Comic Books, Part 2: Comic Book Eras

The comic-books era starts somewhere in the 1940's or so, and the beginning of the comic-books era is called the Golden Age of Comics. Political cartoons and cartoon strips go well-back into the time directly after the Gutenberg printing press, and even to some degree to earlier woodblock prints, but the idea of an entire comic "book," was unknown until then. The typical type of figure in the Golden Age of Comics was Superman, a very clean-cut epic-style hero figure. Another typical figure was Captain America.

On the surface what we see is this clean-cut image and a great deal of camp, but the Golden Age comics were also meant to subtly undermine at least some of the beliefs of mainstream culture. In fact, the original Captain America was eventually banned sometime near the turn of the decade of the 50's for implying and undermining mainstream culture without enough subtlety. All of the ages of comics have high points, even the current one, which most people call, "the Dark Age of Comics," but in spite of the crude art and printing, a very superficial character, and the goofy camp of nearly every single character and comic-book in this period, people who really love "com-books," say this really was - in fact - the very best era of comics - without reservation.

Probably my own favorite character was a very atypical comic-book character called Green Lantern. The goofy green garb, his magical green lantern, defending the Earth from alien villains, the god-like powers of this goofy green lantern, and the Galactic Federation that hoped to receive a better humanity into its ranks - need we say more? Also, Green Lantern was started by the same writer who started the Batman series some 10 years later, a guy who used the pen-name "Daniel Finger." A graphic novel collection of some of the original Green Lantern comics is on my Christmas list, and we'll just have to see how money holds out.

There was a short intervening period, and then in the late 50's, maybe first couple of years of the 60's decade, the Silver Age of Comics begins. Both Batman and Spiderman are sterling examples of the Silver Age. Batman and Spiderman are both conflicted characters, though Stan Lee's Spidey is certainly not as dark in character as Batman, and the people of the towns they are saving from cosmic doom (RAHR!) do not like them very well and are constantly trying to find ways of putting them away for good.

In the Golden Age of Comics, the theme of a secret identity was there, but the hero himself was generally worshipped as a kind of demi-god, and also generally had more than demi-god-like powers. The Silver Age original comics were entirely different in character. Batman was a human with great gadgets, and Spidey was - well - he was a punk geek with spider powers. Not at all your archetypal heroes. Why would someone want to have spider powers? Spidey in particular is a really queer book. Marvel has maintained the "Amazing Spider Man," series pretty consistently, and that particular Spidey is still a great book. However, enough "goth," has creeped in to even that particular version of that book to make real fanatics like my friend C. really, really, angry.

Also we can't help but mention Stan Lee's other big book the Fantastic Four, which again, is filled with some real weird characters. You've got a guy who turns into a big stone powerhouse, a guy whose power is to stretch his limbs like play-doh - need we say more? Fantastic Four was an incredibly fun book, and just as good as Spidey, but don't bother with any Fantastic Four movie. Fantastic Four was supposed to be really lame, but the movies are lame and don't work. Maybe they'll figure one out someday, who knows?

The Bronze Age of Comics begins with "the Incredible Hulk," and "the Uncanny X-Men." In the vein of the "Uncanny book," there were now all sorts of "team books," like "Justice League of America," and that kind of thing iterated over and over. "Uncanny," had a lot of camp left, but now we're starting to get to the "Aagh! My mind is burning!" - frames. (character with head in hands and some lines jumping out, a sort of comic-book telepathic migraine) If I had a penny for every one of those frames that has appeared in a comic since the Bronze Age, I would be trading on the same stock market ticker as Bill Gates. The era itself began sometime in the late 60's.

The Hulk was a different sort of character. He had gotten irradiated at a top-secret government site, and when he got angry, he would turn into a great big green powerhouse troll-beast that would inevitably destroy everything in sight, while somehow managing to accidently beat the bad guys while trashing everything in every frame. I think he was another Stan Lee character, and now we have a hero who really isn't in control over his own powers, and also has a tendency of leveling cities to get the job done, which was also a typical Uncanny theme.

So we have a sort of intervening period that isn't labeled, but sometime in the late 80's we have the beginning what is called "the Dark Age of Comics." The simple reason isn't so much that every comic-book today is so durned horrible, it's just that it is "goth, goth, goth," everywhere you look! Why use normal humor when you can use black humor? Why make your hero actually heroic? Why show some actual "milk of human kindness? Why not? Because it's the Dark Age of Comics! (RAHR!?)

In honor of my friend D., we need to hit the Batman comic books. DC comics is consistently the best of the large comic-book companies on the market, with literary quality comics like the Sandman series and other great titles, but Batman as a comic is now a total loser. Like most books today, the book is split into a lot of different "flavors," and then the special edition series, and so on.

The thing is - sure - Batman started as a sort of anti-hero. He saw his parents murdered as a child and he has become a vigilante to get revenge. He trusts no one - even his allies - and makes all sorts of contingency plans in case they betray him. All of that goes back pretty far into the original book. He is also a murderous martial artist. His gadgets aren't too friendly. He wears a bat costume. You get the idea. However, as I said in the previous comic-book article - originally - for all of that, Batman was recognizably a "good guy." Now, the typical Batman character behavior is sort of Gacy-esque. He acts like a psychopath, and this is without any exception in any of the split books.

The funny thing is that Marvel Comics is notorious for ruining good comic-books and their characters, and DC is famous for its integrity, but when it comes to Spidey, "The Amazing Spiderman," is at least recognizable as Stan Lee's original character, and Batman needs a good hanging at a military tribunal. It is really, really disgusting. My suggestion is that if you love Batman, order the "Greatest Stories Ever Told," series of graphic novels that collects the original Silver Age Batman series from 1 to when the splits started. The art is crude, but it is an actual comic-book with an actual hero, and it is great stuff, from what little I've seen of the series.

That pretty much ends the history discussion portion of the comic-books series. There are some really good comics out there, and the academic community, even if liberal-minded, is very conservative, and the academic community has started to talk about how the graphic novel and the comic-book are in some cases literary quality art. The big problem now is that no one wants to make a comic book unless it is a gothic-style comic book. The result is that you have all of these iterations of cyborg samurai who ought to shave their 5 'o' clock shadow with their cyborg implants and other total nonsense. I even like "gothic," to a great degree - but man - that is all there is on the comic shelf, and that is annoying as hell. Why not an American Gundam McPlayland book? Somethin'.

I'm going to do a little piece on books next, but I want to break for a minute and collect my head about exactly what I want to say and how I want to organize it, and maybe grab another snack. I will be back.