WHAT I’VE BEEN READING: Supermen! The First Wave Of Comic Book Heroes 1939-41
5 Comments | Posted: May 11th, 2009 | Filed under: What I've Been Reading | Tags: fantagraphics, supermen
A fantastic companion to 2007′s Fletcher Hanks retrospective I Shall Destroy All The Civiized Planets!, this Greg Sadowski-edited look at the nascent superhero comics scene is pure pop culture heaven, giving readers a glimpse at early work from Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Bill Everett and Lou Fine among many others while exposing them to the frenetic, frequently surreal storytelling that marked the years surrounding the introduction of a certain blue-and-red clad man from another world. While it’s easy to see why these characters have been been consigned to the dustbin of history, there’s an undeniable charm to practically every story in here, from The Comet becoming the fall guy for a villain with the clever nom-de-crime of Satan to Fletch Hanks’s Stardust battling a group of space-faring vultures terrorizing Earth.
The only problem with this book is that it leaves you wanting more, particularly when it comes to some genuinely important artifacts like Simon and Kirby’s Blue Bolt, which was reprinted in truly ghastly, over-corrected fashion a few years ago. You can get more information about Supermen! and buy it directly from the Fantagraphics site while Amazon has it for $16.49 at the moment, a 30-odd percent savings.
If you’re looking for more Simon and Kirby, this just came out:
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Simon-Kirby-Joe/dp/1845769317/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1242066878&sr=8-1
I just recently bought that Blue Bolt reprint collection from my LCS. They told me that I didn’t want it because of the poor reproductions, but I got it anyway. I do hope there are some nicer versions in the forthcoming volumes of Titan’s Best of Simon and Kirby series.
Yeah, truly great stuff. The Fletcher Hanks probably wasn’t needed IMHO as there are two books devoted solely to his work and they could’ve featured some more oddities. I really liked seeing the Jack Cole Daredevil stuff as I’ve long wanted to check it out.
My dream is Charles Biro gets the Fletcher Hanks collected edition treatment from fantagraphics. I also wondered why the need for a stardust story here (besides a tie-in, and it being a book equivalent to a rabbit’s foot hoping for I shall… like sales), when with the next Fletcher Hanks volume is supposed to make the complete Fletcher Hanks collection? Still a very nice selection of comics, Daredevil is my favorite from the golden age.
I read the Supermen! collection and only learned about Fletcher Hanks from the Stardust story included there. I bought and read the first FH collection and have pre-ordered the second one so I guess that’s one extra sale they got.