American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-1944

by Kurt F. Mitchell, Roy Thomas, Keith Dallas (Editor)

The American Comic Book Chronicles continues its ambitious series of FULL-COLOR HARDCOVERS, where TwoMorrows' top authors document every decade of comic book history from the 1940s to today! Kurt Mitchell and editor Roy Thomas composed this volume about the “Golden Age” of the comic book industry, a five-year period that presented the earliest adventures of such iconic super-heroes as Batman, Captain Marvel, Superman, and Wonder Woman. It was a time when America’s entry into World War II was presaged by the arrival of such patriotic do-gooders as Will Eisner’s Uncle Sam, Harry Shorten and Irv Novick’s The Shield, and Joe Simon and Jack Kirby’s Captain America. It was when teenage culture found expression in a fumbling red-haired high school student named Archie Andrews. But most of all, the first five years of the 1940s was the age of the “packagers” when studios headed by men like Harry A Chesler, Will Eisner, and Jerry Iger churned out material for a plethora of new comic book companies that published the entire gamut of genres, from funny animal stories to crime tales to jungle sagas to science-fiction adventures. These are just a few of the events chronicled in this exhaustive, full-color hardcover. Taken together, American Comic Book Chronicles forms a cohesive, linear overview of the entire landscape of comics history, sure to be an invaluable resource for ANY comic book enthusiast!

Genres: Comics, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published July 2, 2019

Reviews

[Tim Schneider]

In the interests of full disclosure I've been friends with the author for around 20 years. He and I have haunted the same places online for lo these many years. That said, I don't believe that has swayed my thoughts on the book in any way.

This is the first volume in Twomorrows' ACBC series that I've read. Not that I've avoided them. I just haven't found them at the price I wanted to pay. That I paid full price for this is testament to the regard I have for the author. This series is not quite the norm for the books I've read from Twomorrows. While it still has a ton of great pictures it is more scholarly and is generally a "deeper cut" than the artist surveys or even the company surveys (MLJ, Quality) that we've seen from the publisher. No long creator interviews here. This is a deep and scholarly look at comic books in the first half of the 1940s. And not just the usual suspects. You're not just going to get the output of DC (at the time two companies Detective and AA), Timely, Fawcett, Dell and the big boys. Mitchell tries to look at all the publishers that were churning out books during a half decade that saw huge expansion comic books. And it's not just the super-heroes (a myopia that tends to appear in books about comics). There's plenty here about every genre from the 40s and those publishers (Fiction House) that really never even delved into super-hero funny books.

If there's a complaint to be had in the book it's that it could induce information overload. And I'd recommend that you read it with a computer or smartphone handy because there is a ton of stuff you're going to want to look up, even if it's just to get a better look at some of the characters described in the book. What saves it from that possible downfall is the author's voice. Mitchell is able to distill a huge amount of information in a manner that is both informative and conversational.

I'm definitely looking forward to the continuation of the 40s. And a big thanks to Kurt for reminding me of some books I knew about and had forgotten, not least being George L. Carlson's work in Jingle Jangle Comics. I first encountered some of those stories 40 years ago in a book on comics and had largely forgotten about them. It's time to find a way to revisit some long lost gems.

[Michel Albert]

As TwoMorrow's American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1940s (1940-1944) attests, the 1940s were a real boom time for comic books, putting them on the map as new media, but selling out every title of every publisher. These were days that would never be replicated, not even in the speculative 90s. With no plans to do a book on the 1930s (I don't think), this volume starts with an involved context that covers the industry in the years following the actual five years it means to cover. I will admit that there are so many publishers, creators, titles and characters (good, evil and indifferent) - remember that back then, every comic was a thick anthology of strips - that the book frequently reads like a grocery list. And yet, I regretted not writing down all the wonderful ideas for articles that came to mind on almost every page. Though it's perhaps unnecessarily completist in its approach, it still takes the time to tell the larger behind-the-scenes stories like DC's lawsuit against Fawcett, how the war impacted the world of comics (both on and off the page), criminal tales to circumvent paper rationing, and the uproar caused by Wonder Woman.

