Transition points leading to what we know today as the Copper Age 1 1

[Neeidea]

If you believe in a Copper Age then it really has to start in March 1982, no transition just straight in there, but then again I am bias

 

 

• The debut of Alan Moore's new, darker Marvelman in Warrior #1.
  
• The debut of Alan Moore and David Lloyd's V for Vendetta in Warrior #1.
  
• Justice League of America #200: 76-page anniversary issue, "A League Divided". The double-sized issue was a "jam" featuring a story written by Gerry Conway, a framing sequence drawn by George Pérez, and chapters drawn by Pat Broderick, Jim Aparo, Giordano, Gil Kane, Carmine Infantino, Brian Bolland, and Joe Kubert. Bolland's chapter gave the artist his "first stab at drawing Batman."
  
• DC's horror-suspense anthology Secrets of Haunted House ceases publication with issue #46.
  
• Flash Gordon (1966 series), with issue #37, is cancelled by the Gold Key Comics imprint Whitman Comics.
  
• Underground cartoonist Dave Sheridan dies at age 39.
  
• March 27: Britain's weekly Eagle comic relaunched by IPC Media in a mostly photonovel format.
  

 

I'm thinking you are leaning towards the Warrior #1 publication.

 

Of course there was a transition into comedy in August 1983 but this was just some light relief from the 80's dystopia.

 

[vaillant]

@bababooey: Your points are worthy, and I admit I replied a bit by impulse, as you are right about Spider-Woman. For some reasons, when someone talks of Spider-Woman I think just about the initial run, with Gruenwald and Infantino, so I replied not thinking you were talking about the latter part of the series.

 

Claremont tried to grasp the character after Fleischer issues which IMO were disappointing, but did not succeed to the same degree he did on Ms. Marvel. I guess Gruenwald gave Jessica a unique character which was (and remains) difficult to master and write. Ms. Marvel was pretty much in Claremont’s sensibility, and he developed from Conway’s work in a convincing way.

 

What I don’t like about Shooter’s decision is for a good part what I seem to get constitutes the "essence" of the Copper age, so I think I will stop here…

[Bosco685]

Of course there was a transition into comedy in August 1983 but this was just some light relief from the 80's dystopia.

Needidea, do you own the OA for this series?

[bababooey]

.......................***You are ignoring all posts about about Spider-woman on this forum***

.......................Please toggle the display if you wish to view Really? You were going to?

 

@bababooey:

What I don’t like about Shooter’s decision is for a good part what I seem to get constitutes the "essence" of the Copper age, so I think I will stop here…

I know it's probably blasphemy to say this in this copper forum but your earlier post referred to Shooter's era being copper, but I believe Byrne/X-men and Miller/DD's are bronze. (at least up to 181)

Don't be like Bosco he's just a big ole copperhead and he's trying to claim good books for his favorite era.

 

Since I am interested primarily in the Marvel age, I can tell you that for me a big, decisive factor as far as Marvel goes, has been Jim Shooter becoming editor-in-chief. For better or worse his decisions were definitely outside the Bronze Age.

 

 

Edited April 7, 2013 by bababooey

[Bosco685]

Don't be like Bosco he's just a big ole copperhead and he's trying to claim good books for his favorite era.

 

 

Well, you guys had the Neal Adams Green Lantern run, the Wrightson/Wein Swamp Thing run, Barry Windsor-Smith's Conan run, and so many other goodies. You even had Howard the Duck.

 

Can't we have just a ten to twelve-year span? Okay, maybe fifteen and I promise not to ask for another year or two or three...

 

[bababooey]

12-15 years you can take as much of the 90's as you want, the chromium age guys are a disorganized non-existent mess and modern guys don't want it.

The modern dudes just transitioned from the SAGAH!!! era to the East of West/Sixth Gun era...

 

 

 

I'm too young to remember the early good bronze stuff on the rack...

[Bosco685]

I'm too young to remember the early good bronze stuff on the rack...

 

[Neeidea]

Of course there was a transition into comedy in August 1983 but this was just some light relief from the 80's dystopia.

Needidea, do you own the OA for this series?

 

Unfortunately not but I do have the full set of Warrior comics (including the 1996 special) and a digital download of the anthology #1-26.

Edited April 7, 2013 by Neeidea

[Bosco685]

Of course there was a transition into comedy in August 1983 but this was just some light relief from the 80's dystopia.

Needidea, do you own the OA for this series?

 

Unfortunately not but I do have the full set of Warrior comics (including the 1996 special) and a digital download of the anthology #1-26.

 

Wow!

 

I always toyed with collecting the entire run. Yet held off and watched quite a few sets on Ebay come and go.

 

 

Big mistake!

[bababooey]

 

It's almost 15 years!

 

 

[Bosco685]

 

[rjpb]

12-15 years you can take as much of the 90's as you want, the chromium age guys are a disorganized non-existent mess and modern guys don't want it.

The modern dudes just transitioned from the SAGAH!!! era to the East of West/Sixth Gun era...

 

So true, the modern era seems to increasingly be limited to whatever was published since TWD #1, and while most copper fans see the rise of Image, Valiant's Unity and all the diecut holo-foil gimmickry of the era as the start of a new age in the early 90s, I have no problem considering it the final phase of the Copper Age - culminating in Marvel's ill-advised decision to outsource some of it's core characters to Liefeld and Lee and allowing them to restart the numbering. Surely that has to be the end of something.

[chrisco37]

The "copper era" ended right at/before McSpidey #1. We can debate the start point of it all day. Lots of god points/arguements as the the start point.

 

However, I don't think it's debatable that a new era started with Spider-Man #1. That has to be the kickoff point for a whole new game.

