End of the Bronze Age

[vaillant]

EDIT... I'm afraid my worldview as regards comics has little if anything to do with superheroes...

For that matter, a true worldview should regard the comic books history as just a part of comics history, so it would be nice to compare what happens in other countries at the same time, although comics, as a modern means, were born in the USA.

It has been very interesting for me to compare our own wartime production with comic books of the golden age (leaving syndicated strips aside, for now), as I had little to no knowledge of the golden age.

 

The multitude of universes and constant rebooting and reinventing of characters along with giving writers the opportunity to completely ignore or cherry-pick past continuity is a hall-mark of the copper to modern eras.

 

Now let‘s see where this will bring publishers.

Continuity (I am speaking of Marvel, here) wasn’t just something cronological, BTW.

[Cimm]

 

I agree, though it seems many collectors are drawn to the idea of hard cut-off dates. I'd even go further to say that the transitional periods can even be categorized as sub-ages of their own, usually lasting about 5 years or so, up until the early-mid 90s, and then it gets harder to really do.

 

1933-38 Pre or early golden age dominated by newspaper reprints and original material meant to mimic them, mostly "funny" covers.

 

1938-41 Dawn of the heroic age, action/adventure type covers and eventually superheros take over most existing titles, and account for new ones.

 

1941- 1945 World War 2 era. Fighting Nazis and Japs the preoccupation of most comic book characters.

 

1945-1950 Late GA or early Atomic Age, decline of the superhero, rise of genre comics ( funny animal, teen, crime, jungle, western, romance and eventually sci-fi and horror)

 

1950-1955 Atom age or pre-code era. Comics get thinner, quality of interior art generally increases. Horror comics become so popular that non-horror genres start to borrow from them, anti-communist stories are common, as are lurid and violent covers. Korean conflict fuels war comic explosion. Superhero books barely visible on the newstand.

 

1955 - 1960 Early Silver, sci-fi elements popular, superhero revival starts slowly and tentatively, westerns, romance, Disney, teen and sci-fi/fantasy dominate, though Superman related titles remain constant strong sellers.

 

1960- 1968 Silver Age really gets under way, superhero revival takes off, and superhero books become synonymous with comic books again.

 

1968 - 1972 End of Silver start of Bronze, code loosens, "horror" returns, comics address real world issues in order to be "relevant", B/W magazines and undergrounds rise in popularity outside the code.

 

1972-1979 Heart of the Bronze Age, next generation of heroes, DC implosion, undergrounds wane, "Graphic Novels' begin to appear, Sci-fi/fantasy revival in both code and non-code approved books.

 

1979 - 1985 Copper transition, grittier hero books, rise of the independent, direct marketing. Gold Key and Charlton fold. "newwave" and second generation underground comics get rolling.

 

1985-1992 Copper age, DC and Marvel begin what will become routine "major events", code becomes irrelevant with numerous Independents and B/W glut, rise of creator owned books including "small press". Porno comics swamp the "altenative" comic marketplace. Image and Valiant compete directly with the big two. Writers given more leeway in interpreting and re-interpreting existing characters, often outside "continuity".

 

1992 - 2000 Excess takes it's toll, gimmicks burn out fanbase on the "new", sales decline, "alternative comics" begin to give way to trade collections and hardbacks of original material. Cheaper color printing leads to B/W comics being more a creative than economic choice for non-mainstream publishers. multi-issue crossover company wide events for DC and Marvel on a nearly annual basis, Vertigo becomes an official imprint. Creator-owned properties reach new heights of success.

 

2000 - Now: Constant revamps/reboots of superhero properties, non superhero books continue to gain in popularity, mostly creator owned. Trade collections of almost everything, digital comics.

 

 

 

An additional observation about superhero books in particular though not exclusively.

 

In the 30s through the 50s there was little if any concern for continuity, and character development was virtually non-existent. Publishers doubted that readers would be aware, let alone care what a character had been doing just a few years earlier.

 

What differentiates the Silver Age and continues forward is the idea that a character's history matters to the readers, and Marvel in particular begins to exploit soap opera elements in their characters lives to build long term interest. Continuity becomes important, as publishers grow increasingly aware of a collecting fanbase that keeps track of past events.

 

By the 1980s there is an increasing awareness that continuities have become unwieldy, convoluted and have events ( Reed Richard's fighting in WW2) that become increasingly difficult to thread together with current storylines. The multitude of universes and constant rebooting and reinventing of characters along with giving writers the opportunity to completely ignore or cherry-pick past continuity is a hall-mark of the copper to modern eras. While there are still attempts to reconcile decades of a character's stories, only the most ardent fan boy really cares about fitting Bane and Bat-mite into the same continuity.

 

rjpb... you're my hero... this is the most cogent, well thought out and accurate response to the question of ages I've yet seen. Well done!!!

[vane]

DC seems to determine what era it's going to be.

 

 

My opinion...

 

Bronze Age 1970 - 1984

Copper Age 1985 - 1999

New Age 2000 - 2011/July

Modern Age 2011/August - present (Modern Age Begins because of DC The New 52)