The DC A to Z of comics

If you are fairly new to the DC Comics multiverse this is the book for you. Just over one thousand two hundred profiles with a ton of background material and, of course, stunning, dramatic illustrations bursting out of the pages. What I really liked about the book is the way the publishers have crammed in all this information in very busy but controlled layouts. Worth saying also that the printing and paper are excellent (this quality puts to shame some other comic book publishers).

Plenty of the characters have been around for years and historical art is shown as largish thumbnails in 'On the record' panels, which appear on most spreads. Kept small because artwork from decades ago is no match for contemporary art created by today's software.

However, if you have the 2016 edition of this encyclopedia I don't think you really need this new edition. Both books feature, more or less, the same number of characters, the same excellent layouts which have been slightly changed for this new copy. 

 

They never had a piece of the pie

Ken Light has slowly been getting more and more frustrated with the way the US has been changing and to his mind for the worse. In particular, the way the haves and have-nots are increasingly separated. As an example of this, he mentions in his essay that there are 224,800 millionaires in Northern California, the area which includes San Francisco with its huge number of homeless people. He decided photography was the ideal medium to reveal the Empire in decline and in 2011 he started a journey across the country that lasted for ten years. 

He says he didn't have to look too hard to find the fraying social fabric and the book's ten chapters (with 209 photos) clearly reveal this. I was struck by the way Light (deliberately or not) captures a contemporary take on well-known photos from past decades. In the 'Heartland' chapter photo 54 shows three crosses on a pole stuck into the ground by Interstate 90, Wyoming, photo 70 is called 'View from hotel window, Butte, Montana', Robert Frank took almost the same photos for his 'The Americans' book. Photo 77 shows a couple walking on the highway with their possessions in a pram and cart, Dorothea Lange took almost the same highway photo in Oklahoma, June 1938 for the FSA.

Chapter five 'Disruption' features various protest movements with a lovely shot of the Statue of Liberty looked at by three security cameras and on the facing page part of the metal Mexican border fence stretching into the distance. Trump is featured in this chapter and also in chapter six Transformation, with shots of his base fans at the inauguration in January 2017. Photo 187 shows the marque of the Grand Lake theater in Oakland, featuring a double bill: 'The death of Coronavirus' and 'The end of Donald Trump.' The last chapter 'Finale' features lots of the Stars and Stripes suggesting that Light thinks President Biden (shown in two photos) is a positive hope for the Nation. A clever photo in this chapter shows a TV announcer with the bottom ticker strip saying FOX NEWS PROJECTS BIDEN WINS THE PRESIDENCY. I found Light's photos an intriguing and fascinating look at contemporary America, his work clearly reveals the haves and the have-nots.

 All the photos are one to a page (9.5 inches square) and printed with 175 screen on quality matt art paper. Steidl print all their own books. Though the three hundred pages are unnumbered the 209 photos are.