Synopsis:
It is hard to imagine a world without Little Orphan Annie, Popeye, Snoopy, and Garfield. Newspaper comics arrive in millions of homes each day and make families laugh out loud. They're not only funny - they also reflect their times.
American newspaper comics evolved during the latter half of the nineteenth century when powerful forces of social and technological change combined to revolutionize mass entertainment. The comics industry has changed dramatically since that time. Radio, television, and the internet have challenged newspapers for dominance. Throughout its history, the art form has, time and again, proved its popular appeal and commercial adaptability. From the newspaper wars at the end of the nineteenth century to the cutting edge competition on the information superhighway at the beginning of the twenty-first century, comics have continued to thrive.
In this color packed compendium, cartoonist and historian Brian Walker has amassed more than 700 illustrations, including scores of rare examples provided by the artists themselves. Organized by decade, with biographical profiles and descriptions of different genres and themes, The Comics is both comprehensive and graphically stunning. This humorous collection is a classic survey of American culture since 1945.
About the Author:
Brian Walker has a diverse background in professional cartooning and cartoon scholarship. He is a founder and former director of the Museum of Cartoon Art (now the International Museum of Cartoon Art), where he worked from 1974 to 1992. Since 1984, he has been part of the creative team that produces the comic strips Beetle Bailey and Hi and Lois. He has written and edited over a dozen books on cartoon art, as well as numerous exhibition catalogs and magazine articles. He taught cartoon history at the School of Visual Arts, New York, from 1995 to 1996. He has served as the curator on 65 cartoon exhibitions including two recent retrospectives, The Sunday Funnies: 100 Years of Comics in American Life, at the Barnum Museum in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and 100 Years of American Comics at the Belgian Center for Comic Art in Brussels. He was Editor-in-Chief of Collectors' Showcase magazine from 1997 to 2000 and is currently the Chairman of the Connecticut Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society. He lives in Connecticut.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
