One for lovers of everything superhero. DC or Marvel; both are included. A great fact finding and informative book. A great history of the comics as well as the more modern films.

This was amazing. A great read for any superhero fans. This book takes a look at the Silver Age of comics, which is a great look back at some of the popular superhero characters today and how they started out. This is an excellent primer for the new comic book/superhero fan.

It seems that Superheroes are cool again. Marvel comics have set a high bar in our cinemas over the last 10 years as they build up a cinematic universe beyond the wildest dreams of the more mature comic book fan.

DC Comics may not have fared quite so well in the cinema (though Wonder Woman was a notable exception), however, they are ruling the small screen. From Smallville to The Flash, Arrow and Supergirl they are showing the way forward at producing hours of fan pleasing content which keeps the comic book readers hooked.

But before the heroes had their rise to fame on our homes and in movie theatres they first had to Rise from anonymity in the original comic books. Why should Spider-Man, The Flash and Thor have been the successful stories while Luke Cage, Cloak and Dagger or Hawkman maybe just didn't capture the public imagination in the same way?

In the gorgeously illustrated Rise of the Superheroes David Tosh looks at the Silver Age of comic books and charts how the action heroes of their day became the megastar crowd pullers that they are today. By focusing on the events of the time, the stories which became character defining and by drawing on his own observations a story is built around the names we know so well.

I have been reading comic books since I was about 8 or 9 years old - that is over 30 years of being a Spidey fan (long before it was cool to be a comic nerd). I love a book which will tell the back stories, look at pivotal moments in the evolution of characters and (one day) I may even understand why there are so many different X-men groups and factions! This book is very much aimed at readers like me - fans who want to read more about their favourite characters and possibly even learn about the heroes which feature in comics I don't read.

Let's face it - there are just too many comics out there to try to read them all. Some just don't get an opportunity to shine and some titles just don't get picked up by readers for reasons which will seem ridiculous to other readers. For example I have never read a Green Lantern comic, nor have I ever been a fan of Iron Man. Hulk is great (but not when he is in space) and the X-Men are just too complicated to know where to start. But I still claim to love comic books and I use books like Rise of the Superheroes to try to make me WANT to read Iron Man or Green Lantern.

David Tosh has done a good job of making his book very accessible. I was surprised that it was not 100% factual and that some of her personal opinions and observations creep in - unusual for this type of reference book. But his writing style is easy to pick up and put down (we are in coffee-table book country here) and I loved the time I spent pouring over the pages.

If you are discovering comics through the recent influx of film and tv shows then books like Rise of the Superheroes are a great way to understand better where the characters first found their feet. Seasoned readers may find this one a little light on new information, but that does not stop it being a fun read.

I grew up on silver age heroes and silver age books - so I really enjoyed this walk down memory lane. The Silver Age was slightly before my time, but those were the comics that could be found cheap at garage sales when I was a kid - so that’s what was in my collection. That’s where I got my first addiction to JLA - which lent well to watching the Superfriends. I guess this was why I’ve always been a DC guy. That’s what everyone was selling second hand - late 60’s Batman, Superman, Flash, JLA. That, coupled with being introduced in college to Arkham Asylum, Batman: Year One, and the Dark Knight Returns, is why Batman is still my favorite.

Plus there’s some great art - photos of silver age comics!!

I didn’t realize how important The Flash #123 was - it introduced the idea of parallel earths, when Barry Allen meets Jay Garrick. (Funny how we’ve come full circle with that first happening in 1961, but new fans being introduced to the idea in the The Flash TV show.)

I’m glad the author discussed the importance of the art of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko - too often, these artists’ contributions to the growth of Marvel Comics is downplayed. The creation of some of Marvel’s most iconic characters owe their origins to Kirby and Ditko just as much - or more - as Stan Lee. While Lee came up with some of the ideas and was the writer responsible for the dialogue, Ditko and Kirby contributed in important ways that you might not expect because of how the artist/writer relationship was back then. The artist made huge contributions to character design, plot, and story flow. Often artists would draw the entire story and the writer would fill in dialogue. So these artists made heavy, heavy contributions to these important Marvel characters, but their contributions are overlooked, partially because Lee has marketed himself so well.

