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Comics - The Call and the Cost
Not yet published
Expected 1 Jul 26Discover the reason comic creators toil away over ink stained pages, even when circumstances don't reward that hard work.
This is what happens when comics meet the real world, coming face to face with politics, war, and big business. Witness creators navigate their passion and careers when faced with the intersection between art and commerce.
This stellar collection includes these
1) The Cost of A History of the Comic Book Labor Movement
2) Marge Buell and Little Women Warriors - America's Early Female Cartoonist Entrepreneur and Her Feminist Creation
3) Hector Comics Own Martyr
4) David Mazzucchelli Walks Away from Superheroic Success for Indie Art
5) Jeff Smith and A Little Help from My Friends
6) A License to Art and Capitalism in the Works of Schulz, Davis, and Watterson
7) Epilogue or Why I A Justification of Rejection, Torture, and Bliss
This is what happens when comics meet the real world, coming face to face with politics, war, and big business. Witness creators navigate their passion and careers when faced with the intersection between art and commerce.
This stellar collection includes these
1) The Cost of A History of the Comic Book Labor Movement
2) Marge Buell and Little Women Warriors - America's Early Female Cartoonist Entrepreneur and Her Feminist Creation
3) Hector Comics Own Martyr
4) David Mazzucchelli Walks Away from Superheroic Success for Indie Art
5) Jeff Smith and A Little Help from My Friends
6) A License to Art and Capitalism in the Works of Schulz, Davis, and Watterson
7) Epilogue or Why I A Justification of Rejection, Torture, and Bliss
416 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication July 1, 2026
About the author
C.J. Standal
40 books15 followersIn addition to Rebirth of the Gangster CJ Standal also writes B.A.E. Wulf--a modern day mashup of Beowulf and Lovecraftian horror. B.A.E. Wulf is an ongoing series pulished by Markosia Press. He also has a collection of essays, Outside the Panels: Comics, the Classroom, and the Creative Life, a book that mainly focuses on his experiences creating, publishing, and teaching comics. He wrote for the now-defunct Slant and is now writing for Graphic Policy; he also writes a blog at his own site, cjstandalproductions.com.
A former high school English teacher, in addition to writing, he works with healthcare software. When not writing or working with healthcare software, he can be found snuggling up for a good read next to his girlfriend and cat in Wisconsin.
A former high school English teacher, in addition to writing, he works with healthcare software. When not writing or working with healthcare software, he can be found snuggling up for a good read next to his girlfriend and cat in Wisconsin.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
My thanks to NetGalley and BooksGoSocial for an advance copy of this collection of essays about the business, the attraction, the cost both physical, mental, even mortal, and sometimes the success that comes from working in comics industry.
My father worked in a job that allowed him to have two cars, a house in Connecticut, a family that was provided for, and has taken care of my mother in both pension and healthcare. This job was probably why my father died so early. My father never talked about Work. That's all it was Work. I don't know what my father would have liked to have done, this never came up. My brother and I work in the creative fields, both retail and in creation for myself, writing for my brother, something that he has been quite successful at. I have seen great changes in retail and creative industries. And it will probably only get worse. However there is something about the creative world that really means something to me. And for many others. Including the writer of this interesting and very information collection. Comics - The Call and the Cost by CJ Standal are essays about the comic industry, working in, the price that many have paid, the various controversies, and even some success stories.
The book begins with a look at how the industry has always exploited its workers, something that is common in many industries, as well as the tactics used to keep creatives fighting amongst themselves, while hanging on to the dream that success, and money might soon be theirs. This essays goes into attempts at forming guilds, unions, and about rights issues, including the story of Superman's creators, and the King, Jack Kirby's struggles to get his art back. Standal looks at a creator who paid the ultimate price for his art, and his beliefs, delivering a biographical sketch about the writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld, creator of the popular and influential comic The Eternaut (Spanish: El Eternauta), and his death at the hands of a government who didn't appreciate his stories, nor his politics. Another essay focuses on advertising and commercialism of comic strips with examples from Peanuts, and Calvin and Hobbes. Snoopy being used to sell everything, and increasing the fame of the strip, and the opposite being true of Calvin and his tiger friend. There are even a few success stories. Jeff Smith and the story of his Bone comic story and even David Mazzucchelli who found more success walking away from the big companies and doing his own thing.
