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Renaming of the Modern Comics Age
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55 posts in this topic

1 hour ago, jdandns said:

I love it, but I'd call the Chromium Age (1992 - 2004) the Wizard Age instead, since that catches all of the enhancements you named plus the proliferation of the designed variant cover(s) intended to juice the sales of a single book. Wizard Magazine is the bible of that age. It was a cataloguing of the companies, titles, and their most popular creators and via their, ahem, optimistic monthly Wizard price guide, an all-important value-pumper in the age before CGC (and even the internet during the early part of the era) really caught on.

Finally, the magazine itself displayed many of the very gimmicks used on the actual comics including die-cut covers, illustrated and photo variant covers, #1/2 issues, ashcans, and plenty of chromium...

Some Options: Iron Age, Dylan Age, Now Age, Noob Age, New Platinum Age, Present Age, Second Golden Age, Digital Age, Internet Age, Smart Phone Age

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1 hour ago, dylanthekid said:

The age after the modern age is the future age but when we get there we gotta call it the present age which would make it very confusing. Did people call it the Copper Age in the mid 1980s? Besides the Gerber Journals and hardcore fans?

From what I can remember they didn't rename the Modern Age in 1980. They waited a few years kept using "Modern" to describe all the new comics coming out and simply decided to call some of the older stuff Copper at one point.  And in an attempt to try to answer an earlier question, I seem to remember a similar thread to this in the '80's and someone on the forum came up with the name Copper....and it stuck. But admittedly, I'm not 100% certain on this. Maybe some of the members that have been around a long time can shed some light on this. I remember it happened right around the time Bugaboo shook up the forum. (Gee, hoping I don't get a strike for mentioning him):fear:

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12 hours ago, jdandns said:

I love it, but I'd call the Chromium Age (1992 - 2004) the Wizard Age instead, since that catches all of the enhancements you named plus the proliferation of the designed variant cover(s) intended to juice the sales of a single book. Wizard Magazine is the bible of that age. It was a cataloguing of the companies, titles, and their most popular creators and via their, ahem, optimistic monthly Wizard price guide, an all-important value-pumper in the age before CGC (and even the internet during the early part of the era) really caught on.

Finally, the magazine itself displayed many of the very gimmicks used on the actual comics including die-cut covers, illustrated and photo variant covers, #1/2 issues, ashcans, and plenty of chromium...

The Wizard Magazine has it importance in comic book history but not significant enough to name an age after it. There were catalogs and magazines in the 1980's that promoted exactly what the Wizard Magazine did in the 1990's. 

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13 hours ago, Ken Aldred said:

2012 for me was the start of the Great Film and TV Speculation Age, and we're still in it, transitioning through to a year, in the near future, when physical comics stop being published.  That will be the true start of the Digital Age.

2004 - (2013 or 2014) - There should little debate that this is the Digital Age.  This is when comic books became part of the mainstream media. For example, Walking Dead TV Show, Iron Man Movie (MCU), Man of Steel (DCEU), start of digital comics, comic book websites (Movies, TV, News, Publishers, Price Guide, webcomics, etc..), Video Games, etc... This age laid the foundation of comic books in multimedia that we all enjoy today.   

2012 is a very important year as it is when Marvel launched Marvel Now. As we all know, Marvel Now was created to add diversity into comics.  Since, all publishers have followed suit to add more diversity in their comics and multimedia platforms. Inaddition, Disney acquired Lucasfilm (Star Wars) in 2012. The historians might consider 2012 the start of a new age (Modern Age) but is won't be for digital or multimedia. 

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2 hours ago, Juggernaut said:

2004 - (2013 or 2014) - There should little debate that this is the Digital Age.  This is when comic books became part of the mainstream media. For example, Walking Dead TV Show, Iron Man Movie (MCU), Man of Steel (DCEU), start of digital comics, comic book websites (Movies, TV, News, Publishers, Price Guide, webcomics, etc..), Video Games, etc... This age laid the foundation of comic books in multimedia that we all enjoy today.   

