1000 Comic Books You Must Read samples deeply from the superhero pantheon, showcasing key issues from the storylines of Batman, Spider-Man and other stars of the DC and Marvel Comics universes.

But the new book also yields smaller, weirder pleasures, as author Tony Isabella pays homage to dozens of pulp characters who flickered for only a few pages before disappearing from view.

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Comic Book Artists Illustrate Sci-Fi Legends

They include characters like Zot, the Creature That Devoured Detroit, E-Man, Werewolf by Night, Mister Miracle, Plastic Man, Hangman, Normal Man, Radioactive Man, Captain Atom, Doctor Solar, Metamorpho, Tigre Were-Woman, Badger, Grottu King of the Insects, Shaggs the Living Sphinx, Airwave and Magnus Robot Fighter.

A beautiful collection of captioned cover art, 1000 Comic Books You Must Read, released last month by Krause Publications and available for $20 online, revels in such oddities.

Anybody every hear of the Blonde Phantom? She fought crime in a red dress and high heels back in 1946, dreamed up by a young Stan Lee. (Isabella worked for Lee at Marvel Comics and created a few of his own books, including 1977's Black Lightning.)

The required reading list from Isabella's 1000 Comic Books, excerpted in the image gallery below with information taken from the book, serves as a refresher course tracing the evolution of America's pulp fiction industry over seven decades of eye-popping ingenuity.

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Wolverine No. 1-4 (1982, pictured top, image courtesy Marvel Comics)

In Frank Miller's take on the saber-clawed mutant, Wolverine battles ninjas in Japan and first utters his memorable tagline: "I'm the best there is at what I do, but what I do isn't very nice."

Batman No. 1 (1940)

Great villains beget great heroes, and this first full-on Batman comic features The Joker, Hugo Strange and Cat Woman. (Spoiler alert: The Joker dies.) Batman was introduced two years earlier in Detective Comics #27 in a six-page shorty that Isabella says essentially "plagiarized" The Spirit.

Weird Fantasy No. 17 (1953)

Artists Joe Orlando and Wally Wood illustrated Weird adaptations of Ray Bradbury's stories. The legendary sci-fi author cut a deal with EC comics to produce illustrated versions of his tales after catching several uncredited swipes of his material. "There Will Come Soft Rains," like many mid-century comic book stories, was inspired by the fear of imminent nuclear annihilation.

The Hulk, left, and Spider-Man make their debuts.

Images courtesy Marvel Comics

Incredible Hulk No. 1 (1962)

Tapping into nuclear angst, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee introduce scientist Bruce Banner in their origins story about a creature created when a gamma radiation bomb goes bad.

Amazing Fantasy No. 15 (1962)

Priced at 12 cents, this piece laid the Spidey foundation, showing how Peter Parker morphs into a superpowered hero after getting bitten by a radioactive spider. For the story, Lee crafted one of his best lines: "With great power, there must also come great responsibility."

1963 is a good year: Iron Man makes his debut (left) and the Fantastic Four get an annual.

Images courtesy Marvel Comics

Tales of Suspense No. 39 (1963)

Iron Man takes his bow. Anticipating by a couple of years the mainstream impact of the Vietnam War, Stan Lee and artist Don Heck introduce Tony Stark as a weapons manufacturer who devises an armored metal suit after getting wounded in Southeast Asia combat.

Fantastic Four Annual No. 1 (1963)

"Fantastic Four changed my life," says Isabella. After purchasing the comic book for a quarter at a gas station during a summer vacation, 11-year-old Isabella became "mentally exhausted" by the supercharged adventures. After reading the story of Submariner, Human Torch and gutsy Sue Storm, Isabella writes, "I knew what I wanted to do when I grew up. I wanted to make comic books."

The X-Men No. 1 (1963, image courtesy Marvel Comics)

Blurbed as being "in the sensational Fantastic Four style!" Marvel's Lee hit the teen demo in his first story about Professor Xavier's School for Gifted youngsters.

Love and Rockets and Swamp Thing expand comics' frontier.

Images courtesy Fantagraphics and DC COmics

Love and Rockets No. 1 (1982)

By focusing on Hispanic characters tangling with real-life issues, writer-illustrators Jamie and Gilbert Hernandez produced "the most important alternative comic of the 1980s," according to Isabella.

Saga of the Swamp Thing No. 21 (1984)

A couple of years before creating his own mythology in Watchmen, British comics writer Alan Moore wows readers when he takes over the Swamp Thing franchise and pens "The Anatomy Lesson."

Clockwise from top left: Maus, Superman and Jonah Hex

Images courtesy Pantheon and DC Comics and

Maus: A Survivor's Tale (1986)

Art Spiegelman won a Pulitzer Prize for this graphic novel drawn from material serialized in Raw comics between 1973 and 1985. The concentration camp saga forced high-brow critics to take comic books seriously.

Jonah Hex No. 1 (2006)

Isabella ranks this return of the scar-faced Civil War veteran as his favorite DC comic of the '00s.

All-Star Superman No. 10 (2008)

Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely stud their dense tale with fresh techniques, 70 years after Superman first rescued Lois Lane in Action Comics. Isasbella writes: "This issue packs more character bits and story into its 22 pages than most series do in a year."

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