As if the history of DC on Film being written wasn’t enough, now DC Comics is finally getting the history book it deserves. DC Comics: The Story of a Universe by Sean Howe and Sam Thielman has just been signed, as announced in one of those book deal columns, and posted by Thielman. (The news is a week old but no one else posted it so here you go.)
I can’t imagine two more qualified people!
Howe is the author of Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, an impeccably researched and thrillingly told story of the behind the scenes story of Marvel. Thielman is currently the graphic novel reviewer for the NY Times, but has written about comics for The Guardian, The New Yorker and elsewhere. Suffice to say these two gentlemen have the knowledge to write this story and I can’t wait to read it!
The book will be published by Harper One, with a 2027 publication date. Rakesh Satyal is the editor and David Patterson at Stuart Krichevsky Agency brokered the deal.
And what material they have. Off the top of my head:
- Comics Original Sin: Siege and Shuster selling Superman for $130, and the endless lawsuits it led to.
- Teenage Bob Kane taking credit for creating Batman while Bill Finger and Jerry Robinson did the work
- William Moulton Marston and young women who helped him write Wonder Woman.
- DC sues Captain Marvel out of existence
- Bob Hope comics
- Julius Schwartz and the birth of the multiverse
- Mort Weisinger and his love of weird cover situations
- Carmine Infantino and his love of apes
- The DC Implosion
- Jenette Kahn, a person whose impact was incalculable
- Vertigo and the British Invasion
- The New 52
- The move to Burbank
And so on and on. A rich mine of stories indeed. Sam and Sean, you have a big task ahead of you, but you got this. I have just one plea: give Dorothy Woolfolk her due!
Photo credit: Scott Beatty
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