[rjpb]

The "copper era" ended right at/before McSpidey #1. We can debate the start point of it all day. Lots of god points/arguements as the the start point.

 

However, I don't think it's debatable that a new era started with Spider-Man #1. That has to be the kickoff point for a whole new game.

 

Whether or not a big a change as starting a new era can ride on the shoulders of just one book, I'll grant that the rise of what would become the Image crew to superstar status at Marvel gave the sense that something new was happening in the comic world, even if like me, one didn't actually read the books. Even I bought the first couple issues of McFarlane's Spider-man just to see what the buzz was all about ( can't say it did anything for me). I don't buy into the argument that there is a clear industry wide demarcation for the end of one era and the start of another, more like periods of transition. Still, there was a lot going on independent of that, the excitement over Valiant and Vertigo imprint titles specifically come to mind, that the early 90s was clearly a period of flux, but it's too long ago to keep calling it the start of the "modern age" - perhaps it's time to take the idea of a "chromium age" more seriously and then we can get to the business of debating when it ended.

[chrisco37]

The "copper era" ended right at/before McSpidey #1. We can debate the start point of it all day. Lots of god points/arguements as the the start point.

 

However, I don't think it's debatable that a new era started with Spider-Man #1. That has to be the kickoff point for a whole new game.

 

Whether or not a big a change as starting a new era can ride on the shoulders of just one book, I'll grant that the rise of what would become the Image crew to superstar status at Marvel gave the sense that something new was happening in the comic world, even if like me, one didn't actually read the books. Even I bought the first couple issues of McFarlane's Spider-man just to see what the buzz was all about ( can't say it did anything for me). I don't buy into the argument that there is a clear industry wide demarcation for the end of one era and the start of another, more like periods of transition. Still, there was a lot going on independent of that, the excitement over Valiant and Vertigo imprint titles specifically come to mind, that the early 90s was clearly a period of flux, but it's too long ago to keep calling it the start of the "modern age" - perhaps it's time to take the idea of a "chromium age" more seriously and then we can get to the business of debating when it ended.

 

I agree 100%. I have no problem calling McSpidey #1 the start of the "Chromium" Age (or whatever designation wee give it). LKet it run roughly 10 years +/- to a new age; maybe the "ultimates" age. That's when I got back into books. USM #1 as the start of a new era. The modern age, or ultimate age if you want to pinpoint a change in perspective/philosophy.

[RockMyAmadeus]

The "copper era" ended right at/before McSpidey #1. We can debate the start point of it all day. Lots of god points/arguements as the the start point.

 

However, I don't think it's debatable that a new era started with Spider-Man #1. That has to be the kickoff point for a whole new game.

[RockMyAmadeus]

 

 

 

 

[Bosco685]

The "copper era" ended right at/before McSpidey #1. We can debate the start point of it all day. Lots of god points/arguements as the the start point.

 

However, I don't think it's debatable that a new era started with Spider-Man #1. That has to be the kickoff point for a whole new game.

 

If we did another timeline review of 1990-1992, you had a lot of title cancellations by DC and Marvel, introductions (Bishop, Cletus Kasady, Deadpool, Lady Death), the Weapon X storyline, the launch of Valiant's Western Publishing licensed character titles in 1991, and by 1992 we had the introduction of Image/WildStorm/Top Cow Productions.

 

In 1992 we had Spawn, Savage Dragon, Youngblood, WildCATS, and Top Two character introductions (Azrael, Carnage, War Machine). A lot of glitz and glamour characters that would become the market focus for a period of time, along with - let's not forget - the "death" of the superhero that was the catalyst for the market we know and love, Superman.

 

So between 1990-1992 there were changes taking place leading into a new market focus. Independent companies clearly establishing themselves as a major force in the market, and marketing campaigns driven by special/limited covers and multi-image covers from many companies. This then feeds the direction of the next few years, including Defiant's launch in 1993 and introduction of Plasm through a 0 issue in a binder and assembled through cards. You also had a cleanup of the market with the closure of multiple publishers that had either established themselves during the B&W craze, or at the tail-end of the excitement over comics that came from this period (Disney Comics, Eclipse Comics, First Comics, Innovation Comics, Northstar Publishing, Vortex Comics).

 

That's why, for me, I feel like 1990-1992 was a new transition period, and by 1993 the market was heading down a different path. It was driven by "large" ladies on covers beyond normal dimensions, same books with multiple covers, and produced limited covers requiring something special from retailers and collectors to acquire them. Even many of the characters that by themselves didn't feel like they had much substance. I bought a few copies of WildCATS #1 at one point because it was going to be super-hot, and then when I went back to read it I wondered what all the excitement was about. And it didn't seem to improve, but rather became more confusing.

 

Odd times!

[JiveTurkeyMoFo]

Whenever-1938 Platinum Age

1938-1949 Golden Age

1949-1961 Atomic Age

1961-1969 Silver Age*

1970-1981 Bronze Age

1982-1991 Copper Age

1991-2001 Chromium Age

2001-Current Modern Age

 

* Marvel Zombie viewpoint anyway.

[Bosco685]

Whenever-1938 Platinum Age

1938-1949 Golden Age

1949-1961 Atomic Age

1961-1969 Silver Age*

1970-1981 Bronze Age

1982-1991 Copper Age

1991-2001 Chromium Age

2001-Current Modern Age

 

* Marvel Zombie viewpoint anyway.

 

All this great discussion caused some shifts in perception. Interesting!

 

1955-1969 Silver Age

1970-1982 Bronze Age

1983-1996 Copper Age

 

What's the split between the 1991 end of Copper and 1991 beginning of Chromium?