Greatest 1950's Stories Ever Told

Rating:
Summary: Excellent mix of genres from DC's 1950s archives.
Review: By the end of the 1940s, the comic book super-hero was on its way out with the exception of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and four backup feature characters. With the advent of the 1950s, DC's creative staff had to keep the readers interested and thus were given an opportunity to experiment with a wide variety of genres: romance stories, spy stories, science fiction, adventure and dectective tales, and westerns. By the end of the 1950s, DC had reintroduced some of their most popular charactors, notably Flash and Green Lantern, and thus ushered in the "Silver Age of Comics." This decade produced some of the most inventive and innovative attempts at comic book story-telling, and this wonderful book is a microcosm of what DC produced then. "The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told" features some of the best non-super hero stories DC ever produced, as well as some choice stories starring the Big Three: Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. DC was trying to regain its footing in the comic book market and these efforts helped it accomplish that goal. The stories in this volume feature Congo Bill, Johnny Thunder, King Farraday, Tommy Tomorrow, Viking Prince, Nighthawk, Captain Comet Sgt Rock, Sugar & Spike, the Fox & the Crow, and Tomahawk. The super-hero stories , of course, feature the World's Finest Team of Batman, Superman and Robin; Wonder Woman; and three surviviors of the comic book purge: Aquaman, Green Arrow and the Martian Manhunter. This volume also includes the Silver Age Flash and Green Lantern, the Challengers of the Unknown, and Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane at the height of their books' popularity. The variety in these 30 stories alone would be enough to recommend this book, but the stories are truely some of the best the decade produced. Frank Frazetta's Shining Knight art is still crisp and beautiful, while Ramona Fradon's rendition of Aquaman gave that difficult character some charm and whimsy. Dick Sprang draws Batman and Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert collaborate on Sgt Rock: enough said on that. This book features some of the comics industry's best producing outstanding work turing an amazingly productive and creative period. There is not a bad choice in the book. Dont' miss it.