History of American comics

The history of American comics began in the 19th century in the realm of mass print media and yellow journalism, where they
served as a boon to mass readership.[1] In the 20th century, comics became an autonomous art medium[1] and an integral part of
American culture.[2]

Contents
Overview
Periodization schemes
Origins: Victorian Age (18421897)
Funnies
See also
References
Bibliography
Further reading

Overview
The history of American comics started in 1842 with the translation of Rodolphe Tpffer's work: The Adventures of Obadiah
Oldbuck.[3][4] Local artists took over this new medium and created the first American comics. But it is not until the development of
daily newspapers that an important readership is reached through comic strips. The first years corresponded to the establishment of
canonical codes (recurring character, speech balloons, etc.) and first genres (family strips, adventure tales). Characters acquired
national celebrity and were subject to cross-media adaptation while newspapers were locked in a fierce battle for the most popular
authors.

The second major evolution came in 1934 with the comic book, which allowed the dissemination of comics (first reprints of comic
strips) in dedicated media. In 1938, when Superman appeared in one of those comic books, began what is commonly called the
Golden Age of Comic Books. During World War II, superheroes and funny animals were the most popular genres. Following the
decline of the superheroes, new genres developed (i.e., western, romance, and science fiction) and reached an increasingly important
readership. At the beginning of the 1950s, with the emergence of television, comic books sales began to decline. Meanwhile, they
suffered many attacks on their alleged harm to youth. For instance, the introduction of the Comics Code Authority removed the
detective and horror series incriminated; though neither comic strips normagazines were affected by these attacks.

In 1956 began the Silver Age of Comic Books with the return of the preference for superheroes, such as Flash and Green Lantern by
DC Comics. If Dell Comics and its comics for children remained the leading publisher of comic books, genres other than superheroes
started to decline and many publishers closed. Very popular superheroes, mainly created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, appeared in
Marvel Comics. This turned into the leading publisher of comics in the next period known as the Bronze Age of Comic Books (from
the early 1970s to 1985) during which the stories became less manichean while superhero comics maintained their hegemony. The
distinction between these two periods is often associated by historians to an event but it is rather a series of changes that affected
many aspects of the comics world. At the same time, underground comics appeared, which, aesthetically, addressed new themes, and
economically, were based on a new distribution model. Comic strips continue to be distributed throughout the country and even some
of them gained international dissemination, such asPeanuts.
The Modern Age initially seemed to be a new golden age when writers and artists recreated classic characters or launched new series
that attracted millions of readers. However, it was then marked by a series of crises that threaten the financial stability of many
agents. Alternative comics, successors of underground comics, develop in line with Art Spiegelman and his Maus. On the other hand,
the comic strip experienced a crisis more pronounced in the 2000s and linked to that of the press as a whole, while at the same time a
new American product, thewebcomics, appeared.

Periodization schemes
American comics historians generally divide 20th-century American comics history chronologically into ages. The first period, called
Golden Age, extends from 1938 (first appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1 by National Allied Publications, a corporate
predecessor of DC Comics) to 1954 (introduction of the Comics Code). The following period, the Silver Age, goes from 1956 to
early 1970s. The Bronze Age follows immediately and spans until 1986. Finally the last period, from 1986 until today, is the Modern
Age.[5] This division is standard but not all the critics apply it, since some of them propose their own periods.[5][6] Furthermore, the
dates selected may vary depending on the authors (there are at least four dates to mark the end of the Bronze Age).

