| Concept Name: | History of Comics |
| 1st Appearance: | # |
| Appears in: | 0 issues |
The history of why we're all here - comic books. Edit
The Beginning
The history of comics themselves - not superhero comics, not U.S comics, but comics themselves-probably goes back millions of years. We know that cavemen drew - we have whole caves full of proof of that. The first comic probably was something along the lines of a man chasing a deer with a slightly sharp stick, and then stabbing it in the gut. This shows how far our current industry has come, right? But the history of superhero comics is a little shorter-by maybe a few millenniums. The history of superhero comic books in the U.S actually started where almost all of our published stories started-ancient times, in civilizations like Greece, Sumer, Egypt, and Rome. Almost every comic character today follows an archetype. A quick Dictionary.com search gives the definition as "the original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based." What this means is that an archetype is the standard, or the cliché. It's the stereotype. For instance, there's the archetype of the hero-a flawed but brave person with big dreams and a good heart. He fights an evil villain and goes through hardships with a group of colorful friends. An example of an archetypal hero is Luke Skywalker. The Star Wars movies are a good example of a story full of archetypal characters. Luke Skywalker is the hero. Han Solo is an antihero. There are the sidekicks, R2-D2 and C3PO, and, of course, Darth Vader is the archetypal villain. The ancient world created those archetypes-so almost every character in comics is modeled after one. Some examples of archetypes are the hero (Luke Skywalker), the child (Linus Van Pelt), the wise old man (Gandalf, Merlin), the cosmic man (Silver Surfer), the antihero (Blade, Punisher), the villain (Doctor Doom, Darth Vader), etc. Philosopher and psychiatrist Carl Jung named many of these archetypes. An example of a superhero based on an archetype from ancient literature would be Superman. Superman is a godlike alien from another planet that helps humanity, to him an inferior race. Gilgamesh, an Ancient Sumerian hero, and Heracles, the ancient Greek demigod, both are gods or demigods that help an inferior race with amazing strength. That is the true root of superhero comics.
The Golden Age
Flash forward to the twentieth century. It's the early 1900s. This is where superhero comic books were invented. In the 1920s, comic books were 20 years old-but not superhero comic books. Newspaper comics and the first comic books had come before, but the modern superhero comic book was invented later. "Tarzan", "Dick Tracy", and "Flash Gordon" all had their own comic books before superheroes and were very popular. In 1934, the first "superhero" was published-"Mandrake The Magician". Mandrake was very popular for a short time, and although he didn't use a costume or the name "superhero", he used powers to fight crime. He was created by a 29-year-old man, Lee Falk, and was published by King Features. Mandrake used skills as a hypnotist and illusionist to fight crime. However, the first real superhero was created two years later, also done by Falk. It was "the Phantom". Phantom was an immortal superhero in a dark costume. He prowled the streets fighting criminals. Phantom was hugely popular. America liked him, but he found much more success overseas, where movies, many books, and more have been made about him. There's a Phantom amusement park in Sweden. The stage was set-and DC entered it.
DC Comics was formed by two men-Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson and Harry Donenfield. Wheeler-Nicholson was a former major in the Army who had bought comics already. When he teamed up with Donenfield, they started Detective Comics, Inc., or DC. The first comic they published was New Fun Comics, which was revolutionary for one big reason-it was the first comic book that was entirely new material. Before, comic books had been compilations of past newspaper comics-comic books weren't made new. In New Fun Comics #6, two guys named Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster teamed up. Siegel wrote the comics and Shuster drew. This collaboration was on a detective, a ghost named "Dr. Occult". Occult never gained fame-but Siegel and Shuster worked well together and got good credit. In March 1937, Detective Comics #1 was published. Although the most famous Detective Comics hero would appear later, it made some money-but not enough. Wheeler-Nicholson wasn't making money off the comic books, so he sold New Fun Comics and Detective Comics to Donenfield. Later, Siegel had an idea one night for a hero. A hero that would change America. A hero called "Superman".
