Got MEN OF TOMORROW by Gerard Jones (used to write for DC didnt he?) - excellent book on the history of the comic book industry.

It delves into how the publishers got started - mobsters, porn mags, the boom, the backroom deals and also specifically tells stories about Bob Kane (and how he got guys to ghost his Batman stories and moreso how he made millions while other got screwed).

It also focuses of Siegal and Shuster and how they were screwed over for years and how under Jennete Kahn and Levitz with the help of Robinson and Neal Adams they got closure and what was due them.

Its filled with amazing little stories about Lee, Kirby, Eisner, etc...the creators lived lives as interesting as their heroes..amazing book for anyone interested in this stuff.

Great little tale about how there was an opening one weekend at a printer for a huge run/distribution deal for one issue only (cause some skin mag got cancelled and the shelf space was available) soa bunch of cartoonists (including Jack Cole) locked themselves in a studio and pumped out 80 pages over one weekend ready to print by Monday...

Tons of anecdotes like that...great book.

I saw the review for this book a while ago...

http://www.imwan.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=812

...but I haven't picked it up yet. Barnes and Noble was really pushing it during the Christmas season.

I'd like to read it and the other books Jones has penned.

Jim Lawless

Jim - I highly recommend it - the stories are amazing.

Siegal and Shuster fight for Superman is just out of this world..a real life drama. You really feel for them when they finally get their due.

I'm reading this book presently. Got it for $5 at a used bookstore, in pretty much sterling condition, which was awesome.

And the book is awesome.

It's the best book about the industry I've ever read.

Though Jones' recount of Batman's creation is puzzling. Jones credits Finger with coming up with the name, something that contradicts every account on the subject - including Finger's.

I read this several years ago and found it very informative. Guess I should see about making time to go over it again sometime.

Read it when it came out and loved it. I love most of the books about comics history.

Finished it tonight.

Really dang good. Not just in content but in form ... the writing style is really compelling.

It's also very "Fair and balanced," as far as the way it covers the whole Superman legal thing, looking at things from both the artists' perspective and that of the suits.

Yeah, this is an excellent book. I must reread it later in the summer. Back when I was a teenaged fan, I loved Jones's revised edition of The Comic Book Heroes that came out in 1996 with a great Travis Charest cover.

Also good:

Yeah, that long string of numbers and letters is also one of my favorite books on the subject.

Also good:

I read so many of those they blend together.

I put this on my wish list.

From what I recall it came across as a respectable work of scholarship that was also very readable.

This tends to happen to me as well.

I had to come into the thread to find out the answer to the question: "What industry?"

We're like the mafia. We never come out and say what it is we do.