American Comic Books

American Comic Books

The earliest known comic book is called "The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck". It was originally published in several languages in Europe in 1837, among them an English version designed for Britain in 1941. A year later it was that version reprinted in New York on Sept. 14, 1842 for Americans, making it the first comic book printed in America. Though no word balloons were used, there is text under the panels to describe the story. A copy of it was discovered in Oakland, California in 1998. It was written and illustrated by the Swiss caricaturist Rodolphe Töpffer with the intention of appealing to children and the lower classes. The humorous story describes a man's challenging love life that puts him in different situations. It was a huge hit in America and Switzerland even though Töpffer's effort was heavily criticised at the time.

"The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats", published in 1897, is the first original American comic book and it's considered to mark the beginning of the Platinum Age.

Though after "The Yellow Kid" many other comic books were published it wasn't until 1922 when the first monthly publication appeared. "Comic Monthly" lasted for 12 issues. In 1929 Dell Publishing introduced "The Funnies". They were 16 pages and sold for 10 cents. It was distributed by the newsstands along with newspapers. Unlike "Comic Monthly", this book was done 4 colours and had original comic strips instead of reprints. A new issue came out every Saturday, but it lost money. Issues #3 to #21 were 30 cents each. The price changed to 5 cents with issue #22 and lasted the final issue with #36. "The Funnies" helped lay the groundwork for two subsequent publications in 1933: Eastern Color Printing's similar proto-comic book, the eight-page newsprint tabloid "Funnies on Parade", and the Eastern Color / Dell collaboration "Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics", considered by historians the 818n133i first true American comic book.

"Famous Funnies: a Carnival of Comics" was the second comic book done by the Eastern Color group. Printed in 1933, it was 64 pages long with a 10 cent price. It was the first retail comic that was distributed to the public as it was given away only through chain department stores. Eastern Color Printing worked together on creating it and got George Delacorte of Dell Publishing to publish the book. After the first issue, Dell Publishing decided to stop publishing the comic, due to lack of profit.

M.C. Gaines sought to convince his boss Wildenberg that they could make money selling these comics on the newsstand. Wildenberg had a hard time believing that anyone would pay for a comic book. To prove his point , Gaines took a few of issues around, put 10 cent stickers on them and went to local newsstands over the weekend. He told the newsstands what he was testing to see if these could sell and that he'd be back Monday to see how they were doing. Monday came around and to his surprise, they had all sold out and the newsstands were asking for more.

The year 1938 is considered to be the beginning of the Golden Age, with the debut of Superman in the first issue of "Action Comics", published by DC Comics, one of the world's largest English language publishers of comic books. Superman, the first comic book superhero, was so popular that superheroes soon dominated the pages of comic books, which characterized the Golden Age. Between early 1939 and late 1941, DC and her sister company All-American Comics introduced such popular superheroes as Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, the Atom, Hawkman, and Aquaman, while Timely Comics, the 1940s predecessor of Marvel Comics, had million-selling titles that featured the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, and Captain America.

Although the most of the now famous comic book characters where introduced in the 40s, statistics show that at the time Capitan Marvel was the biggest hit, even outselling Superman and he was the first superhero to be adapted to film, 1941.

Quality Comics' "Plastic Man" and cartoonist Will Eisner's non-super powered masked detective "The Spirit", originally published in a newspaper insert but reprinted in comic-book form, were also extremely popular. "The Spirit" chronicled the adventures of a masked vigilante who fought crime with the blessing of the city's police commissioner, an old friend. Despite the Spirit's origin as a detective named Denny Colt, his real identity was virtually unmentioned again and for all intents and purposes he was simply "The Spirit". The stories ranged through a wide variety of styles, from straightforward crime drama and film noir to light-hearted adventure, from mystery and horror to comedy and love stories, often with hybrid elements that twisted genre and expectations.

During World War II comic books gained popularity as cheap and easy reading material where good triumphs over evil. In this period superheroes where often shown fighting Nazi leader, Adolf Hitler and Japanese soldiers.

Although the creation of the superhero was the Golden Age's most significant contribution to popular culture, many other genres of comic book appeared on the newsstands side-by-side with Superman and Captain America. The Golden Age included many funny animal, western, romance, and jungle comics. The Steranko History of Comics 2 notes that it was the non-superhero characters of Dell Comics; most notably the licensed Walt Disney animated character comics that outsold all the Supermen of the day. Dell comics, featuring such licensed movie and literary properties Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Roy Rogers, and Tarzan, boasted circulations of over a million copies a month, and Donald Duck writer/artist Carl Barks is considered one of the era's major talents. Another notable and enduring non-superhero property created during the Golden Age was the Archie Comics cast of teen-humour characters.

Fans have mixed opinions about the end of The Golden Age. Some say that the rise of gritty crime and horror comics, such as those of EC Comics, in the late 1940s and early 1950s marked the end. Others suggest that the Golden Age ended with the cancellation of Captain America Comics at issue #75 in February 1950. The year 1951 is also considered to mark the end of The Golden Age because the stories featuring the all-star superhero team the "Justice Society of America" in "All Star Comics" ended. This event climaxed a long decline in the popularity of superheroes.

In 1954, due to the increase of violence and gore in comic books, the Comic Code Authority was founded and drafted the Comics Code, intended as "the most stringent code in existence for any communications media". Psychiatrist Fredric Wertham's book "Seduction of the Innocent", concerned with what he perceived to be sadistic and homosexual undertones in horror and in superhero comics, raised anxieties about comics. Soon moral crusaders blamed comic books as a cause of poor grades, juvenile delinquency, drug use, and ultimately, crime itself. This led the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency to take an interest in comic books. As a result of these fiery debates and irrational actions, schools and parent groups held public comic-book burnings, and some cities banned comic books. Industry circulation declined drastically. The "Comic Code" forbade gore, excessive violence, sexual suggestiveness, and disrespect of authorities, among other tenets.

