Comic "ages"

[CaptainAwesome]

Heres how I define the comic ages:

Golden Age: Gaudy costumes (green lantern), simple stories, fairly violent(batman kills).

Silver age: More streamlined costumes (again green lantern), simple stories, kid friendly (batman and robin)

Bronze age: Back to gaudy costumes most of the time a little darker looking (firestorm and wolverine), longer darker stories (daredevil), more diverse in audience kid friendly some and more violent others

"Modern" age: Functional costumes(morrison's x-men, the ultimates), realistic stories( the ultimate line, green arrow) and still diverse in audience
*Note: I think that the modern age is just ending with HoM and IC.

"New" age: Silver/bronze fusion(OYL Blue Beetle, OYL firestorm), fantastic stories (Seven soldiers, Annihilation) still reaching all kinds of audiences.

So heres my question(s): 1) How do you define the different ages? 2) What do you call the latest ages? Specifically the one thats just ending(IMO).
Please tell me Im not the only one who thinks about this stuff. You guys gotta have some opinons on it. :confused:

[Paul Newell]

Here's how I see it:

Platinum Age (1897-1933)
Newspaper strip collections and some original material in book form, pre-dating the "modern" comic book.

Golden Age (1938-1945)
The super-hero boom, launched by DC Comics' Superman and Batman.

Atom Age (1946-1955)
The super-hero bust. Other genres come into their own including crime, Western, war, romance, science fiction, teen humor and funny animal.

Silver Age (1956-1969)
The super-hero revival, begun by DC, epitomized by Marvel.

Bronze Age (1970-1985)
"Relevance" is introduced.

Dark Age: (1986 - 1995)
Comics go "grim and gritty" and the Speculator boom.

Retro Age: (1996 - 2004)
Marvels and Kingdom Come herald a return to the Silver Age's sensibilities....with a modern spin.

Hype Age: (2004 - Present)
Identity Crisis and Avengers Disassembled start a bombardment of projects being hyped to the max in order to maximise sales.

[ragnarok_2012]

There were a couple great threads on this topic, but as near as I can tell they've been deleted.

There's a bit of a debate on when the Silver Age ends. Busiek ends the Silver Age with the Death of Gwen Stacy issue of Spider-man (1973, I believe). His Astro City character the Silver Agent has a career that spans the Silver Age.

[Rob Imes]

The Golden-Age:
1938-1948
An equally good argument could be made that it ended in 1945 with the introduction of Superboy and end of WW2. I put the end a little later, when romance and western comics surpassed the superheroes (Timely's heroes got cancelled in 1949) and coincidentally when Superboy got his own series.

The Atomic Age:
1949-1958
All sorts of genres competed for dominance. It was also the first time that the superheroes were revived (in the mid-1950s), indicating that this was a new era.

The Silver Age:
1959-1967
The superheroes begin to get their own titles again: The Flash, JLA, etc. and then Marvel's superheroes. Basically, this age runs the length of the existence of "Tales of Suspense" and "Tales to Astonish." When those are gone, replaced by full-length superhero comics, a new era has dawned.

The Bronze Age:
1968-1978
Roughly the length of Marvel's expansion to DC's Implosion.

The Alternate Age:
1979-1989
DC and Marvel begin to publish mini-series, beginning of popularity of indie comics like Elfquest, beginning of popularity of the new X-Men with the "Death of Phoenix," graphic novels, etc.

The Image Age:
1990-1996
Everybody starts trying to draw like Liefeld, McFarlane, and Jim Lee...

The Retro Age:
1997-present
George Perez's return to Avengers signals a return to the 1970s that continues in some ways with the renewed popularity of Spider-Woman, Ms. Marvel, etc. But in other ways this age is very different... I think the past few years could almost be called "The Movie Age" by the way that comics are looking more and more like movies.

[Paul Newell]

There were a couple great threads on this topic, but as near as I can tell they've been deleted.

There's a bit of a debate on when the Silver Age ends. Busiek ends the Silver Age with the Death of Gwen Stacy issue of Spider-man (1973, I believe). His Astro City character the Silver Agent has a career that spans the Silver Age.
I think I made the mistake of sending this to the wrong board. The threads you're talking about are actually on the Classic Comics board.

[ragnarok_2012]

I think I made the mistake of sending this to the wrong board. The threads you're talking about are actually on the Classic Comics board.

They still exist? Cool!

[mervyn]

golden Age 1938-1952: the creation of superman and the superhero genre as we know it today.

Intermediate Period 1953-1955: a dark age brought about by the publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent.

silver Age 1956-1969: Marked by a resurgences in the superhero genre.

