American Comics: A History

by Jeremy Dauber

The sweeping story of cartoons, comic strips, and graphic novels and their hold on the American imagination. 

Comics have conquered America. From our multiplexes, where Marvel and DC movies reign supreme, to our television screens, where comics-based shows like  The Walking Dead  have become among the most popular in cable history, to convention halls, best-seller lists, Pulitzer Prize–winning titles, and MacArthur Fellowship recipients, comics shape American culture, in ways high and low, superficial, and deeply profound.

In  American Comics , Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes readers through their incredible but little-known history, starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting and iconic images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus; the golden age of newspaper comic strips and the first great superhero boom; the moral panic of the Eisenhower era, the Marvel Comics revolution, and the underground comix movement of the 1960s and ’70s; and finally into the twenty-first century, taking in the grim and gritty Dark Knights and  Watchmen alongside the brilliant rise of the graphic novel by acclaimed practitioners like Art Spiegelman and Alison Bechdel.

Dauber’s story shows not only how comics have changed over the decades but how American politics and culture have changed them. Throughout, he describes the origins of beloved comics, champions neglected masterpieces, and argues that we can understand how America sees itself through  whose  stories comics tell. Striking and revelatory, American Comics is a rich chronicle of the last 150 years of American history through the lens of its comic strips, political cartoons, superheroes, graphic novels, and more.

FEATURING…

• American Splendor   • Archie  • The Avengers  • Kyle Baker  • Batman  • C. C. Beck  • Black Panther  • Captain America  • Roz Chast  • Walt Disney  • Will Eisner  • Neil Gaiman  • Bill Gaines  • Bill Griffith  • Harley Quinn  • Jack Kirby   • Denis Kitchen  • Krazy Kat  • Harvey Kurtzman  • Stan Lee  • Little Orphan Annie  • Maus  • Frank Miller  • Alan Moore  • Mutt and Jeff  • Gary Panter  • Peanuts   • Dav Pilkey  • Gail Simone  • Spider-Man  • Superman  • Dick Tracy  • Wonder Wart-Hog  • Wonder Woman  • The Yellow Kid  • Zap Comix

… AND MANY MORE OF YOUR FAVORITES! 

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Comics, Pop Culture, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Historical

592 pages, Hardcover

First published November 16, 2021

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Comics may expand our horizons to new corridors or myth . . . [and] they can also be blinders, allowing readers to imagine worlds so deeply conceived, and yet so narrowly drawn, they threaten to block out the world as it is, or indeed should be." -- from the author's introduction

I'm an avid reader of comic books / graphic novels, and also really I enjoy various components of U.S. history. So Dauber's American Comics: A History from Uncle Sam to Black Panther should've been a sure thing, a home run, or any other trite stock phrase denoting a certainty. However, for such an exhaustively detailed book my attention was already waning in the initial chapter (covering those long-retired and/or forgotten newspaper strips / funnies' pages from 100+ years ago) and then even more so in a number of the later segments (in which politics rears its head a little too often, either in focusing on the underground scene from 50 years ago and/or just the author's own views). Call it churlish, but a number of times I was thinking "just cut to the chase - talk about the superheroes." So those sections 'in the middle' that I had the most interest have already been covered in such earlier and very good books like Tucker's Slugfest: Inside the Epic, 50-year Battle Between Marvel and DC and Hajdu's The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How it Changed America, but were still represented fairly well here. In the end, I suppose that Maslon's excellent Superheroes! Capes, Cowls, and the Creation of Comic Book Culture was just more my speed for this type of subject matter.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

American Comics, Jeremy Dauber's massive and comprehensive history of (wait for it) American comics, labors under one significant shortcoming—an issue that will be immediately apparent to anyone, even if you're just flipping through pages at random: there is not one single picture in the entire volume.

Now, I don't know why that is. Dauber provides no explanation in the book, as far as I could tell. I can come up with theories, sure... images are expensive, both to license and to print. Getting permissions would've taken time and effort—and I know for a fact (from watching my wife work on that part of a project) that gathering reprint rights is a different skill—it's not the same as writing and researching the other aspects of a scholarly work. And reproducing actual comics, even in black-and-white, would have massively increased both the size and cost of the finished book. So I'm not entirely surprised that Dauber's history consists of nothing but text. But I would have expected him to acknowledge somewhere, at least briefly, how limiting it is to rely on words alone while discussing such a visual medium.

If you already have some familiarity with the field, though—if you can bring to your mind's eye at least some of the artwork Dauber describes—you may be able to look past that omission. There are a lot of pretty good words here.

