(Paperback Edition) A sampling of the best material from the long-running "Harveyville Fun Times!" fanzine featuring articles about various Harvey Comics characters such as Casper, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff and Sad Sack. Edited by Mark Arnold.

It's Comic Book and Animation Historian Mark Arnold's reviews on every song ever recorded by The Beatles, group and solo, released and unreleased. Don't like my reviews? Then, write your own book.

Fascinating and often bizarre true stories behind more than 130 urban legends about comic book culture. Was Superman a Spy? demystifies all of the interesting stories, unbelievable anecdotes, wacky rumors, and persistent myths that have piled up like priceless back issues in the seventy-plus years of the comic book industry, including: • Elvis Presley's trademark hairstyle was based on a comic book character (True) • Stan Lee featured a gay character in one of Marvel's 1960s war comics (False) • Wolverine of the X-Men was originally meant to be an actual wolverine! (True) • What would have been DC's first black superhero was changed at the last moment to a white hero (True) • A Dutch inventor was blocked from getting a patent on a process because it had been used previously in a Donald Duck comic book (True) With many more legends resolved, Was Superman a Spy? is a must-have for the legions of comic book fans and all seekers of “truth, justice, and the American way.”

Between the 1930s and the invention of the internet, American comics reached readers in a few distinct physical forms: the familiar monthly stapled pamphlet, the newspaper comics section, bubblegum wrappers, and bound books. From Gum Wrappers to Richie Rich: The Materiality of Cheap Comics places the history of four representative comics—Watchmen, Uncle Scrooge, Richie Rich, and Fleer Funnies—in the larger contexts of book history, children’s culture, and consumerism to understand the roles that comics have played as very specific kinds of books. While comics have received increasing amounts of scholarly attention over the past several decades, their material form is a neglected aspect of how creators, corporations, and readers have constructed meaning inside and around narratives. Neale Barnholden traces the unusual and surprising histories of comics ranging from the most acclaimed works to literal garbage, analyzing how the physical objects containing comics change the meaning of those comics. For example, Carl Barks’s Uncle Scrooge comics were gradually salvaged by a fan-driven project, an evolution that is evident when considering their increasingly expensive forms. Similarly, Watchmen has been physically made into the epitome of “prestigious graphic novel” by the DC Comics corporation. On the other hand, Harvey Comics’ Richie Rich is typically misunderstood as a result of its own branding, while Fleer Funnies uses its inextricable association with bubblegum to offer unexpectedly sophisticated meanings. Examining the bibliographical histories of each title, Barnholden demonstrates how the materiality of consumer culture suggests meanings to comics texts beyond the narratives.

"This volume contains 110 of the very best tales of The Little Devil. The clever and beautifully-drawn stories are reproduced from crisp blakc-and-white printer's proofs and original art from the old Harvey archives, along with sixty-four pages of color meticulously restored from the original comic book pages. '--P. [4] of cover

Comics and childhood have had a richly intertwined history for nearly a century. From Richard Outcault’s Yellow Kid, Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo, and Harold Gray’s Little Orphan Annie to Hergé’s Tintin (Belgium), José Escobar’s Zipi and Zape (Spain), and Wilhelm Busch’s Max and Moritz (Germany), iconic child characters have given both kids and adults not only hours of entertainment but also an important vehicle for exploring children’s lives and the sometimes challenging realities that surround them. Bringing together comic studies and childhood studies, this pioneering collection of essays provides the first wide-ranging account of how children and childhood, as well as the larger cultural forces behind their representations, have been depicted in comics from the 1930s to the present. The authors address issues such as how comics reflect a spectrum of cultural values concerning children, sometimes even resisting dominant cultural constructions of childhood; how sensitive social issues, such as racial discrimination or the construction and enforcement of gender roles, can be explored in comics through the use of child characters; and the ways in which comics use children as metaphors for other issues or concerns. Specific topics discussed in the book include diversity and inclusiveness in Little Audrey comics of the 1950s and 1960s, the fetishization of adolescent girls in Japanese manga, the use of children to build national unity in Finnish wartime comics, and how the animal/child hybrids in Sweet Tooth act as a metaphor for commodification.

Heard about Mad? Sad? Don't be! Get GLAD with this new collection of rarely seen art by one of their greatest illustrators, done outside their work at Mad magazine. The book is a treasure trove of rare humor comics mostly unseen for over 30 years from the pages of Mad's #1 competitor, Cracked magazine. They are curated by two folks with Cracked bona fides, Mark Arnold, author of the definitive two volume history of the magazine If You're Cracked, You're Happy!, and Mort Todd, the former Editor-in-Chief of the magazine during one of its most creative periods. The comics presented are from the 1950s and 1960s during the title's early years and while Jack Davis was at the top of his game as a creator. There are TV and movie parodies, tons of celebrities, along with satire on current events, trends and culture of the era.Bhob Stewart, author of The Life and Legend of Wallace Wood, has an in-depth overview of the career of the artist in The Comedy of Jack Davis. The book features an afterword by Mort Todd reflecting on Davis and the magazine's legacy. The Comedy of Jack Davis is 100 pages, all in glorious vintage black & white! The book features a gorgeous array of his work, showcasing the many mediums they work in, from pen and ink, wash, guoache, duoshade paper, zipatone and color paintings as they applied it to tweaking a variety of amusing topics. Also available: The Comedy of John Severin.