This is an educational site containing reviews and articles about comic strips and comic books, and articles on their writers and artists. Estimated size: 2000 pages / 800,000 words.
It is designed and written by Michael E. Grost, a comics enthusiast who lives near Detroit, Michigan, USA.
I hope you enjoy it.
This site was researched at the amazing MSU Library Comic Art Collection. It is part of Special Collections in the Library at Michigan State University, in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. They have 250,000 comic books. They allow anyone who comes to the library to read them (but do not lend them outside the library). You should visit the collection, and learn all about comic books! You will experience awe, amazement, wonder and joy. This is the largest publicly held collection of comics in the world. Scholars come from all over the world to research the history of comic books here. See this article and another article.
Please mail your comments to me at mike@mikegrost.com. (Clicking here will bring up mail.) I am eager to hear what you think. You can also visit my web sites Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection, Classic Film and Television and A History of American Art, and my personal home page.
I write mysteries myself. Detective short stories by me are available (for free) on my mystery fiction page. Please click to get a free E-book in EPUB or Kindle format with several short stories. (If the download link does not work, please e-mail me at mike@mikegrost.com and I will send you the stories.)
Most articles start with a list of recommended stories. They are not a complete list of stories in the magazines; instead, they are the ones I personally enjoyed, and recommend reading. This list is followed by critical analysis of the stories.
There is an index to stories with political and social commentary. These are comic book stories about Civil Rights, refugees, world hunger, global warming, feminism, anti-war, anti-dictatorship, anti-racism and other political subjects. It also tracks stories about advanced civilizations, and high technology.
You will find such articles here as:
The Superman Family of Comic Books, 1952 - 1966
Mystery Comics of the 1950's
Early Comic Book Detective Series
Links to other comics web sites:
The author wishes to express his gratitude to the researches of Gene Reed, who has done so much to track down creative credits for Silver Age comic books.
Disclaimer: The articles in this site are by no means intended to infringe on DC's ownership of such characters as Superman, Superboy, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, The Flash, Green Lantern and Adam Strange. Instead, the articles are intended to form a critical analysis of the works in which they appear.
(C)Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 by Michael E. Grost. Reproduction and distribution are permissible for non-profit purposes only, but no changes are to be made to this document without the author's written consent.