The history of comics is one of multiple erasures.
—p.xviii

Dauber doesn't flinch away from the unpleasant aspects of comics history, from the racist caricatures in so-called "jungle" comics up through the toxic fanboys of Gamergate.

Dauber's work is inclusive as well, not just acknowledging but highlighting the contributions of women, Black artists, and many other oft-marginalized groups. This, for example, was from Ollie Harrington's 1930s comic "Dark Laughter," but it could have been written yesterday...

A later Harrington cartoon featured a bandaged man saying, "Well, naturally I believe in nonviolence but the cops don't seem to know that!"
—p.33

I was also happy to see Dauber mention the original Green Lantern's name, on p.53. For some reason, "Alan Scott" is one of my favorite characters from comics history.

Actually, though, Dauber's work really is thorough and comprehensive; every comic-book character I could bring to mind myself (as a relative outsider, I must admit) appeared at some point, and I learned a lot about writers and artists I'd never seen mentioned anywhere else.

We all think we know what a comic book is. For some, it's knowledge born of long familiarity: the weight, the paper, the staples, the way it flies across the room with the right flick of the wrist (this, of course, before "discovering" they're commodities, to be properly preserved and sheathed in Mylar).
—p.39

I skimmed the end notes and index, I will admit. And oh, you should probably be aware that this is one of many contexts in which the word "American" is assumed to mean "of the United States"—so if you're looking for details about the history of comics in other parts of the Americas, North or South, you'll have to look elsewhere.

It was a higher level of mediocrity than I had ever seen before.
—Art Spiegelman, p.278.

Quoted out of context...


All in all, Jeremy Dauber's heart is in the right place. American Comics is a good book, a loving tribute to the vast variety of sequential art that has been published in these United States.

It's just missing the big picture—or, rather, lots and lots of little ones...

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

From The Yellow Kid (1895) to Watchmen (1986), from Winsor McCay (Little Nemo in Slumberland) to Robert Crumb (Zap, Fritz the Cat, The Book of Genesis) and all points in between; 592 pages of dense text and not one goddamn illustration. But if you’re serious about the storied history of American comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels (and you are willing to google all your visual references) you have come to the right place.

[Kevin]

Disclaimer: I'm not a huge comic book person. That's to say, I read some when I was a kid; I appreciate them as a storytelling device, an art form, I've read a few graphic novels, and I enjoy a superhero movie as much as the next person. That said, I don't really identify strongly with comic book culture, so my perspectives on this book come from that place.

I absolutely loved this book. One of the few I "couldn't put down" so far this year. Dauber has crafted a mix of a love letter to comic book history and culture with crucial cultural context and critique. The history is engaging, and the critiques are more complex than the cursory expectations.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dauber's exhaustive deep dive into the history of American comics is all encompassing and very thorough from the one panel Yellow Kid through the modern comic book "floppies" of current 2020's. Dauber even covers the underground comics and the formation of the graphic novel.

[Trevor Seigler · Rating 3 out of 5]

In case you've been living under a rock the past few years or so, you're well aware that we live in an age of superheroes. Specifically, superheroes created in the pages of the comic books, who are now all over the damn place (big screen, small screen, the internet, and even still on the pages of comic books). Despite Martin Scorsese's objections, superhero movies dominate the cinematic landscape, and whether you like that or hate it, you have to acknowledge it. So a history of the medium of comic books is welcome at this juncture in our history, and this book (for the most part) fulfills that role well.

"American Comics" by Jeremy Dauber, starts strong, but I have to admit: there were large sections of this book that just didn't resonate with me at all, when he was going into lengthy discussions of comic book titles and artists I'd never heard of. I don't consider myself well-versed in comic-book history by any stretch, but I've read enough about them to know of Steve Ditko, Jerry Siegel, Stan "The Man" Lee, Will Eisner, and so many others. I would say that this book does a good job of giving an overarching history of the medium, but therein lies the problem, perhaps: with well over a century of material and history to go over, and the stated purpose of giving us a history of said medium, I feel like Dauber could've done a more selective going-over of the history of the medium. But I feel like someone more attuned to comics, more appreciative of the actual physical form, would love this book like crazy. Me, I found it very informative if overwhelming. I could feel my thoughts drifting off when he began breaking down yet another comic book arc or story that I'd never heard of and didn't particularly find engaging. Also, who writes a book about a visual medium like comic books and *doesn't have illustrations*? I don't know if there were copyright issues (there usually are in comic-book histories) or what, but some photos of the art being mentioned at various times would've been nice. That's my negative portion of the review.