[Edo Bosnar]

For anyone interested in the history, and really the origins, of American comic books, this book is essential reading. Although the title specifies that it covers the 1940-1944 period, Mitchell also goes back into the 1930s to explain how comic books first emerged as mostly reprints of newspaper strips, riding the coat-tails of the then far more popular pulp magazines. Then he moves into the veritable explosion of comic books in the early 1940s, which flourished despite paper restrictions imposed upon the industry once the US entered World War II. This book is dense with information, and can certainly be used as a reference work, but Mitchell's writing style is very engaging, and the narrative flows like a well-written, in-depth magazine article.
Highly recommended.

[David]

I finished reading “American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1940s: 1940-1944” (2019) by Kurt F. Mitchell with Roy Thomas (the latter credited as “Consultant”).

The American Comic Book Chronicles series is published by TwoMorrows Publishing and is their in depth year-by-year survey of the entire publishing history of American comic books. Released out of order, the first volume out was the 1960-1964 volume in 2012, followed by the 1980s (2013), 1950s (2013), 1965-1969 (2014), 1970s (2014), 1990s (2018), and 1940-1944 (2019).

The second half of the 1940s (which has been delayed several times due to various reasons) should be out in 2022 hopefully. And there are also plans for volumes on the 1930s and 2000s.

This volume is broken down into the following chapters: Chapter One: 1940 - Rise of the Supermen, Chapter Two: 1941 - Countdown to Cataclysm, Chapter Three: 1942 - Comic Books Go To War, Chapter Four: 1943 - Relax: Read Comics, and Chapter Five: 1944 - The Paper Chase.

For those not into comics history, this book probably would come across as an overwhelming amount of unfamiliar names (both of individuals and of publishing companies), unheard of comics characters and titles, and dates.

For comics history buffs like myself, however, this is a real “must have” reference work. The author (Mitchell) breaks down each year by publisher in business at the time, detailing the titles they released and the individual character features running in those titles and who wrote and drew them (where known). He also goes into the behind the scenes goings ons at the various publishing houses: how they started, how certain key artists and writers ended up there, and how the more popular characters were created. And he also reports how external factors like World War II, paper rationing, and early anti-comics opinion among some influential circles impacted the comics industry. (For example: With the war dragging on, the U.S. government put paper quotas on publishers of magazines, driving nearly all of the comic book publishers to lower their individual issue page counts from 68 pages (the average length in 1940) to 52 pages in 1944, and forcing many monthly titled to have to skip a month here and there as well as the dropping of many lesser back up features.)

Of course, the big publishers (Detective Comics (DC), All-American Comics, Timely Publications (Marvel), Fawcett Publications (the makers of Captain Marvel comics), Dell/Western (publishers of many licensed titles like Disney and Warner Bros), M.L.J. Magazines (the makers of Archie comics as well as its own range of superheroes), Gilberton Company (Classics Illustrated), and Quality Comics Group) are given a lot of attention. But so are mostly forgotten (today) lesser publishers like Ace Magazines, Better Publications/Standard Magazines/Nedor Publications, Centaur Publications, Charlton Publishing (just starting out), Columbia Comic Corporation, Comic House/Magazine House, Crestwood Publications, David McKay Company, Dynamic Publications, Eastern Color Printing Company, Fiction House, Fox Publications, Funnies, Inc. (one of several packaging shops creating comics stories for other publishers to release), Great Comics Publishing, Harvey Comics, Helnit Publishing/Et-Es-Go Mgazines/Continental Magazines, King Features Syndicate, Magazine Enterprises, Majestic Studios, Novelty Press, Parents’ Magazine Press, Register and Tribune Syndicate, Roche & Iger, S.M. Iger Studio, Spark Publications, Street & Smith Publications, United Features Syndicate, Wm. H. Wise & Co., and Worth Publishing.

Way too many names of individuals (comic book publishers, editors, writers, artists, etc.) for me to list them here. Suffice it to say that even the most obscure are reported on here, as are the many comic book characters that appeared in print from 1940 to 1944 (which has to literally be hundreds if not thousands thanks to the then standard format of six to eight short features per standard comic book issue plus the tendency for publishers to copy the success of their peers. Thus, endless Captain America, Tarzan, Sheena Queen of the Jungle, and masked “mystery men” knock offs, as well as the still popular in 1940-1942 or so non superhero adventure strips featuring fighter pilots, jungle adventurers, detectives, cowboys, etc.

