yendi

So, what did I find at Book Nook? A copy of the original hardcover The Great Comic Book Heroes, the 1965 Jules Feiffer book that forever changed how I saw comics. Long before DC Archives existed, this was the only decent reprinting of so many classic Golden Age heroes. It's what introduced me to the GA Flash, the dark and gritty Batman that inspired the Denny O'Neill stories of my youth, the GA Hawkman and Spectre, both more than willing to kill in cold blood, the GA Captain America, who foolishly changes costumes in a fucking open tent, The Spirit, etc. Fantagraphics did a half-assed reprint last year that just had Feiffer's essay, which would be like releasing a Sandman collection with only the Stephen King Intro. This is the real thing. Just an amazing collection, and one that any comics fan should own. The essay is worthwhile, too, as much because it shows where comics stood just as the Silver Age was taking off (Feiffer's casual assumption that all comics are, indeed, crap, and that serious stuff doesn't work, was pretty much correct back then, but is exactly what much of the industry has been responding to ever since).