The positives are that, when Dauber goes into details about the titles, he's usually doing the right amount of "summarizing without going off the deep end" in talking about the comics. Like I said, there's a lot of ground to cover, and Dauber's writing style is engaging enough (for the most part) to make the interesting parts really interesting. And when he gets into the more latter-day history of the comics industry (including issues of toxic fandom, arguments over representation, and how the movie boom has both helped and hurt the original medium of comic books), he's spot-on. I think this is a very mixed bag of a book, but overall I'd recommend it highly to anyone wondering about the history of comic books and how they came to be such a dominant and important part of our cultural history and cultural moment now.

[Martin Maenza · Rating 3 out of 5]

Continuing my to-read backlog, this one speaks directly to half-century (and counting) love of the genre. As an avid fan, quite a good bit of Dauber's very indepth narrative was known to me. Still, there are always new facts to learn and little-known stories to be revealed. That was my target for reading his book.

Some things which I enjoyed reading more about: the explosion of genre titles in the late 1940's (romance, western, horror and crime), the factors that lead to the creation of the Comics Code which in turn lead to the creation of Mad - the comics and then the magazine.

With so many decades of history to cover, Dauber really has to move at a lightning pace, giving the well-researched highlights. The ninety-some pages of notes at the end, though, give plenty of places for readers to go for more specific details on all topics covered. That makes this volume one of those to be used for revisits over time rather than a one-read-and-done sort of thing.

The only glaring point is that this book focused on a very visual medium has no photos or artwork; it is pure text. It almost fits like a textbook for a college course on comics which would in turn be supplemented by lecture (where artwork would be a big part of the visual presentations). Again, the references come in handy to point folks to the source material that might have some artwork as well.

[Hank Hoeft · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw American Comics: A History on the New Books shelf at the local college library and briefly thumbed through its 570 pages, I thought to myself, “Ooooh…here’s my next five-star book for GoodReads.” But after reading it, I was disappointed and debated whether to rate it three or four stars. I ended up giving it four stars, but with reservations.

First, the good points:

When the titles states “A History of Comics,” that’s not an overstatement. The narrative starts with the earliest examples of printed illustrations in America that can be classified as comics or proto-comics, then moves on to the origins of the comic strip, and then to comic books. From that point, the emphasis is on the comic book, but later developments in the comic strip and other media where comics appear, are still discussed. Author Jeremy Dauber’s knowledge is extensive and encyclopedic. A truly comprehensive and complete history would necessitate a book at least two or three times as long, but the range of coverage in this book is impressive.

That brings me to the second strength: the author’s in-depth knowledge of the history of the field, including artistic analysis, political and cultural influences, and knowledge of the business of producing and making money from comic art. (An indication of how well-researched this book is, is in the 120 pages of end notes and references.)

But that brings to mind my first criticism:

In presenting such a wide-ranging history, the depth of the narrative and analysis often feels lacking. After reading only cursory mentions of so many strips and comic book titles, I was reminded of the opening to the Bugs Bunny Comedy Hour, when all the Warner Brother cartoon characters march across the stage and then off of it. There are in-depth discussions of some landmark strips and titles (Dick Tracy, Superman and Batman, EC horror titles, the early 1960's “Marvel Age), but there are other titles I had always thought of as groundbreaking and important that get short shrift. (I thought the discussion of the original Captain Marvel was too short, and I was sorry there was no mention of Plop, the odd DC weird-humor title from the 1970's.)

When I first picked up this volume and thumbed through it, I was startled to see that while the narrative starts more-or-less in the early 1800’s, by page 150—one-third of the way through the text—we’re already into the early 1960's. In other words, the author devotes 150 pages to the first 160 years, and 300 pages to the last 60 years. I would rather the author have switched this around. Maybe this is because of my own personal history with comics. The first comic book I ever read was a Batman comic in 1961, when I was in first grade. I became a comic book junkie in the 1960's, mainly with DC and Marvel, but also with Charlton, Harvey, Dell/ Gold Key and all the other companies publishing then, including underground comix. I became aware of Golden Age (i.e., 1940's) comics from reprints, and I thought comics really had a flowering in the 1970's when artists like Berni Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Mike Ploog, Michael Golden, Jim Aparo, Neal Adams, Rich Corben, and so many others, were in their heyday. I lost interest in comic books when the continuity of what I’d grown up with went out the window, and visual pizzazz replaced storytelling, and when nihilism replaced the (admittedly simplistic and maybe even corny) mythology that had made comic books so popular in the first place.

