Collectors Press's comic art collections
   The Silver Age Of Comic Book Art
   Comic Book Culture - An Illustrated History
                                             (2003 / 2000 - Collectors Press)

The Silver Age Of Comic Book Art (2003) (by Arlen Schumer) Right off the top, understand that while in design school, the author started to plan & pull-together a degree project, a themed exhibit placing the images & ideas of his beloved comics of the Silver Age (as that then-recent period would come to be called) and place them in a socio-political & historical framework (. . . but then went in another project direction). "Many of those 1979 layouts are the same ones I've used in this book". There have been a handful of artbooks that I've criticized as being 'over-designed' in their presentation, but I'm sure you're starting to get the idea here . . . that its origins would incline this book to seeming like its design aesthetic *is* the point. To my personal tastes, many of these pages are too cluttered & busy (with purpose, not chaos), but commentators have shared that that exact presentation is what re-created for them the rare & cherished 'feeling' they experienced when first opening those exciting comics in their younger days. Schumer reels out his huge amount of information by celebrating eight particular artists, Neal Adams, Gene Colan, Steve Ditko, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, & Jim Steranko (frequently incorporating a large amount of their own words into the thesis). Of this large-ish, 9-by-13-inch, edition's 176 pages, know that 158 could be considered as being dominated by the art itself, rather than text & sequential-art examples. 95 of those have multiple images wildly competing for your attention and the other 63 each having a single 'well-presented' image (as this site counts them) either uncluttered or clearly dominating it's brethren. (None of those that spread across the gutter are jarring in that format (but something that's almost never ideal)). When we breakdown those 'well-presented' images by the artists (and some collaborators) we find: Neal Adams (10), Murphy Anderson (4), Gene Colan (3), Steve Ditko (12), Carmine Infantino (6), Gil Kane (7), Jack Kirby (11), Joe Kubert (6), Tom Palmer, and Jim Steranko (4). Know that the later REVISED EDITION, released in 2014 by Archway Publishing, also includes 16 additional pages that celebrate some more comic art luminaries of the period.

Comic Book Culture - An Illustrated History (2000) (by Ron Goulart) As related, here is a history of the genre, from its beginnings through its so-entitled 'Golden Age', copiously illustrated with cover reproductions and with chapters entitled Famous Funnies, Jumping On The Bandwagon, Major Nicholson Enters The Frey, Brand New And Original, The Dawn Of The Golden Age, Up-Up-And-Away, Invasion Of The Super Heroes, Dreams Of Glory, A Million Laffs, This Means War, The Superpatriots, A Brief History Of Good Girl Art and some sections covering 'Old Masters', spotlighting Bill Everett, Lou Fine, Ramona Patenaude, Jack Kirby, Alex Schomberg, Gus Ricca, and L.B. Cole. Its 200-plus pages have 150 that could be said to be dominated by the art, with 46 that each feature a large reproduction and the rest two-or-more smaller images. 14 pages are lost to the section headers, which are comic images that are blown up so large as to be able to clearly distinguish their individual Ben-Day dots. The captioning of the presented covers includes the comic's title, issue # and date, as well as identifying the artists, along with a small bit of commentary. The artists getting 'well-presented' here are: Al Avison, Bernard Baily, Matt Baker, C.C. Beck (3), Jack Binder, Dick Briefer, Ralph Carlson, Al Carreno, Louis Cazeneuve, Jack Cole, L.B. Cole*, Joseph Doolin, Bill Everett, Gene Fawcette, Louis Ferstadt, Lou Fine, Creig Flessel, Frank Frazetta (2)*, Harvey K. Fuller, Terry Gilkison, Fred Guardineer, Walt Kelly, Jack Kirby (2), Bob Lubbers**, Harry Lucey, Gus Mager, Sheldon Mayer, Joe Musial, Ramona Patenaude, Mac Raboy, Gus Ricca, Alex Schomburg (6), Mike Sekowsky, Howard Sherman, Joe Simon (2), Vincent Sullivan, George Tuska, and Dan Zolnerowich.