Blue Beetle Companion [Paperback]

Christopher Irving (Author), Jack Kirby (Author), Steve Ditko (Author), Kevin Maguire (Author)

Book Description

Series: Blue Beetle | Publication Date: April 17, 2007

The Blue Beetle debuted in 1939, rivaling such icons as Superman and Batman for longevity in comics, but not in popularity until his recent death and resurrection as a result of DC Comics' hit Infinite Crisis series. Now, Comic Book Artist Magazine's Christopher Irving explores the history and uncovers the secrets lurking under the cover of the character's comics in The Blue Beetle Companion! Follow his 60-plus years of evolution - from the world of Fox Comics to an in-depth history of Charlton Comics - all the way to the hall of today's DC Comics. Find out what really happened to infamous Golden Age publisher Victor Fox, and get an in-depth look at the Blue Beetle radio show and Jack "King" Kirby's Blue Beetle comic strip. Also, presented for the first time since 1939: the first appearance of The Blue Beetle from Mystery Men Comics #1! Featuring interviews with Will Eisner, Joe Simon, Joe Gill, Roy Thomas, Geoff Johns, Cully Hamner, Keith Giffen, Len Wein, and others, plus never-before-seen Blue Beetle designs by Alex Ross and Alan Weiss, as well as artwork by Will Eisner, Charles Nicholas, Steve Ditko, Kevin Maguire and more! It also features an introduction by Tom DeHaven, the acclaimed author of the novel It's Superman! and Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies. Featuring a new cover by current Blue Beetle artist Cully Hamner, this is the ultimate look at one of comicdom's longest-living heroes!

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

In one form or another, the Blue Beetle has been around virtually since the birth of the comic book, making up in longevity what he has lacked in prominence. Debuting in 1939 as a Green Hornet rip-off (he even had a short-lived radio show, like his model) published by various second-string companies, his first run lasted just beyond a decade. In the mid-1950s, Charlton Comics—the equivalent of movies' Poverty Row studios—briefly revived him; a decade later, artist Steve Ditko, fresh off his Spider Man stint, revamped him. When Charlton dropped its superheroes, the character moved to DC, where he found his natural métier as a comic-relief second-stringer. Recently that embodiment of him was killed off and replaced by a Hispanic teenager, apparently to diversify DC's stable of superheroes. This account of the Beetle's various incarnations is so detailed as to suggest that Irving has paid inordinate attention to an obscurity. Yet its exploration of the character's checkered history, and particularly of the operations of his shadier publishers, is a fascinating cruise in the comics industry's backwaters. Flagg, Gordon
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: TwoMorrows Publishing (April 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1893905705
• ISBN-13: 978-1893905702
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 8.7 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,148,558 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Recommended for Fans of Ted Kord, January 15, 2008

By 

Marcus H. Smilfer "mercer-" (Chicagoland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Beetle Companion (Paperback)

Let me just start by stating that I've been a fan of Blue Beetle (alter ego of millionaire industrialist Ted Kord) since I was a kid. In early elementary school, I could find old reprint copies of Blue Beetle comics for sale at the local convenience store (called "Ice Service") and was really amazed by the Steve Ditko art and, of course, "Bug," Blue Beetle's floating headquarters. It helped that the family car at the time was a huge blue Buick, which quickly became my fantasy version of Blue Beetle's "Bug." Fast forward a few years and Blue Beetle is a part of DC comics, hamming it up with Booster Gold and providing a great distraction while I was in Middle School. Only many years later did I discover that there were other, earlier versions of this character. While the Golden Age BB looked cool, I could never find any reprints of his adventures and the copies I found of the "Silver Age" BB (Ted Kord's predecessor) were not very impressive. Ted Kord was always THE Blue Beetle to me and I was shocked and saddened to learn that he was "killed" by DC during some new "earth-shaking" Crisis-thing.

