Rough Guides have covered just about everything from Wines to Opera to different nations and cities. I guess it was just a matter of time before they got to the best of everything else and tackled Comic Books.

Bringing you some new and different looks at the heroes and heroines as well as the villains we all love and love to hate, Rough Guides uses both common information and digs out new stuff for us to take a look at.

All the important stuff is here. From sidekicks to well known phrases, wild costumes, and weird powers. Even introspective looks at the creators, artists and writes who helped to bring their adventures to us.

They also like important issues, and talk about the publishers and how the various characters have impacted such real life characters as Jerry Seinfeld and even Elvis. They even look at how a certain duck was banned because he didn’t wear pants.

Also tossed into the mix is information about the movie and TV shows dedicated to different heroes. One thing I disagreed with was the ‘rating system’ they gave to the characters. Yes, they rated Batman high. But The PHANTOM got a lower score then Batman? Sacrilege. I am sure this oversight will be corrected in any following editions.

As a history and quick study, this is a very good place to start. Covering most of the major history of the creators and the characters and touching on the publics love of Comics and super characters, the Rough Guide makes a good place to get a leg up on your trivia.