Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book - Softcover

Gerard Jones

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465036570 ISBN 13: 9780465036578

Publisher: Basic Books, 2023

Synopsis

Animated by the stories of some of the last century's most charismatic and conniving artists, writers, and businessmen, Men of Tomorrow brilliantly demonstrates how the creators of the superheroes gained their cultural power and established a crucial place in the modern imagination. "This history of the birth of superhero comics highlights three pivotal figures. The story begins early in the last century, on the Lower East Side, where Harry Donenfeld rises from the streets to become the king of the 'smooshes'-soft-core magazines with titles like French Humor and Hot Tales. Later, two high school friends in Cleveland, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel, become avid fans of 'scientifiction,' the new kind of literature promoted by their favorite pulp magazines. The disparate worlds of the wise guy and the geeks collide in 1938, and the result is Action Comics #1, the debut of Superman. For Donenfeld, the comics were a way to sidestep the censors. For Shuster and Siegel, they were both a calling and an eventual source of misery: the pair waged a lifelong campaign for credit and appropriate compensation." -The New Yorker

About this title

Review:

"The fascinating and heartbreaking true story of the goniffs, shmendricks and shlemiels who gave birth to the superhero comics - written with all the verve and velocity of a golden age comic book." Art Spiegelman "This history of the birth of superhero comics highlights three pivotal figures. The story begins early in the last century, on the Lower East Side, where Harry Donenfeld rises from the streets to become the king of the 'smooshes' - soft-core magazines with titles like French Humour and Hot Tales. Later, two high school friends in Cleveland, Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel become avid fans of 'scientification', the new kind of literature promoted by their favourite pulp magazines. The disparate worlds of the wise guy and the geeks collide in 1938, and the result is Action Comics No. 1, the debut of Superman. For Donenfeld, the comics were a way to sidestep the censors. For Shuster and Siegel, they were both a calling and an eventual source of misery: the pair waged a lifelong campaign for credit and appropriate compensation. The New Yorker"

From the Publisher:

Before The Incredibles, there were Batman and Superman, Spiderman and Captain America... Gerard Jones' book tells the story of the birth of the superheroes

'The history of the superhero an impossible primary-coloured ideal - built by mobsters and mountebanks on a foundation of broken promises, broken hearts and broken backs - is also the secret history of modern America, and Gerard Jones reveals it here with all its madness, badness and tragedy intact. A magnificent piece of work.' Alan Moore

In the depths of the Depression, from the crowded tenements of New York and Cleveland, the comic book superhero leapt into being. Out of a mix of geekiness, science fiction, and outsider yearning, a crew of young men from working-class Jewish neighbourhoods and shady backgrounds created a series of blue-eyed, chisel-nosed crime fighters and adventurers who quickly captured the imaginations of young and old.

Gerard Jones shows how mob money and the worlds of soft-porn and detective magazines combined to create support structures for the comics, and help bring the millions rolling in. Before the Incredibles, there were Batman and Superman, Spiderman and Captain America. Men of Tomorrow tells the fascinating inside story of the birth of the comic superheroes.

‘Delightful... a lurid, gripping history of the all-too-human men behind the first superheroes.’ Variety

‘The fascinating and heartbreaking true story of the goniffs, shmendricks, and shlemiels who gave birth to the superhero comics – written with all the verve and velocity of a golden age comic book.’ Art Spiegelman

'Men of Tomorrow is a wonderful book... As soon as you finish it, you want to read it
again.' San Francisco Chronicle

About this edition

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2023
• ISBN 10: 0465036570
• ISBN 13: 9780465036578
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416