DC Comics: the 75th Anniversary Poster Book


By various, compiled and with commentary by Robert Schnakenberg & Paul Levitz (Quirk Books)
ISBN: 978-1-59474-462-4

Here’s another poster-sized (a colossal 282 by 356mm) full-colour art-book, this time with material far more familiar to comics fans. Beautiful, captivating and still readily available, this tremendous tome was released in 2010 to celebrate America’s premier funnybook publisher in their 75th year of continuous existence.

This 208 page compendium, devised with 100 whole-page images – suitable and intended for framing – with background information and a couple of equally vibrant and chronologically pertinent cover contenders on each reverse side, charts all the breakthroughs, major debuts and key events of the companies (initially National Periodical Publications and All-American imprints) which merged to become DC, and includes the fruits of other publishers like Fawcett, Quality and Charlton Comics whose creative successes were later acquired and assimilated by the unstoppable corporate colossus which forms today’s universally recognised multi-media phenomenon.

The obvious candidates are all there and of course the vast majority of these stunning illustrations are superhero themed, but there are also fine examples of the bizarre fads, eccentric mores and mind-boggling concepts that were simply part-and-parcel of comics from the last eight decades.

The four-colour graphic parade begins with New Fun Comics #1 (February 1935 and with issues #2 and 3 decorating the potted history of the company on the back) and follows with the obvious landmarks  such as Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #27, Superman #1 and 14, Flash Comics #1, Batman #1 and Sensation Comics #1 but also finds space for equally evocative but less well-used covers as Detective #11, Adventure #40, Action #19, Green Lantern #1 and Sensation #38.

From the almost superhero-free 1950s come such eccentric treats as Mr. District Attorney #12, Our Army at War #20, Mystery in Space #22, Strange Adventures #79 and 100, Showcase #12, Leave it to Binky #60, Adventure Comics #247, Detective #275 (“The Zebra Batman!”) and many more, whilst the tumultuous 1960s offers such treasures as Flash #123, Showcase #34, Brave and the Bold #42 & 58 and Justice League of America #21 as well as practically unseen treasures like Falling in Love #62, Heart Throbs #93, Girls’ Love #127 among others…

The 1970s through to today are represented by such examples as Wonder Woman #205, Shazam! #3, Prez #3, Detective #475, Weird Western Tales, #53, Weird War #89, New Teen Titans #1, Ronin #1, Swamp Thing #34, Crisis on Infinite Earths #7, the first issues of  The Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, Hellblazer, Sandman, The Killing Joke, V for Vendetta and Preacher, Wonder Woman #0, Superman #75, Cat Woman #2, New Frontiers #6, Arkham Asylum Anniversary Edition, Batman: Year 100 #1, All-Star Superman #10 Batman #679 and others. All these covers can of course be viewed online through numerous database sites – but those aren’t crisply printed on high-grade card and ready to frame…

The artists include Lyman Anderson, Joe Shuster, Bob Kane, Creig Flessel, Gil Kane, Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino, John Romita Sr., Ramona Fradon, Neal Adams, Joe Orlando, Berni Wrightson, Steve Ditko, Mike Sekowsky, Bob Oksner, Curt Swan, Nick Cardy, Jack Kirby, Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, David Lloyd, Dave McKean, Michael Golden, Darwyn Cooke, Dave Johnson, Adam Hughes, Jim Lee, James Jean, Tim Sale, Paul Pope, Frank Quitely, Alex Ross and a myriad of others…

For my rarefied tastes there are too few of the company’s superb young kids and funny animal titles and not enough of their genre successes, as exemplified by the War, Western, Romance, Science Fiction, Jungle Action, Sword & Sorcery and mystery/horror titles which kept the company afloat when mystery men periodically palled on the public’s palate, but this book is nevertheless a splendid catalogue of DC’s contribution to global culture and an overwhelming celebration of the unique glory of comics.

Even better; there are still thousands of covers left to shove into follow-up volumes…

Art and compilation © 2010 DC Comics. All rights Reserved.