Customer Reviews

75 Years Of DC Comics: The Art Of Modern Mythmaking

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Over the past several decades, my bookshelf has filled up with publications that cover the long history of the Comic Book and the big two publishers. This newest tribute to the history of DC Comics, '75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking', quite literally, crushes them all. It will also crush your lap and test your strength if you try to hold it up to read it! This tomb is MASSIVE! Nearly sixteen inches tall, 12 inches wide, 3 inches thick and weighs a metric ton! Well, perhaps not quite that much but it will feel like it after holding it for a short period of time!

The hardcover comes shrink-wrapped in a sturdy cardboard slipcase, matching the artwork on the wraparound cover. The box even conveniently comes with a side handle. Although you will need both hands to carry this monster around.

Yes, this is a very pricey book. As one who has a collection of like publications, I can assure you this book is worth every penny. Inside, the rarity of images and artwork along with the high production values, the quality of the print and page stock is well above the norm. For example, for each era of comic history (The Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, etc), that chapter begins with a two page spread highlighting the name of the era with thick, high gloss, corresponding color foil pages. Each era also includes a four page, pull-open timeline highlighting key events in both the fictional DC Comic universe and the real world of the comic book industry.

The author, Paul Levitz, a man who has spent his entire adult life working for the company, first as a young freelance writer in the 1970s, then later as publisher until 2010, was the right choice to chronicle this retrospective. If he had not seen it all, he certainly heard it all. I really enjoy how the text, the ongoing historical telling throughout the book is laid out for the reader...a grand intro for each era then as one or two paragraph antidotes accompanying the images or photos. For example, here's a cover of a very significant Green Lantern issue in the 1970s and why it is so considered, while next to it will be a short bio and tribute to a particular creator who worked on said issue. In fact, the creator tributes in this book are part of the true joys of reading through DC's history. That list is long and deep and for once a book of this kind goes to great lengths to credit more than just the typical top 20 or so names from the company's storied past. Beyond the names most adult fans of the genre already know about (The Bob Kanes, Jack Kirbys and Carmine Infantinoes) we find tributes to writers and artists less well known but just as important to the success of DC Comics and the Comic Book industry in general over the decades (Will Eisner, Sheldon Mayer, Jack Cole, Mort Weisinger, Curt Swan, Wally Wood, Gil Kane, Bernie Wrightson, Alex Toth), including many of the modern era's top talent (Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Marv Wolfman, George Perez, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Mike Grell, Frank Miller, Bruce Timm, Alex Ross, Darwyn Cooke, Jim Lee, Geoff Johns) . The list of reference is long!

Running the business of DC Comics over the decades covers territory far beyond the comic book itself. Inside you will also find just as many rare images and stories about DC characters in TV, film, animation, toys and games, parades, commercials, stage productions and many other forms of marketing in the past 75 years.

This hardcover clearly cost a pretty penny to produce and import. As a tip for any fan on the fence about pulling the trigger on this big purchase...I would not bet this edition will be available for a any significant amount of time. Once it is sold out, it is very likely to become a collectible prize and rise in value. Amazon's introductory price is a bargain. In fact I would say Amazon is losing money on the shipping cost of this book alone.

Yep, highly recommended, but you will need to get creative on finding shelf space for this thing! I will add personal photos of the book to help give a better look at its inner awesomeness.

Let me start off by disclosing that I'm really more of a book collector than a comics guy. Exploring the world of comics is something I look forward to doing in the future, but right now I really don't know much. I do know spectacular books, however, and this book is clearly that. This is not just huge, it is sophisticated in a dozen other ways. Let me just run through a quick list of superlatives here:

1) This is a cloth-covered hardback. Cloth is harder and harder to get nowadays, and it really harkens back to the days of better book binding. This book is so massive you will need to assure that it is properly supported while you are perusing it, but the book meets you half-way by giving you a bona fide binding.

2) Paper quality is first-rate. Each section (Black Age, Silver Age, Bronze Age, etc.) is divided by ultra-thick metallic paper of corresponding color. This is a totally innovative flourish, it really upgrades the book's sophistication. The colors used in reproduction of graphics and covers are almost certainly perfect and true; this is something for which Taschen is known. There are also numerous fold-out pages with chronologies of the characters and the innovators of these comics.

3)The book has a thick paper dust jacket. Since we are talking about an almost-certain valuable collectable here, I suggest getting the dust jacket into a Brodart mylar cover protector. You can buy it by the roll, or perhaps your local librarian will help you out. You'll be glad you made the effort to protect your investment. The book has a gorgeous ribbon book mark built in. There are indexes galore for you comics scholars and geeks.

4)Even for a comics novice like myself, the orgy of spectacular comics images is truly amazing. Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman...dozens more. I spent half a day just flipping through the pages. Your kids will certainly fighting over this massive tome some day unless you specify who gets it in your will!

I have several of the Taschen "XL" titles, and I never cease to be amazed. They are all great. Taschen has blown the doors off the publishing industry in recent years with these "XL" titles and many other creative publication efforts. They generate one fabulous book after another, and the price points make almost all of them inevitable purchases for me. I just wish Taschen was an American company. (They have US facilities, but they are German.) It begs the question, however: Why can't American manufacturers of products progress so innovatively ?

