Mike Benton / Taylor History Of Comics volumes
   Superhero Comics Of The Silver Age - The Illustrated History
                      (The Taylor History Of Comics # 2)
   Science Fiction Comics - The Illustrated History
                      (The Taylor History Of Comics # 3)
   Horror Comics - The Illustrated History
                      (The Taylor History Of Comics # 1)
   The Comic Book In America - An Illustrated History
   Masters Of Imagination - The Comic Book Artists Hall Of Fame
   Crime Comics - The Illustrated History
                      (The Taylor History Of Comics # 5)
   Superhero Comics Of The Golden Age - The Illustrated History
                 (The Taylor History Of Comics # 4)[-BELOW THE LINE-]

We are presenting them here ranked with the highest scoring first and the least so on the bottom.

Superhero Comics Of The Silver Age - The Illustrated History (The Taylor History Of Comics # 2) (1991) (by Mike Benton) So far, this is the best scoring volume in this grouping, as far as art presentation goes. Chronologically, this is would be the second of two volumes detailing the superhero phenomenon in comics, but it was actually released a year before its companion (-GOLDEN AGE OF-). I'm guessing there were just that many more surviving readers who were weaned on the comics of this major revival period in the 60s than those of the initial booming origin 20 years earlier. O.K., I can sheepishly admit to being among that majority, so I found this book an incredible amount of fun. The first 40 pages canvas The Story of the middling existence, then rebirth, broken into bite-sized essay-chapters entitled, Heroes and Superheroes, Up In The Sky . . ., The Amazing World Of DC Comics, The Marvel Universe, Super-Duper Hero Stupor, and Sputniks-Mutants-Commies-And-Science-Fairs. The next 65 pages detail the many superheroes of note, then 45 pages of introductions to all the artists that drew something in the superhero realm, then yet another 70 breaking down the Silver Age comic-titles themselves that ever featured a superhero. Add to that a summing-up Chronology of milestones. The captioning of the art exhibits, mostly comic covers, gives you the series title & issue, publisher & publication year, and usually the penciler & inker - the shame being that with all those wonderful identifications throughout, the index *only* reflects these individuals' appearances in the text-body. So, art-wise, this 232-page book has 119 of them that we shall say the images hold their own, or better, against the text and 81 of those pages sport a featured large reproduction. Those particular 'well-presented' artists are: Neal Adams (2), Murphy Anderson (8), Ross Andru (2), Dick Ayers, Wayne Boring, Bob Brown, Carl Burgos, John Buscema (2), Sal Buscema, Nick Cardy (2), Joe Certa, Gene Colan, Pete Costanza, Steve Ditko (8), Bill Everett (2), Don Heck (2), Carmine Infantino (4), Bob Kane (2), Gil Kane (4), Jack Kirby (18), Sheldon Moldoff, Irv Novick, Al Plastino, Bruno Premiani, Mike Sekowsky (4), Marie Severin, Jim Steranko (2), Curt Swan (10), Herb Trimpe, George Tuska, Barry Windsor-Smith, and Wally Wood.

Science Fiction Comics - The Illustrated History (The Taylor History Of Comics # 3) (1992) (by Mike Benton) Out of 158 pages, there are 48 that feature a single large reproduction (usually of a comic cover) and then another 72 pages that gather together multiple smaller images. In regards to reproduction quality, I should mention that some of the painted covers that I'm very familiar with look slightly different than they do in reality, here with just barely discernible graininess or texture, also like the contrast was pushed a bit. All the same, they are all still a lot of fun in the now retro way that I enjoy. I have to share that there's a very strong emphasis on the artists that made this their passion, maybe even at the expense of focus on the comics' writers & adaptors. There are also a number of small examples of pages of sequential art. The captioning details the comics' titles, release dates, publishers or copyright holders, as well as the artists' names where known. A number of chapters detail Benton's roughly chronological overview of the origins and continuance of science fiction comics. They are entitled: My Other Brain Is A Spaceship (The World Of Science Fiction Comics), Adventures In The 25th Century (Buck Rogers And Flash Gordon), Rocket Men And Outer Space Queens (Science Fiction Comics of The 1930s-1940s), Flying Saucers And Strange Adventures (Science Fiction Comics Of The 1950s), Space Race Aces And Heroes (Science Fiction Comics Of The 1960s), To Boldly Go Where No Comic Books Have Gone Before (Star Trek And Other Comics From TV), Beam Me Up Darth Vader (Star Wars And Other Movie Comics), and Past Present Future Perfect (Science Fiction Comics Today And Tomorrow). There's then a 50-page anecdotal Guide-&-Checklist to most known American science fiction comics as well, as an index, which might have been a *lot* more useful, but only people's appearances in the essay are captured, not from the captions or checklist. The "well-presented" artists found here are: Allen Anderson (2)*, Murphy Anderson, John Bolton, Johnny Bruck, Orlando Busino, Dick Calkins (2), Lou Cameron, Steve Ditko (2), Joe Doolin, Gene Fawcette (2), Al Feldstein (2), Frank Frazetta, Albert Giolitti, Carmine Infantino, Jack Kirby (2), Russ Manning, Jesse Marsh, Mort Meskin, Jerome Moore (3), Joe Orlando, Tom Palmer, Frank R. Paul, Michael Saenz, Norman Saunders**, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave Stevens*, Al Williamson (3), George Wilson (3), Basil Wolverton, Wally Wood (4), and UNKNOWN (3).

* - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Allen Anderson, and Stevens, can all be found so in their own collections on The List.

** - Note that the Saunders' piece here is not found 'well-presented' in his own collection farther up The List.

Horror Comics - The Illustrated History (The Taylor History Of Comics # 1) (1991) (by Mike Benton) Almost to the middle of the pack here. At 152 pages, this is the thinnest book of the lot, but has the second biggest percentage of pages where the art (mostly covers) could be said to hold its own, or better (108 of them). Unfortunately, only 25 of those pages contain an uncluttered featured large-reproduction (half of those are cropped excerpts acting as chapter intros. All-in-all, quite a feast of spine-tingling info and illustrations. The chapters of this overview of this beloved comic phenomenon are: Horrible-Horrible Horror Comics, Adventures Into Unknown Terrors (The Origins of . . .), Tales From The Vault Of Fear (EC), Eyeballs-Guts-And Splattered Brains (the 1950s), We'll Burn Your Comics (the Controversy), Wooden Stakes And Silver Bullets (The Day Horror Comics Died), Attack Of The Fifty-Foot Monsters (the 1960s), Famous Monsters Of Comic Land (the Return), Disco-Dancing Zombies From Watergate (the 1970s), Freddy Kruger Meets The Swamp Thing (the 1980s), Here-Today-Horror Tomorrow (the 1990s), Collecting Horror Comics, Horror Comics Guide And Checklist, and a index to the proceedings. The captioning does not seem overly concerned with identifying the artists of all the images collected here. The artists being 'well-presented' here are: Allen Anderson*, Jim Baikie, Ken Bald, Adolphe Barreaux, Stephen R. Bissette, L.B. Cole**, Jack Davis (2), Myron Fass, Frank Frazetta (2)*, Don Heck, Sheldon Moldoff, Edvard Moritz, Vic Prezio, John Severin, John Totleben, Corey Wolfe Basil Wolverton, Bernie Wrightson, and UNKNOWN (6).

* - Note that the 'well-presented' pieces here by Anderson, and Frazetta, can additionally be found so in their own collections on The List.

** - Note that the 'well-presented' piece here by L.B. Cole's cannot additionally be found so in his own collection on The List.

The Comic Book In America - An Illustrated History (1989) (by Mike Benton) This seems to be Benton's first book canvassing the comic book phenomenon, but note that a new edition of it was released when THE TAYLOR HISTORY OF COMICS was formulated (being several years later, I've seen it billed as 'updated', but I haven't seen the book itself to tell what that really means (it doesn't have any more pages . . .)). Having 208 pages, 143 of them could be said to be dominated by the cover art (18 of those sporting a single featured image). I have to mention that within my particular edition, the reproductions seem to be on the dark side. First, there's a 74 -page section that walks through the comic book history, year-by-year, up to the book's publication, noting the landmarks of each. Then 62 pages detailing most of the comic book publishers. Finally, nearly another 40 pages going through the discreet story genres that made significant showings in the comic field. I would say that the artists themselves are not focused on any more than the other elements in the industry - indeed, the none of the image captioning identifies their respective creators. It is possible to identify most of the artists for the featured covers, their 'well-presented' individuals being: Murphy Anderson (2), Matt Baker (2), Wayne Boring, Jack Davis, Will Eisner, Russ Heath, Carmine Infantino, Jack Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, Frank Miller, George Pérez, Alex Schomburg, Mike Sekowsky, Vin Sullivan, Irving Trip, Wally Wood (2), and UNKNOWN. Definitely a fun volume to page through as a general look at comic-dom.

