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A review by ederwin
Comic Book History of Comics by Ryan Dunlavey, Fred Van Lente
3.0
This is more a "history of the comics industry" than a "history of comics". It talks more about publishing trends and publishing houses and fights over character ownership than it does about artistic style. And it is very much focused on the USA, with only a little content about Europe and Japan, and not very much about underground or independent comics. And that is OK, and interesting, but the title is a bit misleading.
In this telling, the creation of classic characters like Batman, Superman, Archie, etc., mostly seem to come about by a messy process of trial and error. Some talented people working in factory-like conditions just came up with a bunch of semi-random ideas and then kept going with whatever sold well. And then the credit and profits would go to the company, not the creators. Though, to be fair, the popularity of many of those characters is due not to the original version, but to many factors including things added by later creators working for the companies.
The story of the _art_ of comics, rather than the business, is also interesting, and there is more of that in works like [b:Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art|102920|Understanding Comics The Invisible Art|Scott McCloud|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328408101s/102920.jpg|2415847] and [b:Reading Comics|586106|Reading Comics|Douglas Wolk|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348295561s/586106.jpg|572948].
In this telling, the creation of classic characters like Batman, Superman, Archie, etc., mostly seem to come about by a messy process of trial and error. Some talented people working in factory-like conditions just came up with a bunch of semi-random ideas and then kept going with whatever sold well. And then the credit and profits would go to the company, not the creators. Though, to be fair, the popularity of many of those characters is due not to the original version, but to many factors including things added by later creators working for the companies.
The story of the _art_ of comics, rather than the business, is also interesting, and there is more of that in works like [b:Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art|102920|Understanding Comics The Invisible Art|Scott McCloud|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1328408101s/102920.jpg|2415847] and [b:Reading Comics|586106|Reading Comics|Douglas Wolk|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348295561s/586106.jpg|572948].