And - wow! This I did not know! I thought the campiness of the 60s Batman came from the TV show. But apparently, Batman comics were already trying out a “New Look” and it was this shiny new look that attracted the attention of execs and helped the show be campy in the first place. After that I’m sure it was a vicious cycle. But I thought it started with the show; I didn’t know it started with the comic!

I liked the way the author put these comics in context by showing what was going on in the world at the time. But how do I know about Francis Gary Powers who was shot down in a U-2 Spy Plane in Russia in 1960? I’ve read about him before - but why? This is driving me crazy.

And during this time, in a single month - August 1966 - The Beatles played their last concert, and The Doors released their first single. Just one year later in August 1967, Pink Floyd released their first album. (Not in the book, but one of my favorite pieces of trivia - the title of the album is “The Piper at the Gates of Dawn”, which is taken from the title of a chapter of the book <i>The Wind in the Willows</i> published in 1908.)

Out of so many crazy ideas, I really want to check out Superman #198 from July 1967 - where “the real” Clark Kent exposes Superman as having kidnapped and imprisoned him and impersonating him. Now that’s creative!

This would make a great coffee table book.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley and Krause Publications for a copy in return for an honest review.</i>

'Rise of the Superheroes: Greatest Silver Age Comic Books and Characters' by David Tosh is an overview of one of the greatest eras of comic books.

It's not an especially deep book, but it gives a really good overview to the era from it's beginning in 1956 with the release of Showcase #4 featuring the Flash. It talks about the industry pressures and influences that led to the era. It mentions the key issues and creators and storylines. The best part is the covers and art pages of the era, including recent auction prices. It's fun to see some of these up close.

There are insets about today's modern superhero movie characters and where they got there start. The author includes some commentary about his life during the era, that lends a fun perspective on the times. The book finishes with a post-lude on collecting, auctions, and the names of the different pedigreed collections featured in the book.

Comics have been around a long time, and we are still being influenced by the Silver Age. This might be a fun read for someone new to comics that doesn't know some of the history.

I received a review copy of this ebook from Krause Publications, F+W Media, and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.

This is a great book about this history of superhero comics. It focuses on the art of comics and artists who created them. It is especially good for collectors, because some prices of vintage comics are listed.

I loved that there were many original comic covers in this book. Alongside the photos, the amounts that these original comics sold at auctions were listed. It’s fascinating to see how many thousands of dollars these comics can sell for today, when they originally cost only a few cents!

One funny thing about this book, and it proves that superheroes are still extremely popular, is that even though this book was just released, the movie rankings are already out of date. Avengers: Infinity War has surpassed not only the earnings of other superhero movies, but all other movies as well. Black Panther was also a huge hit, and would be listed high up on the movie rankings. This just proves the lasting effects of these characters that were created decades ago.

This is a great book about the rise of superheroes!

#RiseOfTheSuperheroes #NetGalley

The illustration and the content are amazing. David is able to keep the reader in the context of the era by adding pop facts and original cover of best selling classic comics. The book covers the beginning of the classic super hero comics from the the 50's to the 70's including The Justice League and The Avengers.

I felt like this was a good comprehensive coverage of superheroes and any casual or mega fan would enjoy this for an easy, shallow overview of their favorite hero. I love superheroes and superhero history so I was hoping it would be a little bit more in-depth but overall I can find no fault with this book and suggest it for someone just getting started.

As someone who has recently started getting into comics, reading a book about the history of them for me felt like a must-read and I was not wrong. Covering superheroes from The Flash to Iron Man and the companies who made them, Rise Of The Superheroes is an excellent place to begin learning about comic books.

‘Secret Origins’ in the beginning of DC, according to Tosh allowed readers to have a primer for the characters that DC created and this book is very much in the same vein. Giving the reader a history of the comics but also the characters themselves and this is all connected to how these comics connected to the writer’s life and the world they were emerging into.