Now, imagine my surprise after ordering this book entitled "The Blue Beetle Companion" and finding that, despite his large presence on the front and back covers, the Ted Kord Blue Beetle is the focus of only 20 pages, 6 of these 20 being full-page reproductions of comic art! This in a book where two entire pages (p. 99-100) are wasted reproducing images from someone's website which takes comic pages and inserts unfunny comments in the word balloons. This might be forgiveable if the sections on Ted Kord were informative. Unfortunately, they aren't. Regarding the origin of Blue Beetle, Christopher Irving (the author of this book) makes completely groundless comparisons between Blue Beetle and Spiderman, suggesting that simply because Ditko drew a vaguely similar scene for both characters, there's some type of relationship between the two (p.84). Sorry, but I can't see the resemblance between a millionaire industrialist (BB) and a down on his luck, loser high school kid (Spiderman) simply because the two characters had the same artist. Also included for your amusement is a reproduction of the comic scene where Ted Kord is brutally (and graphically) shot in the head and killed. Thank you, Christopher Irving. All this had me wondering, "what is the deal with over half the book being devoted to the Golden Age Blue Beetle? Is there that much of an interest in this Golden Age character?"

After reading the "Author's Note" in the back of the book, things began to make sense. The huge section on the Golden Age Blue Beetle (pp. 1-83) originally appeared as a stand-alone article in a magazine and the "section" on the Ted Kord incarnation of the Blue Beetle was "retooled" from an article in another magazine and finally cobbled together with information on the new Blue Beetle (yes, there is a new one). Thus we have the current publication, which turns out to be a well-researched examination of the Golden Age character which only briefly touches on the incarnation of the character that so many of us remember as Blue Beetle. Needless to say this book was a let-down for me. I left it feeling like I had been the victim of false advertising; the smiling Ted Kord Blue Beetle on the cover covers up what I consider an appaling lack of respect for this character both on the part of Christopher Irving and the copyright holders of the character, DC Comics. Not recommended UNLESS you are a rabid fan of the Golden Age Blue Beetle.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Major Disappointment, July 23, 2009

By 

Kevin M. Derby (Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blue Beetle Companion (Paperback)

I was excited to pick up "Blue Beetle Companion" and was saddened to see the result. While 2009 still has five months to go, this is my reading letdown of the year so far. The Ted Kord version of the Blue Beetle was one of my favorite comic book characters when I grew up in the 1980s but this book has little to say about him. Instead, the work focuses on the first Blue Beetle and the often turbulent world of comic production of the 1940s. The reprinted comics are not well produced and book is choppy-the result of this being a collection of articles shoved together to make a book. While fans of the Golden Age character may find the book to be of some interest and those few readers wanting to know more about comics publishing in the 40's will enjoy the book, this work can not be recommended to fans of the Ted Kord Blue Beetle or casual readers, even if they are the most devoted of comics fans.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, needs improvement., November 19, 2007

By 

R. Smith - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blue Beetle Companion (Paperback)

Being a Blue Beetle fan helps when reading this, but this book is more about failed attempts people went through to get BB famous than anything else. Not only is it a niche book because it is intended for those interested in comic book history, it requires you to know a certain level of that history. If you are unfamiliar with names like Eisner, Kirby, Simon, Ditko, Gill and Kanigher (which are really the famous names that pop up) then this book is not for you. Though a minor hero, the credits of people who worked on BB reads like a who's who of golden and silver age comics. If you liked reading about the publishing history of a star like Superman then you will probably enjoy this as it is about a character who never quite hit the big times.

This book needed further editing, as there are obvious spelling and sometimes even factual mistakes (at one point he talks about a ship that was commissioned in 1946 and then decommissioned in 1945). Publisher Victor Fox is pretty much the "star" for the first half, but other people - some of them very interesting or notable - whiz by. The book is a bit odd because it can give you great information, but is so brief at times that it acted like a supplement to my existing knowledge. You really need to be familiar with comic book history already or you will get little out of this. An enjoyable read and I learned some things, but it needed improvement.