What was the best era of comics?

[rodan57]

Give or take five years.

 

 

 

 

[Buzzetta]

The mid-to-late-80's is an obvious choice because this was when the whole "comics for adults" shift started, but hadn't yet devolved into the fanboy stupidity of the 2000's. It was still fresh, and the best comic writers produced some truly compelling work like Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, Sandman, Moore's Swamp Thing, Elektra: Assassin, Hellblazer/Constantine, Daredevil Born Again, Batman: Year One, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, etc., etc., etc. I've said it before, but this was the best time to be a comic reader, as the LCS scene was electric.

+1 Sums it up perfectly imho.

 

Personally, I think of that time-period as the actual 'Golden Age' of comic books, when the medium matured into the best of what it could be. An era of creative magic.

 

John Byrne's Fantastic Four is what brought me back to the title at this time. Amazing work!

 

 

I agree with this and this is not because of my age or the time period I started to get into comics. I think we start to see a but more of the tragic hero where the world is no longer full of hugs and unicorns. The hero may win but he still loses something in the victory.

 

We get a taste of this in Amazing Spider-man 121 and 122 and then the introduction to the anti-hero Punisher in 129. It is in the 80's though that these seeds come to fruition. Today's books are in my opinion the legacy of that movement and are actually quite good for the most part in comparison to some of the hokeyness that the Golden Age and Silver Age produced.

 

For example... I actually thought that the concepts behind Marvel's Civil War were actually quite brilliant in that it would appeal to the kid in us to see which hero can beat who, while also appealing to the adult who was able to 'get' the politics of it.

 

AvX is another example of this as the kid in us 'gets' the battles while the adults question the philosophical debate regarding power.

 

I like where we are now.

[Cosmic Boy]

Really really interesting question.

 

The Golden Age had great artwork and innovation but the stories were mostly superficial and character depth was nearly non-existent. The Silver Age had that atomic swagger, the optimism of science and overall swankiness, but still the depth wasn't quite there yet.

 

So I think, overall, the early Bronze Age wins out. That's when the stories turned really meaty. O'Neil and Adams brought naturalism and real world issues to DC. Marvel killed its most popular character's girlfriend. The X-Men are revitalized! The horror revival began in full swing. This was the first generation of writers/artists that grew up wanting to work in comics. And in my mind it's the first era where comic books became a defecto form of literature. So for my money, 1970-1975 was probably the best reading time period.

 

The one thing I can say with certainty, however, is that the entire decade of the '90s in comics was awful. Just dreadful. And I say that even with it being my nostalgic childhood era of reading/collecting. It was the worst. Well, that and anything to do with Todd McFarlane.

[Fan Boy]

Great thread here. There are two different eras for me - like as with everyone else here.

 

My days of comic book reading started in mid-70s and went on to 1982 ... which I considered the best years. That was my best boyhood into young teenager with comic books. The spinner rack, the sting ray bike, the part time jobs I did to feed my reading every weekend. There were the days of 100-pages giants of how I found the GA and SA -era stories. My first visit of the local LCS in 1979. These are the days I'll not forget.

 

The best era for comic books would be from 1980 to 1988 when I saw Byrne's work for FF, Superman and a few others. As well as Curt Swan's work. I was also opening up to other countries of different comic-related books like the Mobeius story, Trigan Empire of UK and Japenese manga.

 

Yes, the 1990s era was the worst period but glad it changed into something better later into the 21st century. Just that I wished it had stayed at 25 cents. That was my days of hard decisions in which book to buy with my 25-cent allowance in the mid-70s! Should it be Richie Rich or Superman or Hulk?! Spin again the rack...

[Speedy-D]

The era when I was 12 or so: early- to mid-80s.

[quadman78]

For me this question is tricky because my favourite era confuses my view on the best era. My favorite for reading is actually now. The stuff image is putting out is a revolution in comics IMHO. The adult writing style and art styles seem to give comics a legitimacy as an adult medium as opposed to the superhero comics of old which always had a youth oriented stigma to them(although the success of the movies in the past decade has alleviated that somewhat).

Look at any depiction of an adult comic collector or reader in media from the 70's on and they were always obese pimple faced losers who live with their mom and have no girlfriend....man in the mirror is laughing at me right now...

For me the best era is the late 30's through the mid 40's. Superman and captain America actually helped people both civilian and in the military as symbols of hope and freedom. As much as marvel changed(and saved) the comic book industry in the 60's, the creation of the superhero had the largest affect on the world which I think gives it the edge as the greatest.

