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Thinking about Comic Ages

Started by Arkham,

17 posts in this topic

Arkham

Arkham

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Hi all,

 

As I ordered my OSPG this year I noticed the "Other's also bought" section on the page showing The Overstreet Guide to Collecting Comics. I figured it could be an interesting read so I pulled the trigger.

 

So far it is interesting reading and on the weekend I read an article in the book titled Comic Book Ages: Defining Eras by Dr Arnold T. Blumberg and J.C. Vaughn. (pp 42 - 46)... which expanded on some content they'd written in earlier OSPG's.

 

Although Blumberg and Vaughn acknowledge the Victorian, Platinum and Golden Ages, they really only define the year ranges for Silver (1956 - 1970), Bronze (1970 - 1984), Copper (1984 - 1992) and Modern (1992 - present).

The closest the pair come to defining the earlier ages is a combination of information from a graphical/comic-panel type introduction, which preceded the article in the book and which referenced The Brownies as being printed in 1887 paired with a statement in the article on page 44 that read:

Surely Action Comics #1 begins the Golden Age just as The Brownies begin the Platinum Age...

 

Blumberg and Vaughn describe the ages as denoting the creative teams and editorial (and business) decisions of each era, rather than the comics themselves. Which, makes perfect sense and is very thought provoking... And, therefore, the "Ages" of comic books really only exist as a means to identify, or (in their words) provide a "verbal shortcut" to explain, the style of writing and art from the creative teams or the editorial and publishing decisions identifiable in a specific comic or set of comics.

 

Blumberg and Vaughn go on to say that the creation of Ages and placing comics into these specific groups creates an "illusion" that comics are not part of a bigger picture... when in fact they are just once piece of a much larger world of comic character-based collectibles - which is in itself just a small slice of the even larger world of pop culture.

 

The article continues by identifying how the Comics Code itself has continued past the existence of the CCA through the embodiment of editorial decisions on how to address societal issues (such as the change from an age of innocence through to the portrayal of drugs in comics and the (unrelated to the previous point) evolution of more violent characters, such as The Punisher).

 

The article concludes by debating that, since the Ages are "arbitrary" and born of developments in the real world, that instead of individual comics being identified to herald a new age it would be more accurate to identify comics that mark the transitional phase between ages... They cited the examples of Showcase #4 (1956) starting the segue from Golden Age to Silver Age but the transition to Silver Age ending with Fantastic Four #1 (1961).

 

I couldn't help but wonder how this analysis would apply to present day.

 

For example, firstly - I'm presuming that the "Modern Age" will always be "present day". So we will be in the "Modern Age" in perpetuity.... but at some stage in the future we will identify "changes" in the industry that we will use to retrospectively identify a "new age"... whatever that metallurgical title will be.

 

If that is sound, are we in the middle of a transition phase right now?

 

Between 2011 and today we've seen both DC and Marvel reboot their universes. We've seen a gay Green Lantern and homosexual imagery depicted in SAGA #12... Which I cite, simply because it highlights our (albeit way too slowly) increasing maturity when it comes to acceptance in western culture... which fits the Blumberg and Vaughn model in terms of editorial/creative team decision making and publisher progression.

 

God knows what other events that have occurred in books I haven't read and therefore I'm unaware of. However, the turmoil of crazy universes action packed with whacked out writing, unencumbered by any form of direction, that was the late nineties and early naughties, also appears to be done... We've seen the introduction of new ways to read and enjoy comics with digitisation and mobile tablet computing etc... More movies... more collectibles... a market report of growth in a period of global economic instability. Things are pretty peachy in our hobby.

 

Each day I learn something new about this awesome hobby... mostly through interaction with you all on these boards. So, of course my first port of call to hear people's opinions is here too. In CG for de-rail funnies when it runs its course.

 

Love to hear your thoughts on whether or not you think we might be in a "transitional phase"... or whether in our current day we are ever really not in one? What will the next metal-of-choice be to title the ages etc etc...

 

:)

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kaholo1256

kaholo1256

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Honestly if anything we have entered the Digital Age. Most comics worth picking up at this point either come with a free pull off sticker or some other insert for the digital collection and thanks to Marvel's one time run of realeasing hundreds of comics for free at once, my digital comic collection is starting to grow at a much faster pace than my hard copy collection. This is especially helpful for many of the TPB's I like to use to catch up on old stories of comics currently slabbed for me.

 

Additionally we are starting to see many artist's themselves transitioning into the digital world. David Marquez, currently on Ultimate Spider-man as well as All New X-Men #6-#8 for Stuart Immonen's 3 issue break was entirely a digital work as well as Salvador Larroca's transition into what seems to be an all digital form from pen and ink to now computer based for Cable and X-Force.

 

Hate to say it but its an easier form for them to crank out faster product. Heck we have all seen some artists who almost blatantly copy past works but now we know for a fact that many will simply hit the equivilant of copy and paste.

 

It's the Digital age whether we like it or not...

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miraclemet

miraclemet

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Between 2011 and today we've seen both DC and Marvel reboot their universes.