In A Complete History of American Comic Books, Shirrel Rhoades resumes the canonical division but cites fan historian Ken
Quattro,[7] who proposes three heroic periods (from 1938 to 1955, from 1956 to 1986 and from 1986 until today).[8] Rhoades also
cites Steve Geppi (the publisher of the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide) who, taking into account comic strips, divides the history
of comics in ages:[8] Victorian (Victorian Age, from 1828 to 1882),[9] of platinum (Platinum Age, from 1882 to 1938), of gold
(Golden Age, from 1938 to 1945, the end of World War II), atomic (Atom Age, from 1946 to 1956), of silver (Silver Age, from 1956
to 1971), of bronze (Bronze Age, from 1971 to 1985), of copper (Copper Age, from 1986 to 1992; the era began with the publication
of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen),[10] of chrome (Chrome Age, from 1992 the debut of Image Comics[11]
to 1999 the year Marvel Comics emerged from bankruptcy[12] ), and modern (Modern Age, since 2000, the year when Marvel's
Ultimate line appeared).[11] Randy Duncan and Matthew J. Smith, in The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture, prefer to
speak of an era of invention, proliferation, diversification, etc.[13] Consideration of comic strips in the general history of comics has
led some, including Steve Geppi, adding two periods before the Golden Age: the Victorian Age (from 1828 to 1882) and the
Platinum Age (the period of comic strips).[8] Alternative definitions of the latter two periods exist: the Victorian Age has also been
defined by fan historian Jamie Coville as beginning in 1842 (with the publication of The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck by
Rodolphe Tpffer) and ending in 1897;[4] the Platinum Age has also been defined as beginning in 1897 (with the publication of the
Yellow Kid magazine) and ending in 1938.[4]

An alternative name for the period after the mid-1980s is Dark Age of Comic Books, due to the popularity and artistic influence of
titles with serious content, such as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen.[14] Pop culture writer Matthew J. Theriault
proposed an alternative periodization scheme in which the recent history of comics is divided in ages: dark (Dark Age, from c. 1985
to 2004), modern (Modern Age, from c. 2004 to 2011; the era began with the publication of "Avengers Disassembled" and "Infinite
Crisis"), and postmodern (Postmodern Age, since 2011; the era began with the publication of Ultimate Fallout #4, the first
appearance of Miles Morales).[15]

Originally only the Golden Age and the Silver Age had a right of citizenship since the terms "Golden Age" and "Silver Age" had
appeared in a letter from a reader published in the n 42 of Justice League of Americain February 1966 that stated: "If you guys keep
[16]
bringing back the heroes from the Golden Age, people 20 years from now will be calling this decade the Silver Sixties!"

Origins: Victorian Age (18421897)

Comics in the United States originated in the early European works. In fact, in 1842, the publication Les amours de Mr. Vieux Bois by
Rodolphe Tpffer was published under the title The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck.[3][4] This edition is an unlicensed copy of the
original work as it was done without Tpffer's authorization. This first publication was followed by other works of this author
, always
under types of unlicensed editions.[17] Tpffer comics were reprinted regularly until the late 1870s,[18] which gave American artists
the idea to produce similar works. In 1849, Journey to the Gold Diggins by Jeremiah Saddlebags by James A. and Donald F. Read
was the first American comic.[19][20]
Domestic production remained limited until the emergence of satirical magazines
that, on the model of British Punch, published drawings and humorous short stories,
but also stories in pictures[18] and silent comics. The three main titles were Puck,
Judge and Life.[21] Authors such as Arthur Burdett Frost created stories as
innovative as those produced in the same period by Europeans. However, these
magazines only reach an audience educated and rich enough to afford them. Just the
arrival of technological progress allowed easy and cheap reproduction of images for
the American comic to take off. Some media moguls like William Randolph Hearst
and Joseph Pulitzer engaged in a fierce competition to attract readers and decided to
publish cartoons in their newspapers.[22]

Funnies
The period of the late nineteenth century was characterized by a gradual introduction
of the key elements of the American mass comics. Then, the funnies were found in
the humor pages of newspapers: they were published in the Sunday edition to retain
readership. Indeed, it was not the information given that distinguished the
newspapers but the editorials and the pages which were not informative, whose A tale of Arthur Burdett Frost dated
illustrations were an important component.[23] These pages were then called comic 1881.
supplement. In 1892, William Randolph Hearst published cartoons in his first
newspaper, The San Francisco Examiner. James Swinnerton created on this
occasion the first drawings of humanized animals in the series Little Bears and
Tykes.[24] Nevertheless, drawings published in the press were rather a series of
humorous independent cartoons occupying a full page. The purpose of the cartoon
itself, as expressed through narrative sequence expressed through images which follow
one another, was only imposed slowly.

