FROM THE '30s TO THE '70s...

 

Art by Wayne Boring (main figure) & Joe Shuster

 A book I absolutely loved when it first came out was SUPERMAN - FROM THE '30s TO THE '70s, published in the UK by SPRING BOOKS. (CROWN BOOKS in the US.) I first saw it in W. & R. HOLMES, a bookshop, stationers, toyshop, artstore and newsagents back around October 1972, alongside its companion volume, BATMAN - FROM THE '30s TO THE '70s. (Okay, they had the apostrophes in the wrong place, but hey - nobody's perfect.)

For 'Atomic Comics' read 'Action Comics'



These books were the bees' knees, being over an inch thick and containing what was purported to be the milestone adventures of DC COMICS' two premier heroes, SUPERMAN and BATMAN. I bought the Superman volume and pored over its contents, absorbing every word of E. NELSON BRIDWELL's informative and well-written introduction. Curiously, the back cover claimed that ol' Supes' first appearance was in ATOMIC COMICS, whereas, as we all know, it was actually ACTION COMICS that contained that momentous four-colour tale.


Art by Carmine Infantino & Murphy Anderson

I didn't obtain the Batman volume 'til its second printing in 1979 (although I now have first and second editions of both volumes) and this is also a highly commendable publication. There were also WONDER WOMAN and CAPTAIN MARVEL (SHAZAM) volumes, but I've never seen the Wonder Woman one - although I did manage to get a hardback American edition (complete with dustjacket) of Captain Marvel from a jumble sale in about 1985.


Only £1.25 - wotta bargain

The one drawback to the Batman book is that Batman's first appearance from DETECTIVE COMICS #'27 (and one or two other tales, I suspect) is a recreated version and not the original. The pages were taken from an anniversary presentation of the tale from an issue of Detective Comics in the '60s and has been reprinted several times - even in the deluxe hardcover ARCHIVE EDITIONS of a few years ago. The good news is that proofs from the original 1939 version were used in the MILLENIUM EDITION of Detective Comics #27 ten years ago, so that's the one collectors should look out for. (I'll have to check to see what version was used in the oversized Treasury Edition from the '70s.)

These are two books well worth having 'though, and shouldn't be too difficult to obtain on ebay. Interestingly, there was an updated version of the Superman volume, entitled SUPERMAN - FROM THE '30s TO THE '80s, and that is also worth seeking out.

FOOTNOTE: The second printings of these books (in 1979) were not quite as thick as the earlier editions, but this was merely due to being printed on slightly thinner paper - the page count and contents were not reduced in any way.