Comics in the 1980's were different than another time. Comics in the
1980's were very dark. In the 1980's there
were increase of crime rates and violence and drugs were a big problem as well.
The comics of this time were trying to reflect off of this. Comics had heroes
who tried to stop these villains and this ended up becoming very popular. People
were into this rebel type behavior and the sales proved it. Sales soared during
the 1980's. As the market grew so did the readers. The average age of readers
increased and this was a definite positive for the comic book company's. Comics
in the 80's definitely had more of a dark tone to them and some people were
very into that dark tone. These comic book writers needed to relate their
comics to the current times during the 1980's and they definitely did. Comics
in the 80's were very serious compared to other years and the types of readers
and fans were proof of that. The more serious the comics got the older the
average age of the readers got. The 80's was a serious time and comics was a
great overall reflection of that.
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.
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