And I just bought the Fantagraphics edition without the reprints, too...I guess that will head off to eBay.

But I’m actually surprised Greg, you’ve left off some major reference books from the 1970s that were virtually indispensable to my life as a comic book nerd...

I know. I was careful to put in a disclaimer because I knew I'd forget SOMETHING. The Horn book, believe it or not, I've never read... though it's on the shopping list. Same with Ron Goulart's many fine efforts. The Smithsonian collections are nice too. All In Color For A Dime and Simon's The Comic Book Makers I just plain forgot. Bad Columnist!

I loved the DC "30's to the 70's" books dearly, but that's strictly nostalgia talking. Looked at objectively as collections I don't think they're all that great; the essays from Bridwell are the only reason, really, to hang on to them. There are better collections available today. (Of the ones they did, I think Shazam! From the 40's to the 70's is the real one to go after. That's the one where you don't see much of that material reprinted. Superman and Batman are pretty well covered elsewhere these days.)

There was a Superman trade that came out in the 80's that had the same 30's-to-the-70's vibe to it, and I think Bridwell was involved with that one too. It was called The Great Superman Comic Book Collection and I much preferred it to the "Greatest Stories Ever Told" book DC did later on. That one I never see listed for under $35 from dealers, or I'd be all over it.

I've heard about Frank Jacobs' book on Mad, but never read it. Completely Mad by Maria Reidelbach (Little, Brown, & Co., 1991) is a great history of Mad from its beginning, including some good information on EC, profiles of creators, and lots of reprinted pages. Dick DeBartolo's memoir Good Days and Mad (Thunder's Mouth Press, 1994) is funny and informative, with contributions from about 30 other Mad creators. A lot of the focus is on Bill Gaines. Really nice resources; I picked them up at the awful bookstores they have at outlet malls, so I imagine there are hundreds of thousands sitting around waiting to be picked up.

Anyone who grew up loving comic books inevitably got to know 741 in the Dewey Decimal system, because that's were all the reference books about comics wound up. (I never acclimated to Library of Congresss numbering the same way). And I read a whole bunch of those through that-- that's where I got to see The Comic Book Heroes (which I amazingly found at a used bookstore for $8 last year!) and Secret Origins of the DC Super Heroes, which was like the Holy Grail of books-- not just for the actual reprints of the Golden Age and Silver Age origin stories of all of DC's stable of characters, but for the text pieces by Denny O'Neil as well.

In this age of Showcase editions and Archive Editions and Marvel Essentials (the latter two inventions of the 1990s; the first one only a recent development), it's easy to forget how completely inaccessible Golden and Silver Age stories were. The Comic Book Heroes was the only place I ever saw a Human Torch story from the 1940s for years.

But I'm actually surprised Greg, you've left off some major reference books from the 1970s that were virtually indispensible to my life as a comic book nerd:

The first one is Maurice Horn's World Encyclopedia of Comic Books - first published in the mid-1970s it's a mammoth 700 page tome with entries for thousands of comics, creators and characters. I learned all about Siegel and Shuster's near destitute fate from that (it was written just before their deal with Warner Brothers) and found out about all sorts of characters and books I would have never have known about. It's an actual 'adult' scholarly text so there's entries about Underground comix and European comics so the nudity and 'gross' art was a little beyond me as a 12 year-old but it was otherwise awesome
One surprising omission are Crown/Bonanza's books reprinting Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Shazam! stories: Superman - From the Forties to Seventies (and similarly titled for the other characters. This was the motherlode of reprints for these characters-- even though it was a distinctly odd collection for Superman and Batman (the 60s stories distinctly favour the early part of the decade when Weisinger and Jack Schiff were doing gonzo stuff). But they had essays on the history of the character by E. Nelson Bridwell which were the only sort of authoritative history of the characters for a long time, even though the Superman one he was not permitted to talk about Siegel and Shuster by name. (Gloria Steinhem did the intro on the Wonder Woman volume)
This was a little after your time Greg, but around 1982, Scholastic published a book for young adults about the history of superhero comics called (imaginatively) Super Comics, which had a history of the genre written by Denny O'Neil. It was an excellent book-- it's the first place I ever read about Will Eisner's The Spirit.

I lost my copy of Super Comics years ago, but I still have highly dessicated, even coverless copies of the Horn encyclopedia and the 30s to the 70s books. (The Superman one still has in my 11 year-old scrawl updated annotations on all the Superman novels and Films that had come out since the book was published in 1971!) I'd love to find copies in better condition some day.

Some great references.

Anyone here know where I can find a copy of William Rotsler’s Blackhawk novel from the 80s?

Here you go.

I didn't know about a lot of the pulp books on your list, Greg. I'll have to look around for those.

I'd also thoroughly recommend Michael Farr's Tintin: The Complete Companion, All In Color For A Dime and the Smithsonian collections of newspaper comics & comic book comics.

Anyone here know where I can find a copy of William Rotsler's Blackhawk novel from the 80s?

See all the important stuff you learn in school!

I also had good luck using Interlibrary Loan to scare up Steranko's History of Comics. Even if you have to pay a buck or two it's totally worth it. Maybe more fannish in it's enthusiasm than dry and research, but great fun to read.

except the pfieffer. ya aint gonna get that dog-eared, coverless book outta my cold, dead fingers.

The books by goulart, et al, were crucial references and a cornerstone of that 2nd generation of fandom we belonged to. it gave me a perspective on the medium many of my peers din't have back then- i'm very greatful for learning at a young age where the medium came from.

But, yeah. I must be a poser.

As for Les Daniels, I quite liked his Marvel book, but the DC one was a huge letdown.