Long before, Siegel had had the Superman idea. He thought it was good, so he called up Shuster-who liked it too. They came up with some ideas and Shuster designed how the character would look-so they showed it to DC. Donenfield liked the idea, and he was about to start a new series. Siegel and Shuster sold DC the rights to Superman-for a hundred and thirty dollars! The character has made millions and millions over the years. Both Siegel and Shuster died poor-none of their legal efforts to regain the rights (plus millions of dollars) worked. The series was Action Comics, and the first issue featured Superman. It was published in 1938-and was immediately amazingly popular. Other heroes had fought crime-but could they fly faster then a plane, have bullets bounce off their chest, or toss a car at a villain? No-so Superman instantly became popular. Readers identified with Clark Kent and fantasized about going into a phone booth and coming out with staggering power. Superman started the Golden Age of comics-it lasted for thirty years. The Golden Age was the introduction of many characters, many of which were started by DC, and there were comics everywhere. Kids got away from the war or the Depression by reading about fantastical heroes.
After Action Comics became popular, Bob Kane was hired to write issues of the still-read Detective Comics. His superiors asked him to create another character, a rival to Superman. To create another character that would gain them sales, and to do it in the pages of Detective Comics. Kane thought, and in Detective Comics #37, "Batman" was introduced. Batman was different. He didn't have power like the Man of Steel, and he let a criminal die in his very first appearance. Batman used his intellect and money, and quickly became a close second in popularity to Superman. This busted the door even farther open, and "Flash", "Wonder Woman", "Green Lantern", and more all became big later. DC also introduced the idea of a superhero team in the "Justice Society Of America"-the precursors to the now-famous "Justice League Of America". Batman got his own series and later got the first sidekick, Robin. Also, other publishers such as Marvel and Fawcett Comics produced popular characters. Marvel would be big many years later. A few "Superman Clones" popped up too, like "Wonder Man" and "Captain Marvel". DC would have a legal war with Fawcett Comics over the latter, which outsold Superman for a time. They won. "Captain America" was later published by Marvel and became very popular.
The Death and Rebirth of Comics
However, after World War II, comics started to decline, mostly due to one man-Dr. Fredric Wertham. Wertham believed that comics were corrupting the morals of youth. He published a book called Seduction of the Innocent, which blamed comic books for everything wrong in society. He said that the images of violence were turning kids into juvenile delinquents, and he turned public feelings against all comic books. "Loaded with communist teachings, sex, and racial discrimination." was how the police commissioner of Detroit described comics in a Time Magazine interview, in 1948. Comics were burned. The book, Seduction of the Innocent, caused the Senate to look into it and there was a court battle. Wertham won, and the Comics Code Authority was formed. Any comics published had to follow the code-and since many didn't, the industry was brought to its knees. Later, the CCA wasn't important or enforced, but by then, it had killed almost all of the comics published. DC survived. So did Marvel-which was still tiny. But for most of the 40s and the early 50s, comics were dead.
Marvel made an attempt to bring back comics. Their three major heroes were "Namor, the Sub-Mariner", the "Human Torch", and "Captain America".
Silver Age
Stan Lee worked at Marvel comics, and he enjoyed working with Jack Kirby, an artist. Martin Goodman, the editor-in-chief at Marvel, heard that Justice League of America was DC's biggest seller. So he enlisted Lee to create a superhero team to rival the League. Lee thought, and he decided on a team with four members. He created the "Fantastic Four," which was first published in Fantastic Four #1 in 1962. The Four were very different then the archetypal hero team. Unlike other teams, they fought within each other and had arguments. Although three of the team members were normal looking, one was called "the Thing"-a rocky monster with amazing strength. He hated the way he looked and had breakdowns. Stan wrote it while Kirby drew-and it was an instant success reminiscent of Superman. Teens could identify with the Fantastic Four. After that success, Marvel created other heroes in the same vein. The X-Men were mutants, feared and hated by the humans. Thor was a god trapped on Earth, as was Silver Surfer. The Hulk was cursed to turn into a huge, rampaging monster that was nearly impossible to understand. But the quintessential flawed Marvel hero is Spider-Man.
