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History of the Comic Book World

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History of the Comic Book World INTRODUCTION HISTORY OF THE COMIC BOOK WORLD To look back and know that I have had a pivotal role in the development of comics is something I’m very proud of, although it’s not something I think about unless someone brings it up. Comics have become a unique art form. When I and the other young artists were working in comics, our work carried with it a particularly American slant. After all, we were Americans drawing and writing about things that touched us. As it turned out, the early work was, you might say, a comic book ver- sion of jazz. In the sense, that is, that jazz too was a uniquely American art form.1 —Joe Simon, the artist-writer who co-created Captain America Joe Simon complains that comic book histories aren’t written by people who were there.2 Unfortunately, there aren’t too many of them still around. Joe wants to tell his own story. And Stan Lee jovially claims he can barely remember last week.3 So you’ll have to make do with me and the friends I’ve called on. No, I wasn’t around in the old days. But I did have my foot in the door. rhoadesHistory.indd Sec1:1 12/4/2007 10:36:17 AM 2 A Complete History of American Comic books WHEN IT ALL BEGAN The comic book (as we know it) originated in the early 1930s as a way of binding Sunday funnies into a magazine-like format. Comic strips had begun appearing in newspapers in the late nineteenth cen- tury. These sequential panels of cartoon drawings were mostly humor- ous in nature—hence “comics.” The term comic book evolved from comic strip. This misnomer has caused minor confusion over the years, since “comic book” refers to the medium, not the type of content being published. Even the colloquial description of “funny book” implies a sense of mirth that’s often missing in today’s somber superhero battles between Good and Evil. SO WHAT IS A COMIC BOOK? Before we go any further, let’s make sure we agree on what we’re talking about—although you’d have to be John Carter’s neighbor on Mars not to recognize a comic book when you see one. My favorite definition calls comic books “the rock ’n roll of literature.”4 But that may be a bit vague to you Martians out there. One dictionary defines a comic book as “a magazine devoted to comic strips.”5 Hmm, true. But perhaps a bit simplistic. Let’s try again. In Understanding Comics, Scott McCloud waxes philosophical: “Comic books are considered a visual piece of art in sequence.” He elaborates that comics are “juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or produce an aesthetic response in the viewer.”6 Huh? Heck, let’s take a crack at it ourselves: com·ic book (n.) Most often a 6 5/8-by-10 3/16-inch stapled magazine that consists of thirty-two pages plus cover and contains sequential panels of four- color art and written dialogue that tell an original story for entertainment purposes. There you have it, a workable definition for our purposes. That’s not to say there aren’t exceptions: variation of sizes (digests, slims, and so on), variation in page count (sixteen-page minis, thick “phone books”), variation in coloring (spot colors, black-and-white only), variation in editorial content (factual stories, Bible stories, memoirs, diaries), varia- rhoadesHistory.indd Sec1:2 12/4/2007 10:36:19 AM HISTORY OF THE COMIC BOOK WORLD 3 tion in purpose (educational, promotional, journalistic). Yep, you can easily find every rule being broken. Nonetheless, the majority of mainstream comics—those published by the two dominant comic book companies, DC and Marvel—fit our ad hoc definition. And given today’s market, these comics are likely to present the adventures of costumed superheroes in epic battles against supervillains. Kinda like WWE wrestling—with a plot. EARLIEST COMICS? Some sticklers contend that comic books had been around since the previous century. The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, a pirated translation of Rodolphe Töpffer’s Footnote Histoire de M. Vieux Bois, was published in the United States as a magazine-formatted newspa- Collector Steve Meyer recently acquired a rare copy of the 1849 Journey to the Gold Diggins per supplement in 1842. And Journey to the Gold by Jeremiah Saddlebags for $11,500. This same Diggins by Jeremiah Saddlebags—“the earliest known comic sold for 25 cents back in the late 1840s. “I American-created sequential comic book”—had am very humbled and honored to now own such a historically important and very rare piece of 7 appeared in 1849. Americana . the 1st comic book by American These early efforts were sequential art