Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book - Couverture rigide

Jones, Gerard

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0465036562 ISBN 13 : 9780465036561

Editeur : Basic Books, 2004

Synopsis

Book by Jones Gerard

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture :

'The history of the superhero an impossible primary-coloured ideal - built by mobsters and mountebanks on a foundation of broken promises, broken hearts and broken backs - is also the secret history of modern America, and Gerard Jones reveals it here with all its madness, badness and tragedy intact. A magnificent piece of work.' Alan Moore

In the depths of the Depression, from the crowded tenements of New York and Cleveland, the comic book superhero leapt into being. Out of a mix of geekiness, science fiction, and outsider yearning, a crew of young men from working-class Jewish neighbourhoods and shady backgrounds created a series of blue-eyed, chisel-nosed crime fighters and adventurers who quickly captured the imaginations of young and old.

Gerard Jones shows how mob money and the worlds of soft-porn and detective magazines combined to create support structures for the comics, and help bring the millions rolling in. Before the Incredibles, there were Batman and Superman, Spiderman and Captain America. Men of Tomorrow tells the fascinating inside story of the birth of the comic superheroes.

'Delightful... a lurid, gripping history of the all-too-human men behind the first superheroes.' Variety

'The fascinating and heartbreaking true story of the goniffs, shmendricks, and shlemiels who gave birth to the superhero comics - written with all the verve and velocity of a golden age comic book.' Art Spiegelman

'Men of Tomorrow is a wonderful book... As soon as you finish it, you want to read it

again.' San Francisco Chronicle

Présentation de l'éditeur :

In the depths of the Depression, out of the crowded tenements of New York and Cleveland, the comic book superhero leapt into being. Out of a mix of geekiness, science fiction, and outsider yearning, a crew of young men from working-class Jewish neighbourhoods and shady backgrounds created a series of blue-eyed, chisel-nosed crime fighters and adventurers who quickly captured the imaginations of young and old. Within a few years their creations had spawned a new genre that still dominates youth entertainment seventy years later.

Gerard Jones draws on exhaustive research to portray how the immigrant experience and an outsider mentality shaped the vision of the make-believe hero, while a bizarre melting-pot of left-wing politics, mob money and the worlds of soft-porn and detective magazines contributed to the publishing world that produced the comics and brought them to millions. He chronicles how the success of the comics provoked a backlash that nearly destroyed the industry in the 1950s, and how later they surged back, inspiring a new generation to transmute pre-war fantasies into art, literature, blockbuster movies and graphic novels.

Men of Tomorrow rivetingly demonstrates how the creators of the superheroes established their crucial place in the modern imagination.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Basic Books
• Date d'édition: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0465036562
• ISBN 13: 9780465036561
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 416