The Great American Novel
John William De Forest invented the term in 1868 and said that such an epic could not be written until America had "agonized and conquered through centuries." This period arrived in the 1960s. De Forest dreamed of something uniquely and indisputably American, reflecting America's self image. Nothing fits that description more than the superhero. Pulitzer prize winning author Michael Chabon suggested that "the summed output of comic books is itself the elusive Great American Novel, a collective project, of and for the people, as vast and as egalitarian as the American ideal itself. It's just a simple matter of choosing the right books. " (the conclusion to Jon Adam's "the Essay", broadcast on Fri, 20 Jan 2012, 22:45 on BBC Radio 3.) It's "a simple matter of choosing the right books." Which books are best? Well what if "the king of comics" (Jack Kirby) teamed up with the greatest comic writer/editor in history? What if they then produced the greatest ever comic (see below)? What if, for the first time, a superhero comic was grounded in realism? What if that spawned the most successful comics company and revitalized the industry? Maybe that would count?
"Lee and Kirby's Fantastic Four run is the Mount Olympus of comic book storytelling. Nothing else can touch it in its innovation, sustained excitement, consequential events, and unprecedented character development." (Mark Engblom in Comic Coverage: March 21, 2009)