And then you have the increase in popularity of humor titles (both teen humor like “Archie” and funny animal humor titles) around 1943 and 1944, to the point where you start to see some formerly superhero centric titles either being dropped for humor ones or converted into them (a foreshadowing of the disappearance for the most part of superhero comics in the late 1940s and early to mid 1950s).

It took me four months of off and on reading to make my way through “American Comic Book Chronicles: The 1940s: 1940-1944” because every chapter is just crammed full of information. It’s not the most “readable” of material but it’s still very interesting for those into the subject matter.

I look forward to moving on to the next volume (which, as I mentioned above, is the 1950s volume since the 1945-1949 volume isn’t out yet). I’ll probably have to take a bit if a break before jumping into that one, though, as I’m sure it will also be a long (yet interesting) read.

[C. John Kerry]

I have a number of histories of comic books. Trying to compare this book to them is similar to comparing apples to oranges. Many of them are trying to present the history of comic books from the beginning to present day. This particular volume is only concentrating on the years 1940-44. To complicate matters even more a few of them besides covering US comics also cover International comics. While this book only covers US comics.
All that being said, this is an excellent volume and well worth adding to your library of books on comics history. The author seems to know his subject matter. I have read one history that was so riddled with errors as to be almost totally useless. That isn't the case with this book. He aslo writes about it in a highly readable style. This book is not a chore to read, which given the size of it is a good thing. I really don't know why some people seem to feel history needs to be dry as sawdust. Each chapter covers a specific year. Thus you are presented with a history of comic books told in chronological order. This is nice as it enables to see what the various publishers were doing at the same time. Of course if all you are interested in is the history of a specific publisher then you may be somewhat annoyed at this approach. As well this volume is heavily illustrated, primarily with covers from various comics. This serves two purposes. One they do tend to break up the text, making the book seem less formidable than it might if if was all text. There is also interior art, which is interesting to look at, especially when the subject isn't as well know as some. Finally there is the occasional photograph of someone involved in the creation of these comics.
All in all then this a good general history of comic books. The only drawback is that it only covers the years 1940-44, though there is a bit on the 1930s. There are futher volumes for the rest of the years, each covering five or ten years. So if you looking to build yourself a library of books on comics then this book is a good one to start with. Happy reading.

[Norman Cook]

This is a hard book to rate. It’s a scholarly volume that explores the U.S. comic book industry from 1940 to 1944, with an exhaustiveness that will be of value for serious readers and researchers (Mitchell seems to thoroughly know his subject matter, although it’s not entirely clear whether it comes from primary or secondary sources). At the same time, because it’s densely packed and overly comprehensive, it’s not an easy read (I skimmed large portions of the text).

The book starts by briefly tracing comics’ origins in 1930s newspaper strip reprints then presents a year-by-year chronicle of the medium’s rapid expansion during this half decade. The book delves into behind-the-scenes stories—such as DC’s lawsuit against Fawcett over the use of Captain Marvel, and the impact of WWII, such as paper shortages and creators being drafted. The emphasis is on superheroes, as this was probably the main genre at the time, but it does go beyond superheroes and the major publishers like DC (at the time two companies, Detective and AA) and Timely (a precursor to Marvel) to recount the histories of many lesser-known companies and genres. This is also a problem because the book treats both major and minor publishers, creators, and titles with almost equal weight.

The book design has plusses and minuses. On the plus side, there is a fair amount of well reproduced artwork, both covers and interiors. On the minus side, some pages have two columns, and some have three, making it harder to maintain a constant reading pace (moreover, some columns are broken up by artwork). In addition, the index is insufficient for a book intended for research.

[Ryan Fischer]

Can get a bit list-y at times (here's what this publisher did in 1942, here's what this publisher did, and here's what this publisher did), but fun and informative overall, and a great package. Looking for the next volume now.