And that’s my next criticism of American Comics: much of those last 300 pages are devoted to what seems to me mostly fringe products—the avant-garde, and the experimental, almost all of it negative, gloomy, and depressing. I read to the end, wondering how Dauber was going to treat the current state of the comic industry—the wave of “woke” comics that don’t sell and seem to be dooming the traditional comic book industry. But Dauber doesn’t mention this, except to extol the “progressive” woke trend and endorse it as the way things should be. In my opinion, this ignores the whole reason why comics rose to such a prominent form of pop culture in the first place.

My final criticism may strike others as nit-picking spitefulness, but I am a high school English teacher—when people ask me what I do for a living, I tell them I hold back the rising tide of ignorance and mediocrity—and I value the ability to write the English language with precision. So I was surprised and (after a while) annoyed with the less-than-precise writing style of an author who is a professor of Jewish literature and American culture at Colombia University. I finished reading American Comics a week ago, and what still sticks in my mind as particularly grating are the continually incorrect use of colons and semi-colons, and the abundance of sentence fragments. Given the degree of research that went into the writing of this volume, such lapses of standard grammar and mechanics are surprising and disappointing.

But in conclusion, I ended up giving American Comics: A History four stars, from the sheer size of Dauber’s work, and even with the criticisms I mentioned, I nevertheless recognize this volume as a huge and valuable contribution to the subject.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

American Comic History

I found the beginning history up through the attempts in the 50s to regulate comics and their being blamed for juvenile delinquency very interesting and involving. But after those chapters, I found myself skimming through and becoming less involved. No pictures of comics after the early days and that had a lot of effect on a book about the history of comic books.

[Downward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jeremy Dauber here acts as historian of a medium, tracing the origins of comics in America from the earliest appearances through to newspapers, mainstream superhero comics, underground comics, to the mass culture that they are today. in doing so he microscopes in on aesthetic achievements and advancements in form and content, tracking the journey from youth to adult entertainment and around again. he does this largely by commenting on specific comics from various genres, publications, and aesthetics and in doing so creates a pretty comprehensive mapped out history of it all. I think one of the drawbacks here is that a lot of this book feels like lists of comics with descriptions of what goes on in them, which I actually enjoyed as a historical exercise and a reminder of all these things but lacked a sense of analysis that I expect from a work of this magnitude. in retrospect, that's a quibble, and if you like or are interested in comics, this is a great work to lose your head in.

[Hector · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ambitious and interesting but not perfect history of comics, one that takes into account every influence, trend, permutation, etc. It's a very broad subject, and I've read several other books that have approached narrower slices of this story--Slugfest, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book, etc. Dauber's work, which probably could have been twice as long, does bring into the lengthy story of comic strips and books some important and fascinating chapters, especially the early days of newspaper strips, women underground comic creators, autobiographical comics, Raina Telgemeier's successes, and more. However several stretches of this book, especially toward the end, read like uncritical listings of comics and their writers and artists, and don't do much beyond providing a reading list. So I would say this is a not bad and sometimes excellent historical work, but limiting the scope (as other books have done) might have made this better.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the type of book I've been waiting years for. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought it was very interesting reading about the underground comix movement in the 60s/70s because the author managed to go in-depth and give great examples when it's rare to find much information now. None of this book was hard to get through and it was clearly very well-researched. Something to note is that it is not a superhero history book - it pays good attention to comics as a medium rather than just superhero comics. The author delved into social movements and representation as well, which was a nice surprise

I think the book became a little weaker when it got closer to modern day. Although it is difficult to look at recent times without bias and see what will stand out, it feels like the last chapter just had the author listing recent comic books rather than giving a well-developed history.

[Shane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not enjoy this book. It took something fun--comics--and sucked the life out of it with very dense academic prose. This book is a bit pretentious and assumes way too much prior knowledge of comics; I didn't understand 3/4ths of what Dauber is describing (some pictures of the relevant comics referenced would have been very helpful). I also feel he spent an inordinate amount of time on stuff that didn't really matter; 50-year comics might get a sentence while some 3-issue comic gets a paragraph.
Having said all that, there are some interesting tidbits in here about this or that piece of comics history, and there is some good analysis, but unfortunately these are far fewer than I would have liked.

[Zana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good but how the hell can you write a comics history with no images in it?!