Bronze Age 1970-1985: In many ways a continuation of trends started by Marvel in the Silver age. Stories became more complex. Its Also marked my the rise of independent comics.

Modern /Post Modern Age 1986-1995: "The grim and gritty age" American comics become a nitch market. Gimmicks, cause a temporary rise in sales, but ultimately ends with the near death of the industry as we know it.

Manga Age 1995 to present: The rise of Manga and othe foreign comics as a legitimate alternative, to the superhero dominated american comics. American comics try to return to their roots bringing back Silver/Bronze age concepts. The Graphic novel format(with manga leading the way) begins to overtake the traditional American comic format.

[Reptisaurus!]

I define the ages as

20s
30s
40s
50s
60s
70s
80s
90
and
00s, occasionally with an "early" "late" or "mid" qualifier.

T'my mind this is the only factually accurate way to describe 'em.

[Paul Newell]

They still exist? Cool!

They should do...I found at laest one to swipe my previous post about this. :)

I think there was one on YABS as well.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

My definitions:

Golden Age " Heroes start and nearly end"(1938-1950)

Heroes came in and were the norm. Superman,Batman and countless others were launched. They quickly faded as TV started airing the adventures of....

Western/War Age " The Western & War era! " (1950-1959)

TV introduces us to the War and Western heroes. Thier huge exposure has many books become thier adventures.

Silver Age " Heroes Return" (1960-1970)

DC's Flash and Marvel end up kickin off this era. Its a returned to great heroes and villains. This age saw a lot of great concepts and charactors created and is the age that sadly will never happen again. But like any good age it ended when comics decided to get " Real" .

Bronze Age Comics get REAL ! (1971-1985)

In the 1970's things changed. Publsihers went with having more real storylines. In Green Arrow Speedy became a drug addict. Over in Amazing Spiderman , Peter Parker lost Gwen Stacy. This was part of the more real comics would get.

In this age Teen Titans grew to promise as they tackled tough issues. The X-Men grew into a huge sellin book as well. The era of sweeping problems like racism and outcasts to society were in. The days of heroes no longer question why and how the way society was a dream.

But after 1985 this era would end with DC deciding it was time to move thier Universe to scratch and Marvel making key changes as well.

Modern Age " DC & Marvel go after new readers! " (1986-2000)

DC relaunched thier comics and kicked off the Modern Age. The Crisis had changed a lot in DC and new charactors,ideas and looks were brought in.

Not to be outdone Marvel themselves expanded thier Universe by adding new X-Books and creating younger mutants to handle this. Marvel also started expanding thier line to include the New Universe which didn't last long.

In the 1990's DC and Marvel were deep in the war. Image became a huge company and started taking attention away from them. Both companies scrambled to lure new and older readers back with huge events.

DC's events usually worked and DC never back pedaled even when fan outrage was at its peak in the mid to late 1990's. Marvel tried following DC's example and had great success. Of course they would lose sales and rechange things but the Modern Age was a drive to deliver Huge Event storylines and charactors. The effect was usually seen at the cash register.

But like any age , the Modern Age had to end. The rampant speculator market in the 1990's was a bad blow to comics. The Event storylines dried up and both companies realized it was a time to get back to the old basics of story telling.


The Retro-Silver Age " Comics go back to the Basics! "(2000-current)

Marvel kicked off this age in 2001 by signing the top names in comics to deals in hopes of kick starting 2 sagging franchises. With X-Men , Grant Morrison took the book back to its basic core and stripped away years of nonsense to do it. The same effect was with JMS over in Spiderman.

DC by 2003 had saw what Marvel had done and started spending to get talent in thier drive back. In 2004 DC would sign away Geoff Johns,Judd Winick,Mark Waid & Grant Morrison. The 3 would kick start a new era at DC where the past became a welcome mat to DC fans. The 3 would start spinning stories to give a back to basics approach on variety of books .

In this era fans really became closer to the creators talking to them on message boards online. The effect was tighter stories on a lot of books . This age is pretty much the age of the writer.

[Brandon Hanvey]

I agree with Mark.

[Cei-U!]

The problem I have with the various "ages" schemes outlined above is that they all equate super-hero comics with the medium as a whole. How, to use just one example, do you categorize undergrounds in those schemes? Is Zap Comics #0 a Silver Age or Bronze Age comic... and what possible criteria would you use to establish it one way or the other? It's as if we defined the history of motion pictures entirely in terms of romantic comedies. Perhaps we need to take off our genre-centric blinders, kick Bob Overstreet and his cronies right inna nuts and start thinking this through from a different, hopefully more objective POV.