 

Having said that, the 90's is when I first discovered how much I enjoyed comics with X-Force and the Mcfarlane Spider-man and my favorite storyline of all time is still the death of superman.

[joe_collector]

The mid-to-late-80's is an obvious choice because this was when the whole "comics for adults" shift started, but hadn't yet devolved into the fanboy stupidity of the 2000's. It was still fresh, and the best comic writers produced some truly compelling work like Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, Sandman, Moore's Swamp Thing, Elektra: Assassin, Hellblazer/Constantine, Daredevil Born Again, Batman: Year One, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, etc., etc., etc. I've said it before, but this was the best time to be a comic reader, as the LCS scene was electric.

+1 Sums it up perfectly imho.

 

Personally, I think of that time-period as the actual 'Golden Age' of comic books, when the medium matured into the best of what it could be. An era of creative magic.

 

But unfortunately (as Moore has stated many times over) this was to be a temporary deconstruction of the superhero, which Modern hacks unfortunately took off with at Marvel and DC, leaving us with the tatters of a once-healthy industry, now supported only be aging nerds.

[Davenport]

The mid-to-late-80's is an obvious choice because this was when the whole "comics for adults" shift started, but hadn't yet devolved into the fanboy stupidity of the 2000's. It was still fresh, and the best comic writers produced some truly compelling work like Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, The Killing Joke, Sandman, Moore's Swamp Thing, Elektra: Assassin, Hellblazer/Constantine, Daredevil Born Again, Batman: Year One, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, etc., etc., etc. I've said it before, but this was the best time to be a comic reader, as the LCS scene was electric.

+1 Sums it up perfectly imho.

 

Personally, I think of that time-period as the actual 'Golden Age' of comic books, when the medium matured into the best of what it could be. An era of creative magic.

 

But unfortunately (as Moore has stated many times over) this was to be a temporary deconstruction of the superhero, which Modern hacks unfortunately took off with at Marvel and DC, leaving us with the tatters of a once-healthy industry, now supported only be aging nerds.

What do you think the 'boundaries' of that special era are? I was thinking maybe 'Camelot 3000' or 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' were the beginning edges. Possibly 'Death of Superman' as an ending, where that huge gimmick-payday ushered in a gimmick-frenzy.

 

The more I think on that era, the more expansive it becomes. If you start pulling in Xenozoic Tales, American Flagg, Doom Patrol, Grendel, Scout, and on and on. It truly was that rare combo of electric and rewarding.

[Junkdrawer]

I like when comic cons were pretty much well noted comic book shows and solely devoted to comic books. Two large rooms of dealers, boxes and wall books. Gonna be around 79-80 for me attending my first con at the Hines Convention center and others at the 57. Newbury Comics was just a one store operation and on Newbury St. That's it for me. Early 80's - punk rock and comics books and a er nevermind

[JazzMan]

Really really interesting question.

 

The Golden Age had great artwork and innovation but the stories were mostly superficial and character depth was nearly non-existent. The Silver Age had that atomic swagger, the optimism of science and overall swankiness, but still the depth wasn't quite there yet.

 

So I think, overall, the early Bronze Age wins out. That's when the stories turned really meaty. O'Neil and Adams brought naturalism and real world issues to DC. Marvel killed its most popular character's girlfriend. The X-Men are revitalized! The horror revival began in full swing. This was the first generation of writers/artists that grew up wanting to work in comics. And in my mind it's the first era where comic books became a defecto form of literature. So for my money, 1970-1975 was probably the best reading time period.

 

The one thing I can say with certainty, however, is that the entire decade of the '90s in comics was awful. Just dreadful. And I say that even with it being my nostalgic childhood era of reading/collecting. It was the worst. Well, that and anything to do with Todd McFarlane.

 

I tend to agree with you. If I remove my childhood from the mix and look at it from the perspective of the material that was created during the period, the Bronze Age would take the prize. I believe the Silver Age characters "matured" in the BA and new players complemented the legacy players nicely.

[joe_collector]

What do you think the 'boundaries' of that special era are? I was thinking maybe 'Camelot 3000' or 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' were the beginning edges.

 

I would say Warrior #1 in 1982 to maybe The Killing Joke in 1988.

 

1989 was a major turning point for comics, and speculation ramped up across the board and once Spider-man #1 blasted onto the scene in 1990, the Modern Age really started.

