The Comic Book History of Comics

by Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey, colored by Adam Guzowski.

The inspiring, infuriating, and utterly insane story of comics, graphic novels, and manga - as a comic book! Most texts about the history of comics tend to focus on the author's personal favorite sub-category: comic strips, super heros, pulps, undergrounds, European comics, Japanese comics, etc.- while ignoring other, equally significant forms. Fred and I tried to avoid that pitfall by focusing on the breakthrough events of creativity and commerce that evolved the comics art form as a whole (rather than just the stuff we personally liked) using our signature fast paced, funny-but-factual style.

Regardless, The Comic Book History of Comics was never intended to be an all-encompassing academic text on the history of sewuential art. To attempt to do so in the medium of comics itself would be a lifelong endeavor. We loved making this book but we thought 256 pages achieved our goal to make a gateway history of the comics art form, focusing on the people and their artistry that pushed the medium ever-forward.

Since it's 2008 debut as a self-published black and white comic book it has been revised, expanded and re-published a few times, most recently as a full color, two volume edition published by IDW / Penguin Random House in 2018. In 2020 we followed up with a companion project, The Comic Book History of Animation.