Ron Goulart's Comic Book Culture Examined

By Alan David Doane

Examined: Comic Book Culture: An Illustrated History by Ron Goulart; published by Collectors Press

This hefty new hardcover coffee-table art book (204 pages in a square format) gives readers a priceless glimpse into the early days of mainstream comics, in a sturdy package that you'll be able to pass on to your kids years from now.

Goulart's name will be familiar to most comics fans, having written numerous science fiction novels, and being a "consultant" (I take that to mean "ghostwriter") for William Shatner's Tek book series. He has written numerous tomes on comics, including The Encyclopedia of American Comics and The Great Comic Book Artists, so there's little doubt he knows his way around the subject.

Goulart's extensive knowledge of the artform, though, is merely the icing on the cake. The star attraction in this volume is hundreds of reproductions of comic book covers dating back as far as 1917, and covering up to 1954.

While Goulart claims in his introduction that the book "isn't...about the sort of pictures that hang in art galleries," the fact is that many of these pieces are treasures of the artform, and quite a few qualify as works of art over and above their historical value to comics readers.

Goulart kicks things off with the pre-superhero era of Barney Google and Famous Funnies, and includes covers to books that probably aren't comics in the strictest sense of the term but play a crucial role in the history of the artform nonetheless. The text documents the stumbling series of developments that led to the regular commercial production of comic books, starting as reprints of newspaper comic strips. While some of the covers depicted in this chapter appear of little historic value ("Hawkshaw the Detective"), some of the covers ("Famous Funnies" First Series, dating from 1934) display a design sense and sophistication that would not be out of place on the newsstands today.

Quite a few of these early covers are amusing as historical oddities ("Future Comics Starring the Lone Ranger"--what?!), and of course many of the early issues represented featured simplistic or just plain bad artwork. As comics lumbered toward the superhero genre, the pulp magazine feel dominated, as seen in the early covers to Detective Comics and others. Interestingly, Goulart does not always hand over the obvious choices. He features Detective Comics #1's cover, but skips #27, which was the first appearance of Batman. On the other hand, we do get Detective #29, Batman's second cover appearance. Whether Action Comics #1 (the first appearance of Superman) or Detective #27's covers were not included because of licensing reasons or just because they've been seen so many times before, I don't know. Their exclusion, especially in such an exhaustive work, does seem a bit odd.

What comes after the debut of Batman and Superman is a virtual parade of superheroes you may very likely have never heard of. The Fantom, The Arrow, The Flame, Rex Dexter of Mars and others are all on display in dozens of covers that made me even more aware of the rich history of the artform. While the stories featuring most of the characters are probably forgotten to history for good reason, seeing the brightly-clad characters in their primes (such as they were) is a reminder of just how ubiquitous the American comic book used to be. There was room at the newsstand for everyone, not just the Golden Age survivors like Captain America and Superman. Additionally, it seems hard to believe, and just a little sad, that so many superheroes remain there in the past, waiting for some current-day comics company to bring them back from four-colour limbo.

One of the first characters I recognized was the Blue Beetle, seen on page 50 in a terrific cover by Lou Fine. I had never realized, until seeing this cover, how much the Beetle owed in his early years to the Phantom (not to be confused with The Fantom, I mean the purple-clad newspaper strip hero). In fact, I thought that's who the character on the cover of Mystery Men Comics #8 was, until I took a closer look. The Blue Beetle here, of course, bears little resemblance to the modern-day DC version whose costume was created by Steve Ditko while working for Charlton much later than the era covered in this volume.

Marvel fans will be interested in the many early Timely covers reproduced here, notably Marvel Mystery Comics #9 (the Human Torch vs. the Sub-Mariner) and numerous, wonderful Alex Schomburg covers. Schomburg's cover of a 1970s Overstreet Price Guide was one of the first things that drew my interest to the history behind the comics I was reading then, and his colourful, energetic covers herein are a delight.

Goulart includes not only the cover to Whiz Comics #2, the 1940 debut of the original Captain Marvel, but the 1940 ashcan edition of Flash Comics #1 is represented as well. It's probably one of the most historically significant covers Goulart includes, being the true first appearance of the Big Red Cheese, in a little-seen adventure as "Captain Thunder." I only wish the black and white cover had been reproduced at the same size as Whiz #2--the sharp, clear lines of C.C Beck deserve to be seen, and frankly, the ashcan's cover art was actually quite a bit better in terms of both design and skill than the more often reprinted Whiz #2.

Once World War II begins, of course, many of the covers take on a patriotic theme, including the great "Daredevil Battles Hitler" cover that included Der Fuhrer's actual photo pasted onto the artwork. One of the best pieces in the book is on page 167, War Stories #8 from 1943. The eye-catching cover features a boldly-designed image of a PT boat attacking a Japanese warship. As history, as artwork, it's an outstanding piece.

It's not all muscled super-guys battling would-be world conquerors, though--Goulart includes a chapter on the funny-animal and other humour comics of the 1940s, featuring not only well-know characters like Archie and Mutt & Jeff, but lesser-lights such as Cookie, Dudley, and the Kilroys.

I was amazed to see some of the Good Girl art represented here--not amazed Goulart included it, but amazed that some of the images were considered appropriate for children's entertainment in the 1940s. The most prominent design element of Jumbo Comics #82's cover by Joe Doolin is Sheena the Jungle Queen's backside--well delineated, and certainly justifying the title "Jumbo Comics."

What follows is a look at an entire sub-genre of comics covers, shapely young ladies in jeopardy. Futurama fans shouldn't miss the cover to Startling Comics #49 on page 195--the Alex Schomburg cover leaves little doubt where Matt Groening came up with the design for Bender, the drunken retro-robot on the hit Fox TV cartoon. The robot even looks a little tipsy as he makes off with a busty blonde, stumbling into a pond and undoubtedly about to short-circuit.

Goulart concludes with a look at the True Crime genre that rose to prominence in the early 1950s, a direct precursor to the EC craze that would begin in just a few short months, itself a bridge between the Golden and Silver Ages of comics.

Goulart and his publishers are to be congratulated for creating a terrific tour through the early years of the artform of comics, when any story in any genre was not only possible but could reasonably be hoped to sell hundreds of thousands of copies to eager readers. I'd love to see another volume covering the Silver Age, as the focus of the industry began to narrow; while we'd see more superhero covers, we'd also see a noticeable increase in skill and sophistication, and based on the over 400 covers in this edition, I bet Goulart could come up with a few surprises from that era that would more than justify another volume.