'Nuff Said: American Graphic Media

In the 1960s Comics had a great fan base. Students that were more commonly in college were reading comics such as Spiderman and Superman. These comics appealed to the time of change and rebellion. Next came the 1970s, which was a pretty sad time for comics. This decade was considered a lost decade. Comics were in a slump because they were lacking in finding a new reader base. This was a major problem for the writers because there seemed to be no answer to get new readership.In the 1980s there was a realization to start creating comics that would be attractive to the aging readers. With new writers such as Frank Miller, a darker influence began. The first sign of this change was the Dark Knight Returns. In this graphic novel, Batman who is much older, fights his old foes in a different way. The fact that Bruce is older in the comic is a definite attempt to reach out to the older readership. In addition the way Batman was depicted was very dark. This was not the Batman from the Adam Wes…

The 1980's were a period of drastic change for comic books. Whereas in the previous decades, comics had struggled with their cartoonish and childlike manner, during the 80's they turned towards a more dark and mature route. The change occurred for several reasons, but one of the most important was that this was used to address changes in readership during the later part of the cemetery. Comics tried to become more serious, and they succeeded to a great extent, particularly once they were free of the Comics Code. Overall, the 1980's more than any other decade saw a change in the way comics were perceived, both by the creators and the readers.Superheroes in the 1980's became dark because the creators of the comics were trying to appeal to a more mature group of readers. With the creation of the comic shop and the slow death of the comic's popularity among children, the fan base that was purchasing comics was slowly becoming older. This meant that if comics didn'…

With the fallout of Vietnam, the continuing threat of mutually assured destruction, and other socio-political issues spilling over from the 70s into the 80s a darker tone in comics was inevitable. But that is just the backdrop for comics. Comics had to adapt their content for the direct market. Their readership was aging, and so, they had to adapt the content to reflect their aging readers. Inevitably, the comics grew darker. They became more violent. They grew more socially and politically aware of the world and would comment and parody it. Because of the aging readership, comics had to grow and adapt. So not only did they become darker, they became more self-referential, commenting on comics history and past issues. Instead of broadening their audience, comics selected and reduced their audience, focusing on readers that they already had.

During the 1980s comic books saw a drastic change in the way they were written. In the times leading up to the 1980s, super heroes such as Batman were almost treated as a friendly, silly character. He would wear bright colored suits while fighting all sorts of weird creators and aliens. This was not the same Batman that was around when it was created during the 1980s. The reason why Batman comic books became so bright and happy go lucky had partially to do with the comic book code restrictions. The comic book code restricted the writers from writing about the dark side of Batman, the side that we view him as today. Frank Miller was the man brought in to change in the image of Batman. Miller brought Batman back to his roots. He was older but much more dark an ominous. The violence in the issue that Miller wrote was also a great deal different than the Batman comic books that were created before. It featured characters such as the joker going on rampages and killing a large am…

Comics became “dark” in the 80’s for two main reasons. This first is and ageing market. Comics customers have become loyal buyers instead of fast loyal kids. Fandoms were empires of preferences and predilections that writers had to work in. the biggest goal for a comics writer would be to write a story so good fans of another hero would need to pick it up. On the lowest levels they needed to create continuity to their story without making it to clichéd for their character. It was a new generation of writers in a whole new selling situation and they found the creative freedom they needed by using back stories that were already there and creating the personalities that should have come from them. These writers took the hero’s down from their pedestals and made them walk among mortal humans, if not below them. Justice became hazy, like it really is, and therefore the heroes sold well enough. The second reason comics became darker was because of the question of what justic…

Comics books in the 1980's. Were different from what they are now. Comics now have a lighter tone to them, Comics made for kids will have light happy endings. comic books in the 1980s had a much darker tone to them. There was a lot more violence in the books then there were in the 1950s partiallly because of the Comic Book Codes. But also in the 1980s violence rose, as well as druhttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=506136990609808607gs and the crime rate. The comic books of that time reflects that period. We saw super heroes making, basically PSA against drug usage. Or the Villian or Victim used drugs. This made the issues in comics more serious. No longer did we seem villians bent on World domination, but the villians were hopped up on a drug. Or the victim was using drugs, turning the villians from monsters or other characters but the villian was underlying and dark. Also super heroes like batman were re evented. Before making the Dark character Dare Devil, Frank Miller…

After the Comics Code was introduced, all comic books put that seal on the front cover. It was an indication that that comic book adhered not only to the rules of the comic book world, but also to the unwritten rules of society. They did not have overly sexual content or drug use or anything of that nature that the culture of the United States at the time would frown upon. In the 1980s however, comics took a turn to the dark side. The most notable of the comics that took this turn would be The Dark Knight Returns. Why did the industry take this turn though? The average age of comic book readers during this time was much older than in previous decades. What the industry was trying to do was to go back to its roots. Batman originally was a darker figure, someone who's parents were murdered in an alley. What they were trying to do was to get the comic book readers that may have ventured away from comic books to come back by trying to portray the new stories as similar to the ones at …

Though many of the superhero characters had been around for many years, decades even, the 1980s brought about a new school of thought when it came to the tone of the text and characterization. Comic story lines were products of the environment around them. With that being said, in the 1980s drugs, crime, and anything that can be classified as “dark” thrived. So all media outlets, especially comics, displayed such occurrences. The question can be raised: Was this digression into a darker text a bad thing or a good thing? Readers enjoyed the darker characterizations because it was a reinvention of the characters they grew up reading but with a new twist.

In the 1980s, American culture entered a time of confusion, despite the efforts of the government. Sexual, scientific, and political revolutions made the 1980s a social scramble, and became more frank about the issues from the preceding decades. Therefore, the 1980s called for a darker approach to the superhero industry. Decades beforehand, the comics of the 1960s and 70s introduced characters with humanly relatable issues, and underground comics skipped the metaphorical value of comics and used real people with satirical problems, emphasizing already ridiculous situations. The comics of the 1980s, however, called for a more psychological approach, with the emergence of authors/artists like Frank Miller, Alex Ross, and John Byrne.
    John Byrne used the '80s as a way to get "back to basics". He had a simple formula: recalling what made a series successful, and reworking these characteristics into a modern setting. Using the method, Byrne revived Marvel's Fantasti…