Skip to main content

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

During the transition into the 1960's and basically throughout the decade, comics were at the forefront of social transformation. This was for several reasons, starting with the large number of comic book topics dealing with real current events around the world. A lot of these just barely slipped by the comic code of 1952, such as comics dealing with issues from the Cold War and also the Vietnam War. Another great example of comics sticking with the times was the invention of the timeless character Spiderman. Peter Parker was the epitome of any 1960 high school student. He was just a normal kid and when he obtained his powers, his first instinct was to use them for making money. Marvel essentially created the perfect super hero for the times they were in, and since then, Spiderman has seen minimal changes in character, appearance, and storyline. This comic line also was one of the most humanly developed stories, in the sense that Spiderman dealt with many more "everyday" issues than the average super hero, in that his teenage life saw as much time in the comics as his superhero life. With Spiderman and other new super hero comics on the rise, the comic industry was without a doubt at the forefront of social transformation in the U.S. in the 1960's.

Comments

Post a Comment

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.
2 comments
Read more

Mythology and Superheroes in Comics

Ohhh my goodness... When I decided on trying to analyze the mythological origins and references in superhero comics, I had no idea the can of worms I was opening up... On the one hand, it was awesome to see just how many connections there were between superheroes and psychology/mythology/philosophy, but all the information also made it terribly difficult to distinguish what I should be using and how to tie it all together. When I was talking to one of my sorority sisters about it she said, "Oh yeah, well, research essays are kind of like putting together puzzles..." and I think that really sums up what writing this paper was like for me. Fortunately, I was really interested throughout the whole process and I very much enjoyed writing the paper. Being a psychology major, I was especially interested in reading about the Jungian archetypes that had a lot of parallels with major modern comic books superheroes. I was also able to incorporate Joseph Campbell's "hero cycle...
2 comments
Read more

The 1950s Are Often Portrayed As A Period of Social Cohesion...

People didn’t set the standards; the standards were set for you. The 1950s were not a time of social cohesion but it was misleading because it was a time of “don’t air your dirty laundry.” Women were to act perfect; the “Stepford wife” if you will, while the men went to work like “Don Draper.” Although the comic codes were in full fruition, people found ways to cause a raucous. Comic books were the reason that children were acting violently. Comic books are a media outlet and they didn’t have to follow the conservative nature that the decade seemed to promote. One of the most popular selling genres of that time was the Romance comics. The romance comics not only attracted male readers, but female readers as well. This, alone, can be alarming for the “social cohesion” of the 50s because men expected their wives to be at home all day cooking, cleaning, caring for the children, etc. They didn’t want their wives spending any additional time reading comic books. Perhaps the comic co...
Post a Comment
Read more