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Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book
Animated by the stories of some of the last century's most charismatic and conniving artists, writers, and businessmen, Men of Tomorrow brilliantly demonstrates how the creators of the superheroes gained their cultural power and established a crucial place in the modern imagination. "This history of the birth of superhero comics highlights three pivotal figures. The story begins early in the last century, on the Lower East Side, where Harry Donenfeld rises from the streets to become the king of the 'smooshes'-soft-core magazines with titles like French Humor and Hot Tales . Later, two high school friends in Cleveland, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, become avid fans of 'scientifiction,' the new kind of literature promoted by their favorite pulp magazines. The disparate worlds of the wise guy and the geeks collide in 1938, and the result is Action Comics #1 , the debut of Superman. For Donenfeld, the comics were a way to sidestep the censors. For Shuster and Siegel, they were both a calling and an eventual source of misery: the pair waged a lifelong campaign for credit and appropriate compensation." - The New Yorker
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2004
68 people are currently reading
1954 people want to read
About the author
Gerard Jones
605 books21 followersGerard Jones is an award-winning American author and comic book writer. From 1987 to 2001, Jones wrote many comic books for Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Viz Media, Malibu Comics and other publishers; including Green Lantern, Justice League, Prime, Ultraforce, El Diablo, Wonder Man, Martian Manhunter, Elongated Man, The Shadow, Pokémon, and Batman.
Jones is author of the Eisner Award-winning Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (2004); Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence (2002), and Honey I'm Home: Sitcoms Selling the American Dream (1993). Jones is co-author with Will Jacobs of The Beaver Papers (1983), The Comic Book Heroes (1985, 1996), and the comic book The Trouble with Girls (1987-1993). From 1983 to 1988, Jacobs and Jones were contributors to National Lampoon magazine. He and Jacobs began writing humorous fiction again in 2008 with the online series My Pal Splendid Man and Million Dollar Ideas
Jones is author of the Eisner Award-winning Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book (2004); Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence (2002), and Honey I'm Home: Sitcoms Selling the American Dream (1993). Jones is co-author with Will Jacobs of The Beaver Papers (1983), The Comic Book Heroes (1985, 1996), and the comic book The Trouble with Girls (1987-1993). From 1983 to 1988, Jacobs and Jones were contributors to National Lampoon magazine. He and Jacobs began writing humorous fiction again in 2008 with the online series My Pal Splendid Man and Million Dollar Ideas
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 145 reviews
February 20, 2022
A truly amazing book that documents the story of the rises and falls of the superhero comic book industry, from its roots in the NY Jewish ghettos during prohibition in the '20s, its connections to gangsters and pornographers in the '30s, the Golden Age '40s through to the modern day Time Warner - AOL merger and the super hero film industry. It tells the story by recounting the lives and times of Joe Schuster, Jerry Spiegel, Bob Kane, Will Eisner, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby etc and also the lives of the brokers, publishers and distributors. The key story is that of the Superman comic, which was selling over a million copies a month in the 1940s!... and the story of Warner Brothers and their predecessors screwing over the Superman creators for over 40 years! An absolute must-read for comic fans and for people interested in Jewish-American, American and/or American crime history. 8 out of 12
2012 read
2012 read
February 12, 2022
So, before the review: The author of this book is a convicted pedophile and child pornographer who is still alive, though imprisoned, iirc. PLEASE do not buy this book new, or borrow or buy it in electronic form. Buying physical copies from used booksellers or borrowing it from a person that already owns it are, imo, the only ethical ways to read this because they're the only ways that definitely result in zero money being even possibly given to the author.
WHY READ THIS AT ALL THEN? Because it's a very good narrative history of a narrow subject that has only a few decent books of any depth written on it at all, and because a fair amount of the book is based on unpublished interviews with now long-dead subjects, and because (for now) it's still available very cheaply on the used market.
ACTUAL REVIEW: This is a history of the development of DC Comics as a company and Superman as an idea, hero, and icon. Though many people seem only dimly aware of this, the phenomenal success of superheroes as a pre-eminent force in American and worldwide pop culture is based on a very long history of both DC and Marvel Comics ruthlessly exploiting the actual creators of the heroes and giving them their due only after public shaming by organized comic book fandom. I'm a bit too young to remember the happy ending to the particular tale told here, that of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, creators of Superman, but I remember feeling indignant towards Marvel's behavior towards Jack Kirby publicized during the Marvel 25th Anniversary publicity push quite clearly, and some satisfaction when he won back some of his work.
This, unlike most books on comics, only really focuses on the creations secondarily, and is much, much more about the men that created, maintained, and grew the businesses that spread this then-new four color art form across the country in the 1930s, particularly Harry Donenfeld, the glad-handing connected guy who smelled money on the wind, and Jack Liebowitz, who went from pornographer's accountant to board member of the fourth-largest corporation in the country before dying at 100. It's also about their relationships with Siegel and Schuster, creators of DC's golden goose, Superman, so to a certain extent, the book is about superheroes, but only in the way that a history of the Coca-Cola company is about the beverage, a welcome change from most books about comic books.
To say the business and its vital relationship with the creators it needs in order to profit is deeply tempestuous is a radical understatement. Siegel, particularly, was too naive and trusting while a young creator, and there's real disgust at the business hacks who ended up making millions off of Superman while Schuster sat, blind, in a cold water flat supported by his siblings, but the real story here is the fascinating world of legal but disreputable business shown that flourished during the interwar period. It's also truly great background for anyone unfamiliar with the golden age superhero boom, both in understanding the business and the popularity of the characters at the time.
SO, IF THIS BOOK WASN'T POTENTIALLY MAKING A CHILD PORNOGRAPHER RAMEN MONEY IN PRISON, WHAT WOULD YOU RATE THIS? Oh, four stars, easily. But fuck that guy.
WHY READ THIS AT ALL THEN? Because it's a very good narrative history of a narrow subject that has only a few decent books of any depth written on it at all, and because a fair amount of the book is based on unpublished interviews with now long-dead subjects, and because (for now) it's still available very cheaply on the used market.
ACTUAL REVIEW: This is a history of the development of DC Comics as a company and Superman as an idea, hero, and icon. Though many people seem only dimly aware of this, the phenomenal success of superheroes as a pre-eminent force in American and worldwide pop culture is based on a very long history of both DC and Marvel Comics ruthlessly exploiting the actual creators of the heroes and giving them their due only after public shaming by organized comic book fandom. I'm a bit too young to remember the happy ending to the particular tale told here, that of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster, creators of Superman, but I remember feeling indignant towards Marvel's behavior towards Jack Kirby publicized during the Marvel 25th Anniversary publicity push quite clearly, and some satisfaction when he won back some of his work.
