{product_snapshot:id=1474,true,false,true,left}By the 1950s, the superhero genre had been reduced to a minor piece of the comic-book mosaic. Patriots like Captain America — designed to boost the country’s morale and soothe wartime angst — ran aground of purpose with the end of World War II. The majority of heroes had been retired by the late ’40s, including the entire Timely Comics line, featuring Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and the Human Torch. The industry’s postwar output splintered into several distinct themes — crime, teen, funny animals, Western, war, and romance. Yet in the popular imagination the defining 1950s comics genre was horror. It…
The Production Evolution of a Humbug Page
{product_snapshot:id=1501,true,false,true,left} Fantagraphics’ Humbug collection is due in early 2009. This two-volume slipcased hardcover set assembles the never-before-collected, complete, original 11-issue run (1957-58) of the satirical magazine conceived and edited by Harvey Kurtzman and created by Kurtzman, Jack Davis, Will Elder, Al Jaffee (Kurtzman’s MAD magazine cohorts one and all) and Arnold Roth. This feature, conceived by Fantagraphics publisher Gary Groth and written by our production ace Paul Baresh, will give you a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the restoration of a Humbug page. – Ed. This is the original artwork. You can see all the items are pasted on and there are…
Rebel Visions – Introduction by Patrick Rosenkranz
{product_snapshot:id=1456,true,false,true,left} Foreword I was a student at Columbia University when I started reading the East Village Other in 1966. It was full of outrageous and libelous stories, bawdy language, wild accusations, and doctored photographs. Best of all, it had totally crazy comics, the likes of which I’d never seen before. Every week I’d pick up a new issue at a Village newsstand, along with a slightly larger New York Post, and, unsure of how my fellow Gothamites might react to its lurid covers, I would read EVO camouflaged on the subway ride uptown to Morningside Heights. {mosimage} Like many of…
