New Comic Day will be on Thursday, December 3rd due to Thanksgiving.
Rick’s Writin’s
A customer recently wondered, noting our sign above the Silver/Bronze age comics, what Bronze age meant? I explained a bit about the history of comic ages (luckily he was interested, and not bored to tears…I did say just a bit), but it got me thinking about what “comics age” are we in now? Looking back to this time say, twenty years from now, what would this time in comics’ history be called, or known for. Staying with the traditional metallic theme, would this be the Tin Foil age, or Zinc? There’s much that’s happened this past decade, with the explosion of the availability of graphic novels and trades, web comics becoming more important, the selection diversity of comics in general, reaching wider audiences, including women, and of course all the comic based movies too. Plenty of other stuff to consider too, but add it all up and I think we are in the “Age of Acceptance” where the comic genre has finally been accepted as a relevant and viable medium by the mainstream US population. No longer are only dorks, dweebs, and nerds comic readers. No longer are comic readers looked down upon as being too stupid to read anything other than a book with pictures. There are now college literature courses devoted to comics and graphic novels. The comic superhero based movies bring in massive audiences, and for many other movies, the original form was a graphic novel. Comics have been accepted by the mainstream population in other parts of the world, particularly Japan, for a long time. Now, it has happened here.
Now, I know “Age of Acceptance ” isn’t metallic, but I think it fits. There’s the traditional metal designations: Golden Age, Silver Age, Bronze etc. but there isn’t a complete consensus on what that means, in terms of comic history. The Golden Age is considered to start in the late 1930′s, with the introduction of Superman, and a bit later Batman. Many other super-heroes popped up, including Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Green Lantern, Flash, Human Torch, and plenty more you’ve never heard of. This Golden Age by some accounts runs until the mid 1950′s, with the Silver Age starting with the introduction of Barry Allen as the Flash (as opposed to Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash) in DC Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956). Another view is that the Golden Age ended and the Silver Age started with the advent of the Comics Code in 1955. Other sources break down the Golden Age even more, calling the period from 1938-1949, the First Heroic Age, citing the introduction of the before mentioned heroes, but noting that by 1949, and particularly in 1949, many super-hero books were canceled. These were replaced on the shelves by horror, crime, science fiction and westerns, or “Genre” books. Outrage over some of the subject matter and covers on some of these books led to publication in 1954 of psychiatrist Fredrick Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent, which condemned comics and their influence on children, leading to the implementation of the Comics Code. The Silver Age from 1958-1969 can also be looked at as the Second Heroic Age, as Silver Age heroes like Hal Jordan’s Green Lantern, The Justice League, and the launch of the Marvel Heroes starting in 1961 with The Fantastic Four. Hulk, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Daredevil and many more soon followed. To me, the Bronze Age starts with the change in cover price of comics from 12 cents to 15 cents in 1969-1970. I was outraged at the time, as now comics would cost the same as high end considering the allowance treats, Twinkies and Suzy Q’s (Do they make Suzy Q’s anymore? I don’t think so. Too Bad. YUmmmmy!) Others say the Bronze Age starts with Marvel’s publication of Conan #1 in October 1970 or Dennis O’Neil and Neal Adams taking over Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 in April 1970, and bringing some social consciousness to comics. Still, both are 15 centers. Again, to me, the Bronze Age runs from 1969-70 until comics reach a cover price of 35 cents which happens by the late 1970′s. Due to the rampant inflation of the times, the cover price on comics more than doubles in the 1970′s decade, from 15 cents to 35 cents for normal issues. Another view is that the Bronze Age extends into the mid-1980′s. I don’t agree as I consider the very late 1970′s early 1980′s kind of a comics no man’s land with the only thing worth noting being the Wolverine mini series and the start of Wolvie’s first ongoing run. The definition of The Copper or Modern Age isn’t quite set in stone. There’s dispute over where it starts, with DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1984-1985 (actually the end of the Bronze Age?) or Alan Moore’s Watchmen and Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns, both published in 1986. The Copper Age supposedly runs until 1992, when the 1990′s publishing glut, including the start of Image comics like Spawn #1 took hold. Up until this time, it seems you could tie the Ages or eras to particular books. After the mid 1980′s, I don’t see this as the case. I think comics history is now tied into how they’re perceived by the public. During the early 1990′s boom, everybody thought you could get rich collecting comics, to the point where even financial advisers were advocating investing in them. Then the mid 90′s bust hit, when so many publishers and shops went under. Even Marvel was on the ropes financially in the late 1990′s, having to file restructuring papers.