This, unlike most books on comics, only really focuses on the creations secondarily, and is much, much more about the men that created, maintained, and grew the businesses that spread this then-new four color art form across the country in the 1930s, particularly Harry Donenfeld, the glad-handing connected guy who smelled money on the wind, and Jack Liebowitz, who went from pornographer's accountant to board member of the fourth-largest corporation in the country before dying at 100. It's also about their relationships with Siegel and Schuster, creators of DC's golden goose, Superman, so to a certain extent, the book is about superheroes, but only in the way that a history of the Coca-Cola company is about the beverage, a welcome change from most books about comic books.
To say the business and its vital relationship with the creators it needs in order to profit is deeply tempestuous is a radical understatement. Siegel, particularly, was too naive and trusting while a young creator, and there's real disgust at the business hacks who ended up making millions off of Superman while Schuster sat, blind, in a cold water flat supported by his siblings, but the real story here is the fascinating world of legal but disreputable business shown that flourished during the interwar period. It's also truly great background for anyone unfamiliar with the golden age superhero boom, both in understanding the business and the popularity of the characters at the time.
SO, IF THIS BOOK WASN'T POTENTIALLY MAKING A CHILD PORNOGRAPHER RAMEN MONEY IN PRISON, WHAT WOULD YOU RATE THIS? Oh, four stars, easily. But fuck that guy.
August 18, 2009
Let me start with a couple of caveats. The focus of this book is not for everyone. It will likely be of some interest to those generally interested in popular culture and 20th century history. It's primary audience, however, consists of the geeks alluded to in the subtitle. (I count myself as a geek wannabe.)
Organized primarily around the evolution of Superman, Men of Tomorrow branches out to consider the cultural influences and the interpersonal relationships that shaped the growth of the comic book industry. Fans and readers of comic books will learn some interesting tidbits related to the creation and development of some of the industry's most iconic characters. However, I find Jones's book most interesting as lens illuminating the larger cultural shifts taking place during the 20th century. While the book sometimes falls into passages of industry-specific details that seem a bit tiresome, Jones generally does a very nice job of providing those details within a structure that generates interest and engagement on the part of the reader. The central thread of Superman's evolution--and the ups and downs confronted by his creators--ultimately provide an emotional weight and significance that makes this book more than simply a chronicle of historical minutia relevant only to the geeks.
Organized primarily around the evolution of Superman, Men of Tomorrow branches out to consider the cultural influences and the interpersonal relationships that shaped the growth of the comic book industry. Fans and readers of comic books will learn some interesting tidbits related to the creation and development of some of the industry's most iconic characters. However, I find Jones's book most interesting as lens illuminating the larger cultural shifts taking place during the 20th century. While the book sometimes falls into passages of industry-specific details that seem a bit tiresome, Jones generally does a very nice job of providing those details within a structure that generates interest and engagement on the part of the reader. The central thread of Superman's evolution--and the ups and downs confronted by his creators--ultimately provide an emotional weight and significance that makes this book more than simply a chronicle of historical minutia relevant only to the geeks.
January 26, 2009
Smart, concise history of how comic books became a thing and doesn't leave out any of the good stuff. Re-emphasizes the argument that all American forms of mass entertainment media in the 20th century are on permanent loan from the street culture of New York City -- a place that seems to own stock in every American cultural enterprise this side of the Civil War and will always get the big chair in the shareholder's meetings, even if the product under discussion isn't their own. Author is here to tell you that comic books were made by pornographers, chiselers, and tough guys of every stripe working in sober collaboration with geeks, zealots and psychopaths to turn their most private desires into pictures of dudes wearing tights and speaking in bubbles. Manages to distill that same hustling, pre-war optimism The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay did, but its way grimier and even more zany. Protagonists are, ostensibly, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster (the creators of Superman) and Harry Donenfeld and Jack Leibowitz (the original publishers of DC Comics), but behind every name author drops (Jack Cole, Will Eisner, Jack Kirby, Gardner Fox, Gil Kane, Art Spiegelman, Charles Biro) there is surely a biography worth reading. As book isn't 1200 pages long, author has used apposite discretion in what he picks and chooses. Keeps the pace fast and in disciplined ratio to the inherent dorkiness of the story. (His perspective on the latter is another reason to read book.) The characters at the center of book, Jerry Siegel and his arch-nemisis, Jack Liebowitz, are compelling to watch -- author wisely sidesteps the temptation to characterize them as one-dimensional, big-chinned characters in a meta-comic -- as the respective heart and head of the first comic book boom. When the excitement abates, they find themselves in direct opposition to each other and the excellent chapters that follow the first comic book bust are as revealing about the nature of entertainment and the industry that supports it as any other book I know. A great book about young Americans.
April 15, 2010
I read this as background for Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. Research soon turned into fascination with the true story of the origins of the comic book and the superheroes that made the genre a cultural phenomenon. Well written and documented, Men of Tomorrow is an important social history of the comic book in America. Jones has done a fine job of interweaving the stories of the creators (writers and artists) and the publishing entrepreneurs who made the comic book successful and took advantage of the underpaid and often anonymous talent to earn their fortunes. The book is dense with names, especially since many of the Jewish authors and artists with Eastern European names took one or more pen names during their careers in order to appear less "foreign" to the American public. I felt at times that I needed to make charts to keep up with the large cast of characters. The work is thoughtful, and the reader comes away with real insights into the complicated relationship between social changes in America and the roller coaster history of the comic books and those who created and marketed them. The book is illustrated with interesting photographs of several of the principal movers and shakers as well as with reproductions of representative covers and panels from significant comic books. Reading it made me want to revisit the superhero comics of my youth.
October 16, 2007
I read this a few months before I read The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and I think I benefited from it. This book is the "real life" version (inspiration) of Chabon's novel - essentially following Jerry Siegel (and to an extent, Joe Schuster), all through the Golden Age of comics and beyond. Along the way we get stories from all of the major workhouses in New York, including some great anecdotes about Will Eisner (like his marathon run to finish a comic with his bullpen in he middle of a blizzard). Jones' timeline and narrative is excellent, and you really see how the industry grew, fell, and almost collapsed all together. I was able to read Kavalier & Clay and find myself picking out who was supposed to represent whom, and who was an amalgamation of others.
Also, Bob Kane was a real prick.
Also, Bob Kane was a real prick.
January 21, 2015
Growing up in the so-called “Silver Age” of comic books (‘50s-early ‘60s) and being such a geek that I attended San Diego Comic Con before it moved to the convention center, it’s a wonder I didn’t read Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book before. This history rings true for the limited information I have on comic book history (reading Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent many years ago, working for a company which briefly published comics (Ziff-Davis), devouring my autographed copy of Will Eisner’s Shop Talk interviews, reading about the Kefauver hearings and the end of EC comics, and studying a bit about Stan Lee and Jack Kirby—I didn’t say I was a scholar on this) and it definitely rings true for my experience in periodicals publication and distribution. Not since I read Two-Bit Culture: The Paperbacking of America have I seen the relationship between printing, pulps, comics, paperbacks, and magazines fit together so nicely. And, since I dealt with specialty shops in distributing my game magazines, it doesn’t surprise me when I read about Harry Donenfeld’s pre-National Periodicals days of distributing Margaret Sanger’s birth control devices and information along with his skin magazines via burlesque theaters and involvement with Frank Costello (and other Mafiosi).