 

Marvel didn't reboot anything, they just came out with a new bunch of #1s. Only DC had the balls to actually reboot their universe.

 

:gossip: (except for their well selling Batman and Green Lantern titles which they let just continue the status quo) :gossip:

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Dr. Balls

Dr. Balls

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Honestly if anything we have entered the Digital Age.

 

I think we're close. Lots of digital influence in comics - but I would say the digital age comes when one of the big publishers finally announces "No More Print Comics", which is probably 5-10 years away - but to me, that would be an appropriate beginning to the DIgital Age.

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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Honestly if anything we have entered the Digital Age.

 

I think we're close. Lots of digital influence in comics - but I would say the digital age comes when one of the big publishers finally announces "No More Print Comics", which is probably 5-10 years away - but to me, that would be an appropriate beginning to the DIgital Age.

 

Every age has a start period and a transition period. If I had to say it, I'd say we're in the digital age now.

 

Sounds like as good a name as any.

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Arkham

Arkham

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Honestly if anything we have entered the Digital Age. Most comics worth picking up at this point either come with a free pull off sticker or some other insert for the digital collection and thanks to Marvel's one time run of realeasing hundreds of comics for free at once, my digital comic collection is starting to grow at a much faster pace than my hard copy collection. This is especially helpful for many of the TPB's I like to use to catch up on old stories of comics currently slabbed for me.

 

Additionally we are starting to see many artist's themselves transitioning into the digital world. David Marquez, currently on Ultimate Spider-man as well as All New X-Men #6-#8 for Stuart Immonen's 3 issue break was entirely a digital work as well as Salvador Larroca's transition into what seems to be an all digital form from pen and ink to now computer based for Cable and X-Force.

 

Hate to say it but its an easier form for them to crank out faster product. Heck we have all seen some artists who almost blatantly copy past works but now we know for a fact that many will simply hit the equivilant of copy and paste.

 

It's the Digital age whether we like it or not...

 

Great points. I definitely read the vast majority of my comics digitally, with the minority being read through trades.

 

I still collect floppies of different books - but that's for the sole purpose of collecting... for me, reading digitally is far easier and keeps the books I collect in better shape.

 

Between 2011 and today we've seen both DC and Marvel reboot their universes.

 

Marvel didn't reboot anything, they just came out with a new bunch of #1s. Only DC had the balls to actually reboot their universe.

 

hm - yeah - I get the distinction. I guess I'd been referring to going from #XYZ to #1 when I said reboot, but the more accurate the distinction the better.

 

:gossip: (except for their well selling Batman and Green Lantern titles which they let just continue the status quo) :gossip:

 

lol - well I felt like Batman rebooted. Although the origin storyline is happening now, rather than back at #1. I was okay with that as the origins will always be based around the same baseline events.

But, I agree on the Lanterns... because there were still references to things that happened in the last volume. I didn't get that from Snyder's writing in Batman.

 

I thought the modern age had ended when DC The New 52 came out ( The start of the New Age Comics)

 

Interesting. Do you think there has been differences in the way the stories are written, or the way the book has been published to highlight the "new age" - or is it more about the "branding" of the books?

 

I've been both intrigued and not happy with the way DC have been culling some (actually quite good, and horrible) titles but adding new ones to keep the brand of "New 52" alive by keeping the count at 52 titles. I'd personally have no problem if there were no adherence to the number 52... I know it's probably about "weeks" in a year or something... but meh.. gimmicky.

 

Honestly if anything we have entered the Digital Age.

 

I think we're close. Lots of digital influence in comics - but I would say the digital age comes when one of the big publishers finally announces "No More Print Comics", which is probably 5-10 years away - but to me, that would be an appropriate beginning to the DIgital Age.

 

That will be a big time for :popcorn: ... I can see the market responding in several different ways to that kind of move. The good news will be the value of some of our physical books rising... but what will we collect? hahaha. There's nothing challenging about collecting digital stuff.

 

Here's a thread I started a couple of years ago discussing how the ages came to be named:

 

Linky

 

Really interesting read - thanks mate.

 

 

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Comicopolis

Comicopolis

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Between 2011 and today we've seen both DC and Marvel reboot their universes.

 

Marvel didn't reboot anything, they just came out with a new bunch of #1s. Only DC had the balls to actually reboot their universe.

 

But hey didn't really reboot it did they?

 

And they did such a bang up job as well.

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Arkham

Arkham

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Wow that stuff takes me back.

 

(worship) - awesome to have you see/read/post in the thread. I've been finding your articles great reading - interesting/thought provoking and enlightening. Thx mate.

 

Between 2011 and today we've seen both DC and Marvel reboot their universes.

 

Marvel didn't reboot anything, they just came out with a new bunch of #1s. Only DC had the balls to actually reboot their universe.

 

But hey didn't really reboot it did they?

 

And they did such a bang up job as well.

 

Arguable that some titles rebooted better than others, that's for sure. But bang up job? Well, extremely subjective. I thought some were absolutely awesome. Others, not so much.

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