Worth Their Weight in Gold
Review by Mike Gange

Baby Boomer Comics
by Craig "Mr. Silver Age" Shutt
Krause Publishing, $ 27.99, 208 pages

When I was in grade 11, my English teacher gave our class an impromptu lesson I will never forget. Snatching a comic book from the hands of a boy who was reading it in class, the teacher proceeded to show us how comic books are an important part of our literary heritage.

We were amazed to hear him say that Superman was the man of steel because his reputation could not be tarnished and his will could not be bent to criminal intentions. The Justice League of America, he said, were not just six guys and a woman in skin-tight suits, but represented the United Nations Security Council, conferring about when to intervene on behalf of those who could not do so on their own. Batman, in his cape and cowl, represented the ultimate human nobleness of doing good deeds for our communities without the need for recognition and acknowledgment.

And, he said, red headed Archie Andrews, the perennial teenager from Riverdale High, was the teen-aged Everyman, persevering against others egos and manipulations. Reggie and Moose served as his foils. He showed us how Riverdale was typical of nearly every community in North America in that it was built on a waterway, and the river was symbolic of the ebb and flow of our worldly existence. Comic books, he said, were great literature because they told timeless stories about our culture. They had heroes and antagonists, character development, challenges to overcome, rich themes and complicated plot twists. Through the drawings of close up faces, comic books showed the reader the emotional turmoil of the characters. We looked on comic books and literature differently from then on.

For afficionados of this genre of literature, Craig "Mr. Silver Age" Shutts new book, Baby Boomer Comics helps elevate comic books to an exalted status. Shutt calls himself "Mr. Silver Age" because, he says, the title The Golden Age of Comics, which represents an earlier period of comics coolness from the 1940's war years through to the early 1950's was already taken. Shutts Silver Age of Comics ranges from September/October, 1956, through to the late 1960's. Every one of the 208 pages in Baby Boomer Comics is printed in four colour layouts, sometimes with a reprint of a comic book panel and sometimes with a comic books front cover. Each page contains explanations that are just as engrossing to adults today as those comic books were to younger readers a couple of decades ago.

Long time readers of comic books will remember the existence of a printed seal of approval, about the size, shape and outline of a postage stamp, in the upper right corner of every comic book. Shutt explains this was used from the mid-1950's on, as a signal from the Comics Code Authority that a group of reviewers had approved every page as appropriate to be read by little kids. The Code came about because of a U.S. Congressional hearing that threatened to impose stringent government standards on publishers. Apparently many parents and moral guardians were of the belief that crime and horror comic books caused kids to go bad. This was based on the less than scientific evidence that since juvenile delinquents read comic books, then comic books caused kids to go bad. "Nobody pointed out that little brainy nerds and Boy Scouts were reading even more comic books heck, all kids read comic books," writes Shutt.

Most of the book is written in Q & A style, with Shutt providing the lengthy answers that cite various issues of comic books as references and examples to illuminate his point. Some of the questions are like these: "Super Heroes always seemed to fight each other during their team-ups. Did they ever get along well?", "Did Marvel super heroes ever get to make love, not mayhem?" and "Who is cooler, Superman or Batman?" Most of this book deals with Super heroes, but through out, Shutt manages to shine a light on what a whole generation of kids were thinking and doing, before video games or the Internet.

Every now and then, Shutt also throws in another reason to read, and continue to own, comic books. The DC comic book from June 1962 featuring Green Lantern sold originally for 12 cents. Today it would bring in $185. Another, Issue #235 from Action Comics, published in December 1957, with the cover story "The Super Prisoner of Amazon Island," originally sold for a dime but would now bring in $240!

I listened to my teacher about the value of comic books. I just never dreamed they could be that valuable.

Mike Gange teaches media studies and journalism at Fredericton High.