Of Comics and Men

Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books

 By Jean-Paul Gabilliet

 Translated by Bart Beaty and Nick Nyguyen

3 ½ out of 5 Covers

I had a hard time deciding what score I should give this book.  As a history of the comic book industry, it is thorough, but it is a lot of the same material that I have encountered in other histories.  It sets itself apart by focusing on the economics of the producers and consumers, especially giving some in-depth attention to the fan community.  However, the business practices of the industry don’t greatly interest me.  That it not to say it isn’t important information that can give insight and depth that can be beneficial to an understanding of comic book history; it’s just that I will admit to speed reading through some of those sections.

The fact that this book was originally written in French might have provided an outsider perspective from a culture that respects comic books; I didn’t recognize any of that.  There were also a few printing errors that an editor should have caught.  As my brother Joseph will attest, these things do slip thorough.  That doesn’t change the fact that they are now there for everyone to see.

And the truth is that the prose is a little dry.  The comic book industry is full of larger than life personalities and its history is filled with ups and downs.  Gabilliet is pretty straightforward in his telling. 

So I vacillated between giving it an average and an excellent ranking. I worried that I was scoring it low in relation to other texts that I have read, but when I thought about ranking it higher, all the little problems seemed to pile up in my mind.  So I split the difference.

The truth is that such judgments are not made in a vacuum.  I will always relate what I am reading to other books, with my favorites serving as a guide to what I think is exceptional.  Perhaps someone else will encounter this volume and find it fascinating; perhaps I am too familiar with the material to appreciate all the Gabilliet is bringing to the subject (a case of not seeing the forest for the trees).  I will leave that for others to decide.