500 Comic Book Villains
(2004 - Barron's)

[-BELOW THE LINE-] (by Mike Conroy) A smaller 7-by-7-inch book, thick with 376 pages. With chapter titles being Male Villains, Female Villains, Villainous Teams, Enemies Of The People, Monsters And Machines, Sorcerers, and Space Invaders, you can peruse 500 entries about [mostly] Silver Age ne'er-do-wells, and not just those from Marvel & DC. There are many accompanying images, mostly comic panels and some portraits from resource materials, but not enough to make a place for itself up on The List. Only 97 pages can be said to allow the art to dominate, or at least hold its own (in this case, always because a single image is featured, reproduced large enough to claim significant real-estate). The captions impressively always identify the artist, company, year, and usually a small factoid (also working to identify the inker whenever possible). The artists being 'well-presented' on those pages are: Murphy Anderson (5), Mark Badger, Mark Bagley, Jon Bogdanove, Brian Bolland (2), Brett Booth, Joe Brozowski, Rich Buckler, Jack Burnley, John Buscema, John Byrne (5), Milton Caniff, Nick Cardy, Dave Cockrum, Gene Colan, Johnny Craig, Paris Cullen, Alan Davis, Steve Ditko, Colleen Doran, Jan Duursema, Dale Eagleham, Carlos Ezquerra, Duncan Fegredo, Pascal Ferry, John Forte, Romona Fradon, Al Gabriele, Jean Giraud (Moebius), Jackson Guice, Paul Gulacy (2), Don Heck, Adam Hughes, Carmine Infantino (3), Phil Jimenez (3), Arnie Jorgensen, Gil Kane (3), Jack Kirby (7), Peter Krause, Joe Kubert, Salvador Larroca, Jim Lee, Steve Lightle, Ron Lim, Doug Mahnke (2), Elim Mak, Todd McFarlane (2), Ed McGuinness, Mike McMahon, Mike Mignolam, Carlos Pacheco, George Pérez (2)**, Al Plastino, Keith Pollard, Dermot Power (2), Tom Rainey, John Romita Sr (2), John Romita Jr (2), Tim Sale, Stephen Sandowski, Kurt Schaffenberger, Bart Sears, Walt Simonson, Ron Smith, Ramon Sola, Vin Sullivan, Sal Velluto, Mike Wieringo, Wally Wood, and Bernie Wrightson.