What's the real DISTINCTIVE GA cutoff for ongoing titles?

[RockMyAmadeus]

I'm sure this isn't the first time this has been brought up, but I think about it from time to time, and I'd like to get a bit of a consensus on this.

 

Of the ongoing GA titles, what's the real distinctive cutoff of "this is Golden Age" and "this is not quite GA, not yet SA"...?

 

Some titles are easy, in my mind. All Star, for example. #57 is it. Or the Marvel family of books, which essentially petered out by 1953/54.

 

But what about Batman, Action, Adventure, 'Tec, Wonder Woman, Superman, WF? Or Marvel Tales? Are they all different? Is Superman #76 a GA book? Is WF #70 a GA book? Is Batman #73 a GA book? When the page count went from 52 to 40? 32?

[comicdonna]

I decided years ago to make the cut-off for my GA Action run at #158 (The origin of Superman retold).

[Hepcat]

The appearance of the CCA emblem seems to be the default dividing line on this board.

 

 

When the page count went from 52 to 40? 32?

 

What month and year did that happen?

 

[sakaridis]

The appearance of the CCA emblem seems to be the default dividing line on this board.

 

 

When the page count went from 52 to 40? 32?

 

What month and year did that happen?

 

It wasn't done instantly across the board.

 

Most titles went to 52 pages (down from 64) before the War was over. Then in the early 50s (between 51-54) they gradually went to 44 (40+covers).

 

After 1955, it was down to 32 (plus covers) for pretty much every book.

 

[Hepcat]

I'd say the Golden Age ended then when comics went to 32 pages, which coincides very well with the CCA label making its appearance.

 

[Mr.Diggler]

[MrBedrock]

I look at it on a publisher to publisher basis. This may be the wrong answer but here goes...

For instance, for Timelys 1949 was the cut off for GA (Marvel 92, Cap 74, Torch 35, Subby 32). I lump every genre of Timely/Atlas after 1949 as post GA. But the true GA for Timely was when they were big fat 64 pagers. By early '44 they were getting thinner both in number of pages and in width. So Marvel Mystery through #51, Captain America through #34, Torch through #15, and Sub Mariner through #11. Now that was the Golden Age (thumbs u

For DC I do the same. The true Golden Age (Action - @#65, Detective - @#80 etc.), but I do tend to lump DC all the way through the early '50's into golden age, at least through the 52 pagers.

 

When I file my personal stuff I put things like the Fox GGA, later Nedor Schomburg covers, Famous Funnies Frazetta covers, and any other post-war genre books in with the "Atom Age" stuff.

 

I guess I'm a little more of a hard-liner when it comes to the term "Golden Age". There is something about the early, 64 page, big fat comics that is golden age to me. And everything after that is something else.

[Straw-Man]

for my g.a. pedigree type-set, i went with anything pre-showcase 4, cuz that let me collect more comics!

 

i kinda think 12/49 in my heart, tho'.

[Straw-Man]

I look at it on a publisher to publisher basis. This may be the wrong answer but here goes...

For instance, for Timelys 1949 was the cut off for GA (Marvel 92, Cap 74, Torch 34, Subby 32). I lump every genre of Timely/Atlas after 1949 as post GA. But the true GA for Timely was when they were big fat 64 pagers. By early '44 they were getting thinner both in number of pages and in width. So Marvel Mystery through #51, Captain America through #34, Torch through #15, and Sub Mariner through #11. Now that was the Golden Age (thumbs u

For DC I do the same. The true Golden Age (Action - @#65, Detective - @#80 etc.), but I do tend to lump DC all the way through the early '50's into golden age, at least through the 52 pagers.

 

When I file my personal stuff I put things like the Fox GGA, later Nedor Schomburg covers, Famous Funnies Frazetta covers, and any other post-war genre books in with the "Atom Age" stuff.

 

I guess I'm a little more of a flat-liner.

 

cap 35 is a big ol' fat timely, geek.

 

and fixed that for ya'!

[MrBedrock]

cap 35 is a big ol' fat timely, geek.

 

and fixed that for ya'!

I knew that I must have been flat-lining.

[jimjum12]

I look at it on a publisher to publisher basis. This may be the wrong answer but here goes...

For instance, for Timelys 1949 was the cut off for GA (Marvel 92, Cap 74, Torch 35, Subby 32). I lump every genre of Timely/Atlas after 1949 as post GA. But the true GA for Timely was when they were big fat 64 pagers. By early '44 they were getting thinner both in number of pages and in width. So Marvel Mystery through #51, Captain America through #34, Torch through #15, and Sub Mariner through #11. Now that was the Golden Age (thumbs u

For DC I do the same. The true Golden Age (Action - @#65, Detective - @#80 etc.), but I do tend to lump DC all the way through the early '50's into golden age, at least through the 52 pagers.

