Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book

by Gerard Jones

Book Overview

Animated by the stories of some of the last century's most charismatic and conniving artists, writers, and businessmen, Men of Tomorrow brilliantly demonstrates how the creators of the superheroes gained their cultural power and established a crucial place in the modern imagination. "This history of the birth of superhero comics highlights three pivotal figures. The story begins early in the last century, on the Lower East Side, where Harry...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465036570
• ISBN13: 9780465036578
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.9" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

popular scholarship

Those reviewers who have trashed Jones's scholarship in this book are--if I may speak bluntly--wrong. The research of the book is indeed impressively thorough, and the long section "Notes on Research" at the book's end is that rarest of literary beasts, a bibliographical section that is actually (gasp!) pleasant to read. Jones documents every quotation and thoroughly, explicitly names all the sources, published and otherwise, for his information, excepting those few who requested to remain anonymous (mostly for legal reasons pertaining to the ongoing legal struggle over royalties from Superman). In creating any historical study, a writer must fill in some gaps through speculation and induction, and Jones calls particular attention to those few passages in which he has had to engage in guesswork, explaining his conclusions yet openly allowing for other interpretations. This is a fun, impressive book: Jones has skillfully woven sociological, economic, personal, and other sources, along with his own interviews, to create an enlightening, eminently readable work of history.

New material in paperback

I read the hardback and loved it, then read that errors had been corrected and new material added in the paperback, so I picked it up. I'm glad I did. The new material isn't extensive, but it provides even more fascinating glimpses into the twisty story of Jerry Siegel, both in his early days and his publicity campaign in the '70s. Also corrects the previous impressions of Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and Siegel's mysterious son Michael. An even better read than before!

Startling revelations!

I've read basically everything out there about the early history of comics and I wasn't expecting any new bombshells--so I was amazed by Jones's discovery of the "true origin" of Superman in the violence that occurred to his father, and his tracing of the way Jerry Siegel rewrote his own life story to portray himself as an innocent victim when in fact he was a much more complicated man who brought about his own destruction in many ways. What Jones uncovered about his abandonment of his first wife and child for a younger, prettier other woman (the model for Lois Lane!) shows a side of Siegel I'd never seen before. And the information on the publishers, Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz, has never appeared anywhere as far as I know. Who knew the roots of comics lead back to bootlegging and lapsed socialists? No wonder this got such high praise from Michael Chabon, Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, etc. etc. It changes our understanding of the comics medium!

"Biography not bibliography"

By Gerard Jones's own admission this book is a biography and not a bibliography, it's more about the real world Golden Age players than their brightly costumed alter egos. It should technically be described as a comparative social biography of Superman's creators (Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster) and Superman's publishers (Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz). The introduction is dynamite and really sets the scene for where Jerry Siegel was on the day Superman The Movie was announced. The first act paints a broad picture of 1920s and 1930s New York and Cleveland, and illustrates how different social conditions shaped the lives of very different groups of immigrant Jews. The dense, dangerous world of early 20th century New York is perhaps the most emotive and Jones expertly draws the reader into the world of the street gangs and Prohibition era alliances that gave birth to the Jewish dominated New York mob. His portrait of Harry Donenfeld is as an opportunistic, if charismatic, rogue and he portrays Liebowitz as a humourless straight man - a real-life double act. By contrast Cleveland comes across as an icon of suburban American life and we get a real sense of Jerry Siegel's childhood - including the revelation that Siegel's father had been murdered. Of the four leads Joe Shuster remains the most enigmatic. Woven through the these histories are the side stories of the elder and younger Gaines, Bob Kane, Bill Finger, Julius Schwartz, Mort Weisinger, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, and a host of other names. Most of them were from the same generation, most of them were Jewish and most of them were drawn to New York by a powerful new medium. Something Jones doesn't do is to carry the sense of the Jewishness much further. He uses it to give us a sense of the New York scene and to show the growth of the businesses on the edge of the mob, but it isn't followed through and all we are left with is links between former mob businesses. It would have been nice to have more of a sense of how the strong Jewish roots of the industry became eroded. The same cast features prominently in the middle act of the book which chronicles the 1940s and the maturation of the medium. They are also followed through the last (third) act which deals with their post-1940s history. Jones glosses over much of the Silver Age and instead concentrates on how the first generation of comic book players faired in the post Comics Code world. The thread that ties the entire narrative together is Superman. From his inception, his influences, and his sale to the subsequent play and counter play between Siegel and Donenfeld. Jones never demonises either party and he aptly demonstrates how completely different life experiences created two people who simply didn't understand each other. Each party feeling fully justified to claim Superman as their own. Jones's book is a rich look at the real world figures who inspired Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. A lot

Best Comicbook History to Date

A wealth of books are on the market exploring the 70 year history of the comic book industry. This riviting and revealing book may very well be the best. Jones presents a history of breathtaking depth going back into the early 1900s to develop detailed origins of the major personalities that, almost by accident, combined to create Superman and DC comics.Fans of comic history may know some of these stories,but never have all of the fascinating pieces been put together into such a fully formed and complex continuous narrative. The story is meticulously researched, and told with the vigor of a pulp fiction thriller. At the same time all of the personalities are treated with respect and nuance.