Comic books
A comic book is a book, magazine or pamphlet which communicates using sequential art, a mixtues of images and text. In the United States, comic books are closely associated with the superhero genre. In Japan, the art form is called manga.
History
The Golden Age
Comic books grew out of earlier comic strips which had appeared in newspapers in the late 19th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, early comic books began to appear in the form of magazines or smaller pamphlets reprinting previously-published strip content. Since comic strips at this time were primarily humorous in nature, the name "comic book" was adapted from "comic strip". This has caused some confusion over time, since "comic book" grew to refer to the medium, not to the type of content being published.
Some credit Max Gaines with publishing the first comic book, Funnies on Parade, in 1933. He printed an 8-page comic section that folded down from the large broadsheet to a smaller 9-inch by 12-inch format containing reprints of comic strips. Others have contended that comic books had begun appearing in the previous decade.
In February 1935, National Periodical Publications published New Fun Comics, which contained original characters and stories. The company followed this up with Detective Comics. Both series were heavily influenced by pulp magazines, and the content was heavy on adventure and detective fiction.
The most significant event in comic book history occurred in 1938 with the publication by National Periodical Publications of Action Comics #1, which introduced Superman, the first superhero. Influenced by both the pulps and Philip Wylie's novel Gladiator, Superman fought crime wearing a bright costume, had superhuman abilities, and lived by day in his secret identity as a mild-mannered reporter. The impact of Superman on comic books cannot be understated, as within two years most comic book companies were publishing large lines of superhero titles, and Superman has gone on to become one of the most recognizable characters in western fiction.
The period from 1930 through about 1951 is termed the Golden Age of comic books. It was characterized by extremely large print runs (comic books were very popular as cheap entertainment during World War II), erratic quality of stories, art and print quality, and an industry which provided jobs to a cross-section of Americans, albeit often at low wages and in sweatshop working conditions. However, since comic books were primarily aimed at children, many adults remember it fondly and uncritically, a hallmark of a golden age.
Following the war, new genres appeared. For example, teen humor, (epitomized by Archie Comics), funny animal comics (such as those published featuring Walt Disney's characters), science fiction, old west, romance, and humor comics all found comfortable niches, but the superhero remained king.
Interregnum
In the late 1940s and early 1950s politicians and moral crusaders blamed comic books as a cause of crime, juvenile delinquency, moral degradation, drug use, and poor grades. The psychiatrist Frederic Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent, obsessed with sadistic and homosexual undertones in superhero comics, raised anxieties about comics (although the impact of Wertham's book is often overstated). This moral panic led to the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency taking an interest in comic books. As a result of these concerns, schools and parent groups held public comic book burnings, and some cities banned comic books. Industry circulation declined sharply. Superheroes, in particular, were all but wiped out as a genre by 1952.
In the wake of these events, the horror comic and true crime comic genres flourished, due in no small part to better-quality artwork and literate sensibilities developing. EC Comics gained fame as a publisher of crime and horror comics, producing a number of high-quality suspense stories (many containing violence and gore).
EC's popularity was resented by many other publishers, most notably National and Archie, two of the largest players. In 1954, they and other publishers founded the Comics Code Authority, and drafted the Comics Code; intended, in their own words, as "...the most stringent code in existence for any communications media." In fact, the Code was carefully crafted to exclude the sorts of comics which EC published, and to drive the upstart competitor out of business. The gambit worked, as EC dropped its comic book line to focus on producing Mad Magazine.
The Silver Age
In the late 1950s, publishers experimented with the superhero once more. Showcase #4 (National, 1956) introduced the rebooted hero The Flash, which began a second wave of superhero popularity, known as the Silver Age of comic books. National expanded their line of superhero titles over the next six years.
In 1961 writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics, to popular acclaim. Marvel offered superhero characters, but with human failings, fears, and inner demons. Dynamic artwork by Kirby, Steve Ditko, and others complemented Lee's colorful, catchy prose. Their new style found an audience among children, who loved the superheroes, and among college students, who were entertained by the deeper themes. Marvel was initially restricted in the number of titles they could produce in that their books were distributed by National, a situation not alleviated until the late 1960s.
National (colloquially called DC Comics by this time), Marvel and Archie were the two major players in the 1960s, though other, smaller companies sprang up. Few are remembered today.
