Comic Book Ages

Introduction

In discussing the history of American comic books and graphic novels, fans and scholars have created rough chronological categories to separate periods of output and development characterized by shifting trends and critical reception. Several eras or ages of comic books are widely recognized, focusing on the twentieth century: the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, and the Modern Age. The precise beginnings and endings of these periods are often debated among historians of the field, and some observers have identified additional eras or subcategories. Still, the basic system of comic book ages remains a popular structure for discussion and analysis of comics.

Background

Graphic storytelling has existed since the first cave paintings. Since then, images have been used to tell stories in many ways. Other notable historical examples include the Codex Zouche-Nuttall, a 36-foot-long pre-Columbian folded manuscript telling of the Mixtec leader Eight Deer Tiger Claw, and the Bayeux Tapestry, a 230-foot-long embroidered cloth that tells of the Norman conquest of England in 1066. In the eighteenth century, poet William Blake carefully integrated words with pictures in books such as The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, a forerunner of the graphic novel.

Generally accepted as the oldest American comic is The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck (1841), an English translation of Rodolphe Töpffer’s Histoire de M. Vieux Bois (c. 1839) serialized in the popular Brother Jonathan magazine. As printing technology continued to improve, others continued to experiment with graphic storytelling in newspapers, magazines, and books. Cartoons or comic strips within larger published works steadily gained popularity in the 1920s. There were also some innovative standalone publications, such as the work of American artist Lynd Ward, who began producing wordless woodcut graphic novels with Gods’ Man (1929).

Comic books in their modern form began to appear in the 1930s. They boomed in popularity during World War II, with superheroes becoming a key genre. However, after the war, sales declined sharply amid widespread social backlash. The comics industry was then revived in the late 1950s and 1960s by the emergence of new styles and another wave of interest in superheroes, solidifying comic books as a significant part of American popular culture. These changes also helped drive growing attention from critics and historians, who soon began to identify various past periods in comic book publishing. One of the earliest references to a previous "Golden Age" of comic books was recorded in 1960, and subsequently the concept of a chronological gold-silver-bronze hierarchy began to catch on among fans.

Styles and trends in comic books continued to evolve throughout the late twentieth century. Notably, underground comics emerged in the 1970s, and in the 1980s certain comics and graphic novels began to earn a new degree of respect from literary critics. As a result, fans and historians continued to develop the use of Golden Age, Silver Age, and Bronze Age terminology. By the twenty-first century, these rough periods were well-established in the comic book community, covering from the late 1930s to the mid-1980s; later publications were generally considered "Modern Age." However, many critics, collectors, and historians continued to examine the categorization system and offer alternative or additional divisions.

Victorian Age and Platinum Age

The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide uses the term Victorian Age to describe the first age of comics, a period in which comic strips such as The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck, took shape in newspapers and magazines. The Yellow Kid became the first significant recurring comic strip character; his 1895 debut led to an explosion of merchandising and the publication of a collection of Yellow Kid strips in 1897. The book measured 5 inches by 7 inches, sold for fifty cents, and was described as a comic book on the back cover—the first such use of the term.

Overstreet terms the period from 1883 to 1938 the Platinum Age. During this era, comic strips gained popularity and began to be collected in magazines or comic books, often used as promotional giveaways. In 1928, George T. Delacorte, Jr., and Eastern Color teamed up to produce such compilations, beginning with The Funnies, which established the sixty-four-page format. In 1933, New Funnies became the first recognizable comic book, reprinting a variety of comic strips. Publishers unwilling to pay the newspaper syndicates for the rights to reprint strips soon began to pay cheaply for original content. Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications with the idea of producing a comic with all new material that he could own and exploit. New Comics (1935) is recognized as the first comic book to contain all original material, and National Allied Publications later evolved into DC Comics.

Golden Age

The debut of the iconic character Superman in issue 1 of Action Comics in June 1938 is universally recognized as the beginning of the Golden Age, during which superhero figures rapidly took over the comics. DC Comics’ success inspired countless imitators and flooded the market with dozens of titles. During this period, Classics Illustrated flirted with the graphic novel format by producing lengthy comic book adaptations of classic novels. From 1941 to 1971, these publications helped children comprehend great works from around the world. They were published periodically and released on newsstands like standard comic books.

Comic book writer Arnold Drake and illustrator Matt Baker experimented with the graphic novel form with It Rhymes with Lust, published by St. John Publications in 1950. At 128 pages, it was the longest graphic story to be published in the United States. The work’s success led St. John to publish The Case of the Winking Buddha (1950) by pulp novelist Manning Lee Stokes and illustrator Charles Raab; the latter title did not sell well, and the concept was abandoned.

Many argue that the Golden Age ended as superheroes faded from popularity in the years following World War II, but few agree on the era’s exact end. The most commonly accepted year is 1951, the year in which DC Comics reduced its heroes to Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman and Fawcett Comics stopped publishing comics about Captain Marvel. Three years later, the Comics Code Authority (CCA) formed to enforce the newly created Comics Code, which would restrict the content of mainstream comics for the next several decades.

Silver Age

DC Comics revived the character the Flash in 1956 with issue 4 of Showcase, ushering in the Silver Age of comics. Readers were treated to new superheroes and revived heroes, and many companies followed the superhero trend. DC’s success prompted Atlas Comics publisher Martin Goodman to charge editor Stan Lee with creating a new heroic team. Lee’s creation of the Fantastic Four in 1961 and the subsequent success and influence of the company, which became known as Marvel Comics, have caused some to refer to the era as the Marvel Age.

