Super Graphic

A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe

Tim Leong

• Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9781452113883
• eBook ISBN:
  9781452129884
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Art General

"This gorgeous compendium illustrating comic-book-world factoids will give info-graphic obsessives much to pore over." — Entertainment Weekly

The comic book universe is adventurous, mystifying, and filled with heroes, villains, and cosplaying Comic-Con attendees. This book by one of Wired magazine's art directors traverses the graphic world through a collection of pie charts, bar graphs, timelines, scatter plots, and more.

Award-winning author Tim Leong's Super Graphic offers readers a unique look at the intricate and sometimes contradictory storylines that weave their way through comic books, and shares advice for navigating the pages of some of the most popular, longest-running, and best-loved comics and graphic novels out there. From a colorful breakdown of the DC Comics reader demographic to a witty Venn diagram of superhero comic tropes and a Chris Ware sadness scale, this book charts the most arbitrary and monumental characters, moments, and equipment of the wide world of comics.

"An absorbing, wonderfully unnecessary pairing of inventive, beautiful designs with nerd-friendly comic-book statistics and insights." — Chicago Tribune

"This book is a delight—and you don't have to be a comic fanatic to get something out of it . . . Super Graphic is simply perfect for that cofee table—right next to your comic books, of course." — SFX magazine

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• What’s in This Book?
• Full Disclosure My Bookshelf
• True Colors
• Good Measures Superheroes and Primary Colors
• Color me Bad Supervillains and Secondary Colors
• Common People A Venn Diagram of Superhero Comic Tropes
• How to Read a Comic Book
• What Is Manga?
• Character Lineup
• Character Weigh-In
• Map Quest
• Welcome to the Multiverse Wait, There’s More Than One Earth?
• A History of Heroic Proportions
• Power Publishers
• Take Shape Evolution of Superman’s Logo
• Shell Power The Pizzas of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• The Batman Theme Quantified
• The Joker’s Favorite Questions for Batman
• The Colors of Money Following Fictional Fortunes
• Team Colors
• Richie Rich vs. Royal Roy
• The Definitive R. Crumb Butt Matrix
• Second City The Real Metropolis
• Nuff said Stan Lee Has Issues
• A Fantastic Four Primer
• Super-Rollercoasters
• The Politics of Good vs. Evil
• Pissed Off A Calvin and Hobbes Trajectory
• Fast-Ball Special
• Wardrobe Upgrade Changes in Costume Color
• Cerebus: Judging a Comic By Its Covers
• Archer Appeal
• The Flash
• Superman’s Movies
• Who Is the Fastest Man Alive?
• Small Wonder How Big Is the Miniature City of Kandor?
• Put a Ring on it A History of Concentric Circles
• Who’s Who in Sin City
• Secret Identities Stan Lee’s Nicknames for the Marvel Bullpen
• The Periodic Table of The Metal Men
• Who Reads DC Comics?
• Playing for the Other Team The Many Affiliations of the Marvel Universe
• Batman’s Utility Belt, 1952
• Batman’s Utility Belt, 1968
• Joker’s Utility Belt, 1952
• Robin’s Utility Belt, 1994
• The Walking Dead Kill Counter
• Who is Left in Y: The Last Man
• Why Guys Like Invisible Woman
• Why Guys Relate to Spider-Man
• Battle Breakdown
• Bird Watching The Five Faces of Robin
• The Chris Ware Sadness Scale
• Meta Human Pop Culture in Scott Pilgrim
• Venom’s Family Web
• Dressed to Kill Explaining Cosplay and Crossplay
• Nerd Prom Comic-Con Attendance
• The Hulk
• X-Men Characters I Remembered Thanks to Cosplay
• Spider-Man
• Pac-Man
• Wolverine
• Popular Costumes
• Manga Murder Outsmarting Death
• Boom Boom Pow
• A Personal History of Saying “Good Grief”
• Alter Egos Bobby Digital vs. Batman
• All in the Family Mapping the Relationships of the New Gods
• Spy vs. Spy
• Jet Set Avengers vs. X-Men
• Birds of a Feather Scrooge McDuck’s Family Tree
• Bat Channels Every TV Show Starring Batman
• Character Kingdom
• The Punisher’s Kill Count
• Fighting Forces Oppression and Rebellion in Persepolis
• Mutant Manhattan
• To the Grave and Back How Long Characters Stayed Dead
• Choose your Own Adventure The Mad Magazine Mystery Record
• Fast Company The Four Faces of The Flash
• A Watchmen Primer
• Amazonian Prime 70 Years of Wonder Woman’s Legs
• Recurring Character Chris Evans
• How to Spot a Vigilante
• Not Standard Issue An Explanation of Crossover Issues and Their Tie-Ins
• Tintin’s Travels
• Tintin Publication History
• Revisionist History 30 Years of Changing Tintin
• Book Report The Library of Congress Comic Collection
• Art, Work The Schedule of a Manga Artist
• Cover to Cover Marvel and DC’s Price History
• Size Matters
• Assorted Peanuts
• Marvel Universe Trading Cards
• Gotham City Police Department Utility Bill
• Power Pack
• If You Were The Punisher, What Would You Do?
• Gotham City Police Department
• The Most Quotable Lines from 300
• Lifespans of Characters in The Walking Dead
• A Peek Inside the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning
• Calling the Shots How Fans Voted to Kill Robin
• Archie’s Ample, Awesome, and Awful Alliteration
• What Makes Nick Fury So Intimidating
• Reasons to Like Cyclops
• How DC Characters Rank in HeroClix
• Shell Boy
• Five Easy Pieces
• Bat-Relationships The World of the Caped Crusader - Panel 1
• Bat-Relationships The World of the Caped Crusader - Panel 2
• Bat-Relationships The World of the Caped Crusader - Panel 3
• Panel to Screen The History of Comic Book Movies - Panel 1
• Panel to Screen The History of Comic Book Movies - Panel 2
• Panel to Screen The History of Comic Book Movies - Panel 3
• The Letter V in V for Vendetta
• Fighting Words The Evolution of the Green Lantern Oath
• Overlapping Interests
• Super Analytics Rating the Characters in the Marvel Comics Universe
• Index
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author
• Copyright