- ISBN13: 9781560975014
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
Jules Feiffer’s historic essay, available again in a compact and affordable size.
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 size. In 1965, Feiffer wrote what is arguably the first critical history of the comic book superheroes of the late 1930s and early 1940s, including Plastic Man, Batman, Superman, The Spirit and others. In the book, Feiffer writes about the unique the place of comics in the space between high and low art and the power which this space offers both the creator and reader.
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. Out of print for over 30 years, Feiffer’s book 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.
With wit and insight Feiffer discusses what the great comic book heroes meant to him as a child and later as an artist; along with his trenchant and wryly-written commentary, the book includes numerous illustrated examples of strips and characters discussed.
I ordered this book as soon as I found out that Tarantino lifted Carradine’s infamous Superman speech from Feiffer. After skimming through about 80 pages of comic book history, I soon discovered that the Carradine/Tarantino delivery/rework of Feiffer’s Man of Steel expose surpassed the original in both style and content. I guess you have to give credit to Jules for being the original comic book scholar. However, I’ll just save you the money for this book and reprint Bill’s rendition below. Feel free to paypal me if you’d like.
“An essential characteristic of the superhero mythology is, there’s the superhero, and there’s the alter ego. Batman is actually Bruce Wayne, Spider-Man is actually Peter Parker. When he wakes up in the morning, he’s Peter Parker. He has to put on a costume to become Spider-Man. And it is in that characteristic that Superman stands alone. Superman did not become Superman, Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he’s Superman. His alter ego is Clark Kent. His outfit with the big red “S”, that’s the blanket he was wrapped in as a baby when the Kents found him. Those are his clothes. What Kent wears, the glasses, the business suit, that’s the costume. That’s the costume Superman wears to blend in with us. Clark Kent is how Superman views us. And what are the characteristics of Clark Kent? He’s weak, he’s unsure of himself… he’s a coward. Clark Kent is Superman’s critique on the whole human race. Sort of like Beatrix Kiddo and Mrs. Tommy Plympton.”
Rating: 3 / 5
Comic books are a passion for many young people, and since they are more fantasy than fiction, close scrutiny of their purpose and meaning is often unproductive. Using the laws of chemistry, physiology and physics to examine the powers of Superman and Wonder Woman is equivalent to peeking behind the curtain in the great hall of the wizard of Oz. That fatal flaw does not apply to this critique.
While Feiffer occasionally raises issues with the factual justification of the super hero, he does so in such a way that it does not offend anyone that wants to maintain the illusion. The unpretentious way in which he discusses the comics and their role in the world overwhelms the stripping of the veneers. He begins with the comics that appeared in the newspapers, descriptions of adventurers, lawmen and bad guys. His explanation of the greatest change ever to take place in the comics, the development of the super hero, is superb. The creators of Superman were geniuses, not only in his origins, but the development of the alter ego and the inclusion of his weaknesses. An invulnerable super being would soon become boring, as there would never be any real threat to his success and human interaction would be the equivalent of a Greek god interacting with a pathetically weaker human. His role as Clark Kent forced Superman to be a person, with feelings, weaknesses and emotions, even if only feigned. His vulnerability to Kryptonite meant that even humans could have a chance of defeating him.
This history of the development of the comic book super hero is well written and very informative. It describes some of the inside maneuvering, including a few involving the legal system, between the creators of the heroes. Sometimes there were even understandings regarding what kind of costume the different heroes could wear. I enjoyed reading it very much.
Rating: 5 / 5
My review is based on the original 1965 hardbound Bonanza Books edition. I mention this because, according to another reviewer, the more recently released softbound edition is both abridged and without some or all of the color comics that make this book such a joy.
Feiffer writes several pages of introduction that trace both the history of comics from newspapers to comic books and his own development from a child infatuated with everything about comics and super heroes to an adult writer/cartoonist.
I grew up following the adventures of many of the comic book super heroes he presents here. (Comic books were in their heyday and cost 10 cents.) By the time I was “into” comics, these super heroes were already well established and their super powers were taken for granted. In THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES, Feiffer includes many of the comic book sequences that reveal how these super powers came to be. Here’s some of what I learned from Feiffer:
Superman, as most of us do know, was sent to earth as a baby from a planet whose destruction was imminent. Inhabitants of that planet were all endowed with what, on earth, were super powers.
Batman didn’t really have super powers. From the time when, as a child, he saw his parents killed by gangsters, he trained his body and mind to function as a crime fighting machine.
The Human Torch was, in fact, not human. He was created in a lab.