Masters Of Imagination - The Comic Book Artists Hall Of Fame (1994) (by Mike Benton) A special volume that showcases the first comic-book inductees into The Jack Kirby Hall of Fame or The Will Eisner Hall of Fame (or both) - 13 artists in all. In this context, what's being focused on is their craftsmanship & storytelling in the sequential-art of comics, so most of the art exhibited is examples of that sequential-art. On this site however, we are tracking reproductions of single images, like covers or splash panels. As it turns out, there's enough of these to keep the book on The List - 77 pages out of the book's 176 (with 38 of those featuring single large-ish reproductions). Every artist gets at least one and they lay out like this: Carl Barks (2), C.C. Beck (2), Jack Cole, Steve Ditko (6), Will Eisner (3), Walt Kelly (3), Jack Kirby (4), Bernard Krigstein (2), Harvey Kurtzman (4), Joe Shuster (3), Alex Toth, Basil Wolverton (4), and Wally Wood (3).

Crime Comics - The Illustrated History (The Taylor History Of Comics # 5) (1993) (by Mike Benton) A rare survey of the Crime Comic genre that expressed its first sprinkles in the early 1930s, before growing relatively quickly into a storm and then a full-blown gully-washer in the 1940s, before the mid-1950s saw its critics fear-mongering it into abatement, leaving the then calmed-down showers to slowly drizzle-out, with only a few meaningful drips lasting into the pre-digital era. The volume has 8 chapters detailing that rise & fall: Comic Books With Bullet Holes, Square-Jawed Detectives And Comic Strip G-Men, Crime Does Too Pay, Comics Make A Killing, Really-Truly Bloody, Cheap Sex-Hard Drugs-And Bad Girls, Guilty-Guilty-Guilty:Crime Comics On Trial, A Code To Live And Die By. Then there's another chapter detailing many of the colorful crime-fighters that emerged from the morass and then finally 40-plus pages of a checklist with anecdotal details of every Crime Comic series produced through the early-1990s. Art-wise, there are 15 pages that feature a single cover image or large comic-panel. Then there's another 11 pages that take an image and artistically present it on full-bleed, jet-black backgrounds that make them 'pop'. Finally, 77 of the text pages let the art hold its own with two or more images presented (and another 45 where the text dominates while still sporting a smaller image). On the whole, I think one would want more art images (or certainly half the ones shown here a bigger size), but it stands as a fun collection none the less. I feel the captioning was better than I usually see, with the works identified as to series & issue, as well as release year & publishing company, but there seems to have been a real effort to name each artist, if possible (granted, the Grand Comics Database is now able to fill in some, but not all, of the blanks). The artists 'well-presented' here are: Charles Biro (3), Chester Gould (3), Everett Raymond Kinstler, Jim McLaughlin, Paul Parker, George Roussos, Walt Simonson, Frank Springer, George Tuska, Al Ulmer, Dan Zolnerowich, and UNKNOWN (10).

Superhero Comics Of The Golden Age - The Illustrated History (The Taylor History Of Comics # 4)[-BELOW THE LINE-] (1992) (by Mike Benton) Timeline-wise, this is the first of two volumes covering superheroes in the comics, canvassing their origins and the rest of what's called the 'Golden Age', with chapters called: The Golden Age Of Comic Books, Take A Man And Make Him Super, The Coming Of The Heroes, Costumed Heroes And Secret Identities, Smack In The Führer's Face, A Good War Makes You Strong, and Atomic Blasts And Heroic Fallout. Throughout the text, there is no lack of focus on the artists that are part of the creation equation - in fact, there are additionally eight side-bars meant to single-out the most significant. Anyway, there is also a large section where 50 notable superheroes are detailed and then another section that presents as a checklist all the comics of this period that presented superheroes, which is just another opportunity to detail many more minor superheroes. While many of the pages allow to shine the art presentation (almost entirely the comic covers themselves), that last 50-page section formatically doesn't, and that makes this book fall off 'The List'. So, out of this book's 208 pages, only 83 let the art dominate (52 with a large featured image and 31 with gatherings of more than one). The 'well-presented' artists here are: Bill Allison, Bernard Baily (2), Matt Baker, C.C. Beck (4), Jack Binder (2), Charles Biro, Al Bryant, Jack Burnley, Jack Cole, L.B. Cole**, Reed Crandall, Chuck Cuidera, Lee Elias, Bill Everett, Louis Ferstadt, Lou Fine, Bob Fujitani, Paul Gustavson, Graham Ingels, Harry Lucey, Sheldon Moldoff, Martin Naydel, Harry G. Peter (2), Al Plastino, Bob Powell, Mac Raboy, Fred Ray, Paul Reinman, Harry Sahle, Alex Schomburg (4), Syd Shores, Joe Shuster (4), Bill Ward, Cliff Young, and UNKNOWN (6). The captioning found here continues to be better than most.