Customer Reviews

1,000 Comic Books You Must Read

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To this day, I feel that comics should be fun, and the first thing about this book is that it is fun. What a great eclectic list.

What surprised me most, however, is the wave of nostalgia that hit me. I lived through so much of this and it was great to see old friends back: Little Dot, Lulu, Dennis the Menace, Jerry Lewis and some that I had forgotten Sugar and Spike (Four entries!). Not just at comics from Marvel and DC this book gave a change to look back, but also a chance to catch up.

Tony still has the heart of a fan. I was concerned that this would be another one of those list where some "lectures" about what was good and bad. Instead Tony takes us on a personal journey through a life in comics, his life, and remembers the fun stops. He does in so brief, thoughtful and even funny references. These are observations, not notes to a thesis. For example:

On Iron Man in TOS #39, "His origin will be changed periodically to accommodate new wars."
Sadly true. (ery true. I fear we will not run out of wars for the new generations.)

Wonder Woman #108 "I bought the issue when no one was looking!"

And while he might have thought "Little Archie peaked too early" it is interesting that his comic is placed next to the Atom! Who was also little.

Yes, there is Fin Fang Foom, Konga, Menace, the Fantastic Four, Uncle Scrooge (who has a barroom brawl described as "Jack Kirby with Ducks!") But Tony takes his time to remember some of the most important comics that can be forgotten because their publishers are no longer around, like Dick Briefer's Frankenstein.

I thought this would be a book to read in a day, but it has stretched to a week. Now I want to go back to the candy store where I got my comics in the 1960s and 1970s re read them. Or go back to the 40's and pick up Pep Comics, Fun Comics and even Young Romance. Or a few new ones I know nothing about.

And it is a beautiful, colorful book, laid out and arranged just right. If you are thinking of just buying this for a gift for a new reader, or an old one: don't. Buy this for yourself. (Alright, buy two).

Note: Don't go nuts. I am sure someone will review this and say Tony left this out or didn't put that in. Of course, this is only1,000 comics. As I said earlier, is not just the list, it's the journey that should be enjoyed.

You can see the evolution of the comics industry through these pages, brought to you courtesy of Tony Isabella, "America's most beloved comics writer and columnist," who writes and reviews for Comics Buyer's Guide. Isabella has been writing comics for four decades now, and he's perhaps best known as the creator of DC Comics' Black Lightning, the first African-American superhero to get his own title at DC.

But it's Isabella's perspective as a fan, not a creator, that feeds the joys of reading 1,000 Comic Books You Must Read. You can see the growth of the industry in the book, but also the changing of the readership. As we travel from a time where comic books regularly sold millions of copies every month to the present, where the numbers are much, much smaller, we see the transformation of our culture's tastes and habits unfold before our very eyes.

The original Superman comics from the late 1930s kick off the collection, a nice tribute to the man of steel, without whom the format of comics would be vastly different, if it existed at all. From there, we move on to the 1940s, where the Golden Age of superheroes really began. All the classics are here: Batman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, Captain America, Archie, plus the wild military and adventure comics of the day (and even wacky things like Daredevil Battles Hitler). Each two-page spread is a trip to a distant past that seems not so far away through comics. Although excerpts from the comics are not included here (Isabella does give a brief synopsis of each story inside to show why they're being picked), just the covers themselves tell an interesting story. Some of them are gorgeous (the painted image of Captain Marvel Adventures #18, which introduces Mary Marvel, for example, is striking), some of them are so enticing that you long to look inside.

Isabella introduces each decade of comics history with a brief overview to give you an idea of what was going on in comics at the time. It's interesting to graph the number of pages devoted to each decade: the '90s get fewer than 20 pages devoted to them; the '70s and '80s combined get the same number of pages as the '60s. But also telling is the fact that the current decade gets 45 pages and sees the inclusion of several important graphic novels (Persepolis, Blankets, Sentences). The book gives hope to Isabella's sentiment that today is the true Golden Age of comics. As he puts it, "Readers can enjoy both the new groundbreaking material now being published and, thanks to affordable reprints, the classics of the past."

-- John Hogan

This is the book for you if you are either: 1) a comic book reader, 2) interested in the history of comics, 3) a fan of comic book writer Tony Isabella or 4) a human being.