There are fascinating stories in this history of the comic format. The relationship between the strips syndicated in newspapers, comic strip collections, and comic books was clarified for me as never before. I always preferred the latter and it was only in adulthood that someone (probably an interview with Neal Adams or a conversation overheard when one of my magazines commissioned an illustration from his studio in the early ‘90s) clarified that the strip creators usually kept control of their characters while the “work for hire” comic book work didn’t allow people like Bill Fingers or Jerry Siegel to benefit from their previous work.
I particularly like the fact that Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book took the time to tell some of the stories of the business guys and distributors, as well as the creators. However, I was disappointed that this was primarily the story of Siegel and Shuster and the house that Jack Leibowitz built. It occasionally mentioned the brief history of EC Comics, Lev Gleason, Charlton, Archie, Timely, Ziff-Davis, Quality, Dell, Warren, Image, and All American (though it later became part of National), but I feel like a lot of the stories behind those publishing groups still need to be told. I liked the part about Martin Goodman, but the volume was very light on Marvel Comics’ ancestral publisher and didn’t really deal with the “rest of the story” sufficiently after Jack Kirby left Marvel [I wanted to know about the short-lived Jack Kirby Comics line just before he died.].
The truth is that I was fascinated by this history, but like any fan boy, I wanted more. I wanted to know about Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, and Warren Ellis. The brief description of Steve Ditko’s rise was fascinating, but I was disappointed not to read more about Gardner Fox, Archie Goodman, both Romitas, and the origin of Dark Horse Comics. In spite of my interest in the subject matter, I learned a lot from this volume. I’ve even recommended it to my local comic book guy.
There are fascinating stories in this history of the comic format. The relationship between the strips syndicated in newspapers, comic strip collections, and comic books was clarified for me as never before. I always preferred the latter and it was only in adulthood that someone (probably an interview with Neal Adams or a conversation overheard when one of my magazines commissioned an illustration from his studio in the early ‘90s) clarified that the strip creators usually kept control of their characters while the “work for hire” comic book work didn’t allow people like Bill Fingers or Jerry Siegel to benefit from their previous work.
I particularly like the fact that Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book took the time to tell some of the stories of the business guys and distributors, as well as the creators. However, I was disappointed that this was primarily the story of Siegel and Shuster and the house that Jack Leibowitz built. It occasionally mentioned the brief history of EC Comics, Lev Gleason, Charlton, Archie, Timely, Ziff-Davis, Quality, Dell, Warren, Image, and All American (though it later became part of National), but I feel like a lot of the stories behind those publishing groups still need to be told. I liked the part about Martin Goodman, but the volume was very light on Marvel Comics’ ancestral publisher and didn’t really deal with the “rest of the story” sufficiently after Jack Kirby left Marvel [I wanted to know about the short-lived Jack Kirby Comics line just before he died.].
The truth is that I was fascinated by this history, but like any fan boy, I wanted more. I wanted to know about Roy Thomas, Marv Wolfman, and Warren Ellis. The brief description of Steve Ditko’s rise was fascinating, but I was disappointed not to read more about Gardner Fox, Archie Goodman, both Romitas, and the origin of Dark Horse Comics. In spite of my interest in the subject matter, I learned a lot from this volume. I’ve even recommended it to my local comic book guy.
February 5, 2015
More like 4.5, but I'm in a good mood today and rounding up. This is basically the nonfiction version of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. It's easy to read and I think Jones and Chabon are friends. And so I kept having these weird flashbacks of "wait, where do I know this story from???" and many of the vignettes in Kavalier & Clay are things that really happened. Anyway, if you couldn't get through that one for stylistic reasons but are interested in the subject, I'd give this one a shot. It's also way more Jewish (in a historical sense, I mean -- much about the early immigrant experience, alienation & a sense of belonging, the war as perceived by American Jewry, etc). In some ways, it is a fantastic prequel to The Heebie-Jeebies at CBGB's: A Secret History of Jewish Punk. Also! Mob connections, and I do love me some mob connections. (One downside is the lack of women, but that's endemic to comics in general and probably a subject for a different book entirely.)
August 7, 2014
It is hard to praise enough this detailed (perhaps an edge too much so in the very first chapters), well researched, well sourced, well judged and readable account of the creation of the comic books industry.
Jones balances the human, creative and business stories and makes a convincing case for this being a peculiarly Jewish-American phenomenon grounded initially (though not today) in a particular milieu.
Comic book production in New York in the 1940s was a classic case of an urban centre of excellence feeding off its own pool of talent and networks.
And if you see a non-Jewish name (Kane, Kirby, Lee), don't be fooled, these are just second generation Jewish immigrants coming to terms with assimilation.
The American comic book is a Jewish invention to all intents and purposes and Jones has some important insights as to why that should be.
Creatively, comic books might be seen as a Jewish re-translation into fantasy of the dialectic between Protestant America and the attempt to configure a new identity.
The book should be read as much as a history of the creation of American capitalism as anything else, with a three-way struggle between anarcho-socialism, unregulated capitalism and regulated capitalism.
The role of organised crime (aka unregulated capitalism) and the Jewish mobsters as they shift into legitimate business is an essential part of this story and explanatory of much American exceptionalism.
One of the reasons America is in trouble today in the wider world is that the necessity of regulation and moral fervour has become a habit, upsetting peoples that really require neither.
Screwing over Swiss and French bankers is just an extension of WASP determination to tame the new immigrants into good conduct and moral conformity. It's just how they are.
As for the books themselves, they should be studied in and for themselves but the psychological origins of some key characters such as Superman are well argued for.
It is fun to read again the polyamorous sado-masochistic origins of Wonder Woman but the personal hurt behind the creation of Superman and Batman is very real and well argued by Jones.
The characters, with exceptions such as Stan Lee, are not very attractive. There is a disproportionate number of neurotic losers and outright unpleasant bastards but that's American capitalism for you.
Invaluable social history, this book is highly recommended.
Jones balances the human, creative and business stories and makes a convincing case for this being a peculiarly Jewish-American phenomenon grounded initially (though not today) in a particular milieu.
Comic book production in New York in the 1940s was a classic case of an urban centre of excellence feeding off its own pool of talent and networks.
And if you see a non-Jewish name (Kane, Kirby, Lee), don't be fooled, these are just second generation Jewish immigrants coming to terms with assimilation.
The American comic book is a Jewish invention to all intents and purposes and Jones has some important insights as to why that should be.
