Comic Art

We're currently in the golden age of superhero blockbusters. Movies like Black Panther, Wonder Woman, Joker, and Avengers: Endgame routinely break box office records and compete for Oscars. Yet, Zack Snyder's 2017 behemoth Justice League - a veritable sure bet at the Hollywood casino - tanked miserably, and the behind-the-scenes reasons for the movie's demise are fascinating.

If Hollywood had a superhero throne, Spider-Man would be perched upon it. As the most popular superhero in the world, the web-slinger plays a pivotal role in three of the six highest-grossing film franchises in history: the Marvel Cinematic Universe; the Avengers quadrilogy; and the Spider-Man movies themselves. Spidey has come a long way since Marvel guru Stan Lee first concocted him in 1962, but until now his cinematic journey has not been fully documented.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were two of the brightest stars ever to light up the world of comedy. They set standards that will probably never be surpassed. Cambridge graduates who met in Beyond the Fringe, their chemistry produced some of the funniest, most inventive and downright brilliant comedy ever recorded.They came to wider fame with the tv series Not Only… But Also. The writing and performances were superb....

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore were two of the brightest stars ever to light up the world of comedy. They set standards that will probably never be surpassed. Cambridge graduates who met in Beyond the Fringe, their chemistry produced some of the funniest, most inventive and downright brilliant comedy ever recorded. They came to wider fame with the TV series Not Only… But Also. The writing and performances were superb....

Building on the bestselling success of The Yuk Yuk’s Guide to Canadian Stand-Up, this new box set will feature tremendous routines from more of Canada’s most hilarious stand-up comedians such as Ron James, Scott Thompson, Jessica Holmes and Jon Dore. The set will also feature the stand-up comics whom Mark Breslin refers to as the “road warriors,” comedians who constantly criss-cross the country perfecting their craft and performing night after night in clubs from coast to coast.

The memoir of Murray Langston, aka The Unknown Comic, is a detailed account of the highlights and lowlights of each year of his life from June 27, 1944, until his 69th birthday on June 27, 2013. It's the story of how a poor kid from Montreal, being influenced by Jerry Lewis, longed to follow in his funny steps and somehow leave Canada and make it to Hollywood.

This illuminating biography focuses as much on Stan Lee's ideas as it does on his unlikely rise to stardom. It surveys his cultural and religious upbringing and draws surprising connections between celebrated comic book heroes and the ancient tales of the Bible, the Talmud, and Jewish mysticism. Was Spider-Man just a reincarnation of Cain? Is the Incredible Hulk simply Adam by another name? From close readings of Lee's work to little-known anecdotes from Marvel's history, the book paints a portrait of Lee that goes much deeper than one of his signature onscreen cameos.

Examining current debates and the questions raised by comics adaptations, including those around authorship, style, and textual fidelity, the contributors consider the topic from an array of approaches that take into account representations of sexuality, gender, and race as well as concepts of world-building and cultural appropriation in comics from Modesty Blaise to Black Panther. The result is a fascinating re-imagination of the texts that continue to push the boundaries of panel, frame, and popular culture.

This well focused and perceptive analysis of a phenomenon in our popular culture - the new respectability of the comic book form - argues that the comics medium has a productive tradition of telling true stories with grace and economy. It details vividly the outburst of underground comics in the late 1960s and '70s, whose cadre of artistically gifted creators were committed to writing comic books for adults, an audience they made aware that comic books can offer narratives of great power and technical sophistication.

Josh Blaylock's now classic how-to prose book about the business of comic book publishing, after selling out of its updated 2012 edition, is now being rereleased to include Tim Seeley's companion writings on the behind-the-scenes realities of being a comic book artist.

Road Dog is comedian, actor, and writer, Dov Davidoff's unflinching memoir told through reflections of twelve months on the road. Davidoff travels across the country from college campuses to local theaters doing stand-up comedy and telling it like it is. He's been known to wax poetic about everything from encounters with large fake breasts, to people who have too many kids, to magnum condoms the size of CD cases. He is hilarious and relatable and will have you laughing at yourself in no time.

Curated from his writings for Graphic Policy - covering everything from a childhood love of superheroes to an ongoing exploration of more mature comics and geeky experiences - CJ Standal offers deep analysis into one of the hottest media today and the life of those who grew up loving that medium: comics.

Mainstream narratives of the graphic novel's development describe the form's "coming of age", its maturation from pulp infancy to literary adulthood. In Arresting Development, Christopher Pizzino questions these established narratives, arguing that the medium's history of censorship and marginalization endures in the minds of its present-day readers and, crucially, its authors.

Award-winning writer Bill Schelly relates how comics and fandom saved his life in this engrossing story that begins in the burgeoning comic fandom movement of the 1960s and follows the twists and turns of a career that spanned 50 years. Schelly recounts his struggle to come out at a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness, how the egalitarian nature of fandom offered a safe haven for those who were different, and how his need for creative expression eventually overcame all obstacles.

In the 1990s, Megan Margulies' Upper West Side neighborhood was marked by addicts shooting up in subway stations, frequent burglaries, and the "Wild Man of 96th Street", who set fires under cars and heaved rocks through stained glass church windows. The world inside her parents' tiny one-bedroom apartment was hardly a respite, with a family of five - including some loud personalities - eventually occupying the 550-square-foot space.

Doctor Horrible, Jayne Cobb, Oz, Fitz-Simmons, Echo, Pike, Saffron, Kaywinnet, the Groosalugg, Skip, Satsu, Dana Polk, Perfect Jheung, Icarus, the Siphon, Edna Giles, Dandelion Naizen, and especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer. With Whedon's superhero names, goddess names, flower names, saint's names, and dozens of British names, he's filling his world with references from Shakespeare to manga, delighting fans who look closer. Which names repeat the most? Which characters have secret links?

In Five Minutes to Kill, actor and comedian Fred Stoller tells the story of the Young Comedians Special in 1989. He and five other talented, then-unknown comics took the stage with the hopes that their five-minute sets would propel them to fame and fortune. Some, like David Spade and Rob Schneider, hit it big; others didn’t. By turns hilarious and heart-wrenching, Five Minutes to Kill is the bittersweet story of what happened to six of America’s funniest people after their first big breaks.

It seems entirely fitting that Maurice Sendak was born on the same day that Mickey Mouse first made his cartoon debut - June 10, 1928. Sendak was crazy about cartoons and comic books, and at 12, after seeing Disney's Fantasia, he decided that he was going to become an illustrator. His love of children's books began early: Often sick and confined to bed, little Maurice read and read and read.

When it comes to superheroes of the silver screen, nobody knows more than the masterminds behind the wildly popular Comicstorian YouTube channel. This definitive guide to comic book films divulges behind-the-scenes secrets and the hidden history behind these must-see movies including how, after very rocky beginnings, they shot to the top with DC and Marvel as two of the most important franchises in the industry.

Durch Generationen hindurch waren die Comics von Walt Disney spannende Lektüre von Jugendlichen und Junggebliebenen...