Laurence Maslon - Superheroes!: Capes, Cowls, and the Creation of Comic Book Culture

Titans of an industry: the back cover of Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man (1976); art by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano.

Copyright 2013 by Laurence Maslon and Michael Kantor

All Marvel characters: and 2013 Marvel Entertainment, LLC and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Spawn courtesy of Todd McFarlane Productions and Affiliate Companies. The Shadow copyright and trademark are owned by Cond Nast. Used with Permission. All DC Comics characters and images are and DC Comics.

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Archetype, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com

Crown Archetype with colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

eBook ISBN: 978-0-385-34859-1
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-385-34858-4

Book design by Roger Gorman
Cover Art: Top row, left to right: Cond Nast, DC Comics, DC Comics
Second row, left to right: Marvel, DC Comics, Marvel
Third row, left to right: Marvel, DC Comics, Marvel
Fourth row, left to right: Todd McFarlane, Marvel, Marvel.

v3.1

To Miles,

My boy wonder.

LM

To Kat,

Who has saved me.

MK

An interior page illustration from the Doc Savage pulp, Resurrection Day (1936).

Holy triple threat, its the Candy Man! Sammy Davis, Jr., shares a laugh with Burt Ward (Robin) and Adam West (Batman) on the set of Batman (1967).

WRITERS WROSTRUM

Hey there, apostles of adventure!

Everyone has a favorite superhero, whether you first fell in love with Tobey Maguires Peter Parker or Steve Ditkos original versionno matter how you got there, its a good bet that your first encounter with a superhero made your heart soar a little higher, your life a little more colorful, your dreams a little bolder. It could be that you were still in your p.j.s one Saturday morning and glimpsed your first superhero on TV, or maybe he burst forth in full Dolby Surround sound in the darkened hush of a multiplex. Or it could be that youre one of those young upstarts who are digging your superheroes on those new-fangled devices, zooming from panel to panel by swiping your fingers across a screen.

But if youve picked up a copy of this book, the odds are good that youve also picked up a comic book at some point in your life. And you probably remember the first time a four-color superhero comic book caught your eye. Maybe it was on a spinning rack on the counter of your friendly neighborhood candy store; maybe it was lent to you by a pal in the bunk above yours at summer camp. Perhaps your mom bought it for you in the supermarket or perhaps you stumbled into a local comic book shop and gasped at the wide array of do-gooders and crime-fighters spread out on shelves against the wall. Stillits hard to believe that superheroes have only been a part of the American culture for three-quarters of a century.

This companion volume complements our three-hour PBS documentary series, Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle. Most of the time, that battle is between the forces of good and the purveyors of evil. But the battle extends into the conflict between art vs. commerce, expression vs. repression, tradition vs. progress. This book allows us a little more room to investigate and explore the legends of the superheroes and their astonishing cultural impact.

Some caveats: if youre a comic book fan, we can guarantee right up front that one of your favorite characters or titles or storylines hasnt made it into the book. Unlike the comic book universe, space and scope are not infinite herebut if it makes you feel any better, a lot of our favorites were cancelled, too. Also, the dating of actual comic books is complicatedthe cover date on any given comic book is not an accurate representation of when the comic met the public. For bizarre reasons of distribution and accounting, a cover date may register anywhere from two to four months ahead of when readers could buy the issue. When it is important for historical context to explain when a comic book hit the stands, we do so; at other times, we refer to the official cover date.

The backbone of both the documentary series and the companion volume are the more than fifty interviews conducted with the best and brightest pioneers in the field of the comic book industry. That said, we have to give an honorary super-team membership card to four extraordinary gentlemen: Joe Simon, Jerry Robinson, Joe Kubert, and Carmine Infantino. Sad to say, they each passed away between the time of their interviews and the completion of this project. It is doubtful that any one of them courted posterity when they got into the embryonic comic book business, but they have certainly earned the respect and admiration of millions of American since.

So, turn the pageweve got thrills, chills, and spills awaiting you! The world of superheroes is full of constantly shifting dynamics (and dynamic duos!), but heres one thing we can promise you: After reading and watching Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle, no mom will ever dare to throw out her kids comic book collection again!

Onward and upward!

(Literate) Larry Maslon

(Movie-Man) Michael Kantor