Creatively, comic books might be seen as a Jewish re-translation into fantasy of the dialectic between Protestant America and the attempt to configure a new identity.
The book should be read as much as a history of the creation of American capitalism as anything else, with a three-way struggle between anarcho-socialism, unregulated capitalism and regulated capitalism.
The role of organised crime (aka unregulated capitalism) and the Jewish mobsters as they shift into legitimate business is an essential part of this story and explanatory of much American exceptionalism.
One of the reasons America is in trouble today in the wider world is that the necessity of regulation and moral fervour has become a habit, upsetting peoples that really require neither.
Screwing over Swiss and French bankers is just an extension of WASP determination to tame the new immigrants into good conduct and moral conformity. It's just how they are.
As for the books themselves, they should be studied in and for themselves but the psychological origins of some key characters such as Superman are well argued for.
It is fun to read again the polyamorous sado-masochistic origins of Wonder Woman but the personal hurt behind the creation of Superman and Batman is very real and well argued by Jones.
The characters, with exceptions such as Stan Lee, are not very attractive. There is a disproportionate number of neurotic losers and outright unpleasant bastards but that's American capitalism for you.
Invaluable social history, this book is highly recommended.
January 8, 2011
I have read Men of Tomorrow a couple of times and use it for research and a starting point for my own research. What I like best about the book is that it is not only easy to read and very well written but I love the fact that Gerard places the history of comic books within the larger frame of historical events. It makes so much of the history more compelling and understandable. I know Gerard because there is information about my grandfather, Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson in this book. The info about "the Major" in this otherwise wonderfully written book is almost completely wrong bordering on the absurd. That's how I met the author. Upon seeing the evidence he was quick to make most changes in the 2nd edition and plans to do a complete revision based on my research for the 3rd. I appreciate that and consider him a scholar and a gentleman. This is an excellent book for anyone interested in comics history and modern culture.
August 6, 2025
Çevirirken hem bu kadar zorlanıp hem de bu kadar keyif aldığım çok az kitap olmuştur.
Uzun ama keyifli bir maraton oldu.
Uzun ama keyifli bir maraton oldu.
February 21, 2018
A mind-blower, and an essential one. One of the great history books I've read; not just a "comic book book" or a book on "media/popular culture" as the back cover itself asserts (tho it is that also), but an exhaustively researched, masterfully written, searing saga of the 20th century as it only could have unfolded in beautiful, brutal America. From the streets teeming with immigrant children literally fighting their way thru childhood to the corporate conglomerates & mega mergers of the '60s & beyond, Jones wields his pen like a scalpel eliminating all that is unnecessary & uncovering the pure gold of a history whose various threads in the realms of the economic, social, psychological, political & private merge into a single focused narrative that delivers epiphany after epiphany of insight & connectivity. Following the stories of various important players in the creation of the popular art form, from the creators to the distributors to the enemies that tried to bring it down, Jones brilliantly constructs his story out of the lives of these flawed, fascinating characters, trying to understand them & remarkably withholding judgment, finding the common humanity in them all. Never straying to indulgence or sentimentality & with a keen eye for irony & symmetry, Jones keeps the potentially messy & epic tale lean & riveting. An amazing achievement, & an absolute must not only for comic book fans but students of human nature & the history of our crazy, corrupt & contradictory country.
May 19, 2019
I'm not a comic book reader, not by a long shot. I do pick up the occasional comics but those are local varieties and not the likes of Superman or Batman, or any of the others out there, about all the superheroes in existence.
So when I first started reading this book, I had no idea what I was about to see unfold in front of me and at first I did think it was slightly boring material, but damn... I'm glad I stuck with it because the history of comics sure is fascinating. The birth of Superman, the names Siegel and Shuster, Stan Lee (Excelsior!), the big companies DC & Marvel, ...
If you're into comics, and even if you're not into them like me, I'd reccommend reading this book. I sure as hell am glad I did. :)
So when I first started reading this book, I had no idea what I was about to see unfold in front of me and at first I did think it was slightly boring material, but damn... I'm glad I stuck with it because the history of comics sure is fascinating. The birth of Superman, the names Siegel and Shuster, Stan Lee (Excelsior!), the big companies DC & Marvel, ...
If you're into comics, and even if you're not into them like me, I'd reccommend reading this book. I sure as hell am glad I did. :)
January 14, 2022
A detailed look at the birth of the comic book medium from both the Creative/Artist side as well as the Business/Publisher side with Siegel and Shuster and Superman at the forefront. Each figure is explored in depth and there are no clear heroes nor villains, only mere mortals trying to capitalize on the amazing new storytelling form amidst a hostile background of prejudice, mob influence, the Great Depression, World War II, government regulation, and public opinion. Jones provides plenty of individual anecdotes and avoids this being a dry textbook telling of events. Highly recommend!
August 1, 2021
An excellent, meticulously researched overview of the cultural backdrop, business practices, and naivete that converged together to give birth to the comics industry. It is the classic immigration experience examined in 1900s New York City. The hustlers, gangsters, geeks, and dreamers to elevate a lowly art form into a mythic multimedia cultural mainstay.
August 8, 2011
Gerard Jones writes:
No other fad in entertainment has ever paralleled real-life events as closely as the superheros paralleled World War II. Superman fist drew attention in the summer of 1938, as war fears grew out of the Czechoslovakia crisis, and it was after the war really began late the next summer that the superhero fad took flight. By 1941, as America moved inevitably into the war, the heros grew rapidly in number, popularity, variety, and aggression, and some of the most popular were taking on the Nazis. The last new superhero to find a big audience, Wonder Woman, hit at the end of that year, as the war finally swept across the ocean. For the next three years, sales climbed. Superman and his imitators had captured a national emotional upwelling and turned it into a shared fantasy of escape. Their first and essential market was kids, but to enjoy the towering sales they did during the war, they had to be read by innumerable adults who pretended they were just indulging the “child in us all.”
Superheros turned the anxiety into joy. As the world plunged into conflict and disaster almost too huge to comprehend, they grabbed their readers’ darkest feelings and bounded into the sky with them. They made violence and wreckage exciting but at the same time small and containable. So flat, iconic, childlike, unreal, and absurd were those godlings in tights that no reader had to feel he was really engaging with his own angry fantasies. Superman was less a fantasy self than a god out of the machine – a sudden flash-of-color resolution to conflicts too terrible to think about. The superheros were slapstick comedians in a vaudeville of holocaust. Even in Captain America’s angriest assault on the Nazis and Superman’s darkest melodrama in Luthor’s lab, every reader over the age of eight had to laugh at them. Superheros served the purpose of slapstick comedians but on a global scale: They built fear and frustration in a containable fantasy world and then released them with a shock.
