Creators of the Superheroes by Thomas Andrae

Creators of the Superheroes Interviews and Commentary about Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson, Jack Kirby, and Will Eisner by Thomas Andrae

This book gives a very close look at the personal stories behind the creation of the first superheroes; Batman, Superman, Captain America, the Fantastic Four, and others.  It is more than just about the art of the comics, it is about how the comic business was created.  The book fits in with other books printed by Hermes Press which has many reprints and biographical works on early comics.

The life stories in this book are often tragic.  Bill Finger one of the first writers of Batman got very little credit and died destitute.  The artists often got very little money from doing comics, most of it went to the publishers.   Most of the artists worked on a commission per page.  Unless you were Jack Kirby and had a solid business sense and a huge readership, or Will Eisner who ran his own company, there was very little money as a comic books artist.

There are many interesting details in the book.  I like the photographs and drawings of the women who inspired the creation of Lois Lane.  The book has over 400 illustrations in it.  It is also a coffee table size book.  Many of the images are photographs of the artists life, original comic book panels, and pictures from movies or films.  Jack Kirby, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster were movie buffs.  Also Batman and Superman were made into films.

The majority of the text in this book is interviews. A lot of this is about the creative process in making comics.  It also has quite a bit about the artists personal lives.  Thrown in are interesting tidbits like the name Clark Kent is a combination of the movie actors, Clark Gable and Kent Taylor, and Batman's cape was designed after Leonardo's DaVinci's flying machine.

I especially liked the section on Will Eisner.  Will Eisner is considered the creator of the first graphic novel, A Contract With God.  He is also credited with making strong efforts to turn comics into an art form for adults.  He wrote comics as instruction manuals for the army.  This makes his approach different.

This is a fantastic book with beautiful illustrations, excellent interviews, and unique content.  If you are interested in the history of comics you should read this.

Al Jaffee's Mad Life A Biography by Mary-Lou Weisman Illustrated by Al Jaffee

Al Jaffee's Mad Life A Biography by Mary-Lou Weisman Illustrated by Al Jaffee

Al Jaffee is a cartoonist for Mad magazine.  He also has over sixty cartoon books he has written.  He is best known for the fold-ins at the back of Mad Magazine.  He illustrated this biography with a mix of slice of life comics about his own life and light humor comics.  I like the slightly exaggerated style of the cartoons.  They remind me a bit of a kind of slightly guilty pleasure.  This book covers his whole life.

The story starts with his childhood which is quite poignant and hard.  It starts with him moving from Savannah Georgia to live with his mother in a Lithuanian shtetl (small jewish town).  Then it covers his return to live in New York city.  The story is one of hardship and suffering.  He ends up leaving his mother behind as the Jewish holocaust starts.

This biography has quite a bit of mature themes in it; his brother going mad, another brother having extreme disabilities, and being separated from his mother.  He often describes himself as a cut up and a bit out of control.  This is illustrated by a variety of escapades throughout his life which can be both ridiculous and shocking

The thing which ultimately saves him is humor.  He describes reading comics his father sends him as a child and deciding that there is a career for him in comics when he sees advertisements by Dr. Seuss.  There are quite a few cartoons from Al Jaffee's early career in this book including many from Mad magazine.  The juxtaposition between everyday life and silly humor fits well with the writing.

In what I consider the second half of the book, he gets his break when he is accepted for the New York High School for Music and Art as it is first opening.  There he meets Harvey Kurtzman and some of the early figures in comics.  This biography describes his work for many important people in the comics industry.

The second half of the book touches on the history of comic books.  It is quite entertaining.  I rather liked a few of the wordless comics on page 180.  I also like the inventiveness in this book. Al Jaffe attributes this to having very little when he was a child.  He had to make his own toys.  There are interesting cartoons of home made fishing poles, rafts, a toy truck and other toys.

This book is not in the least bit academic in style.  It is full of anecdotes, humor, and sad stories. There is no index and no lists of recommended titles.  There are some photographs from the authors life, many cartoons in full color from both the auhor's life and Mad magazine.  The book is printed on heavy stock paper.  It is published by Harper Collins under the itbooks imprint.  This is a story that makes you think.