The world has never seen the like of the American comic book. In their heyday, the top 500 comics sold over 60 million copies a month between them, and are still avidly collected today. They attracted highly talented artists who could create characters and tell stories as memorable as those in any movie or popular novel. There were superheroes with bulging biceps and super heroines with bulging bosoms, funny men and funny animals, gangster and villains, war comics and sci-fi comics, and those that revelled in crime and horror, the supernatural and sex - eventually attracting the censorious eye of the social reformers. Taking us from the 1930s into the 1950s, Nicky Wright tells the fascinating story of the rise of this highly creative popular art form through to the decline that set in with the self-censorship imposed on publishers by Congress and the churches. Highly illustrated with a huge range of front covers, comic strips, and characters, the book also covers the personalities who wrote, drew and edited them to create a history that will enlighten newcomers and enthral collectors.