Hello,
I'm a first-time poster, but consider me a lifelong comics fan (who still has his collection neatly plastic-bagged away in his storage unit).
As someone who first got into comics in the early seventies, my knowledge was shaped by the relative handful of books that had been published up to that point. I was quite a precocious kid, perusing library card catalogs and ordering volumes via interlibrary loan. Many I eventually bought as an adult; most of these that appear on this list I actually own.
The earliest books about comic books? Well, I'm reaching back into my memory here, but here's what was published prior to 1980. All are hardback with dust jacket unless otherwise noted.
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The Great Comic Book Heroes -- Jules Feiffer, Dial Press, 1965 -- the granddaddy of them all, really an interpretive essay with reprints of early stories.
All in Color for a Dime and The Comic Book Book -- Don Thompson, Dick Lupoff, Arlington House, 1970 and 1973 -- I ran across the Ace paperback reprint of the first book at age 10, on a Glacier Park vacation in 1972, and I devoured it cover to cover.
The Steranko History of Comics, Volume 1 (1970) and Volume 2 (1972) -- Jim Steranko, Supergraphics -- utterly invaluable. Tabloid size, paper covers.
Comix: A History of the Comic Book in America -- Les Daniels, 1971 -- probably the first attempt at a comprehensive history in a single volume.
Horror Comics of the '50s -- Nostalgia Press, 1971 (This was the first reprint of EC comic books -- high quality color reproduction in tabloid size.)
Superman From the 30s to the 70s, Batman From the 30s to the 70s -- Crown, 1971, later reprinted by Bonanza
Wonder Woman -- Ms. Books, 1972
The Mad World of William M. Gaines -- Frank Jacobs, Lyle Stuart, 1972
Origins of Marvel Comics (1974) / Son of Origins of Marvel Comics (1975) / Bring on the Bad Guys (1976) -- Stan Lee, Fireside Books. Trade paperback.
The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, Volume 1, Batman -- Michael Fleischer, Collier, 1976. Trade paperback.
The Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes, Volume 2, Wonder Woman -- Michael Fleischer, Collier, 1976. Trade paperback.
The Great Superman Book (Volume 3 of series) -- Michael Fleischer, Warner, 1978. Trade paperback.
Superman: Last Son of Krypton -- Elliot S. Maggin, 1978 (originally published as a paperback movie tie-in by Warner, this was reprinted in an exclusive hardcover edition with dust jacket by the Science Fiction Book Club.)
A special note should be made of Russ Cochran's slipcased black-and-white EC reprint series, which apparently started in the '70s -- I certainly never ran across it in bookstores, and I wasn't aware of it until the early eighties.
There were only a handful of titles published earlier than these. Ballantine reprinted the run of Mad comics in paperback form, Signet (later Warner) reprinted Mad magazine in paperback, and all titles remained in print for years. Signet also published a series of Batman reprints in paperback during the 1966 Batman boom. Superman From the '30s to the '70s mentioned George Lowther's 1943 novelization of Superman, apparently printed on unobtanium, available from no library via interlibrary loan, and inaccessible until it was reprinted circa 2000. In the '70s, the Spokane Public Library still had a well-thumbed copy of the immortal Seduction of the Innocent, by Frederic Wertham. And by searching through the library government-depository archive, I was able to find an original printed copy of the transcript of the 1954 hearing of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency, featuring William Gaines' defense of good taste in horror comics.
There were also a number of books devoted to comic strips, including Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Buck Rogers, Krazy Kat and Little Nemo.
This was literally everything there was, back in the days before comic book stores, when you could still buy a new comic for a quarter at the 7-Eleven.
Quite a contrast to today -- my local comics shop has thousands of hardcover and softcover books on the shelves, both graphic novels and prose works. And here's a funny thing -- I was having a cup of coffee with one of my co-workers at the state Capitol in Olympia, and he mentioned, "You know, when I was a kid, there was a book that had quite an impact on me, called 'Batman From the '30s to the '70s'..." I nodded. I understood.
Erik Smith
Olympia, WA