A Brief History of Super Heroes, Comic Books and Graphic Novels By Jerry Robinson "Leaping over skyscrapers, running faster than an express train, springing great distances and heights, lifting and smashing tremendous weights, possessing an impenetrable skin - these are the amazing attributes which Superman, savior of the helpless and oppressed, avails himself of as he battles the forces of evil and injustice." Such was the introduction of this new folk hero, Superman, created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, in Action Comics 1, June 1938. It launched a new cartoon genre, the superhero, and established the comic book a place in American popular culture. America needed a superhero, on the eve of World War II, and Siegel and Shuster drew upon classical and mythological tradition to provide one. As Jules Feiffer noted, "advent of the superhero was a bizarre kind of comeuppance for the American dream. Horatio Alger could no longer make it on his own....Here was fantasy with a cynically realistic base; once the odds were appraised honestly, it was apparent you had to be super to get on in this world." While Superman was a superhero in the guise of Clark Kent, an ordinary citizen, Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger the following year, was a mortal in the masque of a superhero. Batman soon acquired a young assistant, Robin, and comic's first super villain, the Joker, completing the symbolic cycle of good and evil. It became de rigueur for superheroes to have a boy protege and a cast of bizarre villains. In the year following the birth of the comic book, the world was at war. A host of new super heroes joined the fight against Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo, including Captain America, Fighting Yank, Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman. Comic books were avidly read by GIs all over the world. It was estimated that over 90 percent of reading matter in Army camps were comic books. In the decades since, comic books have explored a wide variety of themes, among them: science fiction, war, romance, crime, Western adventure, mystery, fantasy, and political and social satire, a growing number of talented writers and cartoonists have found great freedom to innovate and experiment in the comic books. They developed a unique kind of visual dynamics that became a hallmark of the medium. Jack Kirby devised an architectural style utilizing abstract shapes and dynamic perspectives. Will Eisner, in his ingenious contemporary fables, introduce explicit realism and violence in The Spirit. Mort Meskin, a virtuoso of the figure as demonstrated in Johnny Quick, was the first to use multiple action, in the manner of Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase. The first comic book of political and social satire, Mad, appeared in 1952. Mad's topical spoofs have skewered everything from movies and politics to TV and popular comic strips by a group of unusually talented cartoonists and writers, including Jack Davis, Mort Drucker, Al Jaffee, Wallace Wood, AI Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman. In the 1960s, Stan Lee introduced panoply of new heroes in Marvel Comics: the Fantastic Four, Thor and the Hulk. Lee and Steve Ditko also created Spider-Man, another enormously popular superhero. While they still appeal to the younger reader, the new "relevant" comics deal in adult subject matter such as the drug culture, steroids and even the tragedy of 9/11. The heroes are beset with ponderous moral questions, are forced to make wrenching emotional decisions, and even on occasion, are frustrated and display neurotic tendencies. The underground comic book or "comix" was pioneered by Robert Crumb in Zap in 1968. Bitterly satiric and often pornographic, the underground comic deals with previously taboo subjects. The dialogue is frequently explicit and the art, by Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, S. Clay Wilson and others, grotesque and as wildly imaginative as that of Heinrich Kley and George Grosz. An extraordinary array of talented writers and artists has found comic books a rich and versatile medium for expression. They include, in addition to Golden Age creators Siegel, Finger, Kirby, Meskin and Eisner: Joe Simon, Otto Binder, Gardner Fox and Jack Cole. They were joined in recent years by many brilliant creators, among them, writers Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller and Kurt Moore and artists Joe Kubert, Neal Adams and Jim Lee. Typical comic book stories are relatively short in length - originally 10 to 13 pages, to today 20 to 22 pages - and have morphed into a novel length, called "graphic novels". The graphic novel was pioneered in Europe, where they are called "albums", with the work of Herge (Georges Remi) Tin Tin, Morris (Maurice de Bevere) Lucky Luke, and Asterix by Albert Uderzo and Rene Goscinny. The illustrated novel found a growing audience in America beginning in 1978 with the penetrating and innovative work of Will Eisner in A Contract With God. The form has attracted a new generation of brilliant artists and writers that includes Art Spiegelman with his Pulitzer Prize winning work, Maus, and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in their Hugo Award winning Watchman. Comic books have been a rich source of inspiration for theatre, television, films, and literature. Fine artists have incorporated comic book iconography in their art, reflecting the deep cultural absorption of its imagery. Conrad Aikin wrote: " I get fun out of the comics...I actually find myself dreaming about them and becoming part of their tapestry." So they have for millions of readers for over sixty-five years.