When Do You Think The Atomic Age Of Comics Began And Why?

[N e r V]

There has been debates for years over when the Bronze Age of comics began but I haven't seen as much attention on the Atomic Age start date.

 

So the question for anyone interested in commenting on it is when would you start it and why?

 

My own start date would be books released in October 1945. The Atomic Age for me was when the attention shifted from fighting the Axis Powers to other subjects (Atomic based or otherwise) and other genres began taking hold other than superhero books always being the center of the comics universe.

 

So in October 1945 we had a great transition issue with Captain America #51 "mystery of the atomic boomerang" which still had Japanese soldiers with their "atom water" in it but ended with mention of the new Atom bomb. I'm not sure but this might be the first published mention of it in comics?

 

Strangely at around the same time we also got Superman #38 with its delayed story about Lex Luthors own Atom bomb (which really only shared the name) but remains a curious part of comics history now.

 

For my late great uncle who actually read these books off the stands the Golden Age ended for him with Captain America #74 and 75. He cited these two books as the best example of the transition from superheroes to horror.

 

 

So that's my thoughts. Anyone have an opinion?

 

[jimbo_707]

This thread feels like déja vu all over again.

 

The bombing of Hiroshima & Nagasaki scared the bejesus out of people, so the mind frame of Americans changed as soon as the enormity of it sank in. We weren't innocent enough for the old superheroes of yore any longer (and we were probably just sort of sick of them, too).

 

I hesitate to pinpoint an exact date because the transition was gradual, but 1946 is often cited.

The January of '47 issue of Wonder Woman (#21), which probably hit the shelves in November of '46, was at least a harbinger of it.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

I think the atomic age began in 1945, when members of the armed forces returned home with undiagnosed PTSD, which they inadvertently channeled into creating and reading violent comics.

[N e r V]

Sorry if there was another recent thread about the subject.

 

I wasn't aware.

 

I've been watching the PBS series "The Bomb" and "Uranium: Twisting the Dragons Tale" which kind of got me thinking about the post "Atomic Age". That and 8 years in space ops for the Air Force doesn't take much for me.

 

 

So I was just wondering what everyone's poster child book or month for the Atomic Age of comics might be.

[Pat Calhoun]

interesting, Michael, any elaboration would be welcome, although the theory is clear enough as it stands.

[Flex Mentallo]

It's a gross generalization. But i IMAGINE Captain Marvel makes no sense to anyone traumatized by the experience of war. But society was/is still ill-equipped to support the returnees - as would still be the case after the Vietnam War. [All we could think of was Mom's Apple Pie while we were over there, but when we got home, all we could think of was going back."]

 

I mean, it is Society that stops making sense, if War has become "normality".

 

So the horror is internalized, but finds a way out, and creativity becomes the perfect vehicle, as a "carrier wave" for the unspoken, unmentionable, yet inescapable.

 

 

[adamstrange]

All comic "ages" were designated after the fact and represent reasonable attempts to categorize noticeable changes in publishing trends. There will typically be some preliminary examples that occur prior to the start of an age and some examples that occur after the official end date. The debate around ages almost always revolves around which of the early adopters and the stragglers signal the start and end of the age in question.

 

As such it can be helpful to look at the predecessor and successor ages in order to provide a context for the discussion of any particular age.

 

Golden Age represents the golden age of superheroes when they went from being 13% share of a very small market in 1938 to a 54% share of a much larger market in 1941. In June 1941, there are 57 comics, 42 of which are arguably mostly super-hero based.

 

It's not far from the truth to say that the GA was superhero comics for kids. The end of WWII, however, resulted in such a significant reduction in the interest of superheroes that by 1950 supers were down to just a 4% share of of an extremely large comics market.

 

This was what the comics newsstand looked like when Superman was published in 1938.

(The image was created by a Boardie but I do not know who.)

 

 

The Atomic Age was the first time period when the industry published comics in every genre targeting every age group from young kids to adults. Comics became just as diverse a medium for telling stories for all ages as books, movies, plays, music etc.

 

While there were crime (Crime Does Not Pay) and teen (Archie) titles starting during the war, they ramped up considerably after the war. Romance (Young Love 1947), Good Girl Art (Phantom Lady 1947) and horror (Adventures into the Unknown 1948) started after the war. While sci-fi had been around since the early days of the GA, it had died down during the war until a noticeable expansion started in 1951.

 

The Atomic Age was also the time of the greatest number of titles and the greatest number of printed comics. In 1952, for example, there were 643 titles compared to 115 in 1940 or 289 in 1945. Explicit acts of violence, "good girl" art and inclusion of horror story elements were incorporated into many titles/genres that had been relatively tame. These also were the primary thematic elements that were to cause the backlash against comics in general and that were eventually stifled by the comics code.

