We had a (comics) section in every catalog when I working for Bud Plant Illustrated Books. We didn't sell comic books. We sold books about comics, books that reprint comics, or comics that appeared in book form, be we didn't sell the traditional "comic book."

Yes, traditional comic books are still being published, though they cost a minimum of $1.95 and as much as $3.95. There are hundreds of dealers out there selling comic books and we didn't need to add to the noise. Besides, I collect comic books (more than 40,000 of them at last guesstimate) and much prefer to buy them than to sell them.

Okay, so what was it that we did sell and what type of books appear in the Vadeboncoeur Collection of Knowledge?

Think of it this way. Comic books first appeared in the 1930's and newspaper comics have been around for over a century. As with any popular art form, they have been compiled, collected, critiqued and analyzed. I collect all the books and magazines that are about comics. For instance, in 1919, a book was published that collected some of George McManus' Bringing Up Father newspaper strip. I might have early reprints like this. Or the large, thick compilation of the Buck Rogers strip published in 1970 collecting examples and stories from 1929 to 1969. I've got a copy of that.

Many more of the classic newspaper strips were featured in reprint collections beginning in the 1970's: Little Orphan Annie, Dick Tracy, Capt. Easy, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon, Alley Oop, Popeye, Prince Valiant, Flash Gordon, The Gumps, Toonerville Trolley, Mickey Mouse, etc. have all been the subject of reprints in the last 30 years. I used to sell these types of reprint books, but I've always favored comic books over comic strips, so I only have a smattering of samples by some of the better artists (like Alex Raymond, Hal Foster, Winsor McCay, etc.).

In the comic book reprint arena, there have been reprints of all the fabled EC Comics from the late '40s and early '50s (including the first 23 issues of Mad Magazine which were originally done in comic book format). These have been republished in beautiful hardback editions, printed in b&w from the original art, with all the covers in color and issued in handsome slipcases. The same format reprints are available for all the Walt Disney Comics drawn by Carl Barks and all the Little Lulu comics by John Stanley. Both Marvel and DC have published, and continue to publish, reprints of their top sellers. Many titles have been released since the mid-seventies and provide collectors and fans with access to material from early comic book issues. I've got all of the EC reprints, but very few of the others - in many cases simply because I already own the original comic books.

Here's a good sample of the types of reprint books that are available:

Batman From the 30's to the 70's	Origins of Marvel Comics	The Shazam Archives - vol. 1	The Greatest Golden Age Stories
			"Shazam" is the original Capt. Marvel from the '40s but published by DC - who successfully sued Fawcett, the original publisher out of business. DC was enjoined from using the word Marvel by, who else, Marvel Comics. Watchmen and Marvelman are modern classics.
The Best of Archie	Watchmen	Marvelman Book Two

Of course, once comics and comic books became established, people began to study them. Histories and encyclopedias appeared. One of the earliest was Stephen Becker's Comic Art in America, which focused solely on the newspaper comics. Coulton Waugh had written The Comics in 1947 with a similar limited viewpoint. Then in 1965, Jules Feiffer wrote The Great Comic Book Heroes which reprinted the origin stories of Superman, Batman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Plastic Man, The Spirit, and others. Since then the market has been bombarded with titles. Some that I've filed in my comic reference library are: Comix - A History of Comic Books in America, The Comics (by Batman artist Jerry Robinson and the book with the same title by Coulton Waugh), The Steranko History of the Comics, Comics - Anatomy of a Mass Medium, Crawford's Encyclopedia of Comics, All in Color for a Dime, The Comic Book Book, Super Hero Comics of the Golden Age, Marvel - Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, The International Book of Comics, The Penguin Book of Comics, The World Encyclopedia of Comics, and, well, you get the idea. A lot of books have been written and published about comics and comic books. I never know when I might need to glean a fact or two from one of them.

The early '60s also saw the emergence of another genre devoted to comic books: the fanzine. These were initially amateur magazines published by fans of the medium and distributed solely through the mails. Early examples might have had press runs in the low hundreds and very few reached a circulation of even 1000 until the late '60s. Much of today's comic industry is run by the publishers of these early fanzines. They offer an historical glimpse of many a developing talent and document the growth of the industry. By the 1970's, the sophistication increased to the point where additional categories were needed to describe them. "Prozines" were published that looked like professional magazines. Color was added and the contents of "artzines" were often comprised of artwork from the new generation of comic book pros. "Adzines" ran advertisements for comics and for other fanzines. News magazines sprang up. Bud Plant, Al Davoren and I published a fanzine called Promethean Enterprises. And, with Bob Napier and Jan Strnad, I actually published a fanzine that reviewed other fanzines. It was a heady, creative time and titles like Squa Tront, Witzend, Alter-Ego, Funnyworld, Graphic Story Magazine, Gosh Wow, etc. are just some of the results of the creative juices that were flowing so freely back in those days. Most were 8½"x11" magazines with color covers and b&w interiors.

In addition to the masses of books and magazines about the comics, there were also those devoted to the collecting of comics. Conventions were held that allowed fans to meet and buy and sell comic books. These have developed into major affairs like the San Diego Comic-Con International that takes over the Convention Center for a week. This is the same venue that held the 1996 Republican National Convention - it is huge! These comic conventions published booklets and brochures which in themselves have become collectible. Likewise the various price guides that have appeared over the years.

1971 New York	1973 San Diego	1977 Portland

Then the comic book companies just had to get into the picture. They published their own 'fanzines' and eventually began publishing original material for the fan market. The "graphic novel" became ubiquitous, but very few lived up to the potential of the term. Still, many longer stories were released in the 8½"x11" format in either hardcover, softcover or both. So, when I say (comics), I'm really talking about a topic, not a magazine.

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