Taschen is iconic in my mind because they have entered their market with the idea of blowing off all constraints and preconceptions. Their only habit is experimentation, trying new things. They are revolutionary publishers in an era where many people are predicting the imminent demise of the book. Taschen should be a role model for all industries and manufacturers because of their emphasis on audacity and innovation, with a loyalty to traditional aspects of quality and value. The Taschens (a husband and wife who own and run the company) are the first people I would chose to take with me to a foreign galaxy for purposes of establishing an economic infrastructure on some remote planet. They look to precedent only for purposes of bettering it.

There were two things that held me back from preordering this book. First was the price and the second larger reason was the unbelievable size. Perhaps the most stunning statistic is the colossal weight that checks in at an astounding SIXTEEN pounds. I read somewhere that the average weight of a comic book is 2 ounces which would mean this book is the weight of 128 comics (well over a decade of Action Comics) and trust me I don't doubt it. The storage for this monstrosity is not inconsequential and definitely factored into my thinking. Someone once said this isn't a coffee table book it's a coffee table. The largest comic related material I ever bought was the recent Wednesday Comics but that one pales in comparison to this leviathan. I suppose you could just lay it on the floor and read it on your stomach or seated Indian style but I fear for the spine of this very expensive book (although I suspect the book would handle it fine). I ended up sitting it next to me on the couch with the front cover resting on my right leg and the back cover propped up with pillows. With no intent towards exaggeration you will serious need a certain level of strength to read this book and I wouldn't recommend giving this as a gift to a small child.

What changed my mind about getting this book was this thought. How often can you own the best of anything? I can't afford the best watch ever made or the best car or the best pair of shoes but I can afford arguably the best book ever devoted to the history of DC Comics. The Art of Modern Mythmaking is 720 pages of glossy, heavy stock paper (hence the unbelievable weight) featuring thousands of images of comics from slightly prior to the existence of National Publications (DC Comics) up until today. The book generally features one full page spread of a comic cover or inside page and then a series of three or four smaller images on the opposite page. Each image will have a small paragraph of associated text listing the artist and some tidbits of related comic information. Interspersed throughout the book is the history of comics (with focus on DC) written by Paul Levitz. The book includes all DC history not just superheroes and even includes any publishers bought up by DC including Charlton, Fawcett and EC. Don't expect to see much at all on Marvel Comics.

So let me talk about the elephant in the room, the final worry I had about this book. Comic books are, by there very nature, printed to be disposable. The philosophy has generally been quantity over quality. Through much of its history comic books were printed on cheap quality paper with all sorts of errors in color separation with a paper stock so thin you could often see the image on the opposite side of the page bleed through. The goal was to keep the cost low so children could afford it and they could sell hundreds of thousands. Reproducing these images on high quality paper with the latest printing and photo technology is not going to magically turn them into high quality images. That's just a fact. The images from the 1940's with Action Comic covers from legends like Wayne Boring are awesome. The artists used a very clean bold style that holds up well but a lot of the art from the late 60's, 70's and 80's are pretty messy and lacking in charm. The 70's and 80's were when I was collecting but I actually don't hold much nostalgia for that era (up until the mid 80's when DC produced some of the best comics of all time) leading into the disastrous 90's. The clean, simplistic art of Curt Swan and CC. Beck lent themselves well to the printing limitations of their era and current artists like J.H. Williams III or Frank Quitely benefit from modern technology and higher grade paper but when I look at art from say Neil Adams on Green Lantern or George Perez when he worked on the Teen Titans it looks very messy and it all comes down to the printing not being up to the task of presenting the more complex art. There is nothing Taschen can do but reproduce the art as is and often times blowing it up only magnifies the printing limitations. That is not to diminish what Taschen has done which is produce the most accurate, most stunning book of comic book images ever. You really do feel like you are holding the physical embodiment of DC Comics and I loved some of the black and white images from newsstands in the 40's stocked with More Fun Comics and All-Star Comics and Action Comics. For me the earlier images in the book really sold it for me.

The book comes in a protective cardboard case from Taschen which unfortunately came with more than a few dents (thanks Amazon) and it even appears someone used it to write something on. I was disappointed because I consider this an awesome collectable but at least the book itself was protected. I wouldn't be surprised if years from now this book is looked back on as the de facto book on DC Comics history and perhaps THE premium comic history book (I'm also sure that a book with a mint condition cardboard case will be worth considerably more). Despite the massive weight and sometimes less than gorgeous source material I would consider this a must have for comic book fans if you have the cash to spend. This is one I will probably treasure for years to come although pulling this behemoth off a bookshelf for some casual reading might take a few minutes of limbering up lest I throw my back out. More often than not when I buy a high ticket item I tend to have at least a twinge of buyers remorse but in this case after more than a week I haven't for even a second regretted my purchase.