It covers, as the title implies, 1000 of the best comic books ever produced in the USA. Isabella, a veteran comic book fan and writer, has selected these for both the casual comic book reader and the seasoned veteran. Lots and lots of information about the time period, the creators, the publishing history and the characters.

Absolutely top notch!

Longtime comic book writer and reviewer Tony Isabella presents a gift for comic book fans...his picks for the 1000 comic books you must read. Now note that this isn't necessarily meant to be the greatest comics although certainly many would fall into that category, or perhaps most important might even be more appropriate. Isabella has segmented his book by decade beginning with the hero who started it all, Superman, an continuing with a look at each decade leading off with the 1940s and continuing to new Millennium.

A picture of each and everyone of the thousand comics is included along with the issue #, artist and writer credits, publisher, and date. Isabella then gives a one paragraph note about why the issue was included in the book. The diversity of titles is extraordinary! As comic fans we sometimes get wrapped up too much into superhero titles. Comics, especially back in the 1940s and 1950s were an incredible mixed bag: action, war, horror, humor, detective, science fiction, romance, and westerns all enjoyed their eras of popularity and they are well-represented in the book.

Yes the major issues are hit upon: .Marvel Comics #1. Flash Comics #1, More Fun Comics #52 (the First Spectre), Detective Comics #27, All-Star Comics #3...the key titles of the Golden Age are all included. But what's also included is the lesser known books like Quality's Police Comics #1; Jumbo Comics #48 with its fabulous Sheena cover; Frankenstein Comics #1; and Santa Claus Funnies in Four Color #128. I was especially pleased to see Isabella did not overlook many of the great 50s and 60s humor comics like The Adventures of Jerry Lewis and Bob Hope. Disney Comics are well represented as well.

Could I argue on a few things with Isabella? Sure..like how the new Millennium section gets a longer section than the 70s, 80s, or 90s and the decade is not even over yet. Still, the 60s gets it due justice as arguably the comic book industry's most important decade with fifty pages of content. Sure we can say there's books that should have been included. 1974 saw the first appearances of two of Marvel's most popular characters of the past 25 years, The Punisher (Spiderman #129) and Wolverine (Hulk #180) and neither are included. But hey, that's what makes books like this so fun.

Isabella even gives you tips on how you can find these must reads. I'll give you a tip , too, be a millionaire!

Just finished this wonderful little book, while reading at the same time 75 Years at DC and Marvel Comics in the 60s. All fun books, but this one drew me back again and again. Yes, the DC book has the most beautiful, lush illustrations...yes Marvel in the 60s has the best analysis of the themes, strengths and weaknesses of The House of Ideas and compares them to how the market place and other companies reacted. But 1000 Comic Books You Must Read weaves the tale of all the comic companies, with a dash of Manga and VERY SERIOUS COMICS, through short, lively thumb nail reviews and images of the covers that made a fun trip down memory lane, as well as an educational experience.

In this book, "America's most beloved comics writer and columnist" selects 1,000 comic books you must read. The covers of the comic books are shown, along with a brief description of the contents of the comic in question. This is a hardcover book with high quality paper and all the covers are printed in color. A really fun book that highlights a lot of quality comic books from the beginning of the comic book era to the present. But it would cost you a fortune to actually buy all the comic books featured here, if you could even find all of them.

... In a good way. 1000 Comic Books You Must Read in a nice look at a wide variety of comics from the 1930s - present. While I own maybe around 200 comics from this list, there are many that I don't own and have never read - but comics that sound interesting enough to me to purchase. While about 90% of my collection is super-hero comics, I appreciate that Tony Isabella, the author, took the time to include a wide variety of comics in his list (war, horror, romance, western, humor, etc.). Whenever a list like this comes out, it is natural to think of what you would have included on it. Below is a sampling of a few comics that I would have included for various, listed reasons. They are in no particular order:

