Rise of the Superheroes

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.

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 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.