The Flash got his superhuman speed as a result of breathing gas fumes during a lab accident.
The Green Lantern got his powers from a green ring made from a magic green lantern.
Captain America got his super powers from an injection of a secret formula. He was supposed to be one of many superior beings created to fight “the Nazi menace,” but the scientist who invented the secret potion was killed by the Nazis before he could make any more. He took it’s “recipe” to the grave with him. Thus, only one super hero, Captain America.
Plastic Man got his super powers from another lab accident in which he was exposed to a mysterious acid.
These are but a few of the Super Heroes, in their original comic book form, included in Feiffer’s book. These, in particular, fill in missing backgrounds for me.
In these old comic books there was no confusion. There were “us good guys” and “those bad guys.” And guess what – the good guys always triumphed.
Rating: 5 / 5
This here review is about the current version of this book, which you actually CAN buy on Amazon.com; not the “legendary” 1965 original hard cover version, which features 125+ pages of color reprints of Golden Age comics, not in this current version. Although, I must say that having heard of the 1965 book, through the years, is the only reason that I read this book, out of curious anticipation of a good, intellectual essay about a favorite throwaway pasttime — comics.
For those who loved comics as a kid, and as an adult can still look back with warm nostalgia upon the topic, you will enjoy this book.
It is interesting to read smart commentary about the early days of the comics industry, how comics were perceived by serious fans back then, and how much I can relate to the point of view of the author, who is such a comics fan that he built a successful career on it.
Some of Feiffer’s points are a bit too personalized, yet still worthy of consideration. He points out a lot of aspects about famous comic book heroes that we can instantly recognize as true, and perhaps even enlighteningly insightful, but we would never have thought deep enough on the topic to have come to those conclusions ourselves, without having Jules Feiffer pointing them out. These insights tend to get very psychological and fascinating in their scope and implications concerning why these characters appeal to fans, subconsciously. For instance:
“Kent was not Superman’s true identity… Clark Kent was the fiction… the put-on… The truth may be that Kent existed not for the purposes of the story but for the reader. He is Superman’s opinion of the rest of us, a pointed caricature of what we… were really like. His fake identity was our real one. That’s why we loved him so.”
Feiffer also goes into the love triangle of Clark Kent’s unrequited love for Lois, her unrequited love for Superman, who wants her to love Clark, etc.
One bit of comics history that I learned was that the company that put out Superman had a real world legal claim against any other comic heroes getting their superpowers by being from outer space. The company took legal action to prevent others from using the outer space angle. So the competitors turned to science to explain where the superpowers came from. The same can be said about Superman having a cape. A legal no-no for other companies to emulate, for a period of time, way back then.
Feiffer goes into similar reporting about other characters and trends from the early days of comic books.
Feiffer wraps up this short book by talking about WHY kids, (even when they’ve grownup), really need to read comics, to escape from the pressures of the real world for a time. Comics can be like a temporary escape hatch, to get renewed and refreshed, then go back into the real world.
A similar writer of books about comics that I can recommend would be Les Daniels, who has written many good books focusing on comics history as a whole, as well as books devoted to single characters, such as Batman or Superman. Daniels’ books are more expensive than this Feiffer book, but they are also lavishly illustrated, about ten times more prose, and are more historically enlightening, if not as psychological as this Feiffer book.
All in all, Feiffer’s writing reminds me of the the COMICS JOURNAL (a magazine publication, from Fantagraphics, the same company that published this current version of the book). I may not agree with what they are saying about comics, and how it reflects upon real life, but it sure is a mentally stimulating point of view that helps me to figure out why I enjoy and think about comics.
Rating: 4 / 5
I own the ORIGINAL hardcover edition of this book… It was printed [a lot] in the 1960s and you SHOULD still be able to get a nice copy of it in good condition for [an amount of money]. …
DON’T buy the reissue version of this book unless you DON’T want the reprints of the comics in the HC version in FULL color.
From what I understand from people who have bought the paperback reprint, the publisher has NOT reprinted the original stories in full color NOR have they reprinted the full pages, either!
Big disappointment for people who actually WANTED to read the original stories in addition to Feiffer’s text. Perhaps the publisher could not obtain the rights to reprint the original stories in their entirety in full color, …
Still, if you want to read the sentimental recollections of a old-time comic book fan, you could do a lot worse than Jules Feiffer’s prose. It is amusing and worth half the admission price of what I paid for my hardcover copy.
The question YOU have to answer is — do you want to pay for a book that’s an abridged version of the original?
Rating: 2 / 5