**Batman: The Killing Joke.... IMHO, one of the best Batman/Joker Stories of all time. Events in this book still influence the Bat Books today
**Batman: Legend of the Dark Knight #6-10.... Gothic Storyline by Grant Morrison.
**Batman: LOTDK #11-15.... Prey Storyline (Rumored to have heavily influenced the plot of the upcoming Chris Nolan Batman Film)
**Batman: LOTDK #16-20.... Venom Storyline - Batman fails to save a life b/c he is not strong enough.
**Batman #426-429.... The Death of Robin - Never done before or since - Readers called an 800 number in the middle of the storyline to decide who would not make it out alive: Robin or The Joker
**Ultimate Spider-Man #13.... Young High School Kid Peter Parker tells Mary Jane that he is Spider-Man. Just like he would in real life.
**Amazing Spider-Man #229-230.... Nothing Stops the Juggernaut. One of the BEST example of why Spider-Man is so many people's favorite super hero.
**Amazing Spider-Man #238.... Introduction of the Hobgoblin and the biggest mystery of the 80s this side of Who Shot JR?
**Amazing Spider-Man #400.... The Death of Aunt May. An instant classic until they retconned it - still a moving issue.
**Amazing Spider-Man #542.... Spider-Man, no, Peter Parker Vs. The Kingpin. With Aunt May on her deathbed (at the hands of the Kingpin), Peter Parker crosses some lines that Spider-Man, as a symbol, could never do.
**The Avengers #272-278.... Under Siege Storyline. The Avengers get taken down one at time, in their mansion no less, by the Masters of Evil. One of the Best Marvel Stories EVER!

Now, these are just a few Spider-Man and Batman stories I would include, obviously showing my bias. However each (just as the Tony's list did) has a special meaning for me. I do have to say that I am actually very surprised that not one issue of Peter David's Hulk run was mentioned on the list. There are many issues of his run (#330, #340, #345, #350, #377, #388, #417, and more) that might warrant inclusion on this list. However, I don't feel any of the books Tony did list should be removed.

If Tony does a follow up, I would love to see a 1000 Super Hero Comics You Must Read as I think he left many off to make to book more accessible to a wider audience. And there is nothing wrong with that. I will now be heading to the local comic shop to see how many comics from Tony's list I can find. Thanks, Tony!

Since the 1930s, comic books have had their place in society. "1000 Comic Books You Must Read" is a guide to the best of what comics have to offer throughout their history. From 1938 and Superman's first appearance in action comics, to the popularity of the modern graphic novel, there is much comic history to enjoy within the volume. "1000 Comic Books you Must Read" is a strong choice for any comics fan seeking a review of the format's history.

I don't think that a book is the best format for this information.

Mr. Isabella provides a list of his favorite comics broken down by decade. Each section starts with a brief synopsis of what was happening in the world at the time and how this affected the comics that were published. This is all well and good. However the information provided is along the lines of what one would expect from a simple blog post.

Each comic presented as a "must read" for the decade is accompanied by an image of the cover and a brief blurb about the comic. The information is very high level and in most cases does not include any detailed analysis or commentary.

The list of comics given for each decade is very eclectic. Just about every imaginable type of comic is presented. Super Heroes, Westerns, Disney, Romance, etc are all lumped together. Most readers of comics are not going to be interested in reading all of these subjects. I would suspect that a small minority of comic readers will read any type of comic published out of love for the medium. However I also suspect that most have a few favorite styles that they tend to gravitate toward. I would have appreciated some way of filtering the list of comics so that I could focus on my own preferred types of comics, and then dabbling into the other styles if I felt like branching out. Again, this is something difficult to do in a book but could be easily accomplished on a blog or other web site.

Naturally, some of the titles suggested in the list were of more interest to me than others. I found myself wishing that there were an easier way for me to get more information about the titles that peaked my curiosity without having to jump out of the book and look online. I would have especially liked to know whether or not the title was available for purchase online in a digital format. One again, more difficult to do in a book than online.

Ultimately, I came to the conclusion that all of this information should have just been put on a website somewhere, and having in book format was much less useful.

Fantastic photos and interesting text. Tony's a little arrogant right off the bat though with his opinions about his choices. I would have hoped for some objectivity and not so much personal opinion. He asserts if you don't like his choices you can write your own book which I suppose is true. He does a good job of covering all decades and while there are some personal choices I was sad were not including I certainly can appreciate that those are MY choices and may not be everyones. Having said that though I fail to understand how several key books can NOT be included. How in the world can he possibly defend not including Uncanny X-men #137? This was the culmination of arguably the greatest story arc of the bronze age and I fail to see how it is not listed in the top 1000. Killing Joke not included? Seriously? I think most experts would put this book in the top 20 greatest books of all time, certainly the top 100. Not much excuse for its exclusion.