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In the late 19th century the first ”prototypes” of the modern comic appeared. Mostly political caricatures adorned posters and magazines. Then came the early comics like ”the Yellow Kid”.
In the 1930’s the comics industry began to expand. The media got
its own paper and became a fast selling treat for everyone.
Movie stars made their way into comics... Charlie Chaplin and
Harold Lloyd among others. That trend has yet to cease. Only
nowadays the trend has moved towards rock and pop stars.
The 30’s also brought with it the beginning of pulp fiction
comics such as the Spider and Dime Detective. The Shadow is
probably known to be the best detective/action comic during this
era.
There were still comic comic books. The comics were aimed at younger readers and often featured fuzzy, fluffy animals. Walt Disney’s characters that had been seen on the big screen and in newspapers in the 20’s got their own comic books, and spacious Sunday newspaper funny pages. In 1935 ”Mickey Mouse Magazine” was published and featured Mickey and Donald amongst other characters.
The 1940’s are referred to as ”the Golden Age”. The sales figures
sky rocketed. These were ”The Boom Years”. This age introduced
the superhero. Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel were among the
very first.
The funny, fluffy trend held on into the 40’s with new characters
such as Bugs Bunny, Andy Panda and Woody Woodpecker making kids
laugh.
Teen comic books featuring comic characters such as Archie and Andy Hardy never really took off and by the next decade the were almost forgotten.
A very inventive and witty comic and characters were introduced by Will Eisner in ”the Spirit”. It was a moody and sometimes bizarre detective comic book that has been used as a model for other comics and artists.
An important factor to the startling numbers of comics produced
at this time is the Second World War.
American comic readers saw their characters fight Hitler, Nazis
and Communists and probably fought the war through comics. This
undoubtedly affected the sales figures immensely.
The aftermath of the war caused the sales figures to dwindle.
”What these fantastic sales figures don’t show is the desperation
that plagued comic book publishers, and the anxious, industry-wide
retooling for new product. The supermen and wonderwomen,
in particular, had a difficult time adjusting to the postwar era.
America’s four years of war had produced an audience that was
older and more sophisticated; the caped, long-underwear crowd
suddenly seemed passe.”
("50 Years Of American Comic Books")
The 1950’s were hard times for comic publishers and readers.
The recent and continous trend of Horror and Suspence comics
resulted in a censorship authority named ”The Comics Code
Authority” formed in September of 1954. The guidelines and the
impact of this association made the comics almost impossible to
sell.
”...the tremendous growth of television. Free, easily accessible,
and far livelier than comic books, TV seduced millions of kids
and was a major reason for the waning of comic books’ Golden Age.
The Electronic Age had begun, and the comics book industry would
struggle to compete.”
("50 Years Of American Comic Books")
Ironically television would contribute to the survival of comics. The movie star comics from the 30’s became the TV star comics of the 50’s. To name but a few there were titles such as ”The Adventures Of Bob Hope”, ”I Love Lucy” and ”The Adventures Of Dean Martin And Jerry Lewis”.
”The 1950’s brought a quartet of new American magazines that
became enormously successful. Sports Illustrated, TV-guide, and
Playboy were three of them; the fourth was Harvey Kurtzman’s Mad.”
("50 Years Of American Comic Books")
”Mad” kept laughing hysterically in spite of dropping sales
figures where almost every other comic books struggled to find a
”cure” for it.
Children’s comics that had almost been lost during the horror and
Suspence era became increasingly popular. ”Richie Rich” and
”Dennis The Menace” made their way into children’s homes as did
many others.
Sci-Fi got much attention too. The interest in technology and the
elechtronic age made these comics very popular.
The end of the 50’s also brought with it the renewal of the
Superheroes.
The 1960’s were to be influenced mainly by Marvel. The period
from 1961 - 1970 is suitably called ”The Marvel Age” by the
company itself.
They revitalized the image of the Superhero making them more
humane and adding plenty of personality to them.
The first group to enter the scene was The Fantastic Four.
At first sight the characters could just as well be ripoffs from
other previous characters, but the creators Jack Kirby and Stan
Lee gave them an in-depth perspective and the super hero quartet
became an emmideate success.
”Marvel ushers in a comic book renaissance by humanizing super
heroes. Creators introduce a new generation of troubled characters
ambivalent about their powers, including Spider-Man, The Fantastic
Four and The Incredible Hulk. Readers respond and sale soar.”
("Five Fabulous Decades Of Marvel Comics")
The giant of this ”Silver Age” was undoubtedly the character
called Spider-man who gained his popularity almost by accident.
Another publishing company, DC also gained renewed recognition when the Batman television series aired. The Batman comics and TV-series created merchandising spinoffs like toys, games, peanut butter and the ever popular lunchboxes. Marvel tried to do the same but was never quite that successful.
The 1970’s comic books revived something from the old horror
comics from the 50’s. Only the 70’s comic books were filled with
vampires, barbarians, mythological creatures and martial arts and
not bloody murders. Quite an odd mix of themes.
The sales figures rose almost like never before. Marvel and DC
competed for readers and artists migrated to and fro between the
two companies.
The children’s comic book readers of the 40’s and 50’s had become
older and so the comic publishing companies produce more comics
for older readers. Reality had entered the comic books, now the
heores were fighting drug abuse instead of men from Mars or
megalomaniacal villains. Drug abuse was deemed unfit by the
Comics Code Authority and because of that a Spider-Man ”trilogy”
became published not bearing the stamp of the Authority.
Still there remained the suspence of fantasy and fiction. ”Conan The Barbarian” was probably the most popular comic during this age. First appearing in 1932 and having suffered the suicide of it’s creator Robert E. Howard, only thirty years old, it did not gain its enormous success until the 70’s.
The 70’s proved to be a boost for most comics. Underground comics
became a well known phenomenon. Robert Crumb and his creations
still remain cult fiction and spawned the graphic comic.
The heroes became more violent and anti-heroes appeared everywhere.
Vigilantes became a selling concept; they were very popular and
different from the oldfashioned hero. They stopped at nothing to
get what they were after like anti-heroes such as the Punisher.
In the 1980’s comic books became more stylish. The first comic book novel ”Watchmen” was published. Characters and publishing companies celebrated anniversaries while others came only to vanish quickly or fade away. Graphic novels became very popular. Comic books leaned towards the ethereal and esoteric. Independent publishers started selling their products and were only out to beat the two giants Marvel and DC.
One writer and one artist proved that even what a first sounds like a completely nutty idea can turn you into a multimillionaire. In 1984 Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s ”Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” were born and they became a big hit. After countless merchandising products and two movies the turtle quartet remains a huge profit to their creators.
There is one comic strip artist that strongly opposes cases like the one above. The creator of ”Calvin and Hobbes”, Bill Watterson has fought licencing a long time. He felt that merchandising it would cheapen the original comic. He has now quit making ”Calvin and Hobbes”.
The turtles are known to be a bit radical and so were the vigilantes of the 80’s - heores with serious attitudes. The action got rougher and more intricate.
The 1990’s has turned out to be the decade of the villains. The
more mad, maniacal or disturbed the better...
The anti-heroes still remain.
Comics have been around for over one century and from the looks of things they will be around for many more years!