DC Comics : Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes

Rating:
Summary: Aliens, Amazons and Dark Knight Detectives
Review: "DC Comics : Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes" is a nice tribute to the company that has given us some of our most recognizable and long lasting fiction characters. Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman are as much a part of Americana as Mickey Mouse, Coca-Cola and Moby Dick. A blend of art and cheap entertainment, the comic book has evolved throughout the decades, as have the heroes within.

The history of this company is laid out from the beginnings of the comic book, to the debut of the long-running Action Comics (Superman) and Detective Comics (Batman). Each of the company's successive stages is detailed, the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, and the Modern Age. Familiar rivals, such as Plastic Man, Captain Marvel and the Charleston and Quality heros are shown. Frank Miller and Alan Moore are given their just due. Superheroes in film and on television are shown.

The pages contain great photographs and reprints of classic comic culture. It is nice to see the classic covers of the years in high quality reproductions. A cavalcade of toys, badges, trinkets and other tie-ins are displayed.

All in all, this is a great book for DC comics fans.

Rating:
Summary: Aliens, Amazons and Dark Knight Detectives
Review: "DC Comics : Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes" is a nice tribute to the company that has given us some of our most recognizable and long lasting fiction characters. Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman are as much a part of Americana as Mickey Mouse, Coca-Cola and Moby Dick. A blend of art and cheap entertainment, the comic book has evolved throughout the decades, as have the heroes within.

The history of this company is laid out from the beginnings of the comic book, to the debut of the long-running Action Comics (Superman) and Detective Comics (Batman). Each of the company's successive stages is detailed, the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, and the Modern Age. Familiar rivals, such as Plastic Man, Captain Marvel and the Charleston and Quality heros are shown. Frank Miller and Alan Moore are given their just due. Superheroes in film and on television are shown.

The pages contain great photographs and reprints of classic comic culture. It is nice to see the classic covers of the years in high quality reproductions. A cavalcade of toys, badges, trinkets and other tie-ins are displayed.

All in all, this is a great book for DC comics fans.

Rating:
Summary: The best book about comics history!
Review: Reading this book is like going back in time and revive the whole new world of comics in the 30's. From the begining of the begin. Everything before Superman creation and beyond. It is a very nice reference book for those who love comics and mass media.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Tribute for a Major Contributor to Pop Culture
Review: The modern comic book came to life with "Superman." Since the "man of steel" burst on the scene more than 60 years ago, there has been an onslaught of underwear-clad superheroes, many of the more legendary ones under the DC banner. All of the company's major titles and their respective print and filmed versions are featured here, from the "Batman" serials of the 40's to the update 90's television series "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." For anyone with a passing interest in comics as an entertainment and art form, this is a lavishly illustrated and comprehensive work. In sequential order, we get the full history of DC from its humble beginnings to its status as one of the premier companies in its field. Marvel may have overtaken it in the 60's with its more "adult" characters, DC still reigns as the originator of the comic book and the book supremely showcases that status.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Tribute for a Major Contributor to Pop Culture
Review: The modern comic book came to life with "Superman." Since the "man of steel" burst on the scene more than 60 years ago, there has been an onslaught of underwear-clad superheroes, many of the more legendary ones under the DC banner. All of the company's major titles and their respective print and filmed versions are featured here, from the "Batman" serials of the 40's to the update 90's television series "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman." For anyone with a passing interest in comics as an entertainment and art form, this is a lavishly illustrated and comprehensive work. In sequential order, we get the full history of DC from its humble beginnings to its status as one of the premier companies in its field. Marvel may have overtaken it in the 60's with its more "adult" characters, DC still reigns as the originator of the comic book and the book supremely showcases that status.

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: This book is great, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I also loved the format of short 1-2 page essays, instead of one long read. Also, it makes it easier for the sequel: (DC Comics: Sixty MORE Years of the World's Favorite Super Heroes)

Rating:
Summary: coffee table book, more like Superman, Batman, and friends
Review: Unlike Peter Sanderson's Marvel Universe, which is also an oversized coffee table book, Les Daniels doesn't try to create an overview of the DC Universe or dwell on the growth of the major characters. Well, he does, but only for Superman and Batman for the most part. Not that other DC Comics don't rate a mention; even Bob Hope and Jerry Lewis get a bit. The problem with the book, which isn't bad by any means, is that it is broken into two-page sections, with no topic allowed to go beyond that. Therefore, there are copious two-page spreads about Superman and Batman, and other characters are likely to get one. One of those two gets a spread every five or so.

I grew up a Marvel zombie, but because of Daniels's choices, I learned more about the Marvel Universe from Sanderson than I learned from Daniels about the DC Universe, and I expected it to be the other way around. This is not to say Daniels doesn't have valuable information. His material about the founding of DC and much of the Golden Age material is going to be largely new for younger DC readers, who grew up with Action #1 as the most valuable comicbook of all time. I doubt too many people knew about the Golden Age Red Tornado, a hefty homemaker turned superhero who was something like a female predecessor to Marvel's Forbush Man, or certainly dressed that way, and played for comedy. Oddly, aside from showing a two-page spread depicting the Super Powers action figures of the eighties, the better known Silver Age Red Tornado is never mentioned. While Red Tornado is a second-stringer, he's hardly a minor figure in the DC Universe. There is comparatively little on Vertigo, despite its significance, and it perhaps goes into excess on film versions of the DC characters (the only place Congo Bill is mentioned, despite his recent Vertigo treatment). Other characters rating only a few paragraphs or even a mere sentence include Green Arrow, Mister Miracle, Shade the Changing Man, Animal Man, The Spectre, Deadman, The Demon, The Phantom Stranger, The Creeper, Firestorm, even Aquman! Very little about Brainiac; nothing on The Scarecrow or Mr. Freeze, either. Too little on The Flash and Hawkman. Oddly, even though it notes the Super Powers action figures were designed by Jack Kirby, it doesn't mention whther the Super Powers comicbook series he was deeply involved in in the 1980s was really a toy tie-in or really had to do with the Fourth World (though the two page spread on it said it was never completed, it still made no mention of Super Powers other than the action figures).

Perhaps because DC had to restructure its continuity so many times and say certain stories never happened, or were at least part of an eradicated timeline (they happened, but the world itself was revised through a crossover paradox, negating that they happend) that Daniels took this treatment. Perhaps he was trying to be more commericial. But two page spreads on Superman food products, Batman food products, ephemera for each, is a little excessive considering what was chosen to be left out, even if these two ARE more commercial.

At this time, I don't know that there is a better alternative to this book regarding the DC Universe. None of what is here is bad, but some of the choices leave a lot to be desired. Great coffee table book for the DC fan, but one is unlikely to learn much about the characters of the past 30-40 years that isn't going to be well known to them.

Rating:
Summary: DC - Divine Comedy
Review: What is the link between Dante and DC ? Many of you are going to laugh about that question. Although DC is responsible of creating and evolve a universe for the last 65 years. A universe of Gods Humans and Super humans. A universe full of hope, full of despair. DC creates entities that keep us company for many years and they became parts of our life. And this is not only an American thing. This is a Universal phenomenon. Here in Greece that impact is even greater since Greece is the birthplace of Tragedy (hopes and despair). And Tragedy was given by gods using Pandora's Box. That is Divine. And why Comedy? Do not forget the etymological meaning of "Comic". Its always Comedy. That is the reason for buying this book, to learn (or to remember) about that beautiful universe that make every one of us a little more humans that make us Super Humans.