On this board we've decided to go with 10 years as the cutoff for official "classic" status, but that doesn't usually inhibit conversation about good comics of any age.

The music thing is something my wife and I discuss all the time... there's a difference between a classic song and 'classic rock'. Classic Rock brings to mind a specific era (mid 60s to the early 70s)... Gun 'n' Roses might feel like a classic, but it's not 'classic rock'... its Hair Metal.

For me, 'Classic Comics' is later silver to mid bronze age.

There's actually a trend in rock radio now to move away from the term "classic rock" and replace it with the term Iconic Rock-meaning rock from any era that is instantly recognizable as "rock" so anything from the Beatles to G-n-R to Nirvana can fit under that massive umbrella, giving stations a wider playlist to draw from as the core demographic gets older and wants stuff from their high school and college years and a lot of that is stuff that came from the late 80s and 90s as well as the older rock material they listened listed top that typically falls under the classic rock moniker.

Classic is possibly one of the most subjective terms around. It varies from person to person and when they were born, when they first experienced whatever thing you are talking about(-classic rock, classic comics, classic cars, etc.) whether they leans towards nostalgia or what they consider quality (another subjective measurement) when they use the term classic, etc.

There can be no one answer, so you need to just come up with a standard or a consensus every can use even if it doesn't technically fit their personal canon of what is classic.

We ran through this argument when the site was created after the CBRApocalypse, and the consensus was a sliding scale of 10 years. Everything 10 years and older falls under the classic moniker, and should be discussed int he classic comic section, everything less than 10 years old, is modern and should be discussed in the modern section.

If you think something in the division is too recent to be considered classic, it is just a sign you are getting old and falling out of the favored 18-35 demographic and you should start rehearsing your get off my lawn lines...

Seriously, trying to hash it out again is pretty much useless, no one will agree,some compromise working definition will have to be found for the site that pleases no one fully but is necessary to serve as a guideline and a lot of grumpiness will ensue, but we already did that, so at this point we just need to live with it whether we agree with the dividing line or not. Even if we change it, whatever new point dividing point we come with will eave just as many people unsatisfied as the old one and nothing meaningful will be accomplished.

Now get off my cyber lawn and let me go back to reading comics (or moving boxes of comics which has been more common with the house project I am in the middle of).

-M

What makes a Comic Classic?


To me, I would consider the Golden Age of Comics - the beginning and knowing that in another 10-20 years from now - most no one will even think about it and it's would be very sad to see people forget about Bulletman, Bulletgirl, Blonde Phantom, Sun Girl, and all the other Golden Age Heroes and Heroines. For me alone, I'm trying my best to educate people at my LCS about it and they all thanks me for sharing that information to them and knowing that I'm afraid that that era of Comics will be lost and forgotten.

The Bronze Age ended in the mid 80's and in my knowledge that 35 years ago and that's a generation ago and to me a Comic to be a Classic has to be more than a Generation Ago and saying that I have to say all Comic Books published from 1930 to 1970 (End of the Silver Age) to be deemed Classic and all Comic Books published from 1970 to 1985 (Bronze Age) will be classic around 2020. I only know three eras of Comics - Gold, Silver, and Bronze and all the rest is not as defined and that's where problem begins.

Couple of years ago we started having digital comics and that bothers me a great deal and I have to accept that and digital comics are easy to access to and I have a hard time accepting them to be classic in another 10 to 20 years from now and in my own world - a Classic Comic has to be in print form period.

My fear is someday all comics will be in digital format. No paper will be printed and I hate that.

This sir is slander (or is it libel-does an internet post count as being in print?). I do not sleep on a Derek Jeter pillow. I may get one to place under my naked butt so Jeter and the Yanks can kiss my a$$ all day, but I would never sleep on a Derek Jeter pillow. It would never work, I would go to put my head down only to find he didn't have the range to get there in time to field it.




-M

Understood Completely ... I probably stop buying Comics around 2020 or so. And, stick with Graphic Novels instead.

It's a sliding 10 year timeframe that we use here . But I can't really think of anything created after maybe 1995 that I would consider classic. It's mostly regurgitated ideas IMHO.