivan, Harry Donenfed, Jack Liebowitz, Bob Kane, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Jerry Robinson and many more.
The book details the origins of DC icons Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, as well as the Justice League, Green Lantern, the Flash and Hawkman. It also covers the radio, serial, television, film, stage and merchandising incarnations of those heroes, as well.
The book includes information on comic book genres beyond superheroes such as funny animals, westerns, television and motion picture celebrities, mysteries, science fiction, war and horror.
It covers related topics such as the comics code, relevant comics, the creation of Vertigo and the birth of event comics.
As a coffee-table book, many of these topics are covered in an abbreviated style, so other books might offer a more complete history than this tome does. But what this book lacks in depth it more than makes up for with the hundreds of large full-color illustrations that adorn its pages. From individual comic panels to entire reprinted comic pages and photos gallore of actors and comic-themed memorabilia, the true draw of this book is its art! Check it out if you have the chance.
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