[joe_collector]

If I remove my childhood from the mix and look at it from the perspective of the material that was created during the period, the Bronze Age would take the prize. I believe the Silver Age characters "matured" in the BA and new players complemented the legacy players nicely.

 

I agree with you in a way, as the 1970-75 comics are my favorite, but I still think it would have been cooler to be there at the very start, picking up FF #1, AF #15, Hulk 1, Avengers 1, X-men 1, etc. and growing up with the characters each month.

[joe_collector]

I like when comic cons were pretty much well noted comic book shows and solely devoted to comic books. Two large rooms of dealers, boxes and wall books. Gonna be around 79-80 for me attending my first con at the Hines Convention center and others at the 57. Newbury Comics was just a one store operation and on Newbury St. That's it for me. Early 80's - punk rock and comics books and a er nevermind

 

That was definitely the best time for fandom, and I remember being on a trip through the US during the Bicentennial when I was a kid, and happening on a local flea market with a comic book show in one big pavillion - I thought I had died and gone to heaven.

[Ebel 1911]

70s for me. Comics were still available at grocery & drug stores but local comic shops were also around to pick up issues you missed (when you could get your parents to take you). Stories were creative & lots of good characters were evolving while many good new ones were introduced. I liked that the majority of stories also still had the heroes stop the villains without killing them and the threat of death existed but was usually not happening. Plus the pages smelled great!

 

Covers back then also were a story by themselves with thought being given to what action scene would best highlight the story inside. Today's covers are typically just posed characters without the creativity that made the 70s covers make me want to buy those issues. I probably never would have read Conan or Shang Chi or other non-"super" characters if the artists of the day hadn't gone to the effort of putting a story for me to see before I even opened the issue.

 

 

[Larryw7]

For me it would be the bronze age. Adams Batman and ASM 121-122 on the stands, great GA and SA reprints available in 100 pagers from DC and Giant Size books from Marvel, great hardbound collections like Feiffer's Great Comic Book Heroes and the Batman/Superman anthologies, Marvel black and white magazines. Life was good.

[chrisco37]

I'd pick the 60's as well, mostly for the reasons JC stated. It would've been great to watch the MU expand from the start. Yeah, the stories are a bit goofy, but I still enjoy them.

 

The 80's and late 90's-present are the best to read now. You get all the classic Moore stuff, great Vertigo titles (Sandman, Y, Preacher), Planetary, Astro City, etc... Some really great stuff being produced today too (Manhattan Projects, WD, The Goon).

 

 

[Flaming_Telepath]

Best

60s

Mid-80s

 

Worst

Late 70s

All of the 90s

[DrWatson]

1975 to about 1985

[Davenport]

I agree with you in a way, as the 1970-75 comics are my favorite, but I still think it would have been cooler to be there at the very start, picking up FF #1, AF #15, Hulk 1, Avengers 1, X-men 1, etc. and growing up with the characters each month.

A kid would probably need to've had a certain level of sophistication or fairly old for that to have happened. Hulk and Thing looked like all the other parade-of-monsters, Spider-man's face was completely covered, Fantastic Four showed a big-mouth monster and a smaller orange one, and The Avengers just looked bizarre, some winged-hat guy and, yawn, green monster again.

 

Kids (speaking for myself) already branded to DC heroes and that Curt Swan-look might've given those books a passing glance, unless they were really, really into monsters and weird looking unknown guys.

 

[CAMPER49]

My favourite era was the mid to late 1970's

 

DETECTIVE COMICS Englehart's run - 468-479 or so?

BATMAN #287 into the 300's

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #172 to #200

GREEN LANTERN #90 to #130 or so

FLASH #245 to #300

WORLD'S FINEST Dollar Comics #244 to #281 or so

JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #134 to #200

ACTION COMICS #465 to #500

SUPERMAN #296 to #330

MARVEL TEAM-UP #40 to #80

FANTASTIC FOUR #170 to #200

UNCANNY X-MEN #108 to #144 (started collecting X-MEN at #108 but really should start at 94/GS#1)

 

Of course, I have to mention these too...

GL #76 to #89

BATMAN #232 to #253

DETECTIVE #400 to #450

ASM #119 to #171

 

I spent countless hours as a kid reading the books from this era.

Oh, and the mounds of RICHIE RICH comics from the late 1960's and early 1970's at every store were just awesome for a wee lad like myself!