For me, The Copper Age began....

[joe_collector]

I should also qualify that list, as it's a combination of BA ends/CA begins events and issues as agreed upon by various forum members in a long-running thread.

 

One thing is for sure, and that's by 1982, the CA was fully in bloom, with books like Contest of Champions (first Marvel mini and precursor to Secret Wars), the Wolvie Mini (and the Mini-Series flood that followed), Marvel Fanfare, the Marvel Graphic Novel line, etc., etc., etc.

[Bosco685]

I should also qualify that list, as it's a combination of BA ends/CA begins events and issues as agreed upon by various forum members in a long-running thread.

Vince, do you have a link to this thread? I'd like to read it.

 

And I have to agree, by 1982-1983, events were occurring that signified a change had taken place.

 

What about the Alan Moore Warrior issues? What year was that?

[RockMyAmadeus]

I don't think anyone is going to argue that any comic published from 1982 on is still Bronze Age.

 

Rocky will, as he's a BIG supporter of OS (does he work there or something?) and fully stands behind Bob and his drunken assertion that the BA was still going well into 1984.

 

Oh, Joe, you're such a crackup.

 

Because Overstreet, especially insofar as 1980-up books are concerned, is an irrelevant anachromism, with prices that bear little bearing on reality. Nearly everything from the last 30 years in the OPG is radically overpriced, with obvious exceptions.

 

(thumbs u

[Bosco685]

I should also qualify that list, as it's a combination of BA ends/CA begins events and issues as agreed upon by various forum members in a long-running thread.

Vince, do you have a link to this thread? I'd like to read it.

 

And I have to agree, by 1982-1983, events were occurring that signified a change had taken place.

 

What about the Alan Moore Warrior issues? What year was that?

Just found it, which was 1982-1985.

 

I wish I could buy all those books one day.

[RockMyAmadeus]

I should also qualify that list, as it's a combination of BA ends/CA begins events and issues as agreed upon by various forum members in a long-running thread.

 

One thing is for sure, and that's by 1982, the CA was fully in bloom, with books like Contest of Champions (first Marvel mini and precursor to Secret Wars), the Wolvie Mini (and the Mini-Series flood that followed), Marvel Fanfare, the Marvel Graphic Novel line, etc., etc., etc.

 

And yet, oddly enough, Batman, Flash, Supes, Justice League, Wonder Woman....all telling the exact same stories they'd been telling for years.

 

Funny, that.

 

So, I guess it was Copper for Marvel, but Bronze for DC?

 

And let's not bring up the exceptions like NTT. That's WHY they are exceptions.

[joe_collector]

DC tried LOTS of new characters and concepts (too bad they sucked) around 1982 - Firestorm, Arak, Captain Carrot, Night Force, Arion, Phantom Zone, Camelot 3000, a second Teen Titans book, relaunching Swamp Thing, etc., and even joining with Marvel (& DC Present) for a TT/X-Men one-shot. 1982 was also the year DC canceled all of their remaining Horror mags,

 

On an overall industry view, in 1982 Harvey Comics, Warren Publishing and Spire Comics ceased operations, and it was also the start of creator royalties at both Marvel and DC, due to the emergence of competition from Independents. Love and Rockets debuts, Alan Moore + Warrior = 'nuff said.

 

And maybe biggest of all, 1982 was the year Steve Geppi founded Diamond.

 

To say that 1982 was *not* part of the Copper Age is insane.

[RockMyAmadeus]

DC tried LOTS of new characters and concepts (too bad they sucked) around 1982 - Firestorm, Arak, Captain Carrot, Night Force, Arion, Phantom Zone, Camelot 3000, a second Teen Titans book, relaunching Swamp Thing, etc., and even joining with Marvel (& DC Present) for a TT/X-Men one-shot. 1982 was also the year DC canceled all of their remaining Horror mags,

 

On an overall industry view, in 1982 Harvey Comics, Warren Publishing and Spire Comics ceased operations, and it was also the start of creator royalties at both Marvel and DC, due to the emergence of competition from Independents. Love and Rockets debuts, Alan Moore + Warrior = 'nuff said.

 

And maybe biggest of all, 1982 was the year Steve Geppi founded Diamond.

 

To say that 1982 was *not* part of the Copper Age is insane.

 

No, it's just insane TO YOU. And you have a habit of virulently dismissing anything and anyone who doesn't agree with you.

 

But, of course, no one said 1982 is NOT part of the Copper Age except you, and that only for the purpose of engaging in your usual hyperbole.

 

Marvel was clearly in Copper Age mode in 1982. But DC, your third-tier examples aside, was not. Experimenting with new titles was not a Copper Age invention. "Second Teen Titans book"? A mini-series is a "second Teen Titans book"..? It's important to note that DC's experimentation did not TOUCH their main stable of characters.

