(Part 2) Best graphic novel history books according to redditors
We found 138 Reddit comments discussing the best graphic novel history books. We ranked the 55 resulting products by number of redditors who mentioned them. Here are the products ranked 21-40. You can also go back to the previous section.
even underground comics did not escape disney: http://www.amazon.com/The-Pirates-Mouse-Disneys-Underground/dp/156097530X
(it's a fantastic book, if anyone wants to actually read it)
As someone who does a lot of meta and academic literary discussion on comics, I am 100% certain that a paper exists about psychopathy and the Batman universe; it might not be about Bruce and psychopathy (most essays about psychopathy related to Batman that I've read have focused on either the Joker or Two-Face), but there have definitely been papers written about the philosophy, ethics, morality, and psychology of Batman and the Batfamily. You're going to find most of these types of discussions in the field of comics studies and academic historical/literary criticism rather than psychology due to the nature of the topic. For some interesting paper/essay collections, see:
It uh....honestly might also be worth it to read into the 'Seduction of the Innocent' controversy and relevant academic papers about the work, given that it directly involved Batman comics. Books like Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code and The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America would be particularly helpful there.
Edit: Also just as a sidenote, as you mentioned in another comment Batman as a psychopath isn't even a hot take; it's a lukewarm take made by people who don't actually read comics. Batman, as he is generally portrayed in mainverse comics, is decidedly not a psychopath.
Assuming that wasn't /s Here are some good sources. I'm sure a google search will also give you some good stuff
Comic book nation
A Complete History of American Comic Books
The Power of Comics: History, Form, and Culture
To anyone who does not know, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund got together in 2011 a bunch of artists to create fan art based on Transmetropolitan called "All Around the World". 1700 copies were printed, with only 1500 sent into circulation. I stumbled across my copy recently at a local comic book store.
Shot in the Face was published in 2013 and is a book going over the themes of the Transmetropolitan series.
I'm also interested in this question. Also, if anyone's read the Sequart volume on Watchman, Minutes to Midnight.
Definitely invest in some bags and boards to store these books. You can pick them up at your local comic shop or buy them online. Their value depends on their condition on the standard 1-10 grading scale used for determining the value of comics.
Since you have books of this value, I'd also recommend buying this for an accurate idea about what they are worth:
http://www.amazon.com/Overstreet-Comic-Book-Price-Guide/dp/1603601589/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425215129&sr=8-1&keywords=comic+book+price+guide
From the ones I can see in your picture:
X-Men 1:
$1,000 for 1.0; $2,000 for 4.0; $3,000 for 6.0; $10,000 for 8.0; $23,000 for 9.0; $42,000 for 9.2
Fantastic Four 25 & 26:
$63 for 1.0; $126 for 4.0; $189 for 6.0; $504 for 8.0; $1,140 for 9.0; $1,775 for 9.2
You've got a goldmine here buddy. If you're interested in selling, you should think about getting the more valuable issues graded by CGC:
http://www.cgccomics.com/grading/
Getting your comics graded will make your selling process easier and allow your customer to know the condition of what they are buying. If your X-Men 1 is in good shape, it will be worth even more
if you get it graded.
Being a "neophyte", I think the most valuable thing you can learn is how to accurately grade comics. You don't even need to be an "expert" at it to just know what to look for.
There are two books that EVERY comic book collector should own. The first is The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide. I get the hardcover every year and every year it winds up being the most dog-eared book I own. It's already two months into 2016, so try not to pay full price for the 45th volume as it's already halfway out of date (the new issue ships around the time of Comic Con).
The second book you have to own is The Overstreet Guide to Grading. This will be one of the most valuable books you'll own about collecting. This one doesn't really go out of date. I have the first edition of mine that I got years and years ago when it was first published and I've never updated it. It's an evergreen reference that you'll value for as long as you collect.
Grab a copy and go grade some comics!
EDIT: And don't forget to get an OWL card! (those will have to be replaced with some regularity. I replace mine about every couple of years when I remember/think about it.)
Unless there's a lot more this shouldn't be too bad...
Step 1 - Alphabetize. It looks pretty organized, that may already be done. Bags and boards too, nice!
Step 2 - Get yourself an Overstreet Price Guide. Other folks will point you to Ebay prices or online sources, but for 49 years, Overstreet has been the Bible for the industry and will tell you dates, creators, first appearances, etc.
https://www.amazon.com/Overstreet-Comic-Book-Price-Guide/dp/160360233X/ref=mp_s_a_1_2
Oh, cool! There's a digital edition now!
https://comics.ha.com/overstreet/comic-book-price-guide.s?ctrack=3482430&type=bodylink-1-comic--overst-48gen--tem071818
Step 3 - Learn how to make a spreadsheet. :) If you can't afford Microsoft Excel, that's fine, Libre Office can be downloaded for free.
https://www.libreoffice.org/
Make a catalog of what you have. Columns can be whatever you'd like, but the basics would be:
Title, Publisher, Issue #, Date, Cover Price, Notes, Price Guide Minimum and Maximum values (for insurance)
I also track Writer, Pencil Artist, Ink Artist so when a convention comes to town I can do a quick search for books to get signed.
https://www.amazon.com/Capitalist-Superheroes-Caped-Crusaders-Neoliberal/dp/1780991797
This is pretty straightfoward.