Cei-U!
I summon the revolution!

[Brandon Hanvey]

The problem I have with the various "ages" schemes outlined above is that they all equate super-hero comics with the medium as a whole. How, to use just one example, do you categorize undergrounds in those schemes? Is Zap Comics #0 a Silver Age or Bronze Age comic... and what possible criteria would use you use to establish it one way or the other? It's as if we defined the history of motion pictures entirely in terms of romantic comedies. Perhaps we need to take off our genre-centric blinders, kick Bob Overstreet and his cronies right inna nuts and start thinking this through from a different, hopefully more objective POV.

Cei-U!
I summon the revolution!

Kurt is more of an indie snob than I am.

[Cei-U!]

Kurt is more of an indie snob than I am.

Heck, that rant took *me* by surprise...

Cei-U!
I summon the Tourettes!

[Brandon Hanvey]

Heck, that rant took *me* by surprise...

Cei-U!
I summon the Tourettes!

Go with your rage. It's fun.

Down with corporate comics!

[Gumbo Maximillian]

The problem I have with the various "ages" schemes outlined above is that they all equate super-hero comics with the medium as a whole. How, to use just one example, do you categorize undergrounds in those schemes? Is Zap Comics #0 a Silver Age or Bronze Age comic... and what possible criteria would you use to establish it one way or the other? It's as if we defined the history of motion pictures entirely in terms of romantic comedies. Perhaps we need to take off our genre-centric blinders, kick Bob Overstreet and his cronies right inna nuts and start thinking this through from a different, hopefully more objective POV.

Cei-U!
I summon the revolution!


I think its also company; basically when people think of comics they think of marvel/dc and whatever it is during a specific era that they put out, which is usually super hero comics.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

The problem I have with the various "ages" schemes outlined above is that they all equate super-hero comics with the medium as a whole. How, to use just one example, do you categorize undergrounds in those schemes? Is Zap Comics #0 a Silver Age or Bronze Age comic... and what possible criteria would you use to establish it one way or the other? It's as if we defined the history of motion pictures entirely in terms of romantic comedies. Perhaps we need to take off our genre-centric blinders, kick Bob Overstreet and his cronies right inna nuts and start thinking this through from a different, hopefully more objective POV.

Cei-U!
I summon the revolution!

I don't have a book on Motion Pictures yet. So no clue if they do have an Era or not. I do know on an old AMC show they called old Hollywood " The Golden Era " . I'll check my local library ( which has a dozen books on MGM,RKO and Paramount) and do some research if they use era's any.


Actually...TV does have an " Age " eras deal like comics. Its pretty funny how many era's are defined here. This is from the " Complete Directory to Primetime Network & Cable Shows". Tim Brooks and Earl Marsh define the Era's like so:

The 1st Era : Vaudeo ( 1948-1957)
The Adult Westerns Era (1957-early 1960's)
The Idiot Sitcom Era ( Early to late 1960's)
The Relevance Era ( late 1960's to 1975)
The ABC "Fantasy " Era ( 1975-1980)
Soap Opera's and the "Real People " era ( 1980's)
The Era of Choice ( 1990's)

[Donald M.]

The problem I have with the various "ages" schemes outlined above is that they all equate super-hero comics with the medium as a whole. How, to use just one example, do you categorize undergrounds in those schemes? Is Zap Comics #0 a Silver Age or Bronze Age comic... and what possible criteria would you use to establish it one way or the other? It's as if we defined the history of motion pictures entirely in terms of romantic comedies. Perhaps we need to take off our genre-centric blinders, kick Bob Overstreet and his cronies right inna nuts and start thinking this through from a different, hopefully more objective POV.

Cei-U!
I summon the revolution!

Exactly.

The Golden/Silver/Bronze Age way of looking ar comics history is centered entirely around the rise and fall and rise again of the superhero genre, pretty much completely ignoring other genres and especially underground/indie comics.

The Golden/Silver/Bronze Age difinitions are fine if Superheroes is all you're interested in, but should be ignored by anyone interested in subjectively looking at/defining/chronicling the history of comics as a whole.

[Donald M.]

I don't have a book on Motion Pictures yet. So no clue if they do have an Era or not. I do know on an old AMC show they called old Hollywood " The Golden Era " . I'll check my local library ( which has a dozen books on MGM,RKO and Paramount) and do some research if they use era's any.