In 1894, Joseph Pulitzer published in

the New York World the first color
strip, designed by Walt McDougall,
showing that the technique already
enabled this kind of publications.[25]
Authors began to create recurring
characters. Thus, in 1894 and still in Cover of the New York World,
the New York World, Richard F. owned by Joseph Pulitzer,
Outcault presented Hogan's Alley, Christmas 1899.
created shortly before in the magazine
Truth Magazine. In this series of full-
page large drawings teeming with humorous details, he staged street urchins, one of
whom was wearing a blue nightgown (which turned yellow in 1895). Soon, the little
character became the darling of readers who called him Yellow Kid.[26] On October
25, 1896, the Yellow Kid pronounced his first words in a speech balloon (they were

The Yellow Kid published in the New previously written on his shirt). Outcault had already used this method but this date
[27]
is often considered as the birth of comics in the United States.
York Journal from 8 November 1896.

Yellow Kid success boosted sales of the New York World, fueling the greed of Hearst.
Fierce competition between Hearst and Pulitzer in 1896 led to enticing away of Outcault by Hearst to work in the New York Journal.
A bitter legal battle allowed Pulitzer to keep publishing Hogan's Alley (which he entrusted to Georges B. Luks) and Hearst to publish
the series under another name. Richard Outcault chose the title The Yellow Kid. Published in 1897, the Yellow Kid magazine
[28][29]
consisting of sheets previously appeared in newspapers and it was the first magazine of its kind.
See also
Comic Book Superheroes Unmasked
History of comics
List of years in comics
Table of years in comics

References
1. Williams, Paul and James Lyons (eds.), The Rise of the American Comics Artist: Creators and Contexts
, University
Press of Mississippi, 2010, p. 106.
2. Waugh, Coulton, The Comics, University Press of Mississippi, 1991, p. xiii.
3. (Duncan & Smith 2009, p. 25)
4. Jamie Coville, "History of Comics: Platinum Age"(http://www.thecomicbooks.com/old/Platinum.html)
TheComicBooks.com.
5. (Rhoades 2008, p. 4)
6. (Duncan & Smith 2009, p. 22)
7. Ken Quattro, "The New Ages: Rethinking Comic Book History"(https://web.archive.org/web/20160314042452/http://
www.comicartville.com/newages.htm)(2004).
8. (Rhoades 2008, p. 5)
9. The Victorian era was the period ofQueen Victoria's reign from 1837 to 1901.
10. (Rhoades 2008, p. 124)
11. (Rhoades 2008, p. 6)
12. (Rhoades 2008, p. 163)
13. (Duncan & Smith 2009, pp. 234)
14. Voger, Mark (2006). The Dark Age: Grim, Great & Gimmicky Post-Modern Comics
. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 6.
ISBN 1-893905-53-5.
15. Matthew J. Theriault, "We're Living in the Postmodern Age of Comics" (https://hubcityreview.com/2016/03/10/were-li
ving-in-the-postmodern-age-of-comics/), The Hub City Review, March 10, 2016: "Starting with Miles, a character of
mixed Black and Hispanic descent, the new and redesigned characters of the Postmodern Age are almost
universally representatives of previously marginalizeddemographics."
16. (Rhoades 2008, p. 71)
17. (Rubis 2012, p. 39)
18. Coville, Jamie (2001). "See you in the Funny Pages.."(http://www.thecomicbooks.com/old/Platinum.html) The Comic
Books. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
19. (Rhoades 2008, p. 3)
20. (Gabilliet 2010, p. 4)
21. (Harvey 1994, p. 4)
22. (Rubis 2012, p. 45)
23. (Harvey 2009, p. 38)
24. (Baron-Carvais 1994, p. 12)
25. (Dupuis 2005, p. 16)
26. (Baron-Carvais 1994, p. 13)
27. Lord, Denis (March 2004)."Bandes dessines: le phylactre francophone clbre ses 100 ans"(http://www.ledevoir.
com/culture/actualites-culturelles/45950/bandes-dessinees-le-phylactere-francophone-celebre-ses-100-ans)
. Le
Devoir (in French). Retrieved 14 January 2013.
28. (Duncan & Smith 2009, p. 26)
29. The Yellow kid (http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/06017640/). Library of Congress.

Attribution
 This article is based on the article from the French W
ikipedia "Histoire de la bande dessine amricaine".

