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American comic book

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Template:Usculture An American comic book is a small magazine containing a narrative in the comics form.

Since the invention of the comic book format in the 1930s, the United States has been the leading producer with only the British comic (during the inter-war period and up until the 1970s) and Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity. The majority of all comic books in the U.S. are marketed at younger teenagers, though the market also produces work for general audiences as well as more mature markets.

The comic book saw a decline from a World War II high but has increased drastically during the last 30 years. This has been caused by a number of factors, including the advent of the underground comics, the influence from and rise in popularity of manga and the recognition of the comic medium among academics and literature critics not just as trivial children's entertainment, but as a serious form of literature and art.

History

A number of ages or historical eras are recognized in the history of American comic books.

The Platinum Age

Any comic book published prior to 1937 is considered to be part of the "Platinum Age" of comics.

The first comic book published in the United States is thought to be The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, a pirated translation of Rodolphe Töpffer's "Histoire de M. Vieux Bois" from the 1830s. The English version was published in the US in 1842 as a newspaper supplement.

Future Platinum age comic books would include collections of such well-known American comic strips as The Yellow Kid, Popeye and Mickey Mouse.

The Golden Age

Cover of Superman #14, dated January-February 1942

Comic books developed from earlier comic strips that had begun appearing in newspapers in the late 19th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, early comic books began to appear in the form of pulp magazines collecting previously-published comic strips. Since comic strips at this time were primarily humorous in nature, the term "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 American comic book, in the format we know today, with 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. The Belgian comic book "Tintin au Congo" had already been published in 1931.

In February 1935, National Periodical Publications published New Fun Comics, which contained the first original characters and stories in the new format. National followed this up with Detective Comics (in which Batman would first appear). 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's Action Comics #1, which introduced Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Superman, the first superhero. (Their sale of the first story to National cost them the rights to the character, and millions of dollars in subsequent royalties.) Influenced by the pulps, by the legend of the Golem of Prague, and by Philip Wylie's novel Gladiator, Superman had superhuman strength, speed and other abilities; fought crime wearing a bright uniform reminiscent of sideshow-strongman costumes; and lived day-to-day in his secret identity as a mild-mannered reporter, Clark Kent. The impact of Superman on comic books cannot be overstated, 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 world's most recognizable characters.

The period from 1930 through about 1951 is known as the Golden Age of comic books. It is characterized by extremely large print runs (comic books being very popular as cheap entertainment during World War II); erratic quality of stories, art and print quality; and by being a rare industry that provided jobs to an ethnic 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 the era fondly and uncritically, a hallmark of a golden age.

Following the war, new genres were added and old ones expanded upon. Teen humor (epitomized by Archie Comics), funny animal comics (such as those published featuring Walt Disney's characters), science fiction, western, romance, and satiric humor comics all found comfortable niches. Except for three enduring originals, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, superheroes were all but wiped out by 1952.

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The Comics Code

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, horror and true crime comics flourished, with EC Comics the most successful, artisically creative, and infamous publisher of such comics, many containing violence and gore. Targeting these and other comics, politicians and moral crusaders (without any basis of evidence) blamed comic books as a cause of crime, juvenile delinquency, 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. This led the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency to take 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 drastically.

In the wake of these events, many comics publishers, most notably National and Archie, founded the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the Comics Code, intended as "the most stringent code in existence for any communications media." A Comic Code Seal of Approval soon appeared on virtually every comic book carried on newsstands. EC, after experimenting with less controversial comic books, dropped its comics line to focus on the satiric Mad — a comic book it changed to magazine format in order to circumvent the Code.

The Silver Age

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Cover of The Avengers #4, dated 1964

In the mid-1950s, following the popularity of TV series The Adventures of Superman, 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 its line of superheroes over the next six years, introducing new versions of Green Lantern, The Atom, Hawkman and others.

In 1961 writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics. In a landmark that changed the industry, The Fantastic Four #1 initiated a naturalistic style of superheroes with human failings, fears, and inner demons, who squabbled and worried about the likes of rent money. In contrast to the stiff do-gooder archetypes of established superheroes at the time, this ushered a revolution. With dynamic artwork by Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck and others complementing Lee's colorful, catchy prose, the new style found an audience among children (who loved the superheroes) and college students (who were entertained by the deeper themes). Marvel was initially restricted in the number of titles it could produce in that its books were distributed by rival National, a situation not alleviated until the late 1960s. This inhibited the introduction of a Lee/Ditko character, first to surpass Superman in sales since writer Bill Parker and artist Clarence "C.C." Beck's original Captain Marvel, Spider-Man.

National (colloquially called DC Comics by this time), Marvel, and Archie were the major players in the 1960s. Other notable companies included the low-budget Charlton, where many professionals such as Dick Giordano got their start; Dell; Gold Key; Harvey Comics, home of the Harvey cartoon characters (Casper the Friendly Ghost) and non-animated others (Richie Rich); and Tower, best-known for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.

Underground comics

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a surge of 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 Canadian R. Crumb (Robert Crumb)'s publication of Zap Comix #1 in 1968. Crumb created Fritz the Cat and published The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.

The Bronze Age

The term Bronze Age is commonly used for the period of American mainstream comics history that begins with a period of concentrated changes to comic books that happened around 1970, particularly in reference to DC and Marvel. Unlike the Golden/Silver Age transition, the Silver/Bronze transition involved many continually published books, making the transition less sharp; not every book can be said to have entered the Bronze Age at the same time.