Superheros allowed adolescents and adults to slip back to the confidence and inviolability of that last moment of childhood before the anxiety of pubescence. It had been a long, nerve-wearing run for twenty years, through Prohibition and sexual revolution and economic transformation and urbanization and Depression and the rumors of war, when a naïve nation had to pretend to be adult and sophisticated. All through the 1920s and early 1930s, there had been childlike entertainment that had captured adults, but it nearly always had a cruel humor (Our Gang), strenuous melodrama (King Kong), or a melancholy sentimentality (Shirley Temple). Finally, at the end of the 1930s, in the moment of The Wizard of Oz, the American imagination retreated into the laughing, arrogant fun of the ten-year old. Superman was the physical embodiment of that fantasy of wholeness, that wondrous sense of knowing who one is and believing one can do anything, that shatters in adolescence.
Superheros were a latent-phase dream, embodying sex but invulnerable to it. They distilled that moment of swelling, big-kid pride in the new power and agility of the body, that last moment before the body begins to make its own scary demands and the world turns the mechanisms of shame against it. Superman in particular cartooned the cruelty of sex – Superman tricks Lois sadistically, but then as Clark he flings himself masochistically before her high heels – but with his famous wink at the reader, he let us know that he played every minute of it as a game. As the “Man of Tomorrow,” he has supposedly evolved beyond sexual entanglements, but in fact he was the man of the day before yesterday, looking at the agonies of adolescence with the superior sneer of a little brother spying on his sister. After the frenzied sexual questioning of the Twenties and the cynicism of sex and economics in the early Depression, and with the draft now bringing on another huge dislocation, the superhero was a welcome island of prepubescence.
Superheros were also an expression of a rising American thrill. All the queasiness of the Depression was about to be blown away in a great and terrible battle, and as much as most people shook their heads about the horror of the war, there was a hunger for it, too. The war meant not survival and dirty compromise but utter triumph or utter disaster. It meant unity of purpose too, and the superheros embodied that in their polychrome simplicity: Superman, Captain America and Wonder Woman were the most distinct individuals imaginable, but at the same time, each of them was all of us. The rarely spoken hunger for war was especially sharp for the children of immigrants and of the polyglot cities. A nation dominated for a generation by isolationist, prohibitionist, and small-town WASPs was about to plunge into the world, led by its cockiest, most sophisticated progressives. America had won the last war. Since then it had only grown in size, influence, and industrial capacity. It had held itself back from world events as fascism spread, but Roosevelt’s voters knew how powerful the country was. America was playing Clark Kent. It was time to rip off the suit.
No other fad in entertainment has ever paralleled real-life events as closely as the superheros paralleled World War II. Superman fist drew attention in the summer of 1938, as war fears grew out of the Czechoslovakia crisis, and it was after the war really began late the next summer that the superhero fad took flight. By 1941, as America moved inevitably into the war, the heros grew rapidly in number, popularity, variety, and aggression, and some of the most popular were taking on the Nazis. The last new superhero to find a big audience, Wonder Woman, hit at the end of that year, as the war finally swept across the ocean. For the next three years, sales climbed. Superman and his imitators had captured a national emotional upwelling and turned it into a shared fantasy of escape. Their first and essential market was kids, but to enjoy the towering sales they did during the war, they had to be read by innumerable adults who pretended they were just indulging the “child in us all.”
Superheros turned the anxiety into joy. As the world plunged into conflict and disaster almost too huge to comprehend, they grabbed their readers’ darkest feelings and bounded into the sky with them. They made violence and wreckage exciting but at the same time small and containable. So flat, iconic, childlike, unreal, and absurd were those godlings in tights that no reader had to feel he was really engaging with his own angry fantasies. Superman was less a fantasy self than a god out of the machine – a sudden flash-of-color resolution to conflicts too terrible to think about. The superheros were slapstick comedians in a vaudeville of holocaust. Even in Captain America’s angriest assault on the Nazis and Superman’s darkest melodrama in Luthor’s lab, every reader over the age of eight had to laugh at them. Superheros served the purpose of slapstick comedians but on a global scale: They built fear and frustration in a containable fantasy world and then released them with a shock.
Superheros allowed adolescents and adults to slip back to the confidence and inviolability of that last moment of childhood before the anxiety of pubescence. It had been a long, nerve-wearing run for twenty years, through Prohibition and sexual revolution and economic transformation and urbanization and Depression and the rumors of war, when a naïve nation had to pretend to be adult and sophisticated. All through the 1920s and early 1930s, there had been childlike entertainment that had captured adults, but it nearly always had a cruel humor (Our Gang), strenuous melodrama (King Kong), or a melancholy sentimentality (Shirley Temple). Finally, at the end of the 1930s, in the moment of The Wizard of Oz, the American imagination retreated into the laughing, arrogant fun of the ten-year old. Superman was the physical embodiment of that fantasy of wholeness, that wondrous sense of knowing who one is and believing one can do anything, that shatters in adolescence.
Superheros were a latent-phase dream, embodying sex but invulnerable to it. They distilled that moment of swelling, big-kid pride in the new power and agility of the body, that last moment before the body begins to make its own scary demands and the world turns the mechanisms of shame against it. Superman in particular cartooned the cruelty of sex – Superman tricks Lois sadistically, but then as Clark he flings himself masochistically before her high heels – but with his famous wink at the reader, he let us know that he played every minute of it as a game. As the “Man of Tomorrow,” he has supposedly evolved beyond sexual entanglements, but in fact he was the man of the day before yesterday, looking at the agonies of adolescence with the superior sneer of a little brother spying on his sister. After the frenzied sexual questioning of the Twenties and the cynicism of sex and economics in the early Depression, and with the draft now bringing on another huge dislocation, the superhero was a welcome island of prepubescence.
Superheros were also an expression of a rising American thrill. All the queasiness of the Depression was about to be blown away in a great and terrible battle, and as much as most people shook their heads about the horror of the war, there was a hunger for it, too. The war meant not survival and dirty compromise but utter triumph or utter disaster. It meant unity of purpose too, and the superheros embodied that in their polychrome simplicity: Superman, Captain America and Wonder Woman were the most distinct individuals imaginable, but at the same time, each of them was all of us. The rarely spoken hunger for war was especially sharp for the children of immigrants and of the polyglot cities. A nation dominated for a generation by isolationist, prohibitionist, and small-town WASPs was about to plunge into the world, led by its cockiest, most sophisticated progressives. America had won the last war. Since then it had only grown in size, influence, and industrial capacity. It had held itself back from world events as fascism spread, but Roosevelt’s voters knew how powerful the country was. America was playing Clark Kent. It was time to rip off the suit.
September 17, 2007
I read quite a bit of non-fiction, usually to satisfy my curiosity about a subject, and I rarely have high expectations for the writing itself. So I was very pleasantly surprised to find this such a (forgive me) good read. Jones tells the story of the birth of the comic book deftly, with some real verve and snap to his prose--better yet, he gets all of his facts right and revealed a few facts I didn't know (and I'm quite a comics geek). Anyone who enjoyed Chabon's The Adventures of Kavalier and Klay will revel in the source material here. Bravo.
