A History of the Comic Books in the 20th Century

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful then a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Look! Up in the sky. Its a bird! Its a plane! No, its SUPERMAN!! is what people would hear before every episode of the Superman cartoon in the 60s. Since the beginning of the 20th century, comics have been part of our culture. Over the years they have changed and have continued to show the world what one can do with just a little imagination.

Some people trace comics back to prehistoric paintings found in caves; others trace them back to Egyptian hieroglyphics. The truth is that no one really knows; however, we do know that our modern conception of comics is about as old as the motion picture. The first true comic was created in 1896 when Richard Fenton Outcalt drew The Yellow Kid. He is also the man responsible for creating the balloon, a circle around a characters mouth with words in it that represented what the character was saying. During comics first decade they were normally of humoristic nature, which is where their name originated. Other comics that came out are ones still heard about today such as Little Nemo in Slumberland, Mutt vs. Jeff, Krazy Kat, as well as Popeye which eventually turned into a cartoon and later in 1989 a live action movie staring Robin Williams.

It wasnt until the 1930s when we saw our first costumed character in The Phantom by Lee Falk and Ray Moore. During this decade comics started showing adventures, with titles like Flash Gordon, Tarzan, and Dick Tracy. Dick Tracy would also, like Popeye, turn into a cartoon and then a movie starring Warren Beatty, Ál Pachino, and Madonna. With all these great characters comics would soon change to a completely different format known as superheroes. In 1938 Action Comic #1 was released starring a new character known as Superman, created by Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster. This is where The Golden Age of comics starts; it was after this that more then 400 superheroes were created between 1940 and 1945. Only a few survived. Among those that did survive were Bob Kanes Batman and C.C. Becks Captain Marvel. Also, during World War II, comics were used as a way to bring up the soldiers morale when Jack Kirby and Joe Simon introduced Captain America.

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Just as the comic industry started to flourish, in the beginning of the 1950s a psychiatrist known as Fredric Wertham wrote a book called The Seduction of the Innocent. In this book, Werthem accused comics of youth corruption and the increase in violence. It was due to his views that the Comic Code was invented to limit and rule what could and could not be printed. Once the comic code was put into effect, EC comics (an underground publication) was all but ruined except for one of it its books, MAD Magazine, which is still read today. While comics were going through this time, a new strip was also created and would become very popular over the years. Charles Shultz had no idea that his Peanuts comic strip, which told the tales of a 6-year-old boy who could never win and his faithful dog Snoopy, would become such a big hit.

Once the 1960s came, the Golden Age was well over and we were now starting to enter the Marvel Age. During the 60s Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced Marvel Comics. They were responsible for creating some of the great heroes we see today like the Fantastic Four, Silver Surfer, Thor, Hulk, X-Men, and the ever so popular Spider-Man. While Marvel was just getting underway. underground comics were starting to make a comeback as well. This time around, however, they had even more sex and violence in them. By the late 60s, museums were holding comic conventions.

The 1970s saw the beginning of the Bronze Age, which was dominated by the underground circuit. In 1974 some French cartoonists got together and created a comic no one had thought about doing. By 1977 it had entered the states and it was known as Heavy Metal, which depicted a world full of fantasy, science fiction, drugs, sex, and rock n roll.

The 1980s showed even more comics being introduced. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was created as a joke by Kevin Eastmen and Peter Laird. They wanted to make a comic that was amusing and really stupid. They drew and wrote the first issue, and borrowing money from relatives, printed it in black and white. Soon thereafter cartoons, movies, and toys were made from their comic. This was also the time when DC comics decided to start over from scratch. In a series known as The Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC killed off a lot of its main characters. They did this because they had started an angle years earlier that the DC universe was actually six different parallel worlds with different heroes. This series would fix that and make it so that there was only one world. In 1988 DC also got the idea to get its readers involved. They started the story line Batman: A Death in the Family, in which before the last issue the readers would vote on whether they wanted to kill Robin or let him live. The actual vote came out to 5343 to 5271; the boy wonder was killed in an explosion by the Joker.

Once the 90s came, the Modern Age was getting ready to start. In 1990 Marvel introduced new titles as well as new artists Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Chris Claremount, and Jim Lee. In 1992 DC decided to kill off their greatest hero ever when Superman was defeated and killed by a villain known as Doomsday. During the seven issues that followed, four characters showed up saying they were the reincarnation of Superman. After the seventh issue, the real Superman returned. That same year Marvel introduced the first homosexual character in comic history in Alpha Flight # 106. While this was happening, those same new artists that Marvel had hired two years earlier had left due to creative differences and started their own company, now known as Image Comics. The first comic they published was called Youngblood, by Rob Liefeld. Their second book would be the best selling comic ever by an independent label and it was known as Todd McFarlanes Spawn. Today it has sold over 2 million copies and spawned a cartoon on HBO, and a movie.

In 1996 comic fans witnessed something they thought they would never see. For the first time their favorite heroes from Marvel and DC would do battle in a four issue series called DC vs. Marvel. Some of the battles were decided on fans votes, and others by the creators. It also started a small series of crossovers where two heroes were fused as one, one of which was Super Solider (Superman and Captain America.)

Today there have been a few changes in the comic industry. Image comics is now owned by DC comics, Marvel Comics has filed for chapter nine bankruptcy, and those underground comics like Ninja Turtles are coming back to comics again. What does the future hold for this industry? No one really knows. However, we do know that it is a booming business just waiting for new artists with incredible imaginations to take part in it. As long as they dont do something stupid like kill Superman again, I think that they will be fine.

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