[Antonio Nunez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dauber’s book on American comics is a highly ambitious attempt to cover, in a single volume, the history is this most American of art forms (which like jazz has seen its best days decades ago). Beginning with editorial cartoons it followed the emergence of mass newspaper readership into cartoon strips, some of them extremely beautiful and weird (Little Nemo in Slumberland). Then strips were collected and comics were born, seen as disposable and unremarkable pieces of popular culture. Superman and Batman were born, later Captain America, the Human Torch and Namor the Submariner. Superheroes were the rage during WWII but they had gone well out of fashion much before Dr Wertham demolished the whole building, which by his time (early 50s) rested on appalling horror and crime comics. Having read Seduction of the Innocent, I think Wertham had a few good points among much hyperbolic dross. Comics seemed ready to roll over and die before the onslaught of TV in a the late 50s, before they arose again in the early sixties. From the unlikely clay of Ditko’s monster comics, Romita’s romance comics and Kirby’s war comics the Silver age was born (it had dawned with Carmine Infantino’s new Flash and Green Lantern). Superhero comics captured the New Frontier spirit of the early 60s but they were quickly overcome by underground comics in the late 60s and early 70s. Profane, misogynistic, racist and often pornographic, one would hardly recommend them to anyone today. Their guiding spirit was Robert Crumb (he was called “Our Hyeronimus Bosch”- he wasn’t), a highly talented draughtsman but often a repellent little pervert. I for one don’t miss that particular strain of comics. After the doldrums of much of the 1970s (post-death of Gwen Stacy) superhero comics (now the dominant comics) found their way thanks to mutants. The X-Men (particularly was drawn by John Byrne and scripted by Chris Claremont) showed everyone how superhero comics ought to be done: like soap operas with plenty of teen angst. Hyper-violence, which started on a low key with 1970s Punisher really came into its own in the 80s with Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. Although Moore kept his mojo, Miller’s take on superheroes, which was cartoonish to begin with, devolved into awfulness in his Sin City books, his appalling 300 and particularly in DK2 and DK3. In my view comics in the 1990s became a financial exercise, with endless crossovers, event comics, multiple covers sold already bagged in Mylar. Marvel became owned by greenmailers and speculators and bean counters took over. Faithful readers were derided as zombies and beloved characters were misused for the sake of quick bucks or killed off like Supergirl. This was the time of inarticulate characters like Cable, with guns bigger than their heads and hypersexualized females. This was the time when harmless gimmick villains like the Toyman or the Mad Hatter became pedophilic psychopaths. When the wives of heroes were killed and stuffed into refrigerators. The time of awful “sagas” like Spider-Man’s Clone Saga. All this things turned off long term fans, although some good product still came out of the presses (like DC’s Elseworlds- although I’ll never be able to unsee Sinestro as he tries to escape from Hawkman, who has just torn off the former’s arms… One wonders what these people were trying to achieve. Anyway Dauber shows us what some of us missed when we quit reading comics in the 90s. It’s a good ride and also a swansong of a formerly great tradition.

[James Rickenbaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A historian by trade, Dr. Jeremy Dauber does a remarkable job weaving together the disparate plot lines of comic history. It’s a Herculean effort, to be sure (pardon the Batman villain pun and, you know, the Greek myth too). Dauber is faithful in his recounting of this long and sordid tale of the graphic storytelling medium. From comic strips to Tijuana Bibles, you’ll find pretty much the full gamut (or is it Gambit? Sorry the comics puns are just pouring out now) of comics covered in striking detail. Dauber takes the reader from Thomas Nast, artist during the American Civil War, through the COVID-19 pandemic. It really is a comprehensive tale. Dauber is imminently readable. He is also a great storyteller.

If I had a bone to pick with Dr. Dauber it would be this: much of his analysis smacks of what C.S. Lewis would call chronological snobbery. Put simply: 75% of this book deserves the title American Comics: A History. 25% earns the title American Comics: An Opinion. Dauber treats much of the past in comics as benighted when compared to the illumined present. To a certain extent, he’s right. Racism was rampant in ages past in comics. That has been corrected; yet, the supposed righting of wrongs extends far beyond that one clear issue. He opines that present day comics has righted the wrongs on other political and, some might even say, theological issues. That is opinion masquerading as historical fact. One man’s righting of wrongs is another man’s gatekeeping. Dauber’s analysis dips into said gatekeeping when he lionizes progress and progressives while, on the whole, demonizing conservatives and conservatism. If you’re writing a history, such things are out of bounds. If you’re writing an op ed to the NYT, have at it.