2012 is a very important year as it is when Marvel launched Marvel Now. As we all know, Marvel Now was created to add diversity into comics.  Since, all publishers have followed suit to add more diversity in their comics and multimedia platforms. Inaddition, Disney acquired Lucasfilm (Star Wars) in 2012. The historians might consider 2012 the start of a new age (Modern Age) but is won't be for digital or multimedia. 

2004, maybe before (?) to 2012 - Digital Information Age

During the 2000 decade, printed information started to become increasingly redundant due to instant access via comics websites.  A classic example was our big, monthly news magazine here in the UK, Comics International, which started to falter in the early-mid 2000s.  When it suicidally shifted to a quarterly publication under new ownership it was immediately dead in the water, providing 'news' months after it had appeared online.  

2012 and ongoing, The Great Film and TV Speculation Age.

Yes, this went on in the 2000 decade and before, but the frantic, boiler room mentality really went into overdrive here after the first Avengers film, exacerbated by immediate digital 'word of mouth', with much, much more film and TV super-hero product and pre-emptive behaviour, and we're still in it, currently transitioning into...

? - The Digital Publishing and Distribution Age

Edited by Ken Aldred
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3 hours ago, Juggernaut said:

2004 - (2013 or 2014) - There should little debate that this is the Digital Age.  This is when comic books became part of the mainstream media.

No, comic books certainly did not become mainstream media. Stories from some comic books were adapted to mainstream media.

4 hours ago, Juggernaut said:

For example, Walking Dead TV Show, Iron Man Movie (MCU), Man of Steel (DCEU),

None of that has anything to do with defining a comic book age. The Batman TV show has absolutely nothing to do with defining the Silver Age. The Superman movie has absolutely nothing to do with defining the Bronze Age

4 hours ago, Juggernaut said:

start of digital comics, comic book websites (Movies, TV, News, Publishers, Price Guide, webcomics, etc..), Video Games, etc... This age laid the foundation of comic books in multimedia that we all enjoy today.

:screwy:

The proliferation of variants in the comic book industry has far more to do with a comic book age than anything from other media.

The only valid point you make is the embracing of digital publishing by the comic book industry. But when did that actually take place?

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16 hours ago, dylanthekid said:

The age after the modern age is the future age but when we get there we gotta call it the present age which would make it very confusing. Did people call it the Copper Age in the mid 1980s? Besides the Gerber Journals and hardcore fans?

Bronze used to be Modern. Copper used to be Modern.

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A modern age can last up to 30-40+ years doesn’t just have to be 10 year span like silver, bronze, or copper. The way “modern books” will continue to be made could be modern for a very long time. Ages are just that, there’s fluidity. Like eras and dynasties. We don’t know the timeline until after

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1 hour ago, Lazyboy said:

No, comic books certainly did not become mainstream media. Stories from some comic books were adapted to mainstream media.

None of that has anything to do with defining a comic book age. The Batman TV show has absolutely nothing to do with defining the Silver Age. The Superman movie has absolutely nothing to do with defining the Bronze Age

:screwy:

The proliferation of variants in the comic book industry has far more to do with a comic book age than anything from other media.

The only valid point you make is the embracing of digital publishing by the comic book industry. But when did that actually take place?

If the superman movie or batman movie had nothing to do with defining an age then you don't know your comic book history.  I would suggest you read a few books on it. I have been on these boards a long time and Im surprised that you of all the people should know not everything about comic history is strictly about the comics. There are outside factors that help define a comic age.

You know what I mean in regards to mainstream media. I think everyone understands.  I will proof read my work next time.   

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1 hour ago, Lazyboy said:

No, comic books certainly did not become mainstream media. Stories from some comic books were adapted to mainstream media.

None of that has anything to do with defining a comic book age. The Batman TV show has absolutely nothing to do with defining the Silver Age. The Superman movie has absolutely nothing to do with defining the Bronze Age

:screwy:

The proliferation of variants in the comic book industry has far more to do with a comic book age than anything from other media.

The only valid point you make is the embracing of digital publishing by the comic book industry. But when did that actually take place?

