1,000 COMIC BOOKS YOU MUST READ

If you’ve ever wondered what Tony Isabella does when not writing his monthly review column for the next issue of the Comics Buyer’s Guide (CBG), you can stop: he was probably doing the research for the latest book from CBG’s publisher, Krause Publications — 1,000 Comic Books You Must Read (272 8x11-inch pages, color; $29.99) —  in which the dauntless Isabella describes in a couple sentences the content of each of a thousand comic books (some of which, due to his insatiable appetite for comics, are whole anthology titles full of stories, not just single-story issues). An extraordinary undertaking. And it turns into a four-color celebration with the picturing of each book’s cover; a research resource, with the writers and artists and publication date listed below the pictured cover. Here are a few of Isabella’s annotations, chosen almost at random:

Classic Comics No. 1: “Russian-born publisher Albert L. Kanter used the comic book to bring great literature to young readers. His long-running series, best known as Classics Illustrated, began with an adaptation of The Three Musketeers [October 1941]. Nearly 170 issues would follow.”

Joker Comics No. 1: “Publisher Martin Goodman’s first all-humor comic book featured Stuporman, one of the first superhero parodies, and the debut of Powerhouse Pepper, a dim-witted, good-hearted boxer who possessed super-strength. Pepper’s slapstick adventures appeared in several other Goodman titles as well.”

Gleason’s Daredevil Comics No. 13: “Daredevil gets four kid sidekicks, as he battles the Wizard and German-American Cult. The Little Wise Guys — initially Meatball, Peewee, Scarecrow and Jock — would become more popular than Daredevil and, by 1951, push him out of his own book.”

The content is divided by decade, beginning with the invention of Superman in 1938 (4 pages); after that come the seven decadence chapters in an orderly chronological procession that Isabella interrupts a third of the way through to proclaim Fantastic Four Annual No. 1 “the greatest comic book of all time.” However valuable the book is as a guide, most of us will doubtless enjoy the book not as an aid to acquiring a collection of great comic books but as an act of fond remembrance. For that, the book is worth the price and more.