Overall, this is an enjoyable read. I’ll read it again. I suspect that many folks won’t agree with my critique. That’s fine. But as comics lover, I want to learn about the history of comics when I read a book like this. I don’t want gatekeeping, chronological snobbery, or political opinions. I want everybody to enjoy comics. And I want everyone, if they want, to be able to read about comics history without feeling like they have to support every, single shift made in the medium. After all, comic writers are supposed to be storytellers. The vast majority of them aren’t known for their political acumen…

[Chris (horizon_brave) · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s always great to find a book on one of your favorite subjects, that you didn’t know existed! I’ve been reading a lot of bio’s and history and this is a sort of slice of both. American Comics takes the dive way way back before the traditional comic as we know it and starts with political satire cartoons in the New World. The evolution of the growth is slow and we see them morph more and more into the state that have today. The author, Jeremy Dauber does a fantastic job of introducing the titles, and the authors behind it, but also the reasons and effects the book has had. It’s a (relatively) brief history of each and no book or author is really expanded on, so if you’re looking for a deep dive into Spiderman or X-men etc, this isn’t the book. It does however provide context of what was going on at the time, the political landscape, what the publishing industry was like etc. The book does a pretty standard job, nothing mind blowing, it just provide a solid history, even the smaller titles like Craig Thompson’s Blankets, GhostWorld and Eightball, Blackhole etc, are all given some love. In fact by the end of the book, it becomes more of a list of shoutouts than history. The history behind the books disappears and we get a bunch of mentions with a brief description. Good for those looking for some blanket overview of different comics and not from the big two, but it does sort of raise an eyebrow at the ‘History’ in the title of the book. Overall though, I really enjoyed it. I don’t know if it’s a ‘must read’ for comics fans, as “True Believer” is. This doesn’t put down anything that isn’t well documented in other places...however it does provide just a simple, concise recognition of a timeline of comics.

[Scott Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid survey of the history of the American comics. It starts off with a history of printed pictures in newspapers/media, looking to men like Nast, Pulitzer and Hearst, the later two using comics and cartoon images to bring in readers and convey messages/perspectives. Yet, as the work evolves, it goes away from the newspapers and the traditional comic strips going into the world of the comic strips/graphic novels. Those key superheroes, from Superman to Batman to Wonder Woman, dominate the narrative. The author also spends a good bit of time discussing the role of underground comics and those publications that may not have generated a lot revenue on newsstands, but amassed a strong following of readers. The work spans past the Cold War, to 9/11, to the election of Donald Trump. Like all other forms of literature/art, the comics reflect their times and values. There is some wistfulness when discussing the Marvel movie franchises, which did not entirely resurrect the printed comics regime. Not much discussion about the newspaper comics after the early days is also another characteristic.

A book as ambitious as this won’t account for everything, so that is one thing that has to be accounted for when reading the work. It is interesting that this is not just looking at the main comics, but it offers a wider aperture or what mediums were out there for consumption. A good starting point for someone wanting some insight to how comics evolved, but more specifically geared towards comic books.

[Mark Mcdermott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finally got to finish a book and post about it. Dauber's book is exhaustive, and a bit exhausting. Fanboys like me might quibble about the exclusion of a few favorite titles or publisher events. BUT Dauber spins from the usual DC vs. Marvel history to mention the many, many self-published or independent comics that have come out since the 1970s. He neatly spins them from the underground movement of the 1960's, some of whose publishers pioneered the practice of paying artists based on sales and returning original art. Each chapter in the latter half runs through hundreds of comics by theme: race or gender identity, personal narrative, reinventing traditional genres. He circles back to the business side of the industry: the rise and fall of comic book stores and wholesalers, growth of the internet for ordering and reading comics, and the emergence of blockbuster comic book movies, that may or may not help the publishers.
I'm to the stage where I check whether new books of this type get into the COVID pandemic and how it affects business, and he does cover this, too.
Only drawback I can find is similar to those in other scholarly books: there's sometimes more interesting facts squirreled away in the endnotes that would be fun to read in the body of the book itself.
Of course one might like to see some panels from the comics being discussed, but then there would be a BIG issue of clearing reproduction rights, and making the book a few hundred pages longer.

[Bill Sleeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Jeremy Dauber has written a true textbook of comic history. The book is chock full of valuable background and insightful comments. I think he gives short shrift to the important role of editorial comics in the modern era but does very fairly place their origin and influence in the "Yellow Kid" era.


I particularly appreciate his evaluation of the underground alt-comics era as I remember fondly sneaking into my older brother's room to read "Micky Rat" and the "Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers"! Dauber's work in drawing a direct line from those titles/characters to Wimmen's Comix to "Love and Rockets" and "Lumberjanes" is one of the most complete I have ever read.


There were a couple of odd moments within that may strike a true fan as surprising. For example Dauber discusses the work of George Remi but never actually mentions the name of the series or character ["The Adventures of Tintin"]. He mentions, rightfully so, the influence of adult readers on the industry but never really explores the whole notion of "geek culture" and the impact of the "Big Bang" television show. If ever there was a pop culture force that said it was okay for adults to like comics, it was Sheldon and friends. In fact, I actually saw people cos-playing Sheldon, Leonard and Penny at a NY Comic-Con.


