INTRODUCTION TO COMICS

 Comic Books:

  • Around for very long time such as cave paintings depicting graphic scenes and digital comics
  • Comics developed own style, characters and following 
  • Purpose - entertain and or give a message 

Comic Book Burning:

  • In 1940’s comic books were burnt because the us wanted to eliminate the perceived dangers of comic books as they thought people would be easily led 
  • Many soldiers were returning home from seeing same activities in Germany (Jewish books) although comics were associated primarily with young readers 25% of printed materials going into military camps in ww2 was comics as it gave them escapism and entertainment in hard times 
  • Narratives started causing moral panic in society due to realistic nature people fought back 


Comic Code Authority (CCA) -1954:

  • Voluntary regulator not government created by comic book publishers prevent backlash comic book community
  • No excessive violence, no divorce, no respected institution policemen, judges or government officials as disrespectful, could not use words such as horror or terror only use word crime certain amount of times, cannot show law enforcement officers dying as a result of criminal activities, “every instance good shall triumph over evil”

Golden Era:

  • Late 1930-1950 
  • Superhero’s became popular 
  • Comics started to become a mass entertainment for millions of kids and adults 
  • Introduced iconic characters such as superman, batman, captain America and wonderwoman
  • Superhero’s became a hope during ww2, cheap and easy to buy
Silver Era:
  • Mid 1950-1970
  • After golden age superhero’s made a comeback
  • Creative storytelling, science fiction, more serious issues like identity, responsibility
  • Characters such as flash, green lantern, Spider-Man, Xman, avengers, doctor strange, black panther 
  • Hero’s more relatable, science, space, marvel 
Bronze Era:
  • 1970-1980
  • Became darker and more realistic tackling real-world issues e.g. drugs, racism, poverty and politics 
  • More serious 
  • Characters such as green lantern, Spider-Man, punisher, wolverine and teen titans 
  • Violence darker themes, social issues, anti hero’s, marvel and dc dominated 

Spider- woman top comic in 2020 1.3 billion dollars comics and graphic novel marvel 
The dark knight and the dark knight rises most popular and superman return least popular 





Why people read comics:
  • Persuasive 
  • Escapism - escape from real world 
  • Entertainment 
  • Bored
  • Fun
  • Engage
  • Find people with common interests
Different comic formats:
  • Digital 
  • Traditional 

Amazing Spider-Man 1963

Saga vol 1 2012







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