Skip to main content

Why did comics become "dark" in the 1980's?

During the 1980’s, comics started to become more and more “darker”. By darker, I mean that comics started to become more violent, and more graphic. There were many reasons for this. One reason was that the United States people were using drugs more and more. The comic book writers wanted to make comics that would be very appealing to people who were using these drugs. Also, the comic book writers were using drugs and writing the comics at the same time. A person on drugs would have a great time reading these comics when they are “dark”. Another reason for these comics becoming “dark” would be the increased crime rate happening. Crime was amongst America greatly and it translated into the comics. More comics were producing these stories about crime and the hero trying to stop it. The illustrations were more “dark” and the content was more graphic. Murder was shown in a totally different way than it had ever been. An example of these “dark” comics would the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The illustrations are very detailed and the villains are portrayed more evil. If you look at the joker from this comic, you see an immediate difference. He is more “edgy” and looks more terrifying. You can tell that he definitely has some kind of issue in his head. He just looks like he downright wants to hurt people for fun. This is seen throughout many comics. The 1980’s was known for a “dark” time in comics.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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

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...
1 comment
Read more