Changes commonly considered to mark the transition between Silver and Bronze Age include:

  • A reshuffling of popular creators, including the retirement of Mort Weisinger, editor of the Superman books, and the movement of Jack Kirby to DC, where he created the Fourth World.
  • A boom in non-superhero and borderline superhero comics such as Conan, Kamandi, Jonah Hex, Swamp Thing, Ghost Rider, and the revived Doctor Strange.
  • "Relevant" comics which attempted to address serious social issues, such as the Spider-Man drug abuse issues and the Green Lantern/Green Arrow series.
  • A loosening in the Comics Code Authority rules which happened in 1971.
  • Revamping of several popular characters, including a "darker" Batman closer to the original version, several changes to Superman such as making him a TV reporter and getting rid of Kryptonite, and a temporary non-powered era for Wonder Woman. The New X-Men revamp a few years later may be considered part of this trend.
  • The death of major characters such as Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, the Doom Patrol, and several members of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

The Modern Age

Developments in mainstream comics

The development of a non-returnable "direct market" distribution system in the 1970s coincided with the appearance of comic book specialty stores 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 because of a combination of factors: a nationwide paper shortage, increasing production values, and the minimal profit incentive for stores to stock comic books (due to the small unit price of an individual comic book relative to a magazine). These factors are often pointed to when considering the decline in comic book popularity in America.

Cover of The Dark Knight Returns #1, dated 1985

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) to change the content of their titles to a more realistic, "darker" tone, often derisively termed "grim-and-gritty". This change was underscored by the growing popularity of anti-heroes such as the Punisher, Wolverine, 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 brooding mutants and "dark avengers". This tendency towards darkness and nihilism was also manifested in DC's production of heavily promoted comic book stories such as "A Death in the Family" in the Batman series (in which Batman's 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 stores. (See comic book collecting for a more detailed look at the speculator boom.) Today fewer comics sell in North America than at any time in their publishing history. Though the large superhero-oriented publishers like Marvel and DC are still often referred to as the "mainstream" of comics, they are no longer a mass medium in the same sense as in previous decades.

Prestige format

Prestige format comic books are typically longer than standard comic books, typically being of between 48 and 72 pages, and printed on glossy paper with a spine and card stock cover. The format was first used by DC on Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The success of this work led to the establishment of the format, and it is now used generally to showcase works by big name creators or to spotlight significant storylines.

These storylines can be serialised over a limited number of issues, or can be standalone. Standalone works published in the form, such as Batman: The Killing Joke, are sometimes referred to either as graphic novels or novellas.

Independent and alternative comics

Art Spiegelman's Maus

Comic specialty stores did help encourage several waves of independent-produced comics, beginning in the late 1970s. The first of these was generally referred to as "independent" or "alternative comics"; some of these continued somewhat in the tradition of underground comics, while others resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned ventures or by a single artist, and a few (notably RAW) were experimental attempts to bring comics closer to the world of fine art.

The "small press" scene continued to grow and diversify, with a number of small publishers in the 1990s changing the format and distribution of their books to more closely resemble non-comics publishing. The "minicomics" form, an extremely informal version of self-publishing, arose in the 1980s and became increasingly popular among artists in the 1990s, despite reaching an even more limited audience than the small press. "Art comics" has sometimes been used as a general term for alternative, small-press, or minicomic artists working outside of mainstream traditions. Publishers and artists working in all of these forms stated a desire to refine comics further as an art form.

Wider recognition of comics

Some comic books have gained recognition and earned their creators awards from 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"). Though not a comic book itself, Michael Chabon's comic-book themed The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.

Popular interest in superheroes increased with the success of feature films such as X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man (2002). To capitalize on this interest, comics publishers 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 raised hopes that the medium's image can be changed for the better.

Decline of serial comic book format

In the early 2000s, sales of monthly comic books (22-to-30 page issues) has continued to decline, while there has been a steady increase in sales of graphic novels at retail bookstores. Besides the shift toward graphic novels among comics publishers, traditional book publishers such as Pantheon have released several dozen graphic novels in the last decade, including many works that were originally released by comics publishers with much less publicity.

Comic-book industry insiders have publicly opined that the era of monthly comic books may be coming to an end. While this cautionary note has been sounded at intervals since the 1970s, when paper shortage contributed to cover prices being raised for the first time in a decade, the industry now has the alternative of graphic novels. Many publishers have begun planning for their stories to run for a page-length appropriate for binding into a graphic novel.

The superhero genre's dominance in American comic books

The superhero genre has dominated American comic books for half a century. Before the 1960s, there were popular comics in many genres, including funny animal comics, westerns, romance, horror, war stories, and crime, with dozens of publishers small and large. This diversity disappeared rapidly in the 1950s, due to two factors.

The first was a series of highly publicized campaigns against "unwholesome" children's comics, leading to the establishment of the highly restrictive Comics Code Authority. Although the Code severely constrained superhero comics, it completely banned the grittier genres. This wiped out many small publishers, but left the large superhero companies intact.

Secondly, television drew away much of the audience for light entertainment in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By the time publishers moved away from the Comics Code and produced something other than light entertainment, television and movies were far more profitable. However, comics were still able to depict outlandish action-oriented adventures such as superhero tales without expensive special effects and in a higher volume than the movie industry.

Historically significant American comic books

See also

References

  • All in Color for a Dime by Dick Lupoff & Don Thompson ISBN 0873414985
  • The Comic Book Makers by Joe Simon with Jim Simon ISBN 1887591354
  • DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes by Les Daniels ISBN 0821220764
  • The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer ISBN 1560975016
  • Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics by Les Daniels ISBN 0810938219
  • Masters of Imagination: The Comic Book Artists Hall of Fame by Mike Benton ISBN 0878338594
  • The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide by Robert Overstreet — Edition #35 ISBN 037572107X
  • The Steranko History of Comics, Vol. 1 & 2, by James Steranko — Vol. 1 ISBN 0517501880

The Comics Buyer's Guide's Comic Book Sales Charts and Sales Analysis Pages

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