Contents

Translators’ Preface

Introduction

Part One: Seventy Years’ Worth of Images

Chapter 1: From Comics to Comic Books (1842–1936)

Chapter 2: The Beginnings of an Industry: Comics Magazines (1936–1940)

Chapter 3: Comic Books at War (1940–1945)

Chapter 4: Ever More—The Apogee and the Fall (1945–1954)

Chapter 5: Decline and Rebirth (1955–1962)

Chapter 6: The Age of Innovation (1963–1969)

Chapter 7: Research and Development by Trial and Error (1969–1979)

Chapter 8: The Recovery of the 1980s (1980–1993)

Chapter 9: The End of a Century and the Beginning of a New Century (1993– )

Part Two: Producers and Consumers

Chapter 10: Production

Chapter 11: The Business of Comic Books

Chapter 12: The Creators

Chapter 13: The Readers

Part Three: A Difficult Consecration

Chapter 14: Calls for Censorship

Chapter 15: Internal Consecration

Chapter 16: External Consecration

Chapter 17: Conclusion

Appendix: Self-Regulating Codes of the Comic Book Industry

Notes

Bibliographic Essay

Acknowledgments

Index