Entertainment books may be on of the few kinds of media can unite children around the world. Who doesn't know the characters of Peanuts? Or the stories in the Disney classics? Regardless of the language they are translated in, entertainment books provide an escape for kids. Every more or less educated person in the world realizes that entertainment books are one of the most influential and persuasive popular culture media forms of the 20th century.
Comics are a book or magazine whose distinguishing feature is sequential art. These entertainment books are not always funny or humoristic but also serious and even sometimes dramatic. And they usually carry a message which can appeal to readers of different ages.
The first comic books were just the collections of funny strips published in newspapers. They were of great success. That's why a special comic-book form was created. Comic books have long since outgrown the stories of masked crusaders in skin tight costumes. Now the stories are darker, grittier and can be found side-by-side best selling novels. Many people called such entertainment books graphic novels.
In the 20th century, the most popular books appealing to both children and adults were comics featuring the characters created by Walt Disney. Disney books appeared in 1930. But Disney comic books had been published only since 1940. The most famous and well-known Disney characters were Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. The most successful Disney books of 1950-60s were Uncle Scrooge and Walt Disney's Comic and Stories. But the golden age of comic history started in 1939 with the creation of Super Man.
Times change. And comic books became more unusual. But still their moral influence is great. There are a lot of book boutiques which sell different books including comics or children books. The variety of such books is increasing year by year. And it's no wonder because under conditions of strong competition every book publisher tries to improve the plot, diversify situations and types of characters who participate in them. Among them there are DC, Dark Horse, Marvel, Image and other "independent publishing houses. Each of these publishers has its own database with different books and magazines related with comics. It can also be found on the Internet where a huge number of links regarding entertainment books are available.
Comic books still have a strong hold on our children. Many sociologists and physiologists have been studying this phenomenon for over a decade already. But no exact conclusion has yet been made.
Among the advantages of comics we often hear the following. Many scientific, sociology and history researchers have recently made a conclusion that though reading and studying comic books we are often provided with valuable and important insights on the culture of the 20th century, its distinguishing features and peculiarities. However, still not every library finds such entertainment books worthy of addition. One of the most popular libraries located in New-York has a policy of collecting some representative comic books samples, but no original material is kept there. Comics are microfilmed there. One of the reasons is that sometimes it's very difficult to find and obtain published comic books of 1930-1960 periods. Some libraries only reprint necessary collections or make microforms.
So, entertainment books have a long history and still they are sold and appreciated by millions of people all over the world.