Bibliography
Baron-Carvais, Annie (1994).La Bande dessine (in French) (4th ed.). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
p. 127. ISBN 978-2130437628. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Booker, M. Keith, ed. (2010). Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels . Santa Barbara, California: ABC-
Clio. p. 763. ISBN 978-0-313-35746-6. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Cooke, Jon B.; Roach, David, eds. (2001).Warren Companion: The Ultimate ReferenceGuide. TwoMorrows
Publishing. p. 272. ISBN 9781893905085. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Courtial, Grard; Faur, Jean-Claude (1985). la rencontre des super-hros (in French). Marseille: Bdsup. p. 152.
OCLC 420605740. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
DiPaolo, Marc (2011).War, Politics and Superheroes. Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film . Jefferson, N.C.:
McFarland. p. 330. ISBN 9780786447183. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Duncan, Randy; Smith, Matthew J. (2009).The Power of Comics: History, Form & Culture. New York: Continuum.
ISBN 978-0826429360. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Dupuis, Dominique (2005).Au dbut tait le jaune: une histoire subjective de la bande dessine(in French). Paris:
PLG. ISBN 9782952272902. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Estren, Mark James (1993).A History of Underground Comics(3rd ed.). Berkeley, CA: Ronin Publishing.
ISBN 9780914171645. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Filippini, Henri (2005).Dictionnaire de la bande dessine(in French). Paris: Bordas. p. 912.ISBN 9782047320839.
Retrieved January 7, 2013.
Gabilliet, Jean-Paul (2010).Of Comics and Men. A Cultural History of American Comic Books . Jackson, Miss.:
University Press of Mississippi. p. 390.ISBN 9781604732672. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Harvey, Robert C. (2009). "How Comics Came to Be". In Heer, Jeet; Worcester, Kent. A Comics Studies Reader.
Jackson, Miss.: University Press of Mississippi.ISBN 9781604731095. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Harvey, Robert C. (1994). The Art of the Funnies. An Aesthetic History. Jackson, Miss.: University Press of
Mississippi. p. 252. ISBN 9780878056743. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Kaplan, Arie (2008). From Krakow to Krypton. Jews and Comic Books . Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society .
ISBN 978-0-8276-0843-6. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Misiroglu, Gina; Roach, David A., eds. (2004).The Superhero Book. The Ultimate Encyclopedia Of Comic-Book
Icons And Hollywood Heroes. Detroit: Visible Ink Press. p. 725.ISBN 1578591546. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Nyberg, Amy Kiste (1998).Seal of Approval. The History of the Comics Code . Jackson, Miss.: University Press of
Mississippi. p. 224. ISBN 9781578591541.
Rhoades, Shirrel (2008).A Complete History of American Comic Books . New York: Peter Lang. p. 353.
ISBN 1433101076. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Rubis, Florian (March 2012). "Comics From the Crypt to the op:T Panorama des comics en franais".dBD (in
French) (61). ISSN 1951-4050.
Ryall, Chris; Tipton, Scott (2009). Comic Books 101. The History, Methods and Madness. Cincinnati, Ohio: Impact.
p. 288. ISBN 9781600611872. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Sanders, Joe Sutcliff (2010). The Rise of the American Comics Artist. Creators and Contexts . Jackson, Miss.:
University Press of Mississippi. p. 253.ISBN 9781604737929. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Thorne, Amy (2010). "Webcomics and Libraries". In Weiner, Robert G. Graphic Novels and Comics in Libraries and
Archives. Essays on Readers, Research, History and Cataloging . Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.
ISBN 9780786456932. OCLC 630541381. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Woods Robert, Virginia (2001). "Comic strips". In Browne, Ray Broadus; Browne, Pat.The Guide to United States
Popular Culture. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press.ISBN 9780879728212.
OCLC 44573365. Retrieved January 8, 2013.
Wright, Bradford W. (2003). Comic Book Nation. The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore, Md.;
London: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 360.ISBN 9780801874505. OCLC 53175529. Retrieved January 8,
2013.

Further reading
Coogan, Peter (2006). Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre. Austin, Texas: MonkeyBrain Books.

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=History_of_American_comics&oldid=806810867

"

This page was last edited on 24 October 2017, at 08:46.

Text is available under theCreative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia is a registered trademark of theWikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.