This brings us to the current decade, and back to what I call the “Age of Acceptance”. To get the comics industry got up off the floor, efforts were made to reach a larger audience. Big budget and competently done, mass audience accessible movies seemed to do the trick, starting with the first Spider-Man movie in 2002. Publisher’s started to extend story arcs with the idea of packaging stories into trade paperbacks, and then made great efforts to break into the main bookstore chains such as Borders, Barnes and Noble and Amazon, again getting books accessible to the masses. Publishers brought translated manga over from Japan and into comics shops and bookstores, introducing great numbers of women and girls to comics, finally giving them comics to read they were interested in, that previously, for some reason American publishers had done very little towards. Television embraced comics with shows like Smallville, Heroes, Big Bang Theory, using comic writers on their staffs. More important though is the fact that writers are moving back and forth between comics, movies and television and even novels. Neil Gaiman is only one of many best selling authors of not only comics, but novels too. J. Michael Straczynski was the creator of Babylon 5, and he started writing comics and is still writing comics. Joss Whedon of Buffy and Firefly fame, continued Buffy from the TV series into comics, bringing readers with him, and starting a trend of continuing canceled TV shows in comics. Even hugely selling horror author Stephen King is involved with comics. And then there have been the “Events”. News making story arcs like Peter Parker taking off his mask in Civil War, Captain America and Batman “dying”, President Obama and Stephan Colbert appearing on covers of Amazing Spider-Man issues, all covered heavily in the news. Not to mention the Events aimed at us fanboys and girls: the current Blackest Night, all the Crisis books, Secret Invasion, Dark Reign etc. I think all these efforts have succeeded. Comic shops aren’t such a “boys club” anymore, with plenty of women shopping and having hold files. The variety of comics available and their quality has never been better. On-line web comics get viewed and are followed by millions, and reach even more when collected into books. Almost anyone with determination can produce comics that can be widely read and many people aspire to do so. Who doesn’t have a super-hero or comic character idea floating around in their head? The comics genre and art form has been accepted by “THE PEOPLE”, and as time passes will become even more so. There’s plenty to come too. ON to this week’s comics…finally.
Geez, I’m all written out. Blackest Night starts its next wave of mini series with the first issues of both Blackest Night Flash (#1 of 3) and Wonder Woman (#1 of 3). Over the years quite a few of Flash’s Rogues have bitten the dust. They’re back as Black Lanterns and both Barry Allen and Wally West have their hands full, Barry even more so as the Reverse Flash is also a comin’ for him. Wonder Woman gets to play with Black Lantern Max Lord, who’s neck she skrinked in a story leading up to Infinite Crisis. There’s more coming for Diana as the solicitations for the other issues of this mini have her picture blacked out. The Justice Society has broken into two groups and the first issue of the JSA All-Stars (#1) features the new group struggling to get it together. Marvel’s Fall of the Hulks starts with an Alpha issue one-shot, as the villains that will try to take down the Hulks are revealed. Also starting is the Siege event with the Siege Cabal one-shot. Same thing…master sinister villains involved in the Siege story, aside from Norman Osborn, are revealed. Through December, Marvel will be offering weekly “What If?” one-shots, with two stories in each issue. The first, What If?: Secret Invasion, asking what if the Skrulls had won Secret Invasion? and What If? the Secret Invasion stayed secret? Other What If?’s will feature Astonishing X-Men, World War Hulk, and plenty more. Thor (#604) starts its regular run again with a new team, now that J Michael Straczynski has moved over to DC. Also coming in is Adam Warren’s Empowered one shot comic from Dark Horse. Previously, Empowered has only been in graphic novel form, so it’s be interesting to see our clothing challenged manga heroine in a stand alone comic. I also want to mention we’re getting a re-order in of the first two Chester Gould: Dick Tracy collections put out by IDW. These cover Tracy strips in the 1930′s and are excellent reads that I highly recommend if you like good, gritty crime stories. Lastly, we’re getting A Very Zombie Christmas, for those that like brains in their Christmas stockings. That’s it for now. Thanks to all of you that waded through my history lesson (even if it’s only one of you).
