Men Of Tomorrow
  • Published: 1 September 2006
  • ISBN: 9780099487067
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $29.99

Men Of Tomorrow

Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic Book

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Before The Incredibles, there were Batman and Superman, Spiderman and Captain America... Gerard Jones' book tells the story of the birth of the superheroes

In the depths of the Depression, out of the crowded tenements of New York and Cleveland, the comic book superhero leapt into being. Out of a mix of geekiness, science fiction, and outsider yearning, a crew of young men from working-class Jewish neighbourhoods and shady backgrounds created a series of blue-eyed, chisel-nosed crime fighters and adventurers who quickly captured the imaginations of young and old. Within a few years their creations had spawned a new genre that still dominates youth entertainment seventy years later.

Gerard Jones draws on exhaustive research to portray how the immigrant experience and an outsider mentality shaped the vision of the make-believe hero, while a bizarre melting-pot of left-wing politics, mob money and the worlds of soft-porn and detective magazines contributed to the publishing world that produced the comics and brought them to millions. He chronicles how the success of the comics provoked a backlash that nearly destroyed the industry in the 1950s, and how later they surged back, inspiring a new generation to transmute pre-war fantasies into art, literature, blockbuster movies and graphic novels.

Men of Tomorrow rivetingly demonstrates how the creators of the superheroes established their crucial place in the modern imagination.
  • Published: 1 September 2006
  • ISBN: 9780099487067
  • Imprint: Arrow
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 416
  • RRP: $29.99
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About the author

Gerard Jones

Gerard Jones's is a comics historian and comic and screen writer. His writing credits include Batman, Spiderman and Pokemon. He lives in San Francisco.

Praise for Men Of Tomorrow

'Men of Tomorrow is written with the thrilled verve of the comic book fan, along with a historians concern for scholarly apparatus and a journalist's eye for a good story.'

Daily Telegraph

'The most insightful, engaging and yes, erudite account of how comic books elbowed their way to the very core of mainstream popular culture... For anyone who ever craved (and still does) the next issue of Superman or Mad Magazine or the Fantastic Four, Jones will remind you what that thrill felt like - and why' Scotsman

It's a tribute to the vividness with which Jones tells his tale that Siegel and Schuster ultimately become more interesting than Superman... Fascinating... Absorbing' Charles Shaar Murray, Independent

[A] gleeful pop-culture history, told with comic book pacing, deadpan wit and an ear for a telling phrase... It's a Jewish story and it's an American story. It might even be an American classic.'

Glasgow Herald

What a story... Men Of Tomorrow reads like a novel... Very convincing...rich and rewarding.' Scotland on Sunday

The fascinating and heartbreaking true story of the goniffs, shmendricks and shlemiels who gave birth to the superhero comics - written with all the verve and velocity of a golden age comic book

Art Spiegelman