Underground and foreign comics
During the late 1960s and early 1970s a surge underground comics occurred. These comics were published independently of the established comic book publishers and most reflected the youth counterculture and drug culture of the time. Many were notable for their uninhibited, irreverent style which hadn't been seen in comics before. The movement is often considered to have been started by R. Crumb's publication of Zap Comix #1 in 1968.
Comics had also become popular outside the United States. Following World War II, Japan had developed a comic book industry, a format called manga. Although science fiction themes were in evidence, manga has traditionally presented a much wider range of subject matter than have American comics, and manga are more widely accepted in Japan than are comic books in America.
Europe had also developed an interest in sequential art. The United Kingdom's comic industry was often tied to the US industry (for instance, Marvel UK), but France (whose books are called "BD", pronounced "bay-day"), Germany and Italy all developed their own industries and styles, many of which would become popular in the US later on. One of the best-known outlets for European comics was Metal Hurlant magazine, whose material was later translated and presented in the US as Heavy Metal magazine.
The Modern Age
The development of a non-returnable "direct" distribution system in the 1970s coincided with comic book specialty stores sprouting up across North America. These specialty stores were a haven for more distinct voices and stories, but they also marginalized comics in the public eye. Serialized comic stories became longer and more complex, requiring readers to buy more issues to finish a story. Between 1970 and 1990, comic book prices rose sharply, partly due to a nationwide paper shortage, partly due to increasing production values, and partly because the small unit price of an individual comic book relative to a magazine presented very little profit incentive for stores to stock comic books. Both of these factors of often pointed to when considering the decline in comic book popularity in America.
Comic specialty stores did help encourage a second wave of independent-produced comics beginning in the late 1970s. These have been referred to as "independent", "alternative comics", "small press", or "mini-comics". This wave continues somewhat in the tradition of the underground comics, and also attempts to further refine comics as an art form.
In the mid-to-late 1980s, two comic book series published by DC Comics (The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen) had a profound impact upon the American comic book industry. The phenomenal popularity of these series led both of the major publishers (DC and Marvel) changing the content of their titles to a more realistic, "darker" tone, a change often derisively terms "grim-and-gritty". This change was underscored by the growing popularity of "anti-heroes" such as The Punisher, Wolverine (comics), and Spawn, as well as the darker tone of some independent publishers such as First Comics and Dark Horse Comics. For a period of several years the pages of mainstream comics were filled with obsessed mutants and "dark avengers". This tendency towards darkness and nihilism even resulted in DC producing heavily promoted comic book stories such as "A Death In The Family" in the Batman series, where his sidekick Robin was brutally murdered by The Joker; while at Marvel, the continuing popularity of the various X-Men books led to storylines such as Mutant Massacre and Acts of Vengeance.
Though a speculator boom in the early 1990s temporarily increased specialty store sales - collectors 'invested' in multiple copies of a single comic to sell at a profit later - these booms ended in a collectibles glut, and comic sales declined sharply in the mid-1990s, leading to the demise of many hundreds of stories. Today fewer comics sell in North America than at any time in their publishing history.
Some comic books have gained recognition and garnered their creators awards outside the genre, such as Art Spiegelman's Maus, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman, an issue of which won the World Fantasy Award for "Best Short Story".
Recently popular interest in superheroes has increased with the success of feature films such as Spider-Man (2002) and X-Men (2000). To captilize on this interest comics publishers have launched concerted promotional efforts such as Free Comic Book Day (first held on May 5, 2002). In addition, the filmed adaptation of non-superhero comic books like Ghost World, Road to Perdition and American Splendor have the medium's fans hopes that its image can be changed for the better.
In the early 2000s, the continuing decline of the monthly comic book "pamphlet" format (22-to-30 page issues), along with a steady increase in sales of graphic novels at retail bookstores, has led comic book industry insiders to consider the possibility that the era of monthly comic books may be coming to an end, with the industry being subsumed and dominated by the publication of graphic novels. As it is, most publishers arrange nowadays to have their stories geared to run around the equivalent page length for binding into a graphic novel.
Some famous comic books
Related articles
External links
Referenced By
List of anti-heroes | LiteraTure | LiteraryArt | Literary Art | Losers in literature | Tangible investment | Tangible investments
|