Paula’s Picks
I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day! I broke several of my rules this year. I usually don’t buy anything on Thanksgiving. I think it’s a day that everyone should have off so I choose not to “vote” for people working by not spending money. This year we went out for dinner and went to a movie as well. Sorry for making you work on Thanksgiving Day nice waitress and theater people! I also went out on Black Friday. Usually I refuse to leave my house since I don’t like the crowds. It wasn’t too bad since we left the house at 9am instead of 3am to get the deals. We went to Best Buy to pick out a new fridge. I’m hoping this new fridge will save me some dough on my energy bill. It’s also very shiny! Speaking of shiny, I’ve got Jayne hats for sale here at the shop, hand-made by yours truly. A great gift for Firefly fans!
Some of my favorite books are coming in this week. Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love #2 continues the story of Cindy, Fabletown’s James Bond, and her mission: to find who is smuggling magical items into Fabletown. North 40 #6 is the last part of this really creepy series; will Cthulhu finally show its face? Sweet Tooth #4 follows Gus on his excursion into the world. Is the guy he with good or evil though? Also, Jeff Lemire writer/artist of Sweet Tooth will be at Emerald City Comicon!
We’re getting in quite a few #1 issues this week. I’ll just cover the ones Rick didn’t talk about. Dark Tower: Battle of Jericho #1 is the latest Stephen King mini series following the Gunslinger. Dark Avengers Annual #1 features Norman Osborn and X-Force Annual #1 features Deadpool. In Black Widow and the Marvel Girls #1, Black Widow remembers a time when she was helped out by the Enchantress. Iron Man vs Whiplash #1….nuff said. In Spider-Man Noir: Eyes without a Face #1, Spider-Man saved the day in the last series, but now he’s got to fight even more bad guys that show up to fill in the crime gap.
Shipping This Week 12-03-09
1001 ARABIAN NIGHTS ADVENTURES OF SINBAD #10 $2.99
28 DAYS LATER #4 $3.99
A VERY ZOMBIE CHRISTMAS $3.50
ABSOLUTION #4 (OF 6) (MR) $3.99
ALIENS #4 (OF 4) $3.50
AMBER HAGERMAN DESERVES JUSTICE ONESHOT $3.00
ANITA BLAKE LC EXECUTIONER #2 (OF 5) (MR) $3.99
ATHENA #3 $3.50
AUTHORITY #17 $2.99
BAKUGAN BATTLE BRAWLERS GN VOL 04 DAN & DRAGO $7.99
BARACK THE BARBARIAN #3 (OF 4) $3.50
BATMAN CONFIDENTIAL #38 $2.99
BATMAN THE CAT AND THE BAT TP $12.99
BATMAN THE UNSEEN #5 (OF 5) $2.99
BEANWORLD HC VOL 03 REMEMBER HERE $19.95
BETTY #183 $2.50
BLACK WIDOW AND MARVEL GIRLS #1 (OF 4) $2.99
BLACKEST NIGHT THE FLASH #1 (OF 3) $2.99
BLACKEST NIGHT THE FLASH #1 (OF 3) VAR ED PI
BLACKEST NIGHT WONDER WOMAN #1 (OF 3) $2.99
BLACKEST NIGHT WONDER WOMAN #1 (OF 3) VAR ED PI
BOYS #37 (MR) $2.99
CAPTAIN AMERICA THEATER OF WAR PRISONERS OF DUTY $3.99
CHRONICLES OF KULL TP VOL 01 KING COMES RIDING $18.95
CHRONICLES OF SOLOMON KANE TP VOL 01 $18.95
