Book Description

From their inception in 1935, comic books -starring Superman, Batman,Captain Marvel- had been primarily written for and aimed at adolescents. Therewere always the occasional outlier artists who pushed back against thecommercial constraints of comic books and envisioned the next evolutionaryartistic leap in the artform, and Charles Biro was one of those artists. In1949, the ambitious Biro -who had previously co-created the realistically brutalcomic Crime Does Not pay- editedand wrote an over-sized comic aimed at adultscalled Tops. Like several other radical adult comics projects that would follow,it proved to be a commercial failure, and lasted only two Life magazine-sizedissues. The original comics have since become a legendary holy grail amongcomics fans and historians, fetching as much as $6,000 on the collector'smarket, written about, but rarely seen and never reprinted. Until now. Fantagraphics' TOPS collects both issues of this over-sized experimental comicin their entirety. These pulpy, sexy, and melodramatic stories wer drawn by someof the best craftsmen working in comics at that time: Dan Barry, George Tuska,Bob Fujitani, Fred Kida, Bob Lubbers, Fred Guardineer and others. It includestwo stunning pre-EC crime tales illustrated by Reed Crandall, reminiscent of hisCrime SuspenStories work. Over-the-top story titles include "I'll Buy ThatGirl," "Marriage Swap Shop," "The Prize WasDeath." The actor Melvyn Douglas (believe it or not) takes the reader on autopian tour entitled "How Would You Live Under A World Government?"- a positive spin on global Socialism! Editor/historian/cartoonist MichaelT. Gilbert has meticulously restored the original 1949 pages and addedcontextual material by historians Ken Quattro, Roger Hill, and others.Tops is alandmark work of historical importance and a mind-boggling reading experiencefrom a bygone era.