July 16, 2022
A well-researched and readable work that would be an excellent companion to Chabon's Kavalier & Clay . . . If the author weren't convicted of child pornography. A massive, horrific library of child pornography. Link to case summary from US Attorney's Office from Northern California
Read
August 13, 2016Phenomenally well-written book. Beyond disappointing to learn that so many iconic characters were mostly the composite result of decades of greed though. Yet such may be the very nature of trash: Meaningful material developing only after way long bouts of money-grubbing, ignoring original creators, failing to compensate writers, etc.
February 3, 2017
A very pulp-y style tell-all of the lives of the earliest superhero comics creators, with quite a few dashes of sexism thrown in; women in comics are barely mentioned and mostly villified as demanding wives and mistresses to whom the comics creators had to work so hard to support.
If you are really interested in the details of how the creators worked and fought together, this is for you.
If you are really interested in the details of how the creators worked and fought together, this is for you.
July 16, 2016
I really wanted to love this book but found it boring and not that informative. The author comes across as pretty racist as well.
September 16, 2025
While this is a general account of the origin of the comic book, the crux of the narrative involves Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. These 2 Cleveland kids became friends, dreamed of creating a character worthy of a newspaper strip and ended up creating the archetype of the superhero which would dominate comics for over 85 years and counting. Boy, did the creators of Superman get screwed. But so did a whole lot of comic book creators, writers and artists during the infancy of comic books. Superman's creators, especially Jerry Siegel just happened to be the most vocal about it and essentially both men were blackballed for it.
I didn't realize how much influence that organized crime had in the early days of comics. Not just the Italians; but the Jewish mob as well. Harry Donenfeld, the founder of the publisher that would become DC Comics, rubbed elbows with the likes of Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello. With their money funneling through Donenfeld's publishing and printing companies, any sort of shaking of the apple cart meant unwanted scrutiny. So anytime someone complained about low page rates or contacts not being honored, scummy accountants like Jack Liebowitz would show doctored ledgers indicating huge losses while bemoaning a lack of financial security. Then someone like the creators of Superman would be tossed a couple hundred bucks and hopefully walk away quietly while the editors and publishers lived like kings.
But it wasn't just the executives taking advantage of their creators. This book will make you despise Bob Kane, if you didn't already. Kane would literally steal the credit from his ghost writers and artists while basking in the limelight of being Batman's dad. Poor Bill Finger would die a drunken pauper, having really done all the work to make the Dark Knight one of the most popular superheroes of all-time and getting zero credit until decades later after his death.
You get a renewed respect for Will Eisner with this book. William Gaines too. I didn't know that his father hated him so. And poor Bill Gaines. He just wanted to be a school teacher and ends up having to become the editor of E.C. Comics after his father's suspicious drowning death, in order to keep his family afloat financially. I also feel really bad for Gaines for flaking out during the Senate hearings on comic book violence led by Senator Estes Kefauver. Image how things could have gone differently had Gaines swallowed his pride and not insisted on testifying to disastrous results. We wouldn't have had MAD Magazine, that's for sure.
2005's Men of Tomorrow was written by comic book writer turned noted comic book historian Gerard Jones. It's an interesting story that examines the ins and outs of the early comic book industry as well as the personal lives of Siegel and Shuster. Neither were very pretty. It's a good read that teaches a lot I didn't know. But it could have been about 30 pages shorter if Jones didn't keep reminding us about what had happened prior. Though, maybe the author was trying to capture the way comics would keep readers up-to-date on the accounts of the previous issue before diving into the latest chapter.
Plus with this being a scholarly work, there's about 30 pages of notes that you can skip as well. That is unless you enjoy reading citations and sources of which I gave up interest in pursuing years after I graduated as a History major at NC State.
A must for those remaining collectors who are devoted to the entire field of comic books across the ages. And if you love the pulps or thinking about becoming a collector of those aging precursors to comics (and I don't mean that because of the source material which is considered taboo and very un-PC), the first four chapters are the introduction you've been looking for.
Also, the cover is a collage of comic book panels crafted together by famed book cover artist Chip Kidd. I'd really like to know what book he used for the top panel. Was it from a religious comic about the Rapture? I'm very interested in knowing the story behind that panel.
I didn't realize how much influence that organized crime had in the early days of comics. Not just the Italians; but the Jewish mob as well. Harry Donenfeld, the founder of the publisher that would become DC Comics, rubbed elbows with the likes of Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano and Frank Costello. With their money funneling through Donenfeld's publishing and printing companies, any sort of shaking of the apple cart meant unwanted scrutiny. So anytime someone complained about low page rates or contacts not being honored, scummy accountants like Jack Liebowitz would show doctored ledgers indicating huge losses while bemoaning a lack of financial security. Then someone like the creators of Superman would be tossed a couple hundred bucks and hopefully walk away quietly while the editors and publishers lived like kings.
But it wasn't just the executives taking advantage of their creators. This book will make you despise Bob Kane, if you didn't already. Kane would literally steal the credit from his ghost writers and artists while basking in the limelight of being Batman's dad. Poor Bill Finger would die a drunken pauper, having really done all the work to make the Dark Knight one of the most popular superheroes of all-time and getting zero credit until decades later after his death.
You get a renewed respect for Will Eisner with this book. William Gaines too. I didn't know that his father hated him so. And poor Bill Gaines. He just wanted to be a school teacher and ends up having to become the editor of E.C. Comics after his father's suspicious drowning death, in order to keep his family afloat financially. I also feel really bad for Gaines for flaking out during the Senate hearings on comic book violence led by Senator Estes Kefauver. Image how things could have gone differently had Gaines swallowed his pride and not insisted on testifying to disastrous results. We wouldn't have had MAD Magazine, that's for sure.
2005's Men of Tomorrow was written by comic book writer turned noted comic book historian Gerard Jones. It's an interesting story that examines the ins and outs of the early comic book industry as well as the personal lives of Siegel and Shuster. Neither were very pretty. It's a good read that teaches a lot I didn't know. But it could have been about 30 pages shorter if Jones didn't keep reminding us about what had happened prior. Though, maybe the author was trying to capture the way comics would keep readers up-to-date on the accounts of the previous issue before diving into the latest chapter.
Plus with this being a scholarly work, there's about 30 pages of notes that you can skip as well. That is unless you enjoy reading citations and sources of which I gave up interest in pursuing years after I graduated as a History major at NC State.
A must for those remaining collectors who are devoted to the entire field of comic books across the ages. And if you love the pulps or thinking about becoming a collector of those aging precursors to comics (and I don't mean that because of the source material which is considered taboo and very un-PC), the first four chapters are the introduction you've been looking for.