CINDERELLA FROM FABLETOWN WITH LOVE #2 (OF 6) (MR) $2.99
DARK AVENGERS ANNUAL #1 $4.99
DARK TOWER BATTLE OF JERICHO HILL #1 (OF 5) $3.99
DEADPOOL TEAM-UP #898 $2.99
DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP #6 (OF 24) $3.99
DOCTOR GRORDBORT PRESENTS VICTORY HC $19.95
DONALD DUCK AND FRIENDS #348 $2.99
EMMA VOL 10 $9.99
EMPOWERED ONE SHOT (MR) $3.99
FALL OF HULKS ALPHA FINCH VAR FOH PI
FALL OF HULKS ALPHA FOH $3.99
GI JOE #12 $3.99
GLAMOURPUSS #10 $3.00
GOATS TP VOL 02 CORNDOG IMPERATIVE $15.00
GREAT TEN #2 (OF 10) $2.99
HACK SLASH SERIES #28 (MR) $3.50
HAUNT #3 $2.99
HELL GIRL GN VOL 06 $11.99
HOUSE OF MYSTERY #20 (MR) $2.99
HULK WINTER GUARD ONE-SHOT $3.99
IMAGE UNITED #1 (OF 6) COLLECTORS ED $10.00
INCREDIBLES #3 $2.99
INVINCIBLE PRESENTS ATOM EVE & REX SPLODE #2 (OF 3) $2.99
IRON MAN VS WHIPLASH #1 (OF 4) $3.99
JACK OF FABLES #40 (MR) $2.99
JONAH HEX #50 (NOTE PRICE) $3.99
JSA ALL STARS #1 $3.99
JSA ALL STARS #1 VAR ED PI
KNIGHTS OF THE DINNER TABLE #156 $4.99
KODT BUNDLE OF TROUBLE TP VOL 29 $12.99
LITTLE LULU TP VOL 21 MISS FEENYS FOLLY & STORIES $14.95
LOBO HIGHWAY TO HELL #2 (OF 2) $6.99
LOONEY TUNES #181 $2.50
MARVELS PROJECT #4 (OF 8) $3.99
MARVELS PROJECT #4 (OF 
EPTING VAR PI
MIGHTY #11 $2.99
MMW UNCANNY X-MEN TP VOL 01 VAR ED 11 $24.99
MODESTY BLAISE TP VOL 16 SCARLET MAIDEN $19.95
NORTH 40 #6 (OF 6) $2.99
NORTH WORLD GN VOL 03 $11.95
NOVA #32 $2.99
ONE MODEL NATION GN $17.99
POPEYE HC VOL 04 PLUNDER ISLAND $29.99
PRINCESS RESURRECTION GN VOL 07 $11.99
PSYLOCKE #2 (OF 4) $3.99
RANN THANAGAR HOLY WAR TP VOL 02 $19.99
RED TORNADO #4 (OF 6) $2.99
SCALPED #33 (MR) $2.99
SECRET HISTORY BOOK 07 (OF 7) (RES) (MR) $5.95
SIEGE CABAL $3.99
SIMPSONS WINTER WINGDING #4 $4.99
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG #207 $2.50
SPIDER-MAN NOIR EYES WITHOUT A FACE #1 (OF 4) $3.99
SPIN ANGELS #4 (OF 4) (MR) $5.99
STAR WARS CLONE WARS TP VOL 01 SLAVES OF REPUBLIC $9.95
STAR WARS LEGACY TP VOL 07 STORMS $17.95
STARR THE SLAYER #4 (OF 4) (MR) $3.99
STARSTRUCK #4 $3.99
STRANGE #2 (OF 4) $3.99
SUPERGOD #2 (OF 5) (MR) $3.99
SUPERMAN WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #10 (OF 12) $2.99
SUPERMAN WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #10 (OF 12) VAR ED PI
SWEET TOOTH #4 (MR) $2.99
SWORD #20 (MR) $2.99
TALES FROM WONDERLAND TP VOL 02 $12.99
TALISMAN ROAD OF TRIALS #2 $3.99
TEEN TITANS DEATHTRAP TP $14.99
TERRY MOORES ECHO #17 $3.50
THE GOOD THE BAD & THE UGLY #6 $3.50
THOR #604 $2.99
THOR #604 COIPEL GATEFOLD VAR PI
TORCH #4 (OF 8) $3.99
TRANSFORMERS BEST O/T UK PREY #5 (OF 5) $3.99
ULTIMATE COMICS SPIDER-MAN #5 $3.99
UNCANNY X-MEN #518 $2.99
UNDERSTANDING COMICS TP NEW PTG $22.99
UNTHINKABLE TP $19.99
VAMPIRE HUNTER D NOVEL VOL 13 TWIN SHADOWED KNIGHT $14.99
WARLORD #9 $2.99
WHAT IF SECRET INVASION $3.99
X-BABIES #3 (OF 4) $3.99
X-BABIES #3 (OF 4) STAR COMICS CHABOT VAR PI
X-FORCE ANNUAL #1 $3.99
YOKAIDEN GN VOL 02 $10.99
YU GI OH R GN VOL 02 $9.99
Leave a Reply
37 | Unique Visitors |