storytelling creators,” says Meyer.8 but didn’t quite resemble today’s comic book in size and presentation. You might say, “Close, but no cigar!” Not until Maxwell C. Gaines (father of Mad magazine founder William M. Gaines) came up with a little number called Funnies on Parade in 1933. But more on that in the next chapter . AN AMERICAN ART FORM Comic books and jazz are often described as being the two uniquely original American art forms. (But what about rock ’n’ roll? And shouldn’t you credit Andy Warhol et al. with Pop Art too?) Some historians point out that earlier “comics” had appeared in Europe: Töpffer’s Histoire de M. Vieux Bois (The Story of Mr. Wooden Head) was completed in 1827 but not published until 1837.9 And Les Aventures de Tintin (The Adventures of Tintin), by Hergé, made its appearance as a supplement in a Belgium newspaper in 1929.10 Despite various claims to earlier firsts abroad, there’s no disputing that Americans nurtured and developed the fledgling new medium into something uniquely their own. As comics analyst and artist Scott McCloud observes, “I don’t think comics were invented in America as is often claimed, but the U.S. did give comics an exciting rebirth in the 20th Century.”11 rhoadesHistory.indd Sec1:3 12/4/2007 10:36:20 AM 4 A Complete History of American Comic books ROCK OF AGES Historians like to sort American comic books into a number of distinct “ages” or historical eras—Platinum, Golden, Footnote Silver, Bronze, and Modern. The beginning and end- Today I’m the president of the Key West Art & ing of each era tend to be fuzzy, with various experts Historical Society, overseeing three museums: asserting one event or another as starting points. the Custom House, the Light House, and Fort East Martello. So, as I take you on this tour of Since I’m writing this book, you’ll have to accept comic book history, I can actually claim creden- my “expert” opinions. But trust me, you won’t find tials as a historian. History is important. Under- them far off the general wisdom. standing that which came before affords us a better understanding of where we are today. Many historians outline the so-called comic book (End of “Author’s Message.”) ages like this: TIME PERIOD COMICS AGE 1897–1937 Platinum or Pre-Golden Age 1938–55 Golden Age 1956–72 Silver Age 1973–85 Bronze Age 1986–present Modern Age (also called the Plastic, Tin, or Iron Age) “Always a hot topic of debate amongst comic book collectors, the exact start dates of each period are not firmly set in stone,” acknowledge comic historians writing on the Everything2 website.12 EVERYBODY HAS AN OPINION In The New Ages: Rethinking Comic Book History, Ken Quattro makes some good suggestions for revising these ages, the best one divid- ing them into larger groupings he calls eras: TIME PERIOD COMICS ERA 1938–55 First Heroic Era 1955–58 Code Era 1956–86 Second Heroic Era 1986–present Third Heroic Era “These Eras don’t necessarily correspond exactly with the Ages,” explains Quattro. “Trends sometimes precede an Age, as a harbinger of what would eventually become the prevailing direction of the comic medium. Other times, they span several Ages.”13 I like these era groupings as a way of putting comic books into a larger historical perspective—especially when looking at the three big rhoadesHistory.indd Sec1:4 12/4/2007 10:36:20 AM HISTORY OF THE COMIC BOOK WORLD 5 “waves” of superhero comics. Nevertheless, we’ll stick to the ages con- cept in examining the finer points of comic book history. OVERSTREET WEIGHS IN All this notwithstanding, Steve Geppi’s Gemstone Publishing has proposed the following amendments to the dating of comic book ages: TIME PERIOD COMICS AGE CATALYST 1828–82 Victorian Age 1883–38 Platinum Age 1938–45 Golden Age Action Comics #1 1946–56 Atom Age Fear of Bomb 1956–71 Silver Age Showcase #4 1971–85 Bronze Age Death of Gwen Stacy (AMZ #121) 1986–92 Copper Age DC’s Crisis 1992–99 Chrome Age Image Comics debuts 2000–present Modern* *Not the same “Modern Age” as described above, below, and in other history books, this is merely a proposed reassignment of the term. Since Gemstone is the publisher of the authoritative Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide, we’re obligated to take these suggestions seriously. As noted in its Scoop newsletter, “Our intent here is to challenge our readers and ourselves to more accurately define an important part of comic col- lecting. We’re looking forward to hearing what you think!”14 After receiving reader feedback, their list has been slightly amended from time to time, but the above chart is a good reference point for comparing our proposed timetable.
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