Also, the cover is a collage of comic book panels crafted together by famed book cover artist Chip Kidd. I'd really like to know what book he used for the top panel. Was it from a religious comic about the Rapture? I'm very interested in knowing the story behind that panel.
August 7, 2021
I love books that make the dawn of a new industry or subculture exciting, such as computers, science fiction, or westerns. And Gerard Jones does a great job with comic books. He manages to tie them in not just with early science fiction fandom but the growth of modern Americans, of children growing up outside of the grind of European drudgery and the immigrant experience.
Jones himself is an accomplished comic book writer, appearing on some of my favorite books, including, somewhat ironically, The Shadow Strikes in 1989-1990. Jones never mentions that, but does call out The Shadow as one of the superhero-like pulp properties that Superman outlasted.
Jones frames his story with Superman: The Movie, and the story proper begins with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster creating Superman and ends with their receiving recognition in the Superman movie. Over that period, early comic book pioneers lived to see the organized and dedicated fandom grow up around their creations. The road and the relationship was a rocky one: many of those pioneers lost their jobs to early fans who were willing to work at lower rates and produce more modern works. And yet at the same time it was the fans working in the industry who provided support to the pioneers when they fell on hard times.
If there’s a flaw with this book, it is that it is filled with amateur psychology, and not just from William Marston. Jones has a habit of psycho analyzing his subjects, especially their childhoods, as if they were modern children. And while it is almost certainly true that many of them shared some of the new lifestyles of modern children (of which I and Jones includes teenagers) it is also true that they shared some of the old lifestyles as well, in which teens easily became adults with adult responsibilities.
Modern childhood and early modern entertainment was a feedback Ioop that, in retrospect, seems to have been guaranteed to create each other.
The book is most exciting at the beginning, as the various pioneers come together to create the superhero comic book; toward the end it becomes more of a struggle to keep all of the threads bound together—although not as hard as I would have guessed, as it turns out National Periodical Publications, the company built around DC Comics, had a hand in just about everything, even distributing Marvel Comics.
Interestingly, the history in this book overlaps with the previous book I read, Ship of Fools. Both cover the Shirtwaist Strike as an example of the growth of modern American life.
Jones himself is an accomplished comic book writer, appearing on some of my favorite books, including, somewhat ironically, The Shadow Strikes in 1989-1990. Jones never mentions that, but does call out The Shadow as one of the superhero-like pulp properties that Superman outlasted.
Jones frames his story with Superman: The Movie, and the story proper begins with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster creating Superman and ends with their receiving recognition in the Superman movie. Over that period, early comic book pioneers lived to see the organized and dedicated fandom grow up around their creations. The road and the relationship was a rocky one: many of those pioneers lost their jobs to early fans who were willing to work at lower rates and produce more modern works. And yet at the same time it was the fans working in the industry who provided support to the pioneers when they fell on hard times.
If there’s a flaw with this book, it is that it is filled with amateur psychology, and not just from William Marston. Jones has a habit of psycho analyzing his subjects, especially their childhoods, as if they were modern children. And while it is almost certainly true that many of them shared some of the new lifestyles of modern children (of which I and Jones includes teenagers) it is also true that they shared some of the old lifestyles as well, in which teens easily became adults with adult responsibilities.
Modern childhood and early modern entertainment was a feedback Ioop that, in retrospect, seems to have been guaranteed to create each other.
Movies, pulps, radio, the phonograph, comic strips—all combined to give the new generation an inexhaustible supply of emotional and imaginative experiences that required no participation in reality. And through fandom, there was now a community—others to encourage keeping one’s core in that other world even when school or work demanded the presence of one’s outer self…
Setting them apart too was the loneliness and the pointlessness of modern childhood. For the modern middle class, daily life was cut off from what had always been the essentials of human existence: growing food, making clothes, children working beside their parents. [They] were growing up in small nuclear families with unprecedented amounts of time alone and indoors. An ever growing number of young people were driven to seek connections and meanings that life had once provided automatically.
The book is most exciting at the beginning, as the various pioneers come together to create the superhero comic book; toward the end it becomes more of a struggle to keep all of the threads bound together—although not as hard as I would have guessed, as it turns out National Periodical Publications, the company built around DC Comics, had a hand in just about everything, even distributing Marvel Comics.
Interestingly, the history in this book overlaps with the previous book I read, Ship of Fools. Both cover the Shirtwaist Strike as an example of the growth of modern American life.
December 28, 2017
I really enjoyed this book! It's a history of comic books in America, and although it covers comics all the way through the late 1990s, its primary focus is on the early origins, the creation of Superman and other aspects of the Golden Age. By the time the narrative reaches the end of the Second World War, the story accelerates and moves away from the detail that the earlier years received. The Silver Age is covered from a high-level overview, and the years following the Silver Age receive even less detail. But that's okay. Other books and other authors can cover comics of the 1980s. I would, however, have liked author Gerard Jones to have delved more into Frederic Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent and its impact on the industry, but by the time that came around the story was already speeding up.
The stories of the early days were really interesting. I was familiar with the sad story of Siegel and Shuster, and how they were squeezed out of receiving the fame and money that should have been due them for creating a character as popular as Superman, but I was less familiar with many of the details. Jones also tells the story of Batman, and Bob Kane doesn't come out looking good at all. Kane is portrayed as a vain creator who consistently took credit for the work of others, with the primary victim of this being Batman's co-creator Bill Finger. Kane didn't only neglect to credit Finger, but took active steps to hide Finger's contributions.
I think the best thing about this book is that Gerard Jones treats his subject as something worthy of serious consideration, but doesn't pretend that it's more important than it is. He makes some strong and interesting arguments about how world events and societal trends influenced comic books, but doesn't try to make any dubious claims that comic books affected society or the world at large. He tells us that comic books were popular, and fun, and have been a significant part of American popular culture, not only in the comics themselves but in other media as well. (In recent years, Hollywood has definitely picked up on this in a big way.)
Gerard Jones has written a few other books about pop culture. I'll have to give one or two of them a try.
The stories of the early days were really interesting. I was familiar with the sad story of Siegel and Shuster, and how they were squeezed out of receiving the fame and money that should have been due them for creating a character as popular as Superman, but I was less familiar with many of the details. Jones also tells the story of Batman, and Bob Kane doesn't come out looking good at all. Kane is portrayed as a vain creator who consistently took credit for the work of others, with the primary victim of this being Batman's co-creator Bill Finger. Kane didn't only neglect to credit Finger, but took active steps to hide Finger's contributions.
I think the best thing about this book is that Gerard Jones treats his subject as something worthy of serious consideration, but doesn't pretend that it's more important than it is. He makes some strong and interesting arguments about how world events and societal trends influenced comic books, but doesn't try to make any dubious claims that comic books affected society or the world at large. He tells us that comic books were popular, and fun, and have been a significant part of American popular culture, not only in the comics themselves but in other media as well. (In recent years, Hollywood has definitely picked up on this in a big way.)
