The Comics Go to Hell: A Visual History of the Devil in Comics [Hardcover]

Fredrik Stromberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 31, 2005

From the author of Black Images In the Comics comes this survey of Satan's many cartoon guises. The Devil is one of the most potent and longest-lived icons in the history of human civilization. It is therefore not a big surprise that images of the Prince of Darkness are so abundant in comics—a medium that by its nature builds upon the communicative powers of icons. In this book the author examines how cartoonists through the ages have used the myths about the Devil, in a wide variety of ways.

The book is divided into several thematic chapters, including "Ancient Devils"—about medieval artists rendering the Devil in sequential picture stories; "Religious Devils"—concerning the Devil in Christian comics; "Super Devils"—the Devil in superhero comics; "Funny Devils"—all the humorous ways the image of the Devil can be used; and more.

Comics featured in this book include, among others: the infamous Jack T. Chick tracts, Hellblazer, Love & Rockets, The Checkered Demon, Donald Duck, Mephisto, Dilbert, The New Adventures of Jesus, Stray Toasters, The Demon, Futurama, Preacher, Hot Stuff—The Little Devil, Castle Waiting, Sandman, The Book of Leviathan, Swamp Thing, Dragon Ball, Spawn, Silver Surfer, Picture Stories from the Bible, Uncanny X-Men, Tintin, Sshhhh! and Lady Death.

Like Strömberg's previous book from Fantagraphics, Black Images in the Comics, The Comics Go To Hell is designed for maximum browsability, with each spread featuring a short (but informative!) essay on a comic next to a representative panel of the work at hand.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Fredrik Strömberg lives in Sweden, where he edits the internationally respected magazine about comics, Bild & Bubbla, Scandinavia's largest of the kind. He also teaches and sits on the board for John Lent's International Journal of Comics Art.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 360 pages
• Publisher: Fantagraphics Books; First Edition edition (March 31, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560976160
• ISBN-13: 978-1560976165
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,937,104 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Fredrik Strömberg started his professional career as a freelance journalist in 1994, and he has since then written for a large number of publications including the Swedish Dagens Nyheter, the Danish Strip! the Dutch Stripschrift and the American International Journal of Comic Art.

Strömberg has been the chairman of the Swedish Comics Association) since 1997, and is one of the editors of the magazine Bild & Bubbla and a member of the Urhunden jury. He was also one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Comic Art Centre in Malmö and the Swedish Comics Archive in Lund.

In 1999, Strömberg made his debut as an author with the book 100 oumbärliga seriealbum (100 Indispensable Comic Books), and has since written several books, published in Swedish and English. The book Black Images in the Comics: A Visual History, published by Fantagraphics Books in the US, was nominated for an Eisner Award.

Since 1999 Strömberg has been one of the headmasters for the Comics Art School of Malmö, a school which has trained comics artists like Niklas Asker (Second Thoughts) and Mathias Elftorp (Piracy is LIberation).

Strömberg is the Swedish representative on the International Editorial Board for the International Journal of Comic Art and also the Swedish representative on the Consultative Committee of European Comic Art.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Hell Needs to be Bigger, March 15, 2006

By 

Blackmantis (Brea, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Comics Go to Hell: A Visual History of the Devil in Comics (Hardcover)

The book was excellent as far as it went, and the writer seems to know his material very well. The main improvement that could be made would be to increase the number of examples of the artwork, perhaps in an enlarged format, and include examples of the use of the Devil in political cartoons.

2.0 out of 5 stars disappointing collection, August 1, 2005

By 

chris romano "toonlets.com" (Topanga, CA USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Comics Go to Hell: A Visual History of the Devil in Comics (Hardcover)

The book contains a large number of black and white reproductions of various demon and devil imagery in comics. One sample per random artist, generally. The images, many poorly reproduced, low contrast, and small, appear on one page faced by a paragraph or two of commentary.

I found the images to be largely uninteresting. Banal. And the commentary flat and superficial.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, bad editing, March 16, 2005

By 

Devil Kitty (Calgary AB) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Comics Go to Hell: A Visual History of the Devil in Comics (Hardcover)

This is a really interesting subject, and the book is fairly well written; however it's very sloppily edited and could have used the services of a proofreader! Perhaps the author is a non-native English speaker and the clunky sentences are a bad translation? Anyway, it's a bit frustrating as there is a lot of information in this book and it does seem to be well researched. I'd definitely recommend the book, especially if you don't tend to notice typos.