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Post by Slam_Bradley on Mar 21, 2019 15:53:36 GMT -5
- Platinum Age (1897-1938)
- Golden Age (1938-1945)
- Atom Age (1945-1956)
- Silver Age (1956-1971)
- Bronze Age (1971-1986)
- Copper Age (1986-1991)
- Dark Age (1991-2000)
- Modern Age (2000-present)
I generally agree. Just curious about the Dark Age -- both the name and the years you chose.  While not necessarily common, it's not an uncommon name for that time period in comics. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Mar 21, 2019 18:27:17 GMT -5
I generally agree. Just curious about the Dark Age -- both the name and the years you chose. While not necessarily common, it's not an uncommon name for that time period in comics. Gotcha. I don't entirely disagree, though I would argue that the industry today isn't all that more enlightened. |
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Post by Cei-U! on Mar 21, 2019 18:52:22 GMT -5
Atom and Copper Ages are new to me ... and face it members and guests ... I feel that the Atom Age should be more part of the Golden Age of Comics. Platinum is okay, but the Golden Age got the Superheroes up and running and the Silver Age is the revival of it. I consider both Golden and Silver Ages are the most important ages in Comic Books Histories. No offense meant, Mech, but this is exactly why so many of us who actually are comic book historians hate these terms. Your entire argument is based on the perception that super-heroes are the only genre that "matters," an attitude that distorts and misrepresents what was really going on in the medium during these periods. The comics assigned to the Atomic Age--between the end of World War II and the imposition of the Comics Code Authority--are noticeably different in style, tone, attitude and especially subject matter than those of the so-called Golden Age. In terms of volume alone, these books were far more successful than their predecessors. Why? Because the publishers tried to appeal to as many demographics as possible, not just the 8-12 year olds who sustained the super-hero fad of the early '40s. In the '50s, Dell was selling a million copies of Walt Disney's Comics and Stories a month just in subscriptions. Westerns, romance, crime, horror, teen humor, funny animals, and war comics thrived during this period until most were gutted of their appeal by the CCA. Discounting this period as less important than what came before or after simply because you yourself prefer super-heroes does a serious disservice to all those creators, and the publishers who employed them, who produced those comics.
Cei-U! Here endeth the lecture!
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Post by chadwilliam on Mar 21, 2019 19:47:23 GMT -5
I generally agree. Just curious about the Dark Age -- both the name and the years you chose. While not necessarily common, it's not an uncommon name for that time period in comics. If there were a significant enough change in the comics medium which served as a signal to the end of one era/birth of another, I would argue that change would have come with the publication of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns in 1986 rather than with the advent of Image. While the founding of Image was a big deal, it feels more like one of the events which was born out of the Dark Age of Comics rather than the fuse which set it off. Seeing as how 1986 also coincides with Crisis and Marvel's 25th anniversary of Fantastic Four 1 (admittedly not a very eventful year for them) and leads into 1987 with Jim Lee and Rob Leifeld's first published work (not to mention Batman: Year One and Kraven's Last Hunt) it feels like more of a gamechanger than the start of Image was. I mean, big as Image was, it was still the number three company out there behind DC and Marvel while Watchmen and Dark Knight are still influencing comics today (not a fact I'm crazy about, but it's true). |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Mar 21, 2019 19:50:02 GMT -5
Westerns, romance, crime, horror, teen humor, funny animals, and war comics thrived during this period until most were gutted of their appeal by the CCA. Discounting this period as less important than what came before or after simply because you yourself prefer super-heroes does a serious disservice to all those creators, and the publishers who employed them, who produced those comics. I can't disprove this point, as it's logical and well argued, but as a big fan of the Dell/Western non-superhero output from this era, as well as of some key non-superhero works published in the decades after, I find the superhero-centric age names especially helpful, as they offer a helpful check on the industry of the time period. The Disney comics of the 1940s, for example, are all the more impressive in their ubiquitous popularity because they were competing for attention against the likes of Superman and Captain Marvel, but Dell/Western's immense rise in the late 1940s and early 1950s can also be partly attributed to the decline of the superhero genre, as well as Seduction of the Innocent after that (really, there should be an age demarcation indicating that). And any non-superhero comic that found wide appeal once the Silver Age was in full swing has my respect and interest because it fought an uphill battle to reach a wide market once the Marvel renaissance was in full bloom. And the Copper Age, to me, is less about Crisis on Infinite Earths and DC's sloppy reset, and more about the rise of the direct market and what that meant to anyone trying to sell comics to a demographic that wasn't adult men who like superheroes. So yes the ages, as generally recognized, skew heavily towards superheroes, but they offer a lot of information about the non-superhero genres as well. I might suggest a slightly revised set of demarcations that are more fair to the wider industry: 1933-1953: The Golden AgeIt would now begin with Famous Funnies #1 instead of Action Comics #1 and end with the publication of Seduction of the Innocent 1954-1960: The Atom AgeThe Atom Age would no longer end just because of The Flash. 1961-1969: The Silver AgeSuperheroes begin to dominate the industry, especially with Marvel proving a huge upset to more established publishers. 1970-1985: The Bronze AgeSuperheroes experience a second generation of creators who now grew up on these characters, and they give the genre new energy. Meanwhile, superhero fans have grown into adolescents and adults who begin to develop a more organized and sophisticated fandom that further supports the genre. Non-superhero genres experience a significant revival that is largely over by the end of the era. 1986-1994: The Copper AgeThe rise of the direct market and the local comic book shop makes comics more exclusive to a niche market. General audience books not tailored to adult male comic book readers find it harder and harder to stay relevant, and the ones that are tailored to this audience become darkier, edgier, and a lot more gimmicky. Anthropomorphic b/w comics experience a brief boom. The general, non-direct market vanishes. 1995-present: The Modern EraThe industry struggles to rebound after crashing as a result of excessive hype and run-away marketing ploys. A wide, but unsteady field of independent publishers catering to a wide variety of genres rises again. Granted, it still skews towards superheroes, but so does the industry after the mid-1960s. |
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2019 19:57:43 GMT -5
What I really want to know is whether Scooby-Doo, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has distinct "ages". Surely the Golden Age is the original shows while Scrappy's entrance marked the beginning of another age? What age is Scooby in now?