The Silver Age brought a new perspective for comic book creators, who incorporated science-fiction concepts in their work. The new Superheroes were more human and troubled, character development and personal conflicts were as important to the image of a superhero as superpowers and epic adventures.

The beginning of the Silver Age is thought to be October 1956 when DC Comics introduced a new version of the classic superhero, The Flash. He was the first of many superheroes to be revised. Other DC heroes published continuously from the 1930s and 1940s, such as Superman and Batman, were renewed as living in an alternate universe called Earth-Two, with the present-day versions considered as living in the modern-day mainstream continuity, Earth-One.

DC comics gained momentum by introducing the first all-star superhero team, the "Justice League of America". Following their example Marvel Comics also created a superhero team, the "Fantastic Four". This led to the era's rise of Marvel under the guidance of writer-editor Stan Lee and such artists/co-writers as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Marvel introduced more sophisticated characterization and dynamic plotting into superhero comics, and began aiming at teen and college-age readers in addition to the children's market. Aside from the Fantastic Four, the most popular and influential Marvel characters of this period were Spider-Man and the Hulk. Other significant and enduring Marvel heroes introduced during the Silver Age include Iron Man, Thor, Daredevil, the X-Men, and Marvel's own all-star group, the Avengers. After an initial period of hesitance, DC began to adopt some of Marvel's creative approaches.

New illustrative styles were introduced with the debut of a new generation of writers that grew up with comic books. Major examples include Neal Adams who introduced naturalism, and Jim Steranko who introduced op art, touches of Surrealism, and graphic design elements. The period hit its commercial peak from 1966 to 1968 with the popularity of the ABC network's campy Batman TV series, which both heightened interest in comics and damaged their public image as a legitimate artistic medium, this despite the Batman comic books themselves having taken a more serious tone in 1964 with the introduction of the "New Look Batman".

Many events mark the end of the Silver Age, some of them are: the retirement of Mort Weisinger, long-time editor of the Superman family of comics for DC and the change of rules to the Comics Code Authority which allowed for more controversial topics to be discussed. This led to a wave of horror comics such as "Ghost Rider" and "Tomb of Dracula". In summary, by any standard, the Silver Age of Comics ended in the early to, at the very latest, mid-1970s.

The Bronze Age retained many of the conventions of the Silver Age, with brightly coloured superhero titles remaining the mainstay of the industry. However darker plot elements and more mature storylines featuring real-world issues, such as drug use, began to appear during the period, prefiguring the later Modern Age of Comic Books. The Spider-Man drug issues were at the forefront of the trend of "relevance", comic books handling real-life issues. The Green Lantern/Green Arrow series dealt not only with drugs, but racial prejudice and social inequity. The X-Men titles, which were partly based on a premise that mutants were a metaphor for real-world minorities, became wildly popular. Other well-known "relevant" comics include the Lois Lane story "I Am Curious: Black", a story (named after a film) where Lois becomes black, and the socially conscious stories written by Steve Gerber in such titles as the absurdist satire Howard the Duck or the grim urban realities of Omega the Unknown. Feminism was a trend with female versions of popular characters like Spider-Woman, Red Sonja, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk.

Before the 1970s there were few non-white superheroes. This began to change with the introduction of characters such as Luke Cage ,who was the first black superhero to star in his own comic book, Storm, Blade, Shang-Chi, Misty Knight, Bronze Tiger, Black Lightning. Another notable minority superhero is the Native American X-Man, Thunderbird.

The end of the Bronze Age is debatable, some saying that it hasn't yet ended. One commonly used ending point for the Bronze Age is the 1985-1986 timeframe. As with the Silver Age, the end of the Bronze Age relates to a number of trends and events that happened at around the same time. At this point, DC Comics completed its special event, "Crisis on Infinite Earths" which marked the revitalization of the company's product line to become a serious market challenger to Marvel again. This timeframe also includes the company's release of the highly acclaimed works, "Watchmen" by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons and "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" by Frank Miller which redefined the superhero genre and inspired years of "grim and gritty" comic books.

The Modern Age is considered to be the period from the mid-1980s until the present day, a period in which comic books have enjoyed huge mainstream success. Other names used to mark this era are the "Dark Age of Comic Books", due to the popularity and artistic influence of grim titles, such as "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" and "Watchmen"; and the "Diamond Age of Comic Books", which was suggested by Scott McCloud, because of the new diversity found in the medium. Another name for this period is "Iron Age of Comic Books", which is based on the idea from Greek mythology of four ages: First Gold, followed by Silver, followed by Bronze, with the last being Iron.

By the early 1990s, anti-heroes had become the rule rather than the exception, and among the most popular were Marvel comics' Cable and Venom and Image Comics' Spawn, although some fans complained that too many of them were just psychopaths of little depth and originality. Some critics believe that this trend is tied to the cynicism of the 1980s, when the idea of a person selflessly using his extraordinary abilities on a quest for good was no longer believable, but a person with a deep psychological impulse to destroy criminals was.

In the 2000s, comic book sales have dropped to the lowest point in 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.  However comic book characters are better known by the general public through movies and video-games and such heavily promoted events as Spider-Man's wedding, the death of Superman and the death of Captain America received widespread media coverage.