 

And let's not get all excited about Warrior. Though it WAS distributed, to an extent, in the US, it was a UK mag, and had little then-current bearing on the US market.

[joe_collector]

Rocky, you have to be the craziest board member on here, and not because of your views, but from the mentally-imbalanced-as-a-sheithouse-rat way you put them forth.

 

I actually think you enjoy being the only person on Earth who agrees with Bob Overstreet that the CA began in 1985.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Rocky, you have to be the craziest board member on here, and not because of your views, but from the mentally-imbalanced-as-a-sheithouse-rat way you put them forth.

 

I actually think you enjoy being the only person on Earth who agrees with Bob Overstreet that the CA began in 1985.

 

Go with that, Joey.

 

Fiction has always been your strong suit.

[Cimm]

Unfortunately, I don't think you can point to any one book, or event, or time period as starting the Copper Age. I think the start point is different for every single title, character and company. By 1986/87, everything was Copper, but it was a change that took place over a period of 6 to 7 years.

 

You can point to this title, and that issue, and be perfectly correct, but that will bear little to no relevance to any other title or company or character.

 

I think, perhaps, the best we could do is lock down when the Copper Age was all-inclusive, at what period in time there were no longer any Bronze titles left, when all of the characters had interacted with the rest of the Marvel or DC Universes to be included in this new Age.

 

In my opinion, and take this for what it is worth (and it ain't much!)... I think it was during the Millenium event that the entire DCU finally converted to the Copper Age, and it was during the Secret Wars that the entire Marvel Universe converted. First Comics was Copper Age from its inception, as was Pacific, Eclipse, and Eternity. Cerebus was Bronze Age from beginning to end.

 

Again, take it for what it is worth. About

[RockMyAmadeus]

Now we're getting somewhere....

[Silent Master]

AND HERE WE GO!!!! (so when did it end???)

[Cimm]

AND HERE WE GO!!!! (so when did it end???)

 

The end of the Copper Age is a bit easier, but still not entirely a clean cut.

 

For Marvel, it ended when the creators that Marvel bent over backward for, and gave them their own series, got swelled heads, and dropped the proverbial gift horse on a curb, and started Image.

 

For DC (and this is where it gets a bit ragged), it was probably the "death" of Superman, the breaking of Batman's back, and the "death" of Green Arrow.

 

I stopped collecting comics during this time period, shortly after Superman's death, so I would probably defer to others who witnessed the break point (if it was later than this).

[Bosco685]

I stopped collecting comics during this time period, shortly after Superman's death, so I would probably defer to others who witnessed the break point (if it was later than this).

Same here on the post-death end-of-collecting experience. I wonder how many fall into this category?

[Cimm]

I stopped collecting comics during this time period, shortly after Superman's death, so I would probably defer to others who witnessed the break point (if it was later than this).

Same here on the post-death end-of-collecting experience. I wonder how many fall into this category?

 

Perhaps that alone is a clear indicator of the end of the Age?

[Bosco685]

Perhaps that alone is a clear indicator of the end of the Age?

I think many folks lean towards this as the end of the Copper Age.

[Prince Namor]

For me, the Copper Age began with Frank Miller's Dark Knight.

I had really drifted away from collecting, was in my first year of college, went into a used record store, and just happened to see they had a comic rack.

There it was.... hadn't read a BATMAN comic since the late 70's. But I knew this was something different....

 

For me, it officially ended when, in early 1995, I picked up Preacher #1 and Stray Bullets #1 around the same time and thought...this is the future of comics...

I was working for a video store chain in Oxford, MS, and had talked the owner into letting us carry comics. I looked over at our used comic section with boxes and boxes of Image (Brigade! Shadowhawk!), later issue Valiants, Defiant, etc.... and thought, "Stupid superhero comics. You always lure me in. But you always let me down and I end up back reading the weird stuff."

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Boozad]

For me, it officially ended when, in early 1995, I picked up Preacher #1

 

I was thinking around '95 but wondered if that was a little too late. Preacher #1 was one factor towards it, but my main thinking was following the fallout of Knightfall in the Bat title. We had the Prodigal storyline which was still very steeped in Copper tones, but then Bruce Wayne returned, Kelley Jones and Doug Moench took over for a 40-issue run, and the paper stock was soon to change to the glossy sort we still have today.

 

Probably nowhere near enough to mark a change in era, but that's where I really noticed a difference in the way the title was heading. Plus Preacher was an absolute breath of fresh air.

[Bronty]

I agree with the 79 - 81 timeline joe put forward. I don't see how it can be any other date range.

 

Epic Illustrated 1 is an interesting choice - not a terribly impactful book on its own but what a sign of things to come.

[RockMyAmadeus]

79-81 is still solidly Bronze, across the board.

 

Are you really saying that Alpha Flight, Kitty Pryde, and Death of Phoenix are COPPER events....?

 

:shrug: