# The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-adventures-of-kavalier-and-clay/66522>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [May 25, 2001, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-adventures-of-kavalier-and-clay/66522 "2001-05-25T23:21:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2001, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-adventures-of-kavalier-and-clay/66522/21 "2001-06-21T03:43:26Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by CalMeacham \*  
> **For the history of comics I strongly recommend Jim Steranko’s History of the Comics in two volumes. Great stuff, but damned near unobtainable.**

I couldn’t remember Hogarth!

For the Steranko volumes, try Mile High Comics. They used to have a ton of 'em.

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> [@](#):
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> Also Lupoff’s All in Color for a Dime\*\*

I thought that it was by Don Thompson?!

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> Jules Feiffer’s History of Comics\*\*

Interesting reading from a “I was there” POV, lots of good detail, but Feiffer himself was just nuts. (He hated Captain Marvel because “SHAZAM” didn’t work in real life? He didn’t like Batman because it was obvious he was “queer”? The guy was a few pretzels short of a party mix.)

Lemme also recommend A Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics for lots of interesting early reprints (and possibly the only reprints we’ll ever see of Sheldon Mayer’s Scribbly/Red Tornado stuff (Red Tornado was the first female comic-book heroine, such as she was) which DC doesn’t seem to care about. There’s also a companion comic strip book by the Smithsonian.

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> For details, see _my_ book, which I can guarantee you is well-researched. \*\*

Title? I looked on Amazon and didn’t see it. I’d love to read it.

Fenris

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**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2001, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-adventures-of-kavalier-and-clay/66522/22 "2001-06-21T11:25:44Z")

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Fenris:

I haven’t got my copy of All in Color for a Dime, but my recollection is that it was edited by Richard Lupoff. One of the chapters – on a kid’s comic, “Jingle Jangle” – is by Harlan Ellison (!!)

I neglected to mention that the evolution of comic books from newspaper strips is definitely an American development. The folks in the UK see things a little differently. Their comics evolved from weekly kid’s papers, like “Alley Sloper’s Half-Holiday”. See the Penguin Book of Comics (listed in my above entry) and other books.  
Yeah, Feiffer’s book does have some quirks. He also picked the absolute worst illustration for Will Eisner’s **The Spirit** imaginable – it doesn’t look like Eisner’s work at all. You’d never guess from Feiffer that this was one of the most visually innovative and dramatic strips around. (And just look at the havoc Feiffer wrought with his script for the movie “Popeye”)

As for the book, it’s my Medusa book, written under my _real_ name of Wilk. I use Superman as an example of the evolution of myth in response to the medium it is presented in. I figured that it would certainly grab the attention of a popular audience – and would be a lot more familiar to them than the details of any Greek myth.

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