Overview

This is the sweeping story of cartoons, comic strips, and graphic novels and their century-long hold on the American imagination. Starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus, Jeremy Dauber whizzes listeners through the progress of comics in the twentieth century and beyond. Follow the history from the golden age of newspaper comic strips--Krazy Kat, Yellow Kid, Dick Tracy--to the midcentury superhero boom--Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman--and from the moral panic of the Eisenhower era to the underground comix movement; from the grim and gritty Dark Knights and Watchmen to the graphic novel's brilliant rise--Art Spiegelman, Alison Bechdel, Joe Sacco. Dauber's story shows not only how comics have changed but also how American politics and history have changed them. Throughout he describes the origins of beloved comics, champions neglected masterpieces, and argues that we can understand how America sees itself through whose stories comics tell.

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Reviews

[An] outstanding encyclopedic survey...A thorough--and thoroughly entertaining--work. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Comics and cartoons play a major role in everyday American life. However, no one has ever tied this history closer to societal events and told it in a more sweeping manner than Dauber...Ccomics enthusiasts will be enthralled. -- Library Journal (starred review) Dauber brilliantly excavates the story of this art form warts and all from its origins right up to the twenty-first century, and strikes cartoon gold...Be prepared to to be enlightened anew. -- Peter Kuper, award-winning cartoonist and graphic novelist Dauber covers the entire landscape of American comics in this outstanding encyclopedic survey...[A] thorough--and thoroughly entertaining--work. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) Dauber's scholarly survey of comic history is opinionated and frequently funny. -- New York Times Book Review His perceptive, critical overview is enlivened by a jaunty style that bops from the political cartoons of Thomas Nast in the 1860s to the demise of an equally influential gadfly, Mad magazine, in 2018. -- Wall Street Journal Takes the reader from the beginnings of the American comics strip through every era of the medium's creative and commercial development, deftly marking trends, both positive and negative, as comics evolved into the major pop culture phenomenon it is today...Thorough--and thoroughly entertaining. -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) With encyclopedic knowledge, Jeremy Dauber brilliantly excavates the story of this art form--warts and all--from its origins right up to the twenty-first century, and strikes cartoon gold. For anyone curious about a medium that's influenced and embedded itself in every part of our culture, American Comics is an essential guidebook. If you are already a connoisseur of comics, be prepared to be enlightened anew. -- Peter Kuper, award-winning cartoonist and graphic novelist

Author Information

Jeremy Dauber is a professor of Jewish literature and American studies at Columbia University. He is the author of Jewish Comedy and The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem, both finalists for the National Jewish Book Award. He lives in New York City Jeremy Dauber is a professor of Jewish literature and American studies at Columbia University. He is the author of Jewish Comedy and The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem, both finalists for the National Jewish Book Award. He lives in New York City

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