Home > Commentary and Features

Five For Friday #72—Not Comics
posted April 21, 2006
 

Mike Thompson Presents: Name Your Five Favorite Comic Reference Books/Guides or "Books About Comics"

* Slings & Arrows Comic Guide 2nd Edition
* Standard Catalog of Comic Books 4th Edition
* Graphic Novels: Everything You Need To Know -- Paul Gravett
* Masters of American Comics -- Tom De Haven
* The Dark Age -- Mark Voger

*****
This Subject is Now Closed.
*****

Please Note: Anyone who lists more than seven entries (I understand the occasional tie) for a Five For Friday exercise may see their entry posted to the site as a letter instead of here with the people who narrowed theirs down to five.

*****

Aaron Dumin

1.The History of the Comic Strip (2 vols.) by David Kunzle
2.The Comics (2 vols: "Before 1945" & "Since 1945") by Brian Walker
3.The Funnies: An Aesthetic History by R.C. Harvey
4.World Encyclopedia of Comics by Maurice Horn
5.The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer

*****

Rick Phillips

My 5 favorite books about comics are
1. Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee
2. Son of Origins of Marvel Comics by Stan Lee
3. The Comic Book Makers by Joe Simon with Jim Simon
4. Who Needs A Superhero? by H. Michael Brewer
5. Comix A History of Comic Books in America by Les Daniels Graphics by Mad Peck Studios

*****

My name is Tony Collett. I have been a comics fan for 35 of my 42 years, and sometimes write about them on my blog at http://mahtwocents.blogharbor.com.

* The World Encyclopedia of Comics -- Maurice Horn
* Comics Between The Panels -- Duin Richardson
* Comix: Comix: A History of Comic Books in America -- Les Daniels, graphics by Mad Peck Studios
* Comics Buyer's Guide Standard Catalog of Comic Books --John Jackson Miller, Maggie Thompson, Peter Bickford, Brent Frankenhoff
* The Encyclopedia of Superheroes -- Jeff Rovin

*****

Andrew J. Mansell

1. Accidental Ambassador Gordo by RC Harvey
2. B. Krigstein Volume 1 Greg Sadowski
3. Comic Journal #210
4. The Adventurous Decade by Ron Goulart
5. Herblock: A Cartoonist’s Life

*****

Christopher Duffy

1. The Sterenko History of Comics 1, 2 by Jim Sterenko (it was the only resource for years for stories about the Golden Age of comic books)
2. Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones
3. Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
4. Tie: "All in Color for a Dime" edited by Lupoff and Thompson; and "Comix: A History of Comic Books in America" by Les Daniels and the Mad Peck
5. Krazy Kat : The Comic Art of George Herriman by Karen O'Connell, Georgia Riley de Havenon, and Patrick McDonnell

*****

Gary Esposito

1. The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics
2. The Comics Before 1945 -- Brian Walker
3. The Comics: Since 1945 -- Brian Walker
4. 100 Years of Comic Strips -- Bill Blackbeard
5. America's Great Comic-Strip Artists: From the Yellow Kid to Peanuts -- Richard Marschall

When I was a kid there was a book by Mort Walker on the history of comic-strips, I can't remember the mane of it, but it really affected me with a love of the artform in general. If I ever find it, it'll be on the top of this list.

*****