The Comics: The Complete Collection (Abrams ComicArts), by Brian Walker

Brian Walker was a pioneering historian of comics for a pair of books that explored the popular art form pre- and post-World War II. The Complete Collection combines both books into a hefty coffee-table tome. Walker does great work clearing away misconceptions over the origin of comics, reminding us that speech balloons combined with caricatured images were around for centuries before American newspapers rolled out the Sunday funnies. Graphic novels were published in the 19th century, even if no one called them by that name. Of course, the illustrations are at least as valuable as the commentary, and Walker endeavors to reproduce panels in black-and-white or color with as much fidelity as possible to the way they were originally published.