The review pile is overflowing with books that are part of what has become a huge revenue machine for publishers: reprints. But this tsunami of old comics, some not seen for 70 years, raises a new question: Which are really worth reading?
"My Favorite Martian": Hermes Press is reprinting the material originally published by now-defunct Gold Key in the 1960s and '70s that was licensed from TV shows. Some of it is vaguely interesting, because the shows the comics were based on were pretty good, like "Dark Shadows," "Land of the Giants," "The Time Tunnel" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea." But now comes "My Favorite Martian: The Complete Series: Vol. 1" ($50) -- mediocre comics based on a mediocre TV show. This series isn't worth a Vol. 1, much less however many more are planned, unless you're a completist.
"Young Romance": Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the marquee team of the early days of comics, pioneered the romance genre in 1947, and, as you'd expect from the creators of Captain America, "Young Romance" wasn't bad. It had its fair share of melodramatic tear-jerkers and occasional forays into misogyny, but Simon and Kirby also flirted with social issues such as class distinctions and religious conflicts. "Young Romance: The Best of Simon & Kirby's Romance Comics" (Fantagraphics, $30). offers 21 of the best of their romance stories, and that's probably just the right amount.
"Amazing Mysteries": I truly appreciate comics historian Blake Bell's efforts to codify the careers of early comics creators, especially the Steve Ditko Archives. But "Amazing Mysteries: The Bill Everett Archives, Vol. 1" (Fantagraphics, $40) was a disappointment. There's no information about the creator of Sub-Mariner that I didn't already glean from Bell's 2010 "Fire and Water: Bill Everett, The Sub-Mariner and the Birth of Marvel Comics" (Fantagraphics, $40). That isn't surprising, because the primary purpose of the book is to reprint rare, old, non-Sub-Mariner stories by Everett. But his early work is amateurish.
"Sugar and Spike Archives": I've heard terrific things all my life about this 1950s comic book, which starred two toddlers with their own baby speech that adults couldn't understand, written and drawn by the legendary Shelly Mayer. To tell you the truth, I couldn't make it through "Sugar and Spike Archives, Vol. 1" (DC, $50). It seemed to have only one joke -- the baby talk -- and the misadventures the kids share are bland and faintly familiar, as if Mayer were replicating every TV show and movie he'd ever seen.