 

The Silver Age was about the re-introduction of superheros with a science-fiction twist as a way to take advantage of Sputnik/space race era and because of the youthful interests of many of the main creators (Schwartz, Weisinger, Kirby, Lee, Kane etc were all part of the early fandom of sci-fi). This provided a way to innovate out of the restrictions imposed by Comics Code.

 

I personally think the Atomic Age is best described as starting with the dropping of the Atomic Bomb and ending with the advent of the Code. These end points are not only historically significant and easy to remember but also happen to correspond with very dramatic publishing shifts.

 

All stats were sourced from the indispensable Gerber Photojournal.

.

[sfcityduck]

The whole "Ages" thing was created back in the very early 60s for two very specific purposes: To distinguish between the original JSA heroes and their revivals of the late 50s and 60s and to distinguish between the initial wave of superhero comics in the 30s and 40s from the second wave of superhero comics in the late 50s and 60s. It really served no intended or useful purpose beyond that.

 

Unfortunately, the term "Golden Age" had a nice ring to it and dealers latched on to it, and expanded the concept to all comics of any genre from a certain time period - originally the 30s to around 1956.

 

Sadly, though, the whole "Ages" thing took on a life of its own and what once was a helpful concept for a limited purpose for certain fanzine writers/scholars became artificial distinctions for comic sellers to the point where you see dealers referring to Platinum, Golden, Atom, Silver, Bronze, Copper, and Modern ages that really have no consistent internal logic and are often open to debate.

 

If you have to ask when an "Age" starts, then It's really time to abandon the labels. They aren't real helpful anyway. Far better to use decades or terms like "pre-superhero," "post-war," "pre-code" etc. which contain a descriptor that is helpful instead of value laden terms that aren't helpful like "Golden Age." After all, if the term "Golden Age" is used in a traditional sense, meaning a peak time period, then the "Golden Age" for superhero comics is different than the "Golden Age" for horror comics.

 

The phrase "pre-Code horror" is much more helpful than "Atom Age." Talking about "50s" Batman comics is much more helpful than trying to distinguish between Atom Age and Silver Age Batman comics.

 

The "Ages" are just dumb.

 

End of rant.

[sfcityduck]

It's a gross generalization. But Captain marvel makes no sense to anyone traumatised by the experience of war. But society was ill-equipped to support the returnees - as would still be the case after the Vietnam War.

 

CM was a children's oriented comic which was very very popular in the post-WWII era. So I'm not sure how that fits in with your perspective at all.

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

It's a gross generalization. But Captain marvel makes no sense to anyone traumatised by the experience of war. But society was ill-equipped to support the returnees - as would still be the case after the Vietnam War.

 

CM was a children's oriented comic which was very very popular in the post-WWII era. So I'm not sure how that fits in with your perspective at all.

 

 

I don't think it is as simple as I've described it. It's not the kids who were traumatized by war in most cases in the continental United States.

 

Trauma is also by it's nature difficult - not necessarily recognized or "socially acceptable"

 

In the 1970's dyslexia was poorly understood - until a famous actress admitted publicly that she could not easily read a -script because of it.

 

What was socially acceptable in 1945? Men in tights?

"It is an event sociological"

Francois Truffaut

Close Encounter of the Third Kind

[sfcityduck]

 

So the horror is internalized, but finds a way out, and creativity becomes the perfect vehicle, as a "carrier wave" for the unspoken, unmentionable, yet inescapable.

 

 

How many creators experienced the horrors of war? Kurtzman, Eisner, Lee, Feldstein, and many others never made it overseas.

[Flex Mentallo]

 

So the horror is internalized, but finds a way out, and creativity becomes the perfect vehicle, as a "carrier wave" for the unspoken, unmentionable, yet inescapable.

 

 

How many creators experienced the horrors of war? Kurtzman, Eisner, Lee, Feldstein, and many others never made it overseas.

 

Then where did horror come from if not the bomb? Have you read "Hiroshima"?

[Cat-Man_America]

There has been debates for years over when the Bronze Age of comics began but I haven't seen as much attention on the Atomic Age start date.

 

So the question for anyone interested in commenting on it is when would you start it and why?

 

My own start date would be books released in October 1945. The Atomic Age for me was when the attention shifted from fighting the Axis Powers to other subjects (Atomic based or otherwise) and other genres began taking hold other than superhero books always being the center of the comics universe.

 

So in October 1945 we had a great transition issue with Captain America #51 "mystery of the atomic boomerang" which still had Japanese soldiers with their "atom water" in it but ended with mention of the new Atom bomb. I'm not sure but this might be the first published mention of it in comics?

