Skip to main content

When comics became mainstream in the early 20th century, they were considered a main source of entertainment to the masses. Compared to today comics, the artistry was typically basic and in most cases black and white. As technology increased so did the comics. Later on colors such as yellow began to appear in strips. An example of this would be the comic called "The Yellow Kid". This comic, compared to today’s standard, was very basic. Typically the message or joke that was being made was printed on the child's shirt.

Next Came the first of what we today consider "modern comics". The "Funnies" published a multipage bound book that consisted completely of comic strips. This was the first installment of many issues of this comic. "The Funnies" paved the way to modern comics such as "Superman" and "Batman". What separated these comics from the old strips such as "The Yellow Kid" is that the development of colors and styles evolved over the decades.

Today comics have come strides from their roots. Issues upon issues now have come out for famous characters such as "Superman" and "Batman". The style of comics have developed from the "Funnies" and "The Yellow Kid" to a glorification of the super human. The idea of the super human always rising up over evil has inspired many generations of comic book readers. There are different types and styles of comics that have a completely different style of super heroes; but in mainstream America, superheroes are the dominant medium. Now one can argue that the world interprets superheroes through other mediums other than comic books. In the past few years, comics have been developed from the paperback to the silver screen. Movies have been developed by new studios who are the owners of the copy write properties. So since there have been so many developments for comic books in the last decade, what holds for the future of comic books in the future?

Comments

J Chambliss said…
The relationship between the origins of the modern comic and today's character is an important point to keep in mind as we discuss the evolution of superhero characters. Are they changing? If so, how?

Popular posts from this blog

Why blame comics for societal failure?

Why blame comics for societal failure? Society blamed comics for the societal failures because it was a fairly new industry, and as things seemed to go “wrong” they figured it must be comic books. When a child grew up during the war, his father was probably killing people and the military and his mother was probably making things in factories to help kill the opposition. The only things kids had to “babysit” them was comic books, and they read many different kinds. So when kids starting acting differently in this new generation the figured it must be the comic books. Society didn’t want to believe it may have been the internal and external scars war causes on the soldiers and their families. Also the fact that young unattended children are reading these comics may not be able to differentiate between fantasy and reality. When society fails it always needs a scapegoat then it was comic books next it was rock and roll. Society naturally resist change.

The 1950s are often portrayed as a period of social cohesion. Why is this misleading?

When we think of the 1950's, most people think of similar things such as "Leave it to Beaver", very conservative and cliched pop music, and high patriotism. Our view of that time is one of social conformity to conservative values, with a traditional nuclear family where the father worked and the mother stayed home, where a majority of people attended church, where crime was relatively low, where a majority of American citizens were extremely patriotic, and where entertainment media emphasized these same conservative values and were subjected to censorship if they did not conform. This is misleading because while these things were all true to a certain extent, the world was obviously not perfect and not everyone was conforming or upholding traditional values, even if it seemed like they were. The 1950's were actually a very tumultuous time period, with the end of World War II leaving Europe war torn and in debt, the outbreak of the Korean War and the clashes of opinion...

Were comics at the forefront of social transformation or lagging behind in the 1960’s?

Throughout the 60’s, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. Possibly the best example of this is through comics reflection of the public’s view of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the war a majority of Americans fully supported the cause. The idea that communism, the most evil idea conceived, could spread first through South-East Asia and eventually to the US lead Americans to accept the need to occupy Vietnam. However as the war progressed it became more obvious that it was less to defend democracy and actually just a proxy war against Russia. As support for the war diminished, comics greatly altered their position on the war to question the causes of the war, and whether the US should actually be there. The comic Iron Man accurately represented this shift in support as he stopped dealing arms, and took a moral stand against their use. As well as Vietnam War culture, comics also accurately portrayed youth culture in the US throughout the 60’s. Comics suc...