Comic Book Review: Comic Book History of Comics: Birth of a Medium written by Fred van Lente, art by Ryan Dunlavey
As a long-time comic book fan, I’ve been reading books and articles about the history of comic books since the early 1970s. It was inevitable that at some point there would be a comic book series about the history of comics, and almost as inevitable that I would read it.
This volume collects the first six issues of the series, which started publishing in 2012. Major topics include: the “prehistory” of comics, from cave paintings through funny drawings to collections of newspaper comic strips; the innovation of full-fledged superheroes; how comics and their creators were affected by World War Two; how a wave of more mature content met a wave of social moral disapproval resulting in the Comics Code; the beginning of Marvel Comics; and “underground” comics.
Other topics come in along the way, such as the history of animation, pulp science fiction and pop art.
Since this is a comic book, some liberties are taken with physical reality. Max Fleischer and Walt Disney are drawn as looking like their most famous creations, for example. But the research is solid, as are the character designs, so it’s easy to tell who people are supposed to be from panel to panel.
The creators did a series titled Action Philosophers before this one, and a couple of cameos from that show up. Ayn Rand is especially notable for her effect on Steve Ditko.
Some corrections have been made in this collected edition, and new pages scattered in about the “Herstory of Comics”, featuring female creators important in the medium but not getting much visibility in the larger stories.
This volume only takes us up to the early 1970s, which is still some fifty years back, so I’m looking forward to the second volume.
Mind, because I’ve read so widely about the medium, there’s little new here for me except the presentation. (Mainly the “Herstory” moments.) Younger readers and casual fans are likely to get even more out of it.
I’d recommend this volume for junior high readers on up due to some “mature” subject matter and disturbing imagery.