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Post by Cei-U! on Mar 21, 2019 20:04:25 GMT -5
What I really want to know is whether Scooby-Doo, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, has distinct "ages". Surely the Golden Age is the original shows while Scrappy's entrance marked the beginning of another age? What age is Scooby in now? Whatever age Scooby's in now, you need to divide it by 7 to get the calendar equivalent. 
Cei-U! Ri rummon ruh rightning!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2019 20:05:49 GMT -5
I hope we do a Scooby topic nearer the anniversary time. I was so glad I got to include it in the Xmas threads.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2019 21:01:32 GMT -5
I hope we do a Scooby topic nearer the anniversary time. I was so glad I got to include it in the Xmas threads. There's some Scooby threads down in the media section. -M |
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Post by beccabear67 on Mar 21, 2019 23:09:59 GMT -5
Re: a Dark Age... I think there started to be some good readable non-extreme super type comic books again staring late 1997. I didn't see them at the time but I've gone back and been digging up some decent series usually by veteran artists and writers. So the darkness of 'dark' characters, large thighs, arms and necks, tiny heads and huge guns and grimaces/grins reigned 1991-1997. I doubt I even walked near a comic shop in that six year period, it's amazing I'm even in a place like this forum at all and not still wishing all superheroes to fail and just go away forever!  Platinum somehow doesn't fit those first two phases of strip reprint collections, it's more like a cardboard age (for the covers) and then an initial four-color age. The '50s was almost a crap newsprint age as they started going super cheap on the quality of paper at many publishers then, but not all, DC, Archie and Dell were still on decent quality paper mostly, or did DC in the last '50s go down a rung in quality? But then in the early '60s they seemed to come back up... the '50s also seemed to be most dominated by westerns, so could've been the Cowboy Age too, and Marvel had a monster mini-age for a few years between the end of Atlas and say Fantastic Four #3 or 4. Probably best to just talk of years and decades. |
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Post by Duragizer on Mar 21, 2019 23:50:33 GMT -5
Re: a Dark Age... I think there started to be some good readable non-extreme super type comic books again staring late 1997. I didn't see them at the time but I've gone back and been digging up some decent series usually by veteran artists and writers. So the darkness of 'dark' characters, large thighs, arms and necks, tiny heads and huge guns and grimaces/grins reigned 1991-1997. I doubt I even walked near a comic shop in that six year period, it's amazing I'm even in a place like this forum at all and not still wishing all superheroes to fail and just go away forever! Honestly, I think the "Dark Age" only really applies to superhero comics made by the Big Two and Image. Valiant, Dark Horse, etc. were producing a lot of great stuff during that period. |
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shaxper
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Post by shaxper on Mar 22, 2019 6:03:21 GMT -5
Re: a Dark Age... I think there started to be some good readable non-extreme super type comic books again staring late 1997. I didn't see them at the time but I've gone back and been digging up some decent series usually by veteran artists and writers. So the darkness of 'dark' characters, large thighs, arms and necks, tiny heads and huge guns and grimaces/grins reigned 1991-1997. I doubt I even walked near a comic shop in that six year period, it's amazing I'm even in a place like this forum at all and not still wishing all superheroes to fail and just go away forever! Honestly, I think the "Dark Age" only really applies to superhero comics made by the Big Two and Image. Valiant, Dark Horse, etc. were producing a lot of great stuff during that period. I would disagree about Valiant during that period, but I agree with your overall point. There were good non superhero comics out there. |
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Post by wildfire2099 on Mar 25, 2019 22:41:09 GMT -5
I generally agree. Just curious about the Dark Age -- both the name and the years you chose. Basically the less-than-creatively-robust time when artists like Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld became popular, Image arrived on the scene, gimmicky storylines like Knightfall, Death of Superman, Emerald Twilight, the Clone Saga, et al. were released, and the speculator boom happened. It probably ended sooner than 2000, but the line dividing the Dark and Modern Ages is so hazy that I just use the beginning of the noughties as the demarcation point. I posted this WAY back.. but I consider the 'Dark Age' (or the "Image Age" if you like) from the foundation of Image comes to when the Marvel Heroes Return... it's not about 'Dark' as in 'Bad' but Dark as in violent and moody being the norm. |
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Mar 26, 2019 9:30:10 GMT -5
Golden for me is anything 1930-1955
Silver for me is 1955-1969
Bronze for me is 1970-1985
Copper for me is 1985-2000
Modern for me is 2000-now
I dont get too hung up on the Silver vs Bronze age debate. There is some later Silver Age stuff that feels more Bronze age and there is some early Bronze Age stuff that feels Silver Age.
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