The Essential Guide to World Comics [Paperback]

Tim Pilcher (Author), Brad Brooks (Author), Dave Gibbons (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 28, 2005

Most people's perception of comicbooks is one of superheroes like Spider-Man and Batman. But it belies an art form that is not unique to the UK and USA. Practically every country in the world has its own thriving comicbook industry. In some countries like France, they are a highly regarded form of expression -- The Ninth Art. While in Japan, comics are so integral to its culture and society that it would be impossible to imagine the country without them. The cultural impact of comics cannot be underestimated. Did you know that sales of Mexico's leading comic outstrip those of the country's bestselling daily newspaper by six to one? Or that comicbooks are often used to convey a very serious message (only recently a comic featuring Superman was distributed to 500,000 children in Kosovo to teach them how to spot and avoid land mines)? Arranged geographically, this book assesses the medium in every major area of the world, discussing the history of the genre, the comics and characters, the publishers, creators and artists. Regions covered include the UK and United States, central Europe (France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy), Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, Japan and Asia, Africa, India, Central and South America, and Australasia. Including key feature spreads and a wealth of colour images -- many of them unseen -- this book is the first of its kind to provide a global picture of an often-underrated art form.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Recently, U.S. comics fans have been given new opportunities to broaden the geographic scope of their reading by the proliferation of translated manga titles from Japan, which all but dominate many bookstores' graphic-novel sections, and by the translation of European works in record numbers. Yet vast areas of the globe remain underrepresented on American shelves. Help in rectifying that situation comes from British comics experts Pilcher and Brooks, whose opening chapter here succinctly but thoroughly surveys nearly a century of comics publishing in the U.S., focusing on superheroes while touching on other genres. Similar surveys of the comics scenes of Britain, Japan, Southeast Asia, France, elsewhere in Europe, Latin America, Scandinavia, Australia and New Zealand, and the Middle East and South Asia follow. Each chapter contains copious color illustrations and a mini-biography of a prominent "World-Class Creator." The authors know their stuff, and their different tastes--one elevates the comics medium to fine art; the other believes it can be "just big, dumb fun"--ensure balance. A stunning eye-opener to the comics medium's variety. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Tim Pilcher is a pop culture expert who has spent 20 years working in and around the comics industry, as an assistant editor for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint, and as an associate editor of the industry tradepaper, Comics International. He also co-founded Les Cartoonistes Dangereux publishing house. He lives in Brighton, England.

Product Details

• Paperback: 319 pages
• Publisher: Collins & Brown (October 28, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843403005
• ISBN-13: 978-1843403005
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 8.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,133,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A dream round-the-world ticket, November 10, 2005

By 

P. Gravett (London, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Guide to World Comics (Paperback)

In The Essential Guide to World Comics, co-authors Tim Pilcher and Brad Brooks crisscross most of the globe on a 320-page whirlwind tour, which leaves them, and no doubt most readers, "flabbergasted at the sheer scope across the planet." Like TV film critics Siskel and Ebert, this guide benefits from Pilcher and Brooks' dual viewpoint, which strikes a balance between Brad's faith in comics as art and Tim's more prosaic view of comics as fun. As they say, "Both views are valid and the truth probably lies inbetween". Almost everywhere they turn, they find that the mass-market mainstream and the more artistic alternatives co-exist and often overlap. In fact, perhaps the most overused word in the book is "cross-pollination", as they observe how interconnected different countries' comics cultures have become

They carve up the world into ten chapters of between 20 and 36 pages, charting figures and favourites that made history, sometimes starting from the 19th century, but mainly from the 20th. North America and Britain lead off, followed by Japan, the rest of Southeast Asia, France and Belgium, and the rest of continental Europe. Next come South America, Scandinavia, and Australasia, and finally India, Africa, and the Middle East. They close each chapter with a spread on one 'World-Class Creator", like Kirby, Baxendale, Hergé or Tezuka, or less well-known geniuses like Uruguay's Alberto Breccia, Denmark's Peter Madsen or New Zealand's Dylan Horrocks. They pack in some great anecdotes, masses of names, titles, facts and figures and rarely seen imagery from lovely crumbling antiquities to obscure small press gems. My one quibble is that, while they offer an index of about1,000 creators (some cited on the page only in a list), they did not index the vital characters or comic titles, surely more familiar to most readers.

It is still a remarkable achievement, colourful and sharply designed. Of course, no single book can ever contain the entirety of the world's comics, but maybe the web could. As Dave Gibbons muses in his foreword, "Maybe someday in the future, comics aficionados will have the equivalent of the technology that brings music from around the world to my computer desktop." Already fan-created websites are sprouting with impressive resources, but imagine being able to read online archives or downloads of whole runs of any of the strips shown here, translated into whatever language you need at the touch of button. Whether this happens is probably more a question of when than if. Till then, this Guide is a dream round-the-world ticket.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read book!!!, October 24, 2007

By 

Kajari Ghoshdastidar "pompeez" (Iowa City, Iowa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Guide to World Comics (Paperback)

This book is vey comprehensive, easy to read.. full of colorful quality pictures, and interesting info. It is very hard to summarize the information about world comics. But, the authors have done a good job by talking about the important publication of each country. I strongly recommend this book!

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice book, very interesting, January 21, 2011

By 

Anne-Li - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Guide to World Comics (Paperback)

I mostly bought this book as I heard it contains information about my favourite manga, From Eroica With Love. I'm glad I did, though, as I found it all very interesting, with plenty of information of lots of things I enjoyed reading and learning about. I'm not very knowledgeable in the field, but the things I do know sounded about right. However, as the author joked (or so I assume, though it wasn't very funny) about the way the main character in From Eroica With Love dresses, that does make me a bit concerned if there are other jokes I'm missing. However, nice with glossy pages and so on, so I will give it a fairly high rating anyway.