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What genre represents the Golden Age the best in your opinion?
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46 posts in this topic

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 1938, there were 18 comics, one of which was a superhero. In June 1941, there are 57 comics produced in much larger quantities, 42 of which are arguably mostly super-hero based. It is by no means certain that there would have been any significant newsstand comic presence without the advent of superheros.

 

 

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

Action1_newstand.jpg

(The image was created by Theagenes.)

 

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Thanks for your reply. Superheroes did dominate in popularity, but I think the horror and sci fi genres from the late 40s and early 50s produced some of the greatest and meaningful comic art ever made. Not only that, but they seem to showcase the culture, fears, and attitudes of that time like no other genre.

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Yep. Superhero.

 

A good case could be made for the Atomic Age for westerns, or crime, or romance, or even horror, but the GA belongs to Superman and all his cousins.

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Yep. Superhero.

 

A good case could be made for the Atomic Age for westerns, or crime, or romance, or even horror, but the GA belongs to Superman and all his cousins.

 

Hi Catrick,

 

Do you base that strictly on popularity/sales or something else?

 

 

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Well, you specified Golden Age, and to me, that represents roughly the area between Action 1 and the last issue of All Star Comics, approximately ten years.

 

Nearly all of that era was ruled by The Men In Tights, and it was also the era in which pretty much every comic book style and trope was invented. Considering that the first true comic book was printed in 1933, and the first comic book with original content was printed in 1936, this form of storytelling was brand spankin' new and all manner of new storytelling was being invented on the spot.

 

The early stories, all genres, were bouncy, full of energy and excitement, and absolutely anything went. When you start folding in the patriotism energized by WWII the whole industry was firing on all cylinders for years, and by the early Forties there was some gorgeous art coming out, and some very solid storytelling.

 

But heroes ruled the roost from Supes' first appearance right through until the post-war years. There were plenty of other entertaining genres out there from Disney to westerns, and some of them sold millions of copies, but to me at least, the innovation and energy of the Superhero genre takes the prize.

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Postscript:

 

I see in your comments that you hold dear the SF/horror genre of the late 40's/early 50's, and you'll note that in my first post, I separated out the Atomic Age as being different from the Golden Age.

 

To me, Atomic Age is post-war to the Comics Code, again approximately ten years, and certainly an argument could be made for that era's content to be ruled by the SF/horror books produced during that time.

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Thanks for your reply. Superheroes did dominate in popularity, but I think the horror and sci fi genres from the late 40s and early 50s produced some of the greatest and meaningful comic art ever made. Not only that, but they seem to showcase the culture, fears, and attitudes of that time like no other genre.

 

I would say that horror comics most exemplified the Atomic Age.

 

Plagiarizing further from a prior post I wrote on the comic ages:

 

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.

 

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Being absolutely serious here:

 

What's most significant or indicative of the Golden Age is the sheer diversity of genres. Picking one misses the point.

 

Kirby Superheroes. Baker Romance. Barks Funny Animal. Walt Kelly Fantasy. Kurtzman Satire. Wood Science Fiction. Eisner Crime. Ingels Horror. Mayer Teen Humor. Wolverton Pure Weirdness. Frazetta Anything.

 

What's most significant... is everything. And the fact that, more than any other period, they were indeed trying everything.

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Yep. Superhero.

 

A good case could be made for the Atomic Age for westerns, or crime, or romance, or even horror, but the GA belongs to Superman and all his cousins.

Couldn't agree more. GA IS superheros. Atomic Age is all the rest.

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If you separate the ages into Golden and Atomic, then there's no question about it: superheroes define the Golden Age. It was only the decline in superheroes post-WW2 and the experimentation to repeat their success that led to the diversification of the Atomic Age. Horror and sci-fi elements were present even in the Golden Age. War was incorporated into the superhero tales as well, and only after the cancellation of a lot of caped titles do you see Atlas and EC war titles that have the genre stand by itself. There are outliers, of course, like Dell's War Comics/Stories, and the horror adaptations in Classics Illustrated and a few one-off horror issues. Even the "genre" titles that were successful in the GA were essentially superhero tales, with the hero wearing a loincloth or spacesuit instead of a cape.

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Originally the term Golden Age referred specifically to superhero comics, and sometimes just the pre-war and war eras of the the genre.

 

I love many genres. and superhero books haven't been a main focus for me since I was a kid, but when I hear the words "Golden Age comic" it still immediately conjures up an image of a man in a colorful circus outfit punching Nazis while rescuing a woman or side kick strapped to a torture device.

 

To be more specific, nothing represents GA better than a Schomburg war cover.

 

For Atomic Age, definitely horror. Though both Romance and Crime were more popular for most of the era, the lurid horror covers were what kicked the anti-comics crusade into high gear, and the influence of horror can be found in other genres, including superhero, crime, sci-fi and even western books when horror was at it's peak.

 

Dividing up eras even further, the transitional 1946-1950 era I think of as dominated by GGA, when nearly every genre seemed to feature leggy babes on the covers. Even in the superhero genre, most of the new characters introduced and who got their own titles during this period were female.

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Being absolutely serious here:

 

What's most significant or indicative of the Golden Age is the sheer diversity of genres. Picking one misses the point.

 

Kirby Superheroes. Baker Romance. Barks Funny Animal. Walt Kelly Fantasy. Kurtzman Satire. Wood Science Fiction. Eisner Crime. Ingels Horror. Mayer Teen Humor. Wolverton Pure Weirdness. Frazetta Anything.

 

What's most significant... is everything. And the fact that, more than any other period, they were indeed trying everything.

 

Romance and funny animal were huge sellers. Great as Baker was, he was saddled with working for the inept St John line, so I think other romance publishers greatly outsold the books his work was in.

 

Barks issues of WDC&S and Uncle Scrooge had enormous sales. I'm pretty sure WDC&S in the 1950s sold more than any other comic ever.

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Being absolutely serious here:

 

What's most significant or indicative of the Golden Age is the sheer diversity of genres. Picking one misses the point.

 

Kirby Superheroes. Baker Romance. Barks Funny Animal. Walt Kelly Fantasy. Kurtzman Satire. Wood Science Fiction. Eisner Crime. Ingels Horror. Mayer Teen Humor. Wolverton Pure Weirdness. Frazetta Anything.

 

What's most significant... is everything. And the fact that, more than any other period, they were indeed trying everything.

 

Romance and funny animal were huge sellers. Great as Baker was, he was saddled with working for the inept St John line, so I think other romance publishers greatly outsold the books his work was in.

 

Barks issues of WDC&S and Uncle Scrooge had enormous sales. I'm pretty sure WDC&S in the 1950s sold more than any other comic ever.

IIRC, it got up to a peak of almost 4 million.

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Of course the big bucks are in early superheroes, but put aside the money and give your opinion on what genre is the most significant or indicative of the Golden Age. (shrug)

 

 

 

-atomic1950s

 

Great question, and an interesting one.

Seems to me a lot of people's answers would be coloured by their own preferences or focus or indeed mood. Schombergs, Actions, Horror and even the actual Funny books all have a huge input. But after giving it some thought, I am of the opinion that maybe sci-fi girlie books with lashings of GGA & headlamp/leggy covers seem to dominate the GA....or is it Crime books? hm

Hell, I don't know. I love them all anyway

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