 

When I file my personal stuff I put things like the Fox GGA, later Nedor Schomburg covers, Famous Funnies Frazetta covers, and any other post-war genre books in with the "Atom Age" stuff.

 

I guess I'm a little more of a hard-liner when it comes to the term "Golden Age". There is something about the early, 64 page, big fat comics that is golden age to me. And everything after that is something else.

 

I can definitely relate to this, but there were some real neat 52 pagers also. For simplicity's sake, the cut off for me is after the 52 pagers, even though this eliminates books like Namora, which really should be GA. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a froiend of jesus) (thumbs u

[markseifert]

But what about Batman, Action, Adventure, 'Tec, Wonder Woman, Superman, WF? Or Marvel Tales? Are they all different? Is Superman #76 a GA book? Is WF #70 a GA book? Is Batman #73 a GA book? When the page count went from 52 to 40? 32?

 

Without looking up dates, and realizing there are probably contradictions in my answer,my general impression of stuff of that variety is:

 

Supes 76, Batman 73 are definitely GA books. WF 70 isn't.

 

It's interesting that comicdonna puts his cutoff at Action #158, I was going to do that for awhile as well for the same reason. But I've seen a bunch of the later covers recently and they are soooo cool, I think I've decided to take it to Action #200. And that's still definitely not a SA book. For collecting purposes I'd rather go with the clean numerical break. Like up to Tec #200 as well.

 

Similarly, I was going to end Supes at #76 for awhile, but realized I'd rather take it up to clean even number. I might stop at #80 there, though. I've never thought of Supes #100 as a GA book. Lots of SA collectors I have known have started their Supes collections there, so it's never felt like GA to me.

 

Thinking about the look and feel of DC's, and not focusing on various series endings or beginnings for the moment, DC still feels like GA for me up to around 1952 for sure. It definitely gets fuzzier in the 53/54 period.

[Frisco Larson]

cap 35 is a big ol' fat timely, geek.

 

and fixed that for ya'!

I knew that I must have been flat-lining.

 

Most likely from staring too long at that killer 9.0 Cap 34 of yours

[Hepcat]

Eeeeewwwww. Staring at a Cap 34, or any Cap for that matter, would certainly cause me to go catatonic.

 

[Forbush-Man]

The true distinctive cut-off for GA is my birthday: What happened before it is GA, what happened after it is SA.

[Scrooge]

... You mean the only GA book is Obadiah Oldbuck

 

I tend to associate the end of the GA with the rise of the Genres, that is, once the consecutive waves of Romance then Western then Horror took over the newsstands, the GA was over.

 

I can see why MrBedrock wants to restrict them to the "thick" books. Those are the true GA. I only post here b/c we don't have an AA forum.

[sakaridis]

... You mean the only GA book is Obadiah Oldbuck

 

I tend to associate the end of the GA with the rise of the Genres, that is, once the consecutive waves of Romance then Western then Horror took over the newsstands, the GA was over.

 

I can see why MrBedrock wants to restrict them to the "thick" books. Those are the true GA. I only post here b/c we don't have an AA forum.

I tend to agree with that position. The superhero dominated period up till the end of WW2 is drastically different than what came after. Atom Age should be recognized as a distinct, wholly separate period in comic book history.

 

Of course, this doesn't address the subject of cut-off points for major superhero titles, but...

 

Best I can do is "there are different cut-off points for every title" (months or maybe years apart from one another) and "I know a golden (silver) age comic when I see one"

 

 

[Forbush-Man]

I only post here b/c we don't have an AA forum.

 

Alcoholics Anonymous doesn't have their own forum?!?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[rockman2008]

I only post here b/c we don't have an AA forum.

 

Alcoholics Anonymous doesn't have their own forum?!?

 

If you've seen some of the whacko posts here, you'll agree this is the Alcoholics Anonymous forum.

[Cimm]

I agree with Scrooge... All of the genre books that started up, or were just title-switches of GA books, in the post-war years, are Atom Age. For the on-going, never-ending superhero titles, you would probably have to go the end of the line, or actually *gasp* read them to decide a cut-off point per individual title.

 

But, for me, being the non-cape collector that I am, 1945 endeth the Golden Age, and 1946 beginneth the Atom Age, and 1955 endeth the Atom Age. Your mileage may vary.