I now have 9 of Taschen's 15 to 20 pound books plus the $200 book on Matisse. Collecting them is one of my many hobbies. They are all spectacular and incredible. DC Comics- 75 Years of Mythmaking is no exception. I still remember reading the first issue of Superman when I was a kid. This massive book will take me ages to read. The images are wonderful, the quality of the paper is wonderful. I feel the same about the others including my two latest, Circus and Magic. This company is very creative and will not settle for anything less than the top quality. I do wonder where the books were printed. This book and the other XL series are masterpieces of the printing art.

What better way to celebrate seventy-five years of DC Comics than this massive, stunning Taschen book. With 720 pages, two thousand plus images and probably over a hundred thousand words. It all adds up to treat for comic fans that will last and last.

Where to start? I preferred to dip into the five fold-out timelines (each forty-four inches wide) with about a thousand dated items spelling out the activities of DC, the comic industry in the context of the times and the seven pages at the back of the book with comprehensive biographies of all the creative folk was useful with the timelines.

The seven chapters are divided into Ages, starting with the Stone Age (nicely called Prehistory - 1938) and ending with the Modern Age: 1998 - 2010. An Afterword brings everything up-to-date with a section on the Digital Age. A feature that I particularly liked and it runs throughout the pages, are the artist portfolios, for example, Bernie Wrightson gets eight illustrations, Curt Swan seventeen, including a lovely whole page of Superman heads with various expressions. Another interesting feature is the inclusion of titles other than DC because they in some way influenced comic art or writing, a quick scan of the index (it's huge) reveals: Fawcett Publications; Jack Kirby; Mad; Marvel comics; Spider-man and Zap comix.

As usual Taschen spoil their readers by turning out an impressive looking book. Hundreds and hundreds of covers (many page size) original artwork, movie stills, ads and other graphics are all in color and each with comprehensive captions. Oh yes and a gold colored bookmark completes the package.

Expensive? Yes but you won't see something like this again for a long time (unless Taschen are planning a Marvel special!)

***LOOK INSIDE THE BOOK by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.

Most people probably wouldn't pay $125 for a historical tome on comic books, let alone the $200 list price. But honestly, this was worth every penny.

Levitz does an amazing job of providing rich, deep context, going beyond the typical "comic-book books" by looking thoroughly into the roots of the industry before DC, the power players behind the scenes over 75 years, and enough of the corporate shifts that had significant impact on what fans read every week, month or two months. It's exhaustive, but not exhausting. (Well ... except for trying to lift the 16-pound thing! *That's* exhausting!)

Other reviews are right on about the gorgeousness of the book, so I won't repeat. I will say the carrying case is as beautiful as it is necessary and functional. (No small benefit for a book this massive.)

DC fans, and even casual comic fans who are pop-culture lovers, will be thoroughly impressed.

This book is superlative! The reproduction illustrations overall are the best I have seen. Many of the pages have double sized comic cover illustations in full colour. The contents are a true feast for the eyes of any beholder. Anyone who loves DC comics or comics in general will be most delighted. Media historians and researchers or all related subject matter will find this to be a rare priceless resource for years to come. Perhaps such resource books for each of the most significant individual DC comic series will follow in the near future. The only complaint I have relates to the shipsping packaging by Amazon. The shipping box used for my shipment was too small and very little protective packing was used which resulted in the book's outer illustrated box being slighlty crushed. This might only be an issue for future value.

This book is gob-smackingly wonderful. I'll leave it to the more erudite reviewers to go into the details of just how amazing it is. It's huge, heavy and deserving of sturdy packaging to ship it safely from Amazon to Australia. Sadly, this book arrived badly damaged with a massive dent in the cover due to being sent in a flimsy box with insufficient protection around it - not even Superman's steely chest was able to bear the brunt of transit in such a rubbish box. My last order arrived in the same disappointing shape, again due to cheap, ineffective packing. Lesson learned. I'll be making all my future purchases from independent retailers, and booksellers who care enough to see that their product arrives in good condition.

The book is beautiful, huge and covers so much of DC's History. With the details, size and price tag this book should probably be purchased by die hard fans and not the casual one (but can still be enjoyed by casual). One of my favorite parts of this books is just opening to random page and getting an interesting piece of information, there is no need to read in order. It goes with out saying this will make a beautiful coffee table book ( as long as it is reinforced with steel). Even better then hearing about the creations is hearing about the creators who worked on these characters. Mr Levitz did a bang up job on this book and i believe it can keep any comic fan entertained for years to come. Final comment I believe this book would be a dream present for any one has a combined interest in history and comics since it covers DC so deeply.

I won't review the book itself as others have done an outstanding job of that here. What I will say is that the packaging used to ship this book was totally inadequate.

I ordered this very heavy book and I was shocked that it arrived in a flimsy box with almost no padding and just one piece of thin tape on each side. The poor packing caused the book to be damaged and the slipcase was creased. I returned it and ordered another. The replacement shipment was packed even worse and again, it arrived damaged in the same way. The box came open when I picked it up! Flimsy tape, some crumpled paper used as padding and a weak box spelled doom for my replacement book as well. I'll be returning it and not ordering another.

It's hard to believe a mail order business does not know how to properly pack a heavy, large book.