In all, this is a rich, insightful and well documented (for a librarian, that matters!) history. I recommend it highly.

[Yossi Hoffman · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an incredible feat of research! The scope of this book is vast. Dauber shares insights about such far-ranging comics and creators as Elfquest (“...about the search for connection in every sense, including the artistic.” pp 245), xkcd (“...the kind of nerd science humor that characters from Dilbert wish they could appreciate.” pp 377), Disney’s influence on manga (“The ‘god of manga,’ Osamu Tezuka, was a huge Disney fan, particularly loving the characters’ ‘stylized big eyes.’ ” pp 260 (the footnote reveals how Tezuka in turn influenced Disney's The Lion King.)), and even Thomas Nast's complicated legacy (“Nast is strong proof that an image's power is multidirectional. Employing visual shortcuts to send messages tacitly acknowledged as meaningful by society means the art in question deepens and reinforces stereotypes, even ones they seek to interrogate.” pp xviii), among many, many more.

Icing on the cake: Dauber manages to work in the word pulchritudinous (pp 150), which is proof that, to quote Brian K. Vaughan, “the geeks have inherited the earth.” (as quoted, of course, by Dauber in the context of comics-loving movie studio interns now running those same studios, pp 410)

[Rob Dietz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't read many non fiction books, but comic books would obviously make me read this.

For me with many hobbies, I get so ingrained in it, and then I start to not actually "do" the hobby (in this case, read or collect comics), but I still love them. Which is why I picked up this book.

The biggest thing I will give Dauber credit for is that there was much of the "history" I had no idea about, especially in The Golden Age, and prior to that. There was so much information that was new to me, which is why I really liked this book. So many histories are boiled down to the essentials. Comics came basically from pulp fiction, superheroes, the second world war, Dr Werthem's book..." and it may be framed differently, but it's always the same thing. Dauber had all this and more, and why these major events happened from smaller events. He also has stuff in there about the underground comics (or comix) and... just a lot more than anything I've ever read.

My only drawback on this as he the narrative came closer to "now a days" it seemed to be more of a list of "here is a book and what it's about and it's good". I guess I can understand on this that maybe we aren't far away enough from what happened yet to give it a good breakdown.

Despite that, I would say if you have an interest in comics at all, this would be the book to read.

[Beatrice · Rating 3 out of 5]

American Comics: A History, was a bit of a slog to get through. It feels as though Dauber is name-dropping a new comic every second sentence just to prove his own credibility. A sort of "Look here! I know this one! That makes me a real comic fan you can respect!" message permeates through the book. Some of the comics he brings up often have little relevance to the history he's trying to tell, he just gives us a sentence or two explaining the plot then moves on, never to mention them again.

Dauber completely stops talking about political cartoons after chapter one, and only briefly mentions comic strips after reaching the era of the comic book. He chose to ignore the continued mainstream existence of those mediums today in an attempt to create a linear history where one thing evolved into another. But just like evolution in the real world, a species does not have to go extinct to have another evolve from it.

American comics is an ambitious topic to try to cover in one book, and it only becomes more so when you account for Dauber's forays into foreign markets. Even a thousand-page book would have a difficult time explaining everything, much less this book's five-hundred-seventy. Maybe this book would've been better if Dauber explored things on a smaller scale, or with a more specific thesis than "comics are always evolving".

[Jason Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is an impressive feat of research and writing. I fancy myself someone fairly literate about comics and comic history, and there were entire chapters of history that I had never heard about. I give a lot of credit to Jeremy Dauber for writing a historical work that also engages tackles head on the politics, business, and culture associated with comics.

But, an impressive feat of research and writing does not unfortunately make for a great read.

Rather, much of this was a slog. It seems that in Mr. Dauber's ambition to cover ALL of comics history, it was impossible -- in one volume -- to give appropriate attention to anything. As a result, the exhaustive history feels cursory; a 400+ page exercise in proving that one is familiar with seemingly every comic ever written.

The book's final third is particularly plodding, as it seems Mr. Dauber felt compelled to reference every relevant comic written in last 40 years. But, without pictures -- seriously, why are there no licensed illustrations in a book about comics? -- and without detail (beyond often a one sentence description), it becomes meaningless.

I can imagine that I will periodically return to American Comics as a reference book, but it wil be hard for me to recommend it for pleasure reading.

