From Aargh! to Zap! Harvey Kurtzman's Visual History of the Comics

95 pp. Part narrative storytelling, part dramatic illustration, visually arresting comic books have been part of American culture since 1938. Several generations have grown up reading them under their bedcovers, hidden in textbooks, in barber shops, and in candy stores, becoming intimately familiar with the medium's sometimes strange conventions, such as unearthly superheroes, talking animals, and artfully lettered sound effects. Presents a full-color chronology of the art form from the perspective of one of America's most influential creators of comics characters and comic books. Kurtzman, creator of Mad magazine, takes a tour through the decades of comics production, highlighting the best in graphic storytelling from The Spirit of the 1940s to The Dark Knight of the 1990s. Kurtzman zeroes in on the field's top artists and their best work, allowing many of the four-color illustrations to speak for themselves in the best tradition of comics storytelling.