Gerard Jones has written a few other books about pop culture. I'll have to give one or two of them a try.
June 26, 2024
To many, the comic book was born in June 1938 with the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1. In some sense it is true, for it was the first appearance of a genuine superhero, although comics were published before 1938. In any case, it is the most valuable comic in the world, in 2014 a copy was sold for over three million dollars.
The people that created the modern comic book in the 1930s were in many ways just trying to find a way to earn a living during the Depression. Young men in particular whose only real skills were drawing were recruited to work at was even then starvation wages. The history of the early years is amazing, some of the major players in building up the circulation were part of organized crime groups, therefore the use of the term “gangsters” in the title is legitimate.
The historical facts of the date of the first appearances of the main cartoon characters are all well known. What you learn in this book are the behind-the-scenes machinations that led to the creation, marketing and publication of the comics as well as how the publishing companies were formed and were managed in the beginning. Some of the leaders were at best slick operators and frauds at worst. The story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, winds its way through the book.
If you are interested in the history of how comic books were created, developed and went through some very rough patches due to social backlash, then this is the book for you. It is truly a story of selling for ten cents a copy at the beginning to a multi-billion-dollar industry today.
The people that created the modern comic book in the 1930s were in many ways just trying to find a way to earn a living during the Depression. Young men in particular whose only real skills were drawing were recruited to work at was even then starvation wages. The history of the early years is amazing, some of the major players in building up the circulation were part of organized crime groups, therefore the use of the term “gangsters” in the title is legitimate.
The historical facts of the date of the first appearances of the main cartoon characters are all well known. What you learn in this book are the behind-the-scenes machinations that led to the creation, marketing and publication of the comics as well as how the publishing companies were formed and were managed in the beginning. Some of the leaders were at best slick operators and frauds at worst. The story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, winds its way through the book.
If you are interested in the history of how comic books were created, developed and went through some very rough patches due to social backlash, then this is the book for you. It is truly a story of selling for ten cents a copy at the beginning to a multi-billion-dollar industry today.
November 12, 2019
You'd think with me working in a comic book store and this book having been around for 15 years that I'd have gotten to it before this. Too busy reading comics is my excuse.
But it was well worth seeking out and certainly worth all the accolades it has received. I've often read about the early years of DC. National Comics, All-American, the original publishers, Donnenfield; it all got jumbled up in my head.
Not here. As we read through the lens of a story, the characters are fleshed out, the events become linear, and all the events form a fascinating tapestry.
The one complaint is that no one can every truly know every detail. Jones makes some leaps, some assumptions, and at some points admits that we can't really know. Business dealings and negotiations are always going to have a "he said/ she said" background to them. Because of that, the reader must go into the book taking everything with a grain of salt.
However, if one is willing to make the trip, it is well worth it. The Bronze and Golden Ages are particularly well attended to. It really is Jack D and Jerry S's story. Stan Lee, Joe Shuster, Jerry Robinson, Will Eisner; these are all supporting characters in the background of Superman's creator versus Superman's marketer.
For any fan of Superman, or comics in general (especially the early years), any history buff will be thrilled to see how it all played out over 80 years ago.
But it was well worth seeking out and certainly worth all the accolades it has received. I've often read about the early years of DC. National Comics, All-American, the original publishers, Donnenfield; it all got jumbled up in my head.
Not here. As we read through the lens of a story, the characters are fleshed out, the events become linear, and all the events form a fascinating tapestry.
The one complaint is that no one can every truly know every detail. Jones makes some leaps, some assumptions, and at some points admits that we can't really know. Business dealings and negotiations are always going to have a "he said/ she said" background to them. Because of that, the reader must go into the book taking everything with a grain of salt.
However, if one is willing to make the trip, it is well worth it. The Bronze and Golden Ages are particularly well attended to. It really is Jack D and Jerry S's story. Stan Lee, Joe Shuster, Jerry Robinson, Will Eisner; these are all supporting characters in the background of Superman's creator versus Superman's marketer.
For any fan of Superman, or comics in general (especially the early years), any history buff will be thrilled to see how it all played out over 80 years ago.
March 14, 2021
Excellent ! Toute l'Amérique du XXème, à travers cette histoire de l'invention des super-héros et de Superman en particulier. On suit la biographie des quatre principaux protagonistes, Jerry Siegel et Joe Shuster, les créateurs, qui vont se faire flouer, Harry Donenfeld et Jack Liebowitz, les éditeurs, qui vont toucher le pactole. J'ai particulièrement aimé l'évocation du Lower East Side des années 10 (l'endroit le plus dense de l'histoire de l'humanité où s'entasse toute l'immigration de la fin XIXème) pour Harry et Jack, et celle du Cleveland des années 20 pour Jerry et Joe... Et toute cette contre-culture des roaring twenties, avec ses bootleggers, ses policiers corrompus, ses éditeurs de pulps, et ses militantes du birth-control. Et comme l'alcool est interdit, qu'il est illégal d'envoyer des présos par la poste et que les magazines sont mal distribués, notre Harry organise tout un trafic depuis le Canada. "So Margaret Sanger's condoms, Hugo Gernsback's science fiction, and Frank Costello's whiskey could ride together in trucks and on trains and through post offices where the inspectors were on the take". Magnifique !
November 2, 2024
Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book by Gerard Jones had all the right ingredients for a fascinating deep dive into the comic book industry’s origins, but for me, it ultimately fell short. The book covers a ton of ground—biographies of key figures like Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the influence of organized crime, and the cultural shifts that helped comics take off—but the sheer amount of detail made it hard to keep track of who was who. Despite my interest in the early comic book scene, I found myself asking, “Do I really care about this part?” more than once.
If you’re someone who loves rich, detailed histories and doesn’t mind wading through a lot of characters and side stories, this might be your book. But if you’re looking for a more straightforward look at how Superman and his creators changed the world, this book could feel like a bit of a slog. I gave it my best, but in the end, I decided to put it down.
If you’re someone who loves rich, detailed histories and doesn’t mind wading through a lot of characters and side stories, this might be your book. But if you’re looking for a more straightforward look at how Superman and his creators changed the world, this book could feel like a bit of a slog. I gave it my best, but in the end, I decided to put it down.
October 19, 2022
A very interesting read covering the rise of the comic book from the 1930's and through to the Alexander Salkind Superman movie and touches on the aftermath into the 80's. A lot of information regarding Siegel and Schuster, the creation of superman and the ownership rights debate. However, it does cover different aspects, superheroes, writer/artists and companies, and it ties the whole history together very well. It does not pull any punches and is an eyeopener. The version I read was the readers preview of the final book and that may have some changes but definitely a good read. The only criticism I have, which is minor, is that it does jump around a lot as it tries to tie all the different aspects together which can make it difficult to follow. Still recommend this to anyone interested in the birth of the comic book.
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