Once the book arrived, I dived right into it.
Author Robert Michael Cotter gives a fairly in-depth overview of the history of comics and the eventual spin-off black and white magazine line, and since the Marvel magazines have not (as of yet) gotten their own book devoted just to them (unlike the Warrens and the Skywalds) he gives them a lot of attention, which they certainly deserve.
At only 222 pages, the book has to leave a lot out, so it reads more like one man's personal history of the format (hey, like this blog!) rather than a complete, encyclopedic reference work. Plus, it has a scarcity of images--only about 30 in the entire book--and while seeing them full-page is a nice tribute to the fine artists to did the covers, I would've loved to have seen a lot more, especially during the parts of the book where the author raves about how good a particular cover is.
But it is definitely an entertaining read, and it was so cool reading a whole book getting into the nitty-gritty of titles like Doc Savage, Zombie Tales, and others. Cotter's love of the format beams from every page. I read the book in less than a few days, and I would've been happy to read it if it was twice as long. He's definitely opinionated, and isn't shy about slamming something he doesn't like, but that didn't keep me from enjoying it.
Plus, the back cover is spot-on perfect:
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