...The book that I gave the title of above in the header is probably one of the most comic-book scholarship & reprint books of all time - simply because it was the first .
Really , wasn't this 1965 book the first legal book to offer Golden Age super-hero material reprinted in full ( With one exception...) as well as a serious consideration/analysis/personal memoir of those comic book ?
You'll notice I didn't say " history " and there is a reason why...
Feiffer's book offered many Golden Age super-hero stories , primarily from DC and Marvel properties , sandwiched by a lengthy text piece - a book in its own right , really , at least a small one - reminiscing over Feiffer's experience as a fan of the early comic books , and analysing the appeal of those characters , as well as somewhat offering a defense of them . ( Hey , only 10-ish years post-Wertham...)...
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..." Sandwiched " , I said - The color comic-book repros were in the middle , with a quite long first part in the front of the book and a shorter second part at the end .
There was none of the history we all can recite from square one now , no mention of Sieigel & Shuster's contractual problems , Stan Lee , being hired by his uncle , etc....I don't believe those names are even mentioned in the text !
Will Eisner's is...Feiffer , of course , before falling into the cartoon style he was noted for , worked as Eisner's assistant during the post-WWII period , a fact which is not mentioned here , which might appear to violate the modern-day notion of " disclosure " - However , the Spirit story included is from the pre-post-war period that is now generally seen as a " classic " Spirit .
BTW , there are also some individual repros in black & white during the text portion - About in the late 90s , Fantagraphics reprinted the text portion minus the comics stories (which , admittedly , were , in general , quite familiar by that time and had been reprinted frequently) , an edition that I have never physically seen .
I loved how Feiffer picked apart the Superman-Lois Lane-Clark Kent love triangle, referring to different aspects of it as "a typical American romance". It was hilarious.
Every story in that book was the 1st time I ever got to read them, and it was quite a jolt. Some were crude, but they mostly tended to be exciting, sometimes violent, and FUN. My least-favorites were probably The Human Torch (probably the only Golden Age HT stories I was ever impressed by were the 2 book-lengthers reprinted in the 90's), and Wonder Woman. When I got the WW Archive books, I realized what was wrong with that story-- it was "part 4 of 4" of a book-lengther, so it's no wonder it made so little sense to me. (Try walking into the last 30 min. of a 2-hour movie.)
Favorites included Batman's 1st encounter with The Joker (whatever happened to the bullet-proof vest?), The Flash, The Spectre, and Captain America. The Spirit was just strange... it really took me decades (not until the mid-80's) to fully appreciate the characters, buit when I did, WOW.
Yeah , Feiffer's analysis of " Superman " in general was interesting...He felt that , after the earlies strips , that the comic looked like " it was drawn in a bank " - by which I guess he meant after the first year or two , when Joe Shuster's individual style/look more or less disappeared from the strip , as a big shop managed by S&S came in - but that the boredom of ( he felt ) much of the stories little mattered , because it was " The Superman Show " . And , IIRC regarding the evident flaws of the Superman-Lois-Clark relationship ( which , remember , was the one of Lois openly scorning Clark even as he - not exactly modern " appropriate behavior " at work rules , I guess - tried to get her , Lois considering him a " spineless worm " , not the Wesinger-era " She's my girlfriend ! See, the book's logo says so !!! " " Oh , Superman , please MARRY ME !!! one :-) )...And , in a phrase that's stayed in my haid fo' decades , Feiffer said " Real rapport was for villians . That's why they got beat up . " , or similar !!!
It took me some years after I got the book ( At the age of 6 - my mother borrowed it from our priest/minister and , um...she had to get the good Father another one !!!!!!!!!!! Eek . :-) ) til' I could , fully , read Feiffer's text...Oh , Feiffer put brief intros under the splash of each story , too...
And , that " exception " ? With fulsome thanks in his intro for DC Comics' permission in this , he printed A PAGE AND A HALF or so , condensed into one , of Captain Marvel's origin !!!!!!!!!!!
The out-of-court settlement between Fawcett & DC apparently stipulated that Fawcett would not publish CAPTAIN MARVEL anymore, nor, allow anyone else to, either! Roy Thomas' ALTER EGO (the original one, the actual home-made fanzine) devoted an issue to THE MARVEL FAMILY, and were sent a "cease-and-desist" order from DC's lawyers (or was it Fawcett's?). Crazy. This did not stop a South American publisher from continuing to create & publish their own, brand-new episodes. Not did it stop the English publisher who had also been licensing them, from changing the names & costumes, and continuing the series as MARVELMAN. Personally, I think the Carl Burgos android character published by Myron Fass, and Marvel's CAPTAIN MAR-VELL would both have gone over better if they had simply had their own names. Yeah, it seems a shame DC didn't license (or buy-out) CAPTAIN MARVEL back when "cartoony" stuff was still more prevelent. They could have spun it off into a Saturday morning cartoon show by Hanna-Barbera. (I wonder how much Alex Toth would have hated that? heehee)
Yes, if I recall, the SPIRIT story in the book was maybe halfway thru Eisner's 1st run on the character. The art & storytelling had gotten a WHOLE lot better than the earliest ones, which were a bit too detailed & "stiff".
I never would have imagined when I read that WW episode that, many years later, the Marston-Peter version of the character would become my favorite. (WHO KNEW the earliest episodes of the Lynda Carter show were actually much more faithful to the source material than I would have imagined?)
I've read a reprint of a Golden Age story with a footnote saying he'd discarded it because it impeded movement. I think it's the story where Robin is nearly killed. Batman is shot in the shoulder bringing the crooks in.
Jeff of Earth-J said: