Question:
Anyone know of any really good books on comic book history? Any
recommendations?
I have seen a couple ... notably:
Invaders from the North - by John Bell
and
Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book - by
Gerard Jones
Any other ones that people would suggest over these ones?
Answer:
-See if you can find All In Color For A Dime by Richard Lupoff. I'd also
recommend The Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics, though it's more an
anthology than a history.
-I recommend this book too. After reading this book I finally understood
clearly why Bob Kane got such a good deal and Siegel, Shuster, and Bill Finger
did not, why almost everyone important to the comics industry was Jewish, and
little bits of trivia like the fact that the word 'television' was coined in
1910 (before radio was invented) in a pulp? magazine article and the term
'science fiction' came from a late 1920's pulp.
-"All In Color For A Dime" has been mentioned. That book has a sequel,
"The Comic Book Book." There were also two volumes of "The History of
Comics" by Jim Steranko in the 1970s.