[Dauber] demonstrates in American Comics: A History an assured command of comics’ variety as well as the vast literature they’ve inspired. (There are nearly 90 pages of notes.) 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 ... In contrast to the work-for-hire conditions at big outfits, many underground artists retained copyright, engaged in profit-sharing and pioneered direct distribution. Some of these innovations would be emulated later by the corporations, supporting Mr. Dauber’s provocative contention that the underground’s creative business practices were 'arguably . . . even more revolutionary than the underground’s content.' The final chapters of American Comics, surveying recent decades, lack some of the cohesion of its early sections.
Jeremy Dauber’s American Comics: A History is an entertaining, big, and (sometimes too) comprehensive survey of the comics industry, from its inception in early twentieth-century newspapers to the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe megamovie crossover empire ... For all its strengths, American Comics: A History often feels more like advocacy for the medium than an analysis of it. Many pages are filled with quick synopses and appraisals of notable comics that came along over the last hundred years, along with reflections on how the once-family-owned companies that invented comics were eventually subsumed by megagiants. At times, reading Dauber’s warm, appreciative comments...feels like strolling through Roger Angell’s essays on baseball, where every game in the sun is entangled with the memory of every other game ever played in a sort of eternal blissful childhood of sunny bleachers and savory, dripping hotdogs.
No detail escapes Dauber ... There isn’t a subject that is off-limits to this richly creative format ... The one fault to this encompassing study is that it doesn’t have a single picture (probably due to licensing complications). That’s unfortunate in a book that describes so well the power of imagery to convey meaning. Readers will be forced to track down the cited works, but they won’t be disappointed once they do ... A master storyteller, Dauber shows us just how much there is to appreciate in this uniquely American history.
Dauber has written a scholarly survey that is both opinionated and frequently funny ... The book is most fun when Dauber turns up what Greil Marcus called history’s 'lipstick traces,' illuminating the hidden sources of modern culture ... Dauber is particularly nuanced in dealing with the many controversies buffeting comics past and present ... Although the book doesn’t include images, Dauber packs in names and titles as fiercely as Kurtzman and Wood once packed gags in Mad panels; readers will want to tally up a list for future reading. But it’s not all here. Nast aside, Dauber generally doesn’t include political cartoons in his survey. All histories are subjective, but it’s jarring not to see a name like Herblock in a book that begins with Thomas Nast ... The biggest miss, however, is in newspaper comic strips. Dauber trips up on early newspaper history at times ... Dauber ably demonstrates that comics, as much as or more than any other art or literature, can handle the most serious of topics, including one of the most serious of all: our ability to laugh at ourselves.
... no one has ever tied this history closer to societal events and told it in a more sweeping manner than Dauber...has done in this latest work ... The author effectively tells how several recent blockbuster films are based on comic book narratives and relays the history of graphic novels as a popular medium. Charts and illustrations will draw in readers and help them keep track of the numerous comic book characters, titles, and plot lines that Dauber mentions ... There are several recent histories of comics; however, none are as comprehensive or well-researched as this one. Dauber's book sets itself apart, and comics enthusiasts will be enthralled.
Dauber...pithily and accurately describes hundreds of individual strips and books, colorfully expanding the limits of conventional definitions. This crammed chronicle will not soon be matched, let alone surpassed.
Although the presentation of all this well-researched material leads to some narrative discohesion, there’s plenty of delight and revelation for comics fans ... Dauber seems to revel in minutiae, with as many as a half-dozen all but forgotten comics name-checked within a single paragraph as well as offhand references to dozens more. It’s clear that the author, in his diligence, was worried about leaving something out, and the lack of supporting illustrations—the comics themselves—reinforces the adage that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Dauber clearly knows and cherishes his subject, and readers who share his passion will find plenty to love.
