American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1970s (AMERICAN COMIC BOOK CHRONICLES HC)

Your primer to the Bronze Age In graphic art. Bring your knowledge of the past up to date and inspire your imagination at the same time. If you loved it now- or missed it then; here it is all encapsulated in one place to start you research in fun from the time when long running characters both hero and villain got their edge back.

A nothing held back account of the era that nearly killed comics. Comprehensive with beautiful photographs.

Perfect book for fans of the true "golden Age" of comics

A well-researched and well-written account of a pivotal decade in the comics industry!

cool for a comic book fan such as I

Fantastic Book !!!

Fantastic resource

I have said many times throughout my years at Mania that TwoMorrows publishes the very best books about comic books and they have done it again with their latest volumes in their American Comic Book Chronicles series which covers the decades of the 1970s and 1980s. As a kid I bought into the idea of the Marvel Bullpen. I had this vision of writers, artists, letterers, colorists, end editors all working side-by-side in the office as if it was an assembly line for comic books. It would be years before I would find out that most of them worked at home and sent in their work by mail or courier. While it killed my romanticized view of the industry, these awesome volumes put you there in the offices of Marvel and DC during these decades.These volumes provide a year-by-year look at the comic book industry…the creators, the titles, the hits and the misses, the sales, and the trends. Each book is nearly 300 pages in length which means each year of the decade has a chapter devoted to it of almost 30 pages. The meticulously researched volumes give you a behind-the-scenes look at what was going on in the industry. The 1970s remains special for me as that was when I became a comic book fan. It was during this year that the industry began to shake off the oppressive yoke of the Comic Book Code and start to put out books which tackled important social topics of the day like racism, drug abuse, and religion.You will read about how Roy Thomas, then Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief managed to secure the rights to a little known pulp character name Conan the Barbarian. You will find out about how The Punisher and Wolverine were created, how DC got away with the supernatural violence of the Spectre in Adventure Comics; the fledgling rise and quick fall of Atlas Comics; The New X-Men bursting on to the scene; Comic book heroes exploding onto TV and film with shows like The Incredible Hulk and Wonder Woman, and films like Superman; and read about the infamous DC Comics implosion.

This is the fourth volume in a series of five, which have an identical structure but different authors, and is the first one I bought with the fifth volume (The 1980's) being the second. There is a reason for this, two reasons actually, and they affect my opinion of the book(s). Let me explain.I was a teenager in the 60's and, for about three years, picked up the cheaply imported (as ballast in ships' holds) comics from my local newsagent. These comprised DC and (the earliest superhero titles like the FF) from Marvel and I'd be a rich man today if only I'd kept them but life moves on. About a decade later, a friend of mine who'd never given up on them suggested I pick up the two Conan issues (Thomas/Smith) which featured Michael Moorcock's character Elric of whom and which I was a fan. So I did and never really stopped.I've always like reading books about comics of which there are far more these days than ever and Twomorrows the specialist publisher has a good reputation and I own several books they've put out. And so, with Christmas coming on I thought I'd treat myself and I'm glad I did. These two decades are when I did most of my comic book reading and collecting and about which I'm the most knowledgable. Further, I regard the two decades as a period which creatively revolutionised comics as an art form. You'll have to forgive me if I don't explain why but this is a review not an essay. Nevertheless, try these: creator's rights, for mature readers, the second flowering Will Eisner, the rise of the independents, Los Bros Hernandez, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, some Japanese stuff called manga begins to appear in the West, mini-series, big comics called graphic novels, and so on. Here you find most emphatically the roots of modern comics.My friend, who got me back into comics in the first place, asked recently why I would want a book about a period I know so well. My answer was, that that is reason why I want to read about them -to see an overview from a different perspective and to match my own memories of the period.As for how far these books and this one in particular succeed, well it depends on what you're looking for. They are very fact based (i.e. this comic appeared on..., the creative team were...) but it also includes brief assessments and the future developments as a result, plus behind the scenes stuff about conflict as well as creativity. But it is not an in-depth analysis. I don't think there's a page without some form of illustration, usually in colour, though there is also a substantial amount of text. From a comics point of view these are very attractive volumes. They are also very easy to dip into. Essentially, these volumes do what they set out to do.The series consists of: The 1950s, 1960-64, 1965-69, 1970s, 1980s. There is no volume for the 1990s scheduled yet as far as I'm aware. Oh well, I can wait.

Just as good as the 1960's volumes, this edition concentrates more on Marvel & DC with the other companies only getting a paragraph or so for each year although this is probably because the other companies were selling less compared to what they were in the 60's and Dell and Charlton ended up closing. These books are not just about the comics and in fact are more a behind the scenes look at what was going on at the companies with insights from the creators, which makes for fascinating reading and being able to follow the ups and downs and careers of all the comic greats like Roy Thomas, Jack Kirby, Gerry Conway, Carmine Infantino, Marv Wolfman and so on. Essential for anyone who read comics in the 70's.

Speedy delivery and excellent/outstanding product. very happy.

This series is destined to be 'essential reading' for all comic-book historians.

This book, like the previous books in the series, gives us a very thorough insight to the state of comics from that particular era. No comics company big or small is left out of the discussion. It is chock full of illustrations which bring back a sense of nostalgia for the readers who grew up in that period. The books also provide an insight to what was hot and interesting and different in the era. It is valuable also for collectors in that the book gives us firsts and other noteworthy titles and numbers we may want to add to our collections. All in all I highly recommend this book.