With this history this book highlights the quality of the original artwork of the golden age of comics. Bold lines and bright colours are used in these and this is used as a guide throughout the book too and used effectively as the book keeps your attention throughout, shining a light on where these comics come in the chronology of the creators.

A really good book for the novice who wants to know more, this book charts the evolution of comic books brilliantly.

I cannot give this a star rating because I was not able to open the file. The review required me to provide a star rating, so I said one. Not for quality or content but because I had to give stars and because the file was not readable.

As a newbie to the wonderful world of comics and graphic novels, I found this to be a fascinating look at the evolution of some well known heroes through the silver age of comics during the 1960s. Each chapter is beautifully illustrated with numerous examples of comic book panels and cover art from the time and the book follows chronologically from the beginning of the decade to the end. I particularly liked the inserts detailing what Tosh himself was reading and collecting during that time and thought that he gave a true picture of the cultural melting pot of the time. In truth, I did think that the prose was a little bit clunky at times, but for sheer exuberance and knowledge of his topic, Tosh has to be commended. All in all, I thought this was a great introduction to the comics of yesteryear for someone like me and I would recommend it to anyone with a burgeoning interest in the genre,.
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Rise of the Superheroes is one of many books trying to help sum up the history of superhero comics into an easy to understand novel. Unlike other novels I’ve read though, David Tosh decided to add a more personal touch to his writing; expresses which comics were his favorite, parts he remembered in particular, and even adding context to the publishing time of comics by including larger known pop culture events. That made this a really fun read for me, as well as informative.
Tosh doesn’t delve as deeply into the history of comics or their printing, but instead does more of a surface and pop culture view. It’s a fantastic place to start for new readers or for somebody that was unfortunately not alive during the time to personally experience the growth of the comic book industry. I love this different perspective, and that alone makes this a worthwhile read, in my opinion.
This novel also includes a ton of favorite and popular images from comics, showing their evolution through time as well as just being fun to see (for some of us it’s even for the first time). I think it’d be great if Tosh came out with a follow up in a few years, covering the more recent decades of comics. I’d like to see his take on the modern runs.

This is a good book, inasmuch as it concentrates on the "pop culture titans" of 60s comics. It certainly doesn't go into the academic side of things, and there are certainly more detailed histories of the comics industry and the caped characters it spawned. I actually expected, and hoped for, a book that felt more definitive and was more educational. But if you want a quick, coffee-table styled volume as a primer to the so-called Silver Age of comics, then this will certainly serve – it's peppered with cover art and other relevant imagery.

A must read for superhero fans! I loved the part autobiographical, part history lesson breakdown of this book. Tosh takes you through the different eras of superheroes and ties it into how they impacted his life. I also loved all of the pictures of old comic covers and panels. It made it feel so nostalgic.This would make a great coffee table read!

Rise of the Superheroes by David Tosh is a fun autobiographical and historical journey through the Silver Age of comics in the 1960s. Tosh breaks up the era into four distinct time periods as he follows the evolution of the heroes and his own love of the genre. He explains the boon of many of our favorite characters (The Hulk, Iron Man, The Avengers) as a response in part to the passing of the Comics Code of 1954. While hitting on the most popular stars of the era, he makes strong connections to the current versions, Black Panther, the surge in superhero films and TV shows in recent years, and even Sheldon’s love for The Flash!

I enjoyed Tosh’s personal anecdotes and the story of his developing appreciation growing up in the 60s in the “In My Neighborhood” sections. Also of interest are the pictures of many covers and pages which are chosen to highlight the iconic characters: Superman, Spider-Man, Thor, Batman, and The Silver Surfer. He includes recent auction prices on each piece of memorabilia and a short chapter at the end about collecting.

Rise of the Superheroes is a very good reference book for a niche of collecting and research in one of the best eras of comic book lore. Check your grandmother’s storage locker! She might have stashed away those old comic books, or get this book and dive in.

Thank you to NetGalley, F+W Media, and David Tosh for the advanced copy for review.