 

Strangely at around the same time we also got Superman #38 with its delayed story about Lex Luthors own Atom bomb (which really only shared the name) but remains a curious part of comics history now.

 

For my late great uncle who actually read these books off the stands the Golden Age ended for him with Captain America #74 and 75. He cited these two books as the best example of the transition from superheroes to horror.

 

 

So that's my thoughts. Anyone have an opinion?

 

 

Close enough. I'd say the Atomic Age began with the national awareness of the atomic bomb and corresponding end of WWII. But there is overlap, and from my POV the overlaps were entirely controlled by publishers in reaction to market influences. The GA was very much driven by the popularity of costumed heroes, IMO. Therefor, with the post-war decline in costumed hero popularity featured characters are dropped and titles redesigned in order for the publisher to target changing market tastes. That's when each publisher's Atomic Age begins in ernest.

 

For instance, Timely's GA ended with the last three major costumed character books in 1949 (Capt. America, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner) and changes in the tentpole book Marvel Mystery (which became Marvel Tales) to refocus on the growing popularity of horror comics. With DC, it was the end of Green Lantern, Flash Comics and All Star over a couple of years (essentially 1951, DC refocusing on less lurid SF and mystery). With Fawcett, it was the success of DC's long standing copyright infringement lawsuit that culminated in all Marvel Family characters departure.

 

I'm leaving out DC's Superman and Batman, & Quality's Blackhawks as those characters successfully transitioned the GA, continuing through the Atomic and SA in spite of demographic changes. There are other examples of characters which survived post-war demographic changes in the late 40's and early 50's by refocusing on horror to bolster sales, at least for awhile (Harvey's Black Cat, Prize's Frankenstein, etc.).

 

From my perspective, the Atomic Age covers a variety of trends reflecting the new market demographic. This includes horror, crime, romance, "good-girl", science fiction and teen/sarcastic humor, western and various combinations thereof. I should also point out (before someone makes the point of pointing out that some of these genres were introduced during the GA), that the dates for introduction of new and different types of comics has always been fluid and prone to overlap. The one obvious thing to draw from this is that successful publishers have always been keenly aware that tastes can change and formulas have to vary with a constantly aging and changing demographic.

 

Keep in mind that this is all just one man's opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own and they're all worth approximately at the current exchange rate.

[adamstrange]

 

So the horror is internalized, but finds a way out, and creativity becomes the perfect vehicle, as a "carrier wave" for the unspoken, unmentionable, yet inescapable.

 

 

How many creators experienced the horrors of war? Kurtzman, Eisner, Lee, Feldstein, and many others never made it overseas.

 

Then where did horror come from if not the bomb? Have you read "Hiroshima"?

Horror was always around in other artistic mediums. There were "shudder" pulps in the 20s and 30s as well as many radio shows and movies. Nor were comics immune from their influence as Siegal and Shuster included horror stories in the work in 1935/36.

[Pat Calhoun]

Michael (& all) this graphic novel is a great testament of a young artist who survived the bombing...

 

 

 

[Flex Mentallo]

 

So the horror is internalized, but finds a way out, and creativity becomes the perfect vehicle, as a "carrier wave" for the unspoken, unmentionable, yet inescapable.

 

 

How many creators experienced the horrors of war? Kurtzman, Eisner, Lee, Feldstein, and many others never made it overseas.

 

Then where did horror come from if not the bomb? Have you read "Hiroshima"?

Horror was always around in other artistic mediums. There were "shudder" pulps in the 20s and 30s as well as many radio shows and movies. Nor were comics immune from their influence as Siegal and Shuster included horror stories in the work in 1935/36.

 

 

 

Then why did the super heroes die?

[Pat Calhoun]

part of it is that the postwar books aimed at a more adult market, and since the superheroes had gotten 'drafted' into the war - they seemed superfluous when it was over

[Flex Mentallo]

part of it is that the postwar books aimed at a more adult market, and since the superheroes had gotten 'drafted' into the war - they seemed superfluous when it was over

 

But why were books aimed at a more adult market do you think Pat?

[Pat Calhoun]

the number of GI's that bought during the war clued publishers that the market existed. & after the war much entertainment was needed as there was more leisure.

[adamstrange]

part of it is that the postwar books aimed at a more adult market, and since the superheroes had gotten 'drafted' into the war - they seemed superfluous when it was over

 

But why were books aimed at a more adult market do you think Pat?

If what you were producing no longer sells, then you try something else. Hence, comic publishers introduced and pushed all the different genres that they previously published successfully in pulps.

 

Superheroes made the comics industry viable but were too limited in appeal/story-telling sophistication to sustain interest.