Secondary Superheroes of Golden Age Comics

IF you are a fan of the Golden Age of Superheroes, you must get this book!! The level of detail and research that went into this is matched only by the evident fun the author had doing this! There are heroes and companies of whom I had not heard and enjoyed the descriptions of the characters' histories. I wish now for a companion volume for DC, Marvel, Fawcett and others!!

I’ve known Lou Mougin for almost 20 years, online. In that 20 20 years I’ve read almost everything he has written. I was asked by a good friend of both Lou and myself if I would read and review his book. Without even taking a breath, I answered a resounding YES!Lou knows his comic book history better than anyone I know. Reading his history I rediscovered several superheroes I’ve read and loved, plus several I’ve either only seen as covers in an Overstreet Price Guide and some I’ve only seen mentioned and some I’ve never heard of before.Lou’s great love of the Comic Books is seen as he gives a very interesting history for each Superhero. Even heroes I thought I had known all there was, Lou showed how much more there were to them. Red Rube was a character I only seen on covers in Overstreet and a couple of lines about who he was in a few different books. In this book you find out who he is and how he came to be. You’ll discover he is similar to another superhero in his origin and identity.If you ever wondered about who some unknown Secondary Superhero was and if you want to dig through the back issue bins to read, THIS is the book to buy. I’ve read it cover to cover and loved it and plan to reread several parts over again when I am curious about any revamped Golden Age Superheroes that come back.This is THE book every fan of Golden Age Superheroes should have in easy reach to read over and over. I hope that Lou soon writes a Silver Age version very soon. Plus a 1980s Independent Comics companions.

In this book, Lou turns his attention to the Secondary Super Heroes, not that they were any less popular in the day, but this book is about all the heroes not published by DC, Marvel, Fawcett, and Quality Comics.MLJ Comics is my favorite Golden Age publisher and I could argue all day that they were more important then Fawcett and Quality in that they didn’t go out of business and still publish to this day but that isn’t the point they are included in this book and I am excited to read what Lou has to say about them and the Shield.Lou is extremely knowledgeable and he takes what could be a dry textbook-like subject and blends in little bits of humor, making this a fun read. As an indexer, Lou goes issue by issue, character by character, as he explores each publisher.At $75 this book isn’t for everyone but if you love Golden Age Heroes or just want to know more about them, this book is for you! He covers the Shield, the Black Terror, the Black Hood, the Blue Beetle, Daredevil, Crimebuster, Amazing- Man, the Green Lama, Frankenstein, Hydroman, Pyroman, Skyman, the Flame, Steel Sterling, Supersnipe, and a whole army of the greatest Golden Age Heroes most people have never heard about.Lou covers origins and even post-Golden Age appearances up to the present day. He covers Centaur, Fox, Harvey, MLJ, Nedor, Lev Gleason, Novelty Comics, Hillman, Prize, Street and Smith, Columbia, Holyoke Comics, Ace, Chesler, Dell. Fiction House and more. He covers the characters in great detail with little tidbits about there creators. He gives his opinions about the quality of the work as well as plugging Digital Comics Museum and Comic Book Plus so you too can read the stories he describes in the book if you become so motivated by his writing.This is a fun and detailed history of your favorite Golden Age Heroes. Lou’s coverage of the subject is second to none. It is the perfect coffee table book of any Golden Age aficionado in your life and it is something you will read again and again over the years.

Back in the early 1960s, I was lucky enough to be in on the ground floor when comics fans in their teens and older began putting out "fanzines" discussing the comics of the day, and of days gone by. In that era, copies of the old comics themselves were few and far between--no comics conventions until the mid-60s--and of course none of the sumptuous reprints that Marvel, DC, Dark Horse, IDW, et al. give us today. Lou Mougin has written a book that lovingly and skillfully partakes of the spirit of those 6-decade-gone times, when what we needed was simply a writer with a sure and informed hand to lead us through the adventures of long-gone super-heroes. I'm glad he's around--and he's done himself (and his audience) up proud with SECONDARY SUPERHEROES OF GOLDEN AGE COMICS!

Lou has done all the fans of the Golden Age a service with this highly readable and approachable review of these forgotten heroes (and some who were not-so-heroic) in their early adventures. The thorough appendix assures explorers of this era they are listening to "One Who Knows".Buy this and be educated in the broad and wild world of the early Golden Age.