Offers a concise history of comics and action heroes and heroines, tracing their development from the first US comics up to modern developments. Forty characters are profiled, special features are interspersed throughout and topics of particular interest are covered in depth.
Veteran comics journalist and historian Mike Conroy is news editor with Europe's trade paper, Comics International, where he also has his own monthly column discussing the interaction between movies and comics. He is also editorial consultant to the Cool Beans World website. The founder of the Eagle Awards, one of the comics industry's earliest established and most coveted international prizes, he has written on comics for London Editions and Marvel UK as well as for such magazines as Comic World, Fangoria, SFX, Starburst and Starlog.
Gr 7 Up-An attractive, compact introduction to comic-book heroes and history. Following an overview of this medium in the 20th century, the titular heroes are divided into seven chapters-males, females, teams, newspapers, war, western, and sci-fi. Short alphabetical entries include biographical and publication histories; they are interspersed with longer, boldly illustrated focus pieces that discuss significant characters (Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.) and moments in history, such as the rise and fall of crime comics. These pieces include numerous full-color, full-page reproductions of comic-book covers and pages, often against a glossy, black background. Marring the work are occasional errors, including misspellings of characters' names, and the lack of both an index and images to accompany the brief entries. Aficionados and researchers would quibble with the details, but casual readers will enjoy this intriguing mini encyclopedia.-Douglas P. Davey, Halton Hills Public Libraries, Ontario, Canada Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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