All photos © Seth Kushner.

In Leaping Tall Buildings: The Origins of American Comics, just published by powerHouse Books, photographer Seth Kushner has captured the creators of such classic comic book figures as Spider-Man, Captain America and Fantastic Four. Kushner, a New York City environmental portrait photographer,  and writer Christopher Irving co-founded the web site Graphic NYC. They expanded the site into their book, which traces the story of the comic book from the late 1930s to modern-day graphic novels and memoirs through interviews, photos and reproductions of original sketches and panels.  Excelsior!

 Top: The cover photo of the book, showing the hand of Joe Simon, then 96, drawing Captain America. Above: Stan Lee, founder of Marvel Comics and co-creator of Spider-Man.
Joe Simon, co-creator of Captain America. Simon died last year at age 98.

Frank Miller, creator of Sin City, 300, Dark Knight Returns.

Art Spiegelman, cartoonist and author of Maus.

Irwin Hasen, co-creator of the comic strip Dondi and artist at DC Comics in the 1940s.

Tags: Art Spiegelman, Captain America, Christopher Irving, comic books, Dark Knight Returns, DC Comics, Dondi, Graphic NYC, Irwin Hasen, Joe Simon, Marvel Comics, powerHouse Books, Seth Kushner, Sin City, Spider-Man, Stan Lee

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 at 12:00 pm ET by Holly Stuart Hughes and is filed under Books, Celebrity/Entertainment.