I can’t say I’m a huge fan of comics, but there are some superheroes I quite like (in their more modern interpretations), and I have read a few comics. I don’t consider it a lowbrow genre—many comics, in terms of emotional intensity, are just as good as highly respected books. Still, my familiarity with the genre is fairly superficial. That’s why it was all the more surprising that I became interested in a book about the history of comics. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that the book itself is made in the form of a comic.
Both authors, Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, are comic creators themselves (not just this book), so they know the industry from the inside. In their book The Comic Book History of Comics, they set out to show where the essence of modern comics comes from, how they developed, became international, faced persecution, and evolved according to local traditions.
Initially, the book seemed light and purely entertaining, but it quickly proved that the authors were taking the subject very seriously. They draw constant parallels between comics and the animation industry, as these two art forms were closely connected in the early stages. Disney’s Mickey Mouse first appeared in a cartoon but quickly transitioned to comic book pages. The style of Disney’s animated films had a huge influence not only on American comics but also on the development of their Japanese counterpart, manga.
The authors attempt to present their narrative chronologically, though they sometimes jump back in time when telling the stories of various personalities in the industry, or when shifting focus to the development of this art form outside the U.S. Nevertheless, the majority of the book is devoted to the American history of comics.
They provide their own assessment of numerous events in the industry and debunk some myths (for instance, the much-revered Stan Lee isn’t portrayed as the sweetest person here, although his contributions to the field are undisputed). One of the book’s strengths is that it offers a fairly detailed account of many key figures—how they lived, how they got into comics, what they wanted, and what they achieved (or didn’t). I was particularly struck by the descriptions of the legal battles between creators and artists and the publishing houses, where publisher magnates often secured immense profits, while the original creators’ recognition remained minimal (and in many cases, the public didn’t even know much about them).
However, after the book’s energetic start, I expected an even deeper dive into the material. The history ends in the early 2000s, but the explosive rise in popularity of comic book heroes due to movies and TV shows is left out. Yes, the authors mention adaptations, but only briefly and mainly focusing on older ones rather than the more recent phenomena. Yet today, cinema and comics are deeply intertwined—think of the massive success of The Walking Dead or almost all the Marvel movies. There’s nothing about this in the book, nor about the rivalry between DC and Marvel. Sure, the authors briefly mention that the two companies copied from each other, but it’s shown more through the lens of unclear copyright laws. On the other hand, the book was written in 2012, and much has changed since then. History has moved on.
There’s also no mention of the reverse influence of other art forms on comics—where comics were created based on movies, TV shows, or even video games. And while the history of comics outside the U.S. is touched on, it remains rather superficial, which is a pity since it’s clearly deserving of more attention (for example, there’s nothing about comics in the USSR or Warsaw Pact countries, though some things did exist there).
Overall, though, the book is very interesting, packed with facts I didn’t know. It genuinely tells the story of how the industry developed, rather than just being a fun tale with pictures. So, I can definitely recommend it—both engaging and informative.
My rating: 4/5
[…] familiar with the history of the Western comics industry, partly thanks to the comic-format book The Comic Book History of Comics, which I previously wrote about in this […]