'Bill' Gaines, Mad Magazine and Educational Comics/E.C.

Part 1 of a history and profile of comics and the comics industry, including two full-color insert examples on newsprint of comic book stories published by Gaines.Ĭolor/newsprint splash page from article insert.Ĭolor/newsprint examples from 'Jonah and the Whale' insert. 'Narrative Illustration: The Comics' by M.C. Print Magazine Volume III/Number 2 Summer 1942 It's a testament to the industry's status to have been focused on by a periodical like Fortune magazine. 'The Funny Papers' by the Editors of Fortune MagazineĪ very early profile of the marketing value of comic strips and their characters. I think they're important because of the financial and graphic arts realms they're geared to, and indicate that perhaps comics were not as overlooked a craft back then as I had always thought. Right: 'The Comics' 1949īut I've got three tasty magazine articles to add to this list of profiles that are not often mentioned when discussing comic strip and comic book history. Right: 'The Great Comic Book Heroes' 1965 Left: 'The Funnies: An American Idiom' 1963. We'd have to wait until the early-mid 1960s (probably starting with White & Abel's 'The Funnies: An American Idiom' in 1963) to see any influx of titles.

The first book of ANY kind I ever specifically asked for was 'The Great Comic Book Heroes' by Jules Feiffer (1965) and I still covet my original copy! Through the years I've added whatever I could find about comics to my library, but it seems that other than a few published works like 'Comics and Their Creators' by Martin Sheridan (1942), 'The Comics' by Coulton Waugh (1949), and the infamous 'critique' of comic books, 'Seduction of the Innocent' by Fredric Wertham (1954), there were very few mainstream works published that were exclusively dedicated to the comics industry. Having been a big fan of comic books since I was a little kid, any books written about them and the industry itself has always grabbed my attention.

The great comic book heroes 1965