Graphic novels

摘要

COMICS' CULTURAL IMPACT As comics slide more and more into the mainstream, publishers have increasingly been encouraged to take chances on critical and historical texts exploring the medium and its cultural impact. Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey's The Comic Book History of Comics (IDW, 20i7) manages to streamline nearly a century of corporate politics, artistic innovation, and larger-than-life personalities into a comprehensive text, helped along by Dunlavey's loose, lightheaded illustrations. Pair this with Sean Howe's seminal Marvel Comics: The Untold Story (HarperCollins, 2013), a tremendously fun, informative, and anecdotal look at the House of Ideas from the 1930s to today. Readers will be clamoring for a Mad Men-style TV adaptation covering the chapters focusing on the 1960s.