Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cheap Thrills | 1972 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
| 2 | An American Family | 1973 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
| 3 | The Adventurous Decade | 1975 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
| 4 | The Dime Detectives | 1988 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
| 5 | The Encyclopedia of American Comics | 1990 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
| 6 | The Comic Book Reader’s Companion | 1993 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
| 7 | The Funnies | 1995 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
| 8 | Comic Book Culture | 2000 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
| 9 | Joe Chiodo’s How to Draw and Paint Pin-Ups | 2006 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
| 10 | Good Girl Art | 2007 | Ron Goulart | Buy |
Ron Goulart’s non-fiction output runs to ten titles published between 1972 and 2007, and the bulk of them deal with comics, pulp fiction, and popular culture. Early works like Cheap Thrills (1972) and The Adventurous Decade (1975) looked at pulp magazine and comic strip history, while later books including The Encyclopedia of American Comics (1990), The Comic Book Reader’s Companion (1993), and Comic Book Culture (2000) covered the broader world of American comics in reference and survey form.
A few titles sit outside the comics focus. An American Family (1973) and The Dime Detectives (1988) reflect Goulart’s other interests in popular entertainment and mystery fiction. The final entries, Joe Chiodo’s How to Draw and Paint Pin-Ups (2006) and Good Girl Art (2007), returned to visual art and illustration. These books can be read in any order depending on the reader’s area of interest.