Summer Reading: The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told

Now that I've restarted "The Quarter Bin," a review dump of the comics that I've read and own, I have hit a bit of a quandary: i.e. my vast comic collection from which I'd like to work from is in storage all the way back in Milwaukee, hundreds of miles from Pittsburgh!

For my drive here, I had thrown in the back of my truck a few of my possessions- a couple of which, luckily for the purposes of this blog, were some extra beat-up hardcover books that collected stories from old comic books. The one I've started reading this week is the one pictured above: "The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told!" A reprint collection put out by DC Comics presenting a wide variety of stories that they published back then.

Comic books enjoyed their glory days during the 1940s, but by the early '50s they were under attack from multiple directions: the newfound popularity of television, suburban sprawl and the lack of comic-selling outlets nearby to children, and dubious federal government committees on delinquency of those children! In order to survive, comic book companies were forced to experiment with the stories they told and sold. Once popular super-heroes were seemingly breathing their last and were quickly being replaced by westerns, romances, and for a while crime comics. Super heroes only seemed to survive because of the television medium. When the "The Adventures of Superman" starring George Reeves started appearing on the sets across America, there was a renewed interest in the printed tales of Superman. Of all the hundreds of super heroes that fought during the war years, only five continued being published on into the 50s, all of them at DC: the popular Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman- and by fluke, back-up story characters Aquaman, and Green Arrow.

The boundaries of the comic book medium were expanded at this time. The careers of many great artists and writers lifted off during this time, and their work is well-represented in this collection. Murphy Anderson, Ross Andru, John Broome, Ramona Fradon, Frank Frazetta, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Robert Kanigher, Jack Kirby, Joe Kubert, Shelly Mayer, Dick Sprang, Curt Swan, and Alex Toth are many of the top talents of the day whose work appear within.

With the efforts of these creators, the medium of the comic book survived its struggle for existence and ushered in a new Silver-Age for itself. By the end of the 1950s, new updated versions of older characters such as the Flash and Green Lantern, based on the marvels of science, were introduced to the reading public and became extremely popular. The comics that are being read today are still based on the innovations of the 1950s.

With that in mind, I've decided to focus on the stories within this collection to examine for my blog: an exciting world following the 1950s four-color exploits of the Big 5 and the Flash and Green Lantern, as well as Captain Comet, Martian Manhunter, the Shining Knight, the Phantom Stranger, the Viking Prince, and many others! The next bunch of posts will be me sharing my reviews and insights on each of the individual stories. I have to say, this book is quite enjoyable, especially as I imagine that these tales were once gobbled up by millions of readers all over the country- on vacation, at camp, and under bedsheets with flashlights!