Spider-Man was not an adult-he was a teenager. He was a nerd. His classmates disliked him, and his aunt and uncle were overprotective. He worried about his grades, and was totally rejected by the opposite sex. He worried about personal problems. In other words, he was unlike any hero the comics world had seen. Readers identified with Spidey, more then they identified with an alien who never worried. That was the beauty of Spider-Man, and he quickly became Marvel's major character. Marvel even brought back Human Torch, Namor, and Captain America, with great changes. Each became a major Marvel character. The villains were different, too-oftentimes; they somehow tied in with the hero. Some, like Doctor Doom, were malicious and set standards of fearsome evil, while some, like the X-Men's Magneto, could be identified with. All of these things put Marvel far above DC in sales, and they dominated the 60s. A lot was owed to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, who literally created 90 percent of the heroes in Marvel. Stan's inimitable voice and Jack's art and ideas largely contributed to Marvel's rise. However, when the 70s started, things changed.
Bronze Age and Today
The 70s marked the start of the Bronze Age, which was different. The 60s boom slowed down and both publishers had trouble selling comics. DC especially had trouble. In an effort to regain sales, they started a whole bunch of new titles a once, in the DC Explosion. However, these titles didn't sell well and were canceled soon after in the DC Implosion. They might not have survived if not for a stroke of luck-one named Jack Kirby. Kirby moved to DC then. Comics changed. Science fiction and fantasy both got a hold of comics. Doctor Strange and Conan, the Barbarian were both magic-themed titles that became big for Marvel then, and Jack Kirby started a book called New Gods. It was an instant classic, it reformed DC, and it introduced many huge characters, including one worthy of Doctor Doom-Darkseid. Comics got more serious and dealt with social issues in Green Lantern / Green Arrow, and the CCA was broken twice-once by Marvel (in a Spider-Man series) and once in the aforementioned DC series. Both showed illegal drugs in a negative light. The CCA rules went a little easier, so horror books like Ghost Rider and Swamp Thing popped up. Antiheroes like Wolverine and Punisher came from Marvel, and Spider-Man's girlfriend(Gwen Stacy) was killed. Independent publishers, not with Marvel or DC, popped up. Overall, it was a time of trying new things. Boundaries were pushed, and ideas were had that kept comics alive.
The 80s are important for two things-the starting of grim, noir-style comics, and the huge event that made DC new. Frank Miller worked for Marvel, and he was hired to write Daredevil(a Marvel book focusing on the character of the same name). He made it a darker series, with a more "grim and gritty" style. This would become popular later. In 1985, DC did the biggest event ever in the history of comics-the Crisis on Infinite Earths. There had been many duplicate Earths in DC, and many different continuities. It became horribly confusing. For instance, if Superman did something that directly contradicted something that he had done in the Golden Age, DC would say, "That was Earth-2 Superman, from the Golden Age." So all of the Golden Age Superman events were actually Earth-2 Superman. Maybe next time, it would be Earth-3. It was so confusing and there were so many continuity errors that readers were quitting DC. So in 1985, DC engineered the Crisis on Infinite Earths, where the Anti-Monitor melded all the Earths and continuities into one. Supergirl, Flash, and many others were killed and replaced. Although it worked, it was very confusing. The second major event was the starting of "grim and gritty" comics. Frank Miller wrote a Batman story called "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns". It was very different and much darker, and it started a new era of dark comics that still goes on today.
In 1986, Marvel was sold to a businessman who started a trend-huge events where huge shocks were delivered to sell more comics. Covers would glow in the dark, characters would be killed for shock value then quickly resurrected, and socially controversial stories dealing with homosexuality or AIDS became media stories and sold big. This reached its climax in 1992, when DC killed off Superman. Marvel replaced Spider-Man. There was fan backlash to these events, and they finally quit with the gimmicks. Captain America recently died, though so the gimmicks might be coming soon...Recent events include the disassembling of the Avengers, the Infinite Crisis (which killed the third Flash, Wally West), and House of M, an event where most of the X-Men lost their powers. All of these events have been big sellers, based on shock value.
That's the history of American superhero comics. Comics are becoming a declining industry-not so many people are buying them. But if history has given us one indicator, its this-comics have a tremendous ability to, just like Superman, rise from the dead.