As for the variants, I have already addressed that with the Chromium Age (1992-2004).  So I don't know what the issue is. 

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10 minutes ago, Juggernaut said:

As for the variants, I have already addressed that with the Chromium Age (1992-2004).  So I don't know what the issue is. 

Variants did not begin in 1992, nor did they proliferate to insanity until the mid-2000s. They do not come close to defining the 90s and early 00s..

Also, Copper begins well before 1984, in 1980/81

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On 1/8/2021 at 6:30 AM, mysterymachine said:

2000-2010 'Paper Age'  'Drek Age', back to basics focus on stories, fewer gimmicks, ie what goes on the paper

:devil:

1990 to the present... the age of "drek"

 

 
 
 
 
dreck
/drek/
 
noun
INFORMAL
noun: drek
  1. rubbish; trash.
    "these post 1990 comic books are drek"
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10 minutes ago, Lazyboy said:

Variants did not begin in 1992, nor did they proliferate to insanity until the mid-2000s. They do not come close to defining the 90s and early 00s..

Also, Copper begins well before 1984, in 1980/81

Never said variants began in 1992 but in the 1990's comic publishers produced gimmick or variant covers to sell more comics due to declining sales. Today variant covers is a comic standard for almost every issue. So, the roots began in the 1990's and early 2000's.  I'm not saying variants aren't important, you just have its importance for the wrong time period.    

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I think the Copper Age starts at an earlier date than is now commonly accepted, and ends later. I'd define the Copper Age as 1982-1997 or so, and is largely defined by the underlying business of comics. 

Perhaps the biggest catalyst for the Copper Age was the DC Implosion from a few years prior, as this resulted (amongst many other changes) the departure of Archie Goodwin and Larry Hama from DC, and they would land at Marvel.

1982 gave us the birth of the Epic Comics imprint (which Goodwin was one of the lead editors for), and focused on creator-owned work (and creator rights was one of the biggest issues defining the age).

1982 also gave us the birth of the Hama-written G.I. Joe. Licensed titles were big during the Copper Age. Yes, there were licensed comics before, but G.I. Joe ended up being a monster in early Copper. The difference between some of Marvel's very successful licensed comics in early Copper (e.g. G.I. Joe and Transformers) and earlier big successes (e.g. Star Wars) was that the narratives largely originated with the comics.

1982 also saw the proliferation of mini-series. DC had experimented with a few before, but mostly with established popular entities (Batman, Superman, etc.), while 1982 gave us Camelot 3000. Marvel starts publishing limited series, including Contest of Champions (not initially intended to be a limited series, but established they would work), Wolverine, Vision & the Scarlet Witch, and more.

1982 also gave us the birth of Diamond and Marvel's Graphic Novels, and DC started offering royalties to creators.

Early Copper gave us a lot of independent publishers mostly publishing self-contained titles, while a big aspect of late Copper is the rise and fall of new shared superhero universes and imprints (e.g. Valiant, Image, Ultraverse, Dark Horse's Comics' Greatest World, Milestone, Bravura, etc.). Yes, Image is still around, but by the late '90s there wasn't much of a shared super-hero universe.

I picked 1997 as the end of Copper, but there are a lot of events within a year or two that can be seen as a big transition. As mentioned above, a lot of the super-hero universes that had popped up earlier in the '90s died off around then. We saw Marvel end and relaunch many of their long-running titles in 1996 (e.g. Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man, Thor), and then again more permanently in 1997, with more relaunches the following year (Spidey titles, Daredevil). I think the only long-running title that wasn't relaunched was Uncanny X-men. Marvel entered and exited bankruptcy. DC relaunched Justice League. Liefeld departs Image. There's a push at Image for a greater range of comics that we see in today's line. Lee sells Wildstorm to DC.

Whatever the age that follows Copper is called (the Decompressed Age?), I agree with the suggestions that it probably ends in about 2012. At DC, probably a year earlier, with the New 52 initiative. At Marvel with Marvel Now. And after that we see some of the old 1990s superhero universes rebooted (Valiant and Comics' Greatest World/Project Black Sky)

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