A Brief History of Comics
The Golden Age (1938-1954)
The Silver Age (1956 – 1970)
The Bronze Age (1970-1985)
The Modern Age (1986-present)
References
1. Canva, Michael. "Why 'Maus' Remains 'The Greatest Graphic Novel Ever Written,' 30 Years Later." The Washington Post. August 11, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/08/11/why-maus-remains-the-greatest-graphic-novel-ever-written-30-years-later/.
2. Cornog, Martha, and Timothy Perper, eds. Graphic Novels Beyond the Basics: Insights and Issues for Libraries. Santa Barbara, CA. Libraries Unlimited, 2009.
3. Karp, Jesse. Graphic Novels in Your School Library. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2012.
Phoenix, Jack. Maximizing the Impact of Comics in Your Library: Graphic Novels, Manga, and More. Santa Barbara, CA. Libraries Unlimited, 2020.
The Golden Age (1938-1954)
- The first comic character and first example of a comic as we know it in sequential art, is Richard F. Outcault’s The Yellow Kid, which appeared in 1895.
- Around the turn of the 20th century, comic strips became popular in publications across the United States, and soon enough these comic strips were collected and reprinted in a magazine-style format, becoming the first comic books around 1933.
- Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman in 1933.
- The publication of Action Comics #1 in 1938 was the first appearance of Superman. This kicked off the Golden Age of Comics.
- Comics of the early Golden Age were dominated by superheroes such as Batman, Superman, and Captain America.
- In the 1940s, superheroes were pushed aside to make way for crime and horror stories. Many of these stories featured mature content.
- Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist, made an erroneous connection between comics and juvenile delinquency and even testified before Congress causing a public outcry against comics.
- In order to win back the public’s trust, comic book publishers created the Comics Code Authority in 1954, a self-regulating board that dictated what content could, and could not, be published in comics.
- Many of the remaining superhero titles were saturated to fit the new Comics Code Authority standards, with any perceived offensive material or any content that was perceived to promote nontraditional values removed.
The Silver Age (1956 – 1970)
- In the late 1950s, with the beginning of the space race taking place, Science Fiction became a genre unto itself. Comic publishers latched on to this genre.
- Superheroes changed. Batman and Wonder Woman, for instance, found themselves faced, more and more against sinister space monsters, cosmic robots, and other extraterrestrial threats.
- The Flash and Green Lantern, both were created around this time and have sci-fi origins.
- Timely Comics merged into Marvel Comics in the early 1960s. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby developed an idea of a new group of superheroes that would put a spin on the genre in 1961. They created superheroes with normal human problems, making their heroes deal with everyday issues that readers could understand, but the heroes would still engage in fantastic, space-faring, derring-do that thrilled young readers.
- The first heroes of this kind were called the Fantastic Four.
- Comics became increasingly political during this time, as the 1960s were a hotbed of political activity from equality movements, anti-war sentiment, and so on and race relations was a near constant topic. The X-Men are a perfect example of these politics at play, as the Mutants who fight to protect a world that fears and hates them are, according to Stan Lee himself, an allegory for the Civil Rights Movement and oppression of minorities. Superheroes of color started to appear during this time frame, such as the Black Panther and the Falcon.
- The Silver Age molded comics and especially superheroes into the forms that we know them today: everyday people who are granted incredible powers and must reconcile those powers with their ordinary lives.
The Bronze Age (1970-1985)
- The 1970s saw the introduction of even more superheroes of color, including Luke Cage, Vixen, Storm, and Blade. Many of these characters’ stories talked racism and inequality head-on.
- Female superheroes began to reflect the issues of real-world women, in a large part thanks to the feminist movement.
- Comics creators were gradually pushing back against the Comics Code, and the 1970s and early 1980s saw a return of horror comics (such as Swamp Thing) while superhero comics weren’t afraid to tackle hard-hitting social issues. Comics were increasingly becoming darker as the stories “The Death of Gwen Stacey” in The Amazing Spider-Man and “The Dark Phoenix Saga” in The Uncanny X-Men featured murder, suicide, and saw superheroes suffer incredible loss by portraying the deaths of long-standing characters.
The Modern Age (1986-present)
- Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, two superhero comics that acted as deconstructions of superhero comics, kicked off the Modern Age in 1986 and have had a lasting impact on comics ever since.
- Comics in the late 1980s, despite the Comics Code still in place, were stepping further and further into adult territory with mature content. Much of this had to do with comics becoming decontextualized.
- Comics in the 1990s carried on many of the dark and serious tones of the 70s and 80s. This is the era that brought us the character who would be become an R-Rated superhero movie sensation, Deadpool.
- Although many comics were dark and gritty, there started to be an acceptance of the idea that comics had literary and artistic merit thanks to Art Spiegelman’s work Maus, which would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize and have its own influence on the medium. Maus helped solidify the idea that comics were worthy of critical attention and had intellectual merit (Canva 2016). Maus also proved that comics aren’t just stories about superheroes.
- The 1990s saw the important world of independent comics bubble to the surface. Comix, those underground comics which are often self-published titles increased in popularity and Image Comics, which has given us multimedia franchises, such as The Walking Dead, was formed.
- Manga (Japanese comics) exploded in the 1990s as well. Manga offered more titles featuring female leads in an array of different genres and subgenres, such as Sailor Moon, and the plethora of titles could appeal to girls, boys, and other demographics that American comics were missing (Cornog and Perper 2009). Comic publishers quickly took note.
- Since the turn of the 21st century comic publishers have made very public efforts to diversify their character and titles. Now more than ever before in comics history, readers can find comics created and filled with diverse characters who are female, persons of color, LGBTQ, and so on.
References
1. Canva, Michael. "Why 'Maus' Remains 'The Greatest Graphic Novel Ever Written,' 30 Years Later." The Washington Post. August 11, 2016. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2016/08/11/why-maus-remains-the-greatest-graphic-novel-ever-written-30-years-later/.
2. Cornog, Martha, and Timothy Perper, eds. Graphic Novels Beyond the Basics: Insights and Issues for Libraries. Santa Barbara, CA. Libraries Unlimited, 2009.
3. Karp, Jesse. Graphic Novels in Your School Library. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2012.
Phoenix, Jack. Maximizing the Impact of Comics in Your Library: Graphic Novels, Manga, and More. Santa Barbara, CA. Libraries Unlimited, 2020.