[Tom M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sweeping 500 page survey of the history of American comic strips, comic books, as well as the business of marketing the accompanying intellectual properties. Despite the page length (400-ish pages of text and another 100 of footnotes, approx), this is truly a survey in that while some strips and books are discussed for more than a single paragraph, Dauber has a tendency to cram far too many mentions of books and artists in dizzying runs of paragraphs.

About 1/4 of the way through the book I realized I should be making notes as to some of the comic strips and books I wanted to look up. Unfortunately, this history, while meticulously researched, lacks any illustrations/examples of artwork and artistic stylings. Given that comics are an inherently visual medium, omitting illustrations seems a sorely missed opportunity.

Nevertheless, if you're interested in the history of comic strips and comic books, you'd be hard pressed to find a better book than Dauber's American Comics. Very much worth the read.

[Russell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was prepared to like "American Comics: A History" much more than I actually enjoyed it. The first third of the book, covering the prehistory of the comic book, and what I'd call the classic comic book era (1950's-1970's) were fairly interesting. Unfortunately, the final two thirds (or more) delved into business aspects of comics publishing that I did not care about. To put the last nails in that coffin, my last real comic book reading happened in the mid/late 1960's (except for Art Spiegelman's brilliant "Maus" series), which meant I had no experience with any of the comics Dauber writes about. The last 100 pages or so I unashamedly skimmed, before simply skipping to the final pages. If you have been an avid reader of comic books in the past 60 years, you might find this book more interesting than I did.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty solid history book on American Comics. My only criticisms are that it wasn’t as linear of a chronology as I’d have liked. Dauber kind of jumps back and forth between eras of comics and the narrative, while historical, does follow themes more than it does pure chronology.

My other complaint is, again, more of just a personal taste issue. I feel like this book is very ambitious in how it tries to cover all genres of comics from superhero to horror to memoir. Personally I would have been happier with more focus on superhero comics. Again though, that’s just me.

Overall this is a very solid book and is perfect if you’re looking for a written history of the Comics industry. I am sure there are some gaps in the story here or there because of how large the scope is, but overall this book is essential for anyone looking to find out more about comic book history.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this to be a stellar history of the medium covering in depth the rise of the medium in the US from political cartoon to newspaper strip to the advent of superheroes. I enjoyed the light it shed on the underground in the 60s/70s which I thought connected wonderfully later on with covering the mid2000s. The structure and pacing varies a little as the book goes on, but it's fitting. After the deconstructions and reinvention of the 80s, you do hit the doldrums of the 90s where you've mostly got misteps and industry crashes. When approaching the 2000s things become far less linear, but that too really works to showcase the odd sense of time the medium has had in the last 20 years. Overall a great read, well worth looking into for someone wanting to learn more about where these things came from as a whole, versus individual companies or characters.

[James West · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a great read. The main problem is it comes off as a giant list of comic book titles with dates, creators names, and facts surrounding their publication. The narrative itself is dry and not particularly engaging.

I can tell the author has a passion for the subject, but it feels like his notes about the topic that were cleaned up a bit and strung together.

It's not terrible. It's worth a read just for the copious number of examples of comic books within each category or subject that is discussed. I appreciated his inclusion of the political climate and rationale behind some comic book trends, such as how Superman changed from his original "man of tomorrow' to the "man of steel" around the time of WWII.

[Jon B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Strikes against: 1) No images in a book about comics? 2) Too many plot summaries for the more modern comics.

This was a very fun, very informative book about an artistic medium we all know and love, though historically that wasn't the case. Delving into the history of comics, the author manages to trace all things comic back to the hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt, through the Bayeux Tapestry, into the realm of the Yellow Kid, Little Nemo, Krazy Kat and beyond, chronicling the multitude of developments (and setbacks) including underground comics, EC comics (the author spends a lot of time discussing the rise and fall of EC), Tijuana Bibles, the Comics Code Authority, Superheroes, the 70s, the independents including Cerebus, the boom of speculation in the late 80s-early 90s (really Image, how many cover variants do you need for that Rob Liefeld dreck, and you too Marvel, we see you too), leading into the more introspective world of the autobiographical comics and graphic novels you see today. We learn about the ebb and flow of the business, about the way that the graphic novel started to spell the "end" of the monthly, the market saturation (how many X-Men titles?) and so forth until we get to the comics world of today where it seems that superheroes in comics have almost become an afterthought since the money is in the movies. I would love to have seen images, and I would love to have had more of a hearkening back to the beginning thematically when Dauber reached the modern era as opposed to what seemed to be an endless list of modern titles with one sentence blurbs, but overall a marvelous look at an ever-evolving artistic medium.