The term “graphic novel” was coined in November 1964 by writer Richard Kyle in a newsletter circulated to all members of the Amateur Press Association (APA). The term was slow to catch on, although fellow APA member Bill Spicer adapted it for the title of his fanzine Graphic Story Magazine. Artist Gil Kane and writer Archie Goodwin collaborated on His Name Is . . . Savage!, which Kane self-published in 1968. At the same time, Marvel published the black-and-white magazine Spectacular Spider-Man. Neither gained a following, but both were significant steps toward longer graphic narratives. Undaunted, Kane published his next project, Blackmark, in paperback form in 1971. Blackmark is arguably the first true modern graphic novel, as it was an original story in book form.

By 1970, the content of comics indicated a shift in direction toward more serious themes. In The Comic Book Heroes (1997), Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones argue that the Silver Age ended in 1970, at which time Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams took over DC's Green Lantern superhero series and produced stories taken from news topics of the day. Others argue that the age ended in 1973 with the death of Spider-Man’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy, in Amazing Spider-Man, issue 122.

Bronze Age

By the early 1970s, the CCA had rewritten its standards, which led to an increase in horror, occult, and sword-and-sorcery titles. Many small companies vanished during this period, including Gold Key Comics, Harvey Comics, and Charlton Comics, while DC Comics and Marvel Comics struggled with rising production costs. The direct-sales channel, in which retailers could purchase comics directly from the publishers or dedicated distributors, was created and led to the establishment of independent comic book shops. Such shops provided small, independent publishers such as Eclipse Comics with the opportunity to reach a wider readership. Several self-published comics, including Wendy and Richard Pini’s ElfQuest (1978–85), helped pioneer the format of collected editions.

The term graphic novel began to gain traction during these years. It was used to describe Bloodstar (1976), based on a story from Conan creator Robert E. Howard and adapted by Richard Corben, and George Metzger used it in his Beyond Time and Again (1976). Jim Steranko’s digest-sized Chandler: Red Tide (1976) was called both a graphic novel and a visual novel, though the work is more commonly considered an illustrated novel than a work of graphic narrative. In 1978, Eclipse published writer Don McGregor and artist Paul Gulacy’s Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, the first graphic novel sold in the direct market. That same year, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby produced The Silver Surfer (1978), a graphic novel with an original story featuring a character first introduced in Fantastic Four more than a decade earlier.

What many cite as the first graphic novel, Will Eisner’s A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories (1978), was actually published after Sabre and The Silver Surfer. Exploring serious themes about religion and life, the work was in many ways more a novel than the publications that preceded it. Eisner used the term graphic novel to describe the work, as many companies refused to consider publishing a comic book. In the wake of Eisner’s critical success, the term graphic novel became more accepted than graphic album, a term coined by Terry Nantier when he began publishing European works in the United States.

The Bronze Age is often described as ending in 1985. At that time, DC Comics celebrated its fiftieth anniversary by rewriting its continuity and setting the stage for new ways of telling stories.

Modern Age and Other Divisions

The Modern Age is often described as beginning in 1986. In this watershed year, a number of notable long-form works, including Frank Miller’s Batman:The Dark Knight Returns, were published. These works earned a new degree of critical attention and found their way into regular bookstores, introducing graphic storytelling to new readers. According to the most basic classification system, the Modern Age continued in the twenty-first century.

Other terms used to describe the trends of the late 1980s to the turn of the millennium include Copper Age, Iron Age, and Dark Age, reflecting the general tone of many stories published during this period. More publishers entered the field, producing creator-owned or company-owned works, and this increase in publications, along with marketing tactics such as the release of special editions and variant covers, created a speculator market that allowed creators and retailers to reap massive profits. When the bubble burst during the 1990s, however, it drove many publishers from the field and caused many retailers to fold. The term "Chrome Age" is sometimes used to refer to the 1990s.

Some critics have continued to offer designations for twenty-first century trends in comic book publishing. Proponents of the various subcategories for the 1980s and 1990s often suggest the year 2000 as the beginning of a new Modern Age. Others have used labels such as Postmodern Age and Diamond Age. An important influence on the industry during the 2000s and 2010s was the major boom in popularity of films based on comic books, especially superhero franchises such as the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Such films introduced new generations to many classic comic book properties and in turn impacted the way published comics approached longstanding characters. The rise of the internet also influenced the way fans could read comics and interact with each other.

Bibliography

Benton, Mike. The Comic Book in America. Taylor, 1989.

"Comics and Graphic Novels: History." ASU Library Guides, Arizona State University, libguides.asu.edu/c.php?g=613607&p=4263347. Accessed 8 July 2024.

Grand, Alex. Understanding Superhero Comic Books. McFarland, 2023.

Jones, Gerard, and Will Jacobs. The Comic Book Heroes. Prima Books, 1997.

Quattro, Ken. "The New Ages: Rethinking Comic Book History." ComicArtVille Library, 2004, web.archive.org/web/20150905115607/http://www.comicartville.com/newages.htm. Accessed 8 July 2024.

Schumer, Arlen. The Silver Age of Comic Book Art. Collectors Press, 2003.