{"product_id":"empire-of-the-superheroes-americas-comic-book-creators-and-the-making-of-a-billion-dollar-industry-9781477316474","title":"Empire of the Superheroes: America's Comic Book Creators and the Making of a Billion-Dollar Industry","description":"\u003cp\u003eSuperman may be faster than a speeding bullet, but even he can't outrun copyright law. Since the dawn of the pulp hero in the 1930s, publishers and authors have fought over the privilege of making money off of comics, and the authors and artists usually have lost. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the creators of Superman, got all of $130 for the rights to the hero.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003cem\u003eEmpire of the Superheroes\u003c\/em\u003e, Mark Cotta Vaz argues that licensing and litigation do as much as any ink-stained creator to shape the mythology of comic characters. Vaz reveals just how precarious life was for the legends of the industry. Siegel and Shuster--and their heirs--spent seventy years battling lawyers to regain rights to Superman. Jack Kirby and Joe Simon were cheated out of their interest in Captain America, and Kirby's children brought a case against Marvel to the doorstep of the Supreme Court. To make matters worse, the infant comics medium was nearly strangled in its crib by censorship and moral condemnation. For the writers and illustrators now celebrated as visionaries, the \"golden age\" of comics felt more like hard times.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe fantastical characters that now earn Hollywood billions have all-too-human roots. \u003cem\u003eEmpire of the Superheroes\u003c\/em\u003e digs them up, detailing the creative martyrdom at the heart of a pop-culture powerhouse.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Texas Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/05\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781477316474\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 416","brand":"Mark Cotta Vaz","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38028054560949,"sku":"9781477316474","price":29.71,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_3200c9cc-1812-4698-9add-716ad1e51333.jpg?v=1609194431","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/empire-of-the-superheroes-americas-comic-book-creators-and-the-making-of-a-billion-dollar-industry-9781477316474","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}