the great comic book heroes by jules feiffer

Demystified Videos In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.Britannica Classics Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.Britannica Explains In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.'About this title' may belong to another edition of this title. In the final chapter, Feiffer describes his own late entry into comic books (he worked for Will Eisner, of Spirit fame) with awe and regret.Ĭopyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. His commentary is still relevant (and still among the best) today because it explains comics' appeal panel by panel, making immediately clear why this 'junk' is so exciting. Feiffer also looks at the comic book/juvenile delinquency controversy of the 1950s and the effect WWII had on the medium.

They were closer to home, more comfortable to live with, less like grown-ups.' He follows the comic book medium as it births Superman, Batman and all of the rest and cheekily examines various art techniques. He begins by recounting his love of comic strips, then dissects the appeal of the first comic books: 'The daily strips, by their sleek professionalism, held an aloof quality which comic books, being not quite professional, easily avoided. The new, slim volume is a personal and critical history of the medium from 1937 to the early 1950s, mixing Feiffer's impressions of comics, and labor in them, with a powerful history of the business.

This work was first published as a hardcover volume accompanied by 127 pages of color reprints, now omitted. Taken on their own terms, comics deliver exactly what they should: base, escapist entertainment.

'synopsis' may belong to another edition of this title.įeiffer ends his fabulous 1965 essay on comic book history with an argument that comics are 'junk,' but that junk is good, even necessary. Out of print for over 30 years, Feiffer discusses the role that the patriotic superhero played during World War II in shaping the public spirit of civilians and soldiers, as well as the escapist power these stories held over the zeitgeist of America. The Great Comic Book Heroes is widely acknowledged to be the first book to analyze the juvenile medium of superhero comics in a critical manner, but without denying the iconic hold such works have over readers of all ages. In the book, Feiffer writes about the unique place of comics in the space between high and low art and the power that this space offers both the creator and reader.

In 1965, Feiffer wrote what is arguably the first critical history of the comic book super-heroes of the late '30s and early '40s, including Plastic Man, Batman, Superman, The Spirit, and others. Fantagraphics is proud to publish Jules Feiffer's long out-of-print and seminal essay of comics criticism, The Great Comic Book Heroes, in a compact and affordable format.

The great comic book heroes by jules feiffer