Not what I expected, which is a good thing as I really enjoyed this work. Standal is a very good writer, able to talk about union and labor issues in the industry, make the work that Jeff Smith did in promoting his work understandable, and talk about Standal's own love of comics, and the success and rejections he has suffered. I learned quite a bit, and understand more about the issues that comic people suffered, and how the industry seems to almost always be in decline. and yet people still want to write and draw in the medium.
A really good mix of history, profiles and autobiography, one that appreciates comics, and one that makes one wonder why anyone would go into the field. The creative life is a real draw, one that has its own rewards. However like any dreams there are costs, but maybe even success. A book that could be given to anyone who has a dream about creating things, and what that life might be like.
My father worked in a job that allowed him to have two cars, a house in Connecticut, a family that was provided for, and has taken care of my mother in both pension and healthcare. This job was probably why my father died so early. My father never talked about Work. That's all it was Work. I don't know what my father would have liked to have done, this never came up. My brother and I work in the creative fields, both retail and in creation for myself, writing for my brother, something that he has been quite successful at. I have seen great changes in retail and creative industries. And it will probably only get worse. However there is something about the creative world that really means something to me. And for many others. Including the writer of this interesting and very information collection. Comics - The Call and the Cost by CJ Standal are essays about the comic industry, working in, the price that many have paid, the various controversies, and even some success stories.
The book begins with a look at how the industry has always exploited its workers, something that is common in many industries, as well as the tactics used to keep creatives fighting amongst themselves, while hanging on to the dream that success, and money might soon be theirs. This essays goes into attempts at forming guilds, unions, and about rights issues, including the story of Superman's creators, and the King, Jack Kirby's struggles to get his art back. Standal looks at a creator who paid the ultimate price for his art, and his beliefs, delivering a biographical sketch about the writer Héctor Germán Oesterheld, creator of the popular and influential comic The Eternaut (Spanish: El Eternauta), and his death at the hands of a government who didn't appreciate his stories, nor his politics. Another essay focuses on advertising and commercialism of comic strips with examples from Peanuts, and Calvin and Hobbes. Snoopy being used to sell everything, and increasing the fame of the strip, and the opposite being true of Calvin and his tiger friend. There are even a few success stories. Jeff Smith and the story of his Bone comic story and even David Mazzucchelli who found more success walking away from the big companies and doing his own thing.
Not what I expected, which is a good thing as I really enjoyed this work. Standal is a very good writer, able to talk about union and labor issues in the industry, make the work that Jeff Smith did in promoting his work understandable, and talk about Standal's own love of comics, and the success and rejections he has suffered. I learned quite a bit, and understand more about the issues that comic people suffered, and how the industry seems to almost always be in decline. and yet people still want to write and draw in the medium.
A really good mix of history, profiles and autobiography, one that appreciates comics, and one that makes one wonder why anyone would go into the field. The creative life is a real draw, one that has its own rewards. However like any dreams there are costs, but maybe even success. A book that could be given to anyone who has a dream about creating things, and what that life might be like.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Fascinating look at the internal pressures and external forces of capital that shape the cartooning profession. The collection of essays function as a labor history of the industry and skillfully examinees the tensions between art and commerce at the heart of the profession. At it's core, this book is a celebration of why one chooses a career for personal passion, and not (strictly) monetary gain.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The Call and the Cost by CJ Standal is a raw, semi-autobiographical comic that strips away the glamour of the industry to reveal the real sacrifices creators make. With wit and honesty, each text captures the relentless pull of artistic passion and the steep price of chasing a dream in comics. A must-read for anyone who’s ever wondered what it truly costs to make a story.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews