shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,872
Member is Online
|
Post by shaxper on Jan 12, 2016 11:50:28 GMT -5
But that's still basically defining 'ages' purely by what was happening with two specific publishers. That's all it EVER was. As noted many times by others in this thread, add in anyone else and it all falls apart. The Atom Age is most certainly defined more by what other publishers were doing, particularly EC and Dell. And the Copper Age essentially ends with the rise of independent publishers, as I understand it from this thread. |
|
|
|
Post by Nowhere Man on Jan 12, 2016 12:02:10 GMT -5
In the end, the only sanity saving method is to label everything by decade. I've been trying to get myself to do this when I categorize stuff, but I find the age system a hard habit to break.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nowhere Man on Jan 12, 2016 12:10:12 GMT -5
This biggest problem for me is that "Golden Age" is meant to correspond to the age when something (art, civilization, etc.) was at its creative zenith. This clearly wasn't the case for the 1930's and 40's in comics...though a strong case could be made for comic strips. We're mixing real world historical classifications and trying to make correspond to comics history -- mixing in evaluations of aesthetic achievements (Golden Age) with evaluations of technological achievement (Bronze Age). It was a faulty set of descriptors from the beginning. Atomic Age and Dark Age are two that actually make sense given the context of the times.
|
|
|
|
Post by Action Ace on Jan 12, 2016 16:21:25 GMT -5
About a decade ago I suggested the 2000 and after era as the Ultimate Age. Not just for the Ultimate line at Marvel, but as the LAST age.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2016 18:59:02 GMT -5
I say label all comics from around 1990 to the present as "The Corporate Greed Age"? Or perhaps "The Excess Age"?
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 12, 2016 19:07:52 GMT -5
I would classify most of the 90s books and its shenanigans not as the Brass Era but the Ass Era.
|
|
|
|
Post by Reptisaurus! on Jan 12, 2016 19:09:01 GMT -5
This biggest problem for me is that "Golden Age" is meant to correspond to the age when something (art, civilization, etc.) was at its creative zenith. This clearly wasn't the case for the 1930's and 40's in comics...though a strong case could be made for comic strips. We're mixing real world historical classifications and trying to make correspond to comics history -- mixing in evaluations of aesthetic achievements (Golden Age) with evaluations of technological achievement (Bronze Age). It was a faulty set of descriptors from the beginning. Atomic Age and Dark Age are two that actually make sense given the context of the times. Still, by our superhero-centric classification system, superheroes comics were, by far, most popular in the Golden Age. (And I'm not honestly sure that the quality is any higher today. Comics are a lot more similarly structured and predictable, but I dunno if that's the same as "better." There's a 10% minority that's trying for some thematic/literary depth, but I'm not sure we can judge the rest of the crap by those.) |
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Jan 12, 2016 22:01:17 GMT -5
This biggest problem for me is that "Golden Age" is meant to correspond to the age when something (art, civilization, etc.) was at its creative zenith. This clearly wasn't the case for the 1930's and 40's in comics...though a strong case could be made for comic strips. We're mixing real world historical classifications and trying to make correspond to comics history -- mixing in evaluations of aesthetic achievements (Golden Age) with evaluations of technological achievement (Bronze Age). It was a faulty set of descriptors from the beginning. Atomic Age and Dark Age are two that actually make sense given the context of the times. I'm not so sure that follows with popular culture. Golden Age of Television, was very much not the actual best time for television. Golden Age of Hollywood may or may not have been the best time for movies. |
|
|
|
Post by dupersuper on Jan 12, 2016 23:13:39 GMT -5
About a decade ago I suggested the 2000 and after era as the Ultimate Age. Not just for the Ultimate line at Marvel, but as the LAST age. Do you know something we don't? |
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,872
Member is Online
|
Post by shaxper on Jan 13, 2016 8:19:16 GMT -5
About a decade ago I suggested the 2000 and after era as the Ultimate Age. Not just for the Ultimate line at Marvel, but as the LAST age. I used to suggest calling it the Reset Era, as renumberings and alternate universe versions of properties became the big thing for a while, but I feel like eras should be a commentary not just on the content of the comics but on the state of the industry within which they are produced. Thus my push for a Brass (and perhaps Tin) Era. |
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2016 9:56:13 GMT -5
I would classify most of the 90s books and its shenanigans not as the Brass Era but the Ass Era. Or, the GarbAge? Because of the shoulder pads and pouches and almost-existing clothing on the female characters, obviously. |
|
shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,872
Member is Online
|
Post by shaxper on Jan 13, 2016 10:09:25 GMT -5
I would classify most of the 90s books and its shenanigans not as the Brass Era but the Ass Era. Or, the GarbAge? Because of the shoulder pads and pouches and almost-existing clothing on the female characters, obviously. Ah, but this was also the era that gave us Scott McCloud, Warren Ellis, J.H. Williams III, Astro City, the Jack Knight Starman, etc. That's why I'm cautious about naming an era after the perceived content it contained. An era should capture an industry as a whole, not just the most memorable aspects of what that industry produced. . Golden Age was the beginning, when every one and his mother was an emerging publisher. Atom Age captures the diversity of the pre-Wertham industry and the move towards family friendly content after (especially the domination of Dell) Silver Age was an era of refinement. The scope of comics narrowed considerably (superheroes reigned), and companies consolidated and closed shop, setting the stage for DC and Marvel to dominate. Bronze Age marks The Big Two diversifying their content to attract a wider audience, the relaxing of the comics code, and the rise of small press publishers. and so on. These eras are more about the changes the industry was going through and how that was reflected in key books, as opposed to being about the content of the books exclusively. And I do realize you guys were largely joking, but I'm using it to make a point  |
|
|
|
Post by Paradox on Jan 13, 2016 15:19:05 GMT -5
That's all it EVER was. As noted many times by others in this thread, add in anyone else and it all falls apart. The Atom Age is most certainly defined more by what other publishers were doing, particularly EC and Dell. And the Copper Age essentially ends with the rise of independent publishers, as I understand it from this thread. Gold, Silver, Bronze. Everything else is attempts to "fill in" the flawed holes decades and decades after the fact. They're defined by what the others DIDN'T define. |
|
|
|
Post by MDG on Jan 13, 2016 15:34:13 GMT -5
The Atom Age is most certainly defined more by what other publishers were doing, particularly EC and Dell. And the Copper Age essentially ends with the rise of independent publishers, as I understand it from this thread. Gold, Silver, Bronze. Everything else is attempts to "fill in" the flawed holes decades and decades after the fact. They're defined by what the others DIDN'T define. With the Atom Age, anyway, it was giving a name to a time that didn't have one, at least initially. It's been a while since I read "All in Color for a Dime," but in there (and I'd say when I started becoming acquainted with fandom in the early 70s), the Golden Age specifically referred to the war years. And Quality, Fawcett, Lev Gleason, MLJ,and (maybe to a lesser extent) Fiction House were as integral to defining the GA as DC and Marvel (or, more correctly, National and Timely). It was only later that people started talking like the GA butted right up to the Silver Age, which never seemed right to me. Big difference between the wartime superheroes and the precode genre books. |
|