Zizke did a whole take on his doc on ideology about The Dark Knight being the ideology of "needed lies" after 9/11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRBsvyK_w9o
Also, I know Mark Fisher wrote something about the subject, google it, he's definitely the best of the three.
btw, your friend sounds unsufferable.
Also, a couple of books that might give you some jumping off points are Black Images in the Comics and Pioneering Cartoonists of Color.. As far as Manga goes I know Billy Bat by Naoki Urasawa and Eagle by Kaiji Kawaguchi feature a lot of dark skinned characters.
Well, it kinda depends on which aspect of otaku culture you are most interested in (if you want to study cosplayers, or anime conventions, for instance).
But, as a general introduction, I guess Lawrence Eng's writings are very good: this one, this one, this one and this one. He's also the author of two chapters in the aforementioned Fandom Unbound book, which is, IMO, the best book on otakuology so far, and his PhD dissertation is quite good as well (but it's behind a hell of a paywall, and you might find it not worth the money).
After that, I recommend you to read Patrick Galbraith's works. Most of them are available on academia.edu (start with "Otakuology: a Dialogue", and go from there).
He's also the author of two great books: Otaku Encyclopedia and Otaku Spaces (as you're in Indonesia, you might want to check those books on BookDepository: gotta love free delivery worldwide).
Last, but not least: if you have institutional access, Mechademia is the kinda-official international journal of anime and manga studies, otakuology and related stuff. Really, read it. Or, at least, skim through their articles.
If you've got any more questions, please feel free to ask ;)
There was an essay in this book about how Clark Kent is the most important character in the Supermythos because he is the guy who tells the all-powerful alien demagogue NOT to completely subjugate and control the stupid monkeys. Clark's the guy who says to Superman: "Hey buddy, humans are redeemable and 'worth it,' even if some of them do things like Holocausts and some of them are Justin Bieber. Let's bop over to Kansas because I can see Ma putting in a meatloaf and Pa doesn't know it but I can hear the axle on the tractor is about to break."
Superman is pretty cool. Clark Kent is a total badass. For more outright Superbadassery, see 'world of cardboard' from JLU.
Piggy-backing on your comment to suggest an additional resource. The Overstreet Guide to Grading Comics contains everything you need to know to reasonably grade your own books.
'Watchmen,' by Alan Moore.
Someone else put together 'Watchmen and Philosophy'...published by legit-academic collective Blackwell.
Here is a chapter from the book 'Comics as Philosophy' which combines Watchmen and the philosophy of existentialism:
Chapter: Deconstructing the Hero — PDF
If that is too much reading, just google around or read the comic yourself. I am fairly confident that you won't regret it.
Yes, you can get "It's Over 9,000!" in paperback and hardback on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. And Dragon Ball Culture Volume 1, Volume 2, and Volume 3 are available on Amazon.
New volumes of Dragon Ball Culture will be published in print every 3 months, and Dragon Soul will also be available soon.
Geoff Klock writes some interesting stuff on his blog. He did an issue-by-issue analysis of Morrison's New X-Men that I really enjoyed, as well as one on Whedon's Astonishing.
He's also written two books about comics, one about modern comic books and deconstructionist themes in general, and one about Matt Fraction's Casanova.
Speaking of books, there are some really interesting-sounding books and movies available from Sequart.
They have some pretty sweet articles too.
Wow, that whole thing is way more complicated than I had realized. You should write a Poisoned Chalice style book about Supreme!
Me-On-My-Soapbox Time - why is it that the actual creators of comics, like the writers and artists who actually make the damn things, so often get the shit end of the stick?
I mean, I understand that printing and advertising and distribution (and all the stuff the publishers do) is important, of course, but comics is such a different medium than something like movies or TV.
For instance, the catering bill alone for a film production is astronomical, but with comics there's virtually no overhead. It's usually one-to-five people putting their heart into a project, producing the entirety of the thing that people actually hold in their hands and consume, yet those people are often the ones who get the smallest chunk of the reward (or just swindled altogether).
Sorry, rant over.
Thanks for the info on Supreme - you're basically the leading world expert on the topic, as far as I'm concerned.
I'd be curious to open one of these and see what they are like, but you might be a little on the high end when the 46th annual is $20. https://www.amazon.com/Overstreet-Comic-Book-Price-Guide/dp/1603601910/ref=pd_sbs_14_t_0/164-9660065-1962533?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=313890Q9YP1H21ST7ZYF
Might want to get yourself an Overstreet Pricing Guide.
This reminds me of a great book – Jews and American comics: an illustrated history of an American art form:
>With three brief essays by Paul Buhle, this book offers readers a pictorial back-story tracing Jewish involvement in comic art from several little-known strips in Yiddish newspapers of the early 20th century through the mid-century origins of the modern comic book and finally to contemporary comic art.
Worldcat entry