Actually...TV does have an " Age " eras deal like comics. Its pretty funny how many era's are defined here. This is from the " Complete Directory to Primetime Network & Cable Shows". Tim Brooks and Earl Marsh define the Era's like so:

The 1st Era : Vaudeo ( 1948-1957)
The Adult Westerns Era (1957-early 1960's)
The Idiot Sitcom Era ( Early to late 1960's)
The Relevance Era ( late 1960's to 1975)
The ABC "Fantasy " Era ( 1975-1980)
Soap Opera's and the "Real People " era ( 1980's)
The Era of Choice ( 1990's)

Yeah, but those are obviously eras defined by a single pair of authors, where the Golden/Silver/Bronze Age definitions are the accepted manner of looking at comics history for the vast majority of the fandom and the industry.

[Paul Newell]

Thing is, though, that there is some symbiosis between super-hero and underground comics. For onre thing, if we didn't have the Silver Age explosion from DC and Marvel "inspiring" people like Robert Crumb to publish their own, then would there have been an underground comix scene? Same thing with the black and white explosion in the 80's. A lot of indies that "kickstarted" the independent scene were fed by the creators love of super-hero comics to a large extent.

Conversely would relevance have been introduced to super-heroes in the 70's if it wasn't for underground comix pushing the boundaries? Would the seminal stories , written in the 80's have come about if the creators hadn't been either pulled in from "independents" or inspired by them?

[Reptisaurus!]

Thing is, though, that there is some symbiosis between super-hero and underground comics. For onre thing, if we didn't have the Silver Age explosion from DC and Marvel "inspiring" people like Robert Crumb to publish their own, then would there have been an underground comix scene?


I've never heard of Crumb reading Marvel or DC comics of the time. His major influence was the EC guys, 'specially the early issues of MAD. I'd figure that Wally Wood's Witzend was part of the inspiration as well.


So Mainstream comics certainly fed the first underground.... But not *superhero* comics so much. (Well, 'cept maybe for Wonder Warthog.)


Same thing with the black and white explosion in the 80's. A lot of indies that "kickstarted" the independent scene were fed by the creators love of super-hero comics to a large extent.


TAnd even those folks who weren't inspired by superhero books benefited from the increased exposure from the creators who were.



Conversely would relevance have been introduced to super-heroes in the 70's if it wasn't for underground comix pushing the boundaries?


Dunno. :)

This makes logical sense, but I'venever read Denny O 'Neil or Steve Engelhart or Jim Stalin mention they were a fan of the Underground comics.

Y'got confirmation on this?

Would the seminal stories , written in the 80's have come about if the creators hadn't been either pulled in from "independents" or inspired by them?

.....

....

Ummmmm.... I'm not seeing a heck-of-a-lot of influence from the Underground Crowd on Marvel and DC at this point. (Again, I could be wrong.)

But the seminal stories from Eclipse 'n Dark Horse? Absolutely.

[Paul Newell]

I've never heard of Crumb reading Marvel or DC comics of the time. His major influence was the EC guys, 'specially the early issues of MAD. I'd figure that Wally Wood's Witzend was part of the inspiration as well.
Well it was that he was inspired by noticing that comics were selling and were being bought by college kids...Particularly Marvel Comics. Up until that point he'd produced fanzines and other smaller stuff, but never a full comic issue. It was the success of the mainstream, at the time, that influenced his decision to produce his own comics and sell 'em.
So Mainstream comics certainly fed the first underground.... But not *superhero* comics so much. (Well, 'cept maybe for Wonder Warthog.)
True, but at the same time if the Silver Age hadn't happened would there have been a market for any type of comics? Especially as, until the Silver Age explosion, only kids were still buying.
This makes logical sense, but I'venever read Denny O 'Neil or Steve Engelhart or Jim Stalin mention they were a fan of the Underground comics.

Y'got confirmation on this?
Not really. It's mainly my assumption. :)
But at the time, DC and Marvel started "relaxing" their attitude to the code and its easy to see why when you had a lot of underground comics doing very well and dealing with more relevant issues like drug use and race relations.

The closest I could find was an interview with Denny O'Neill where he mentions DC Editorial "relaxing the rules" to aim at selling to the same "youth culture" as Marvel and the undergrounds and how he then introduced more social and political themes into his stories. Mike Friedrich mentions much the same thing.
Ummmmm.... I'm not seeing a heck-of-a-lot of influence from the Underground Crowd on Marvel and DC at this point. (Again, I could be wrong.)

But the seminal stories from Eclipse 'n Dark Horse? Absolutely.
Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean had their own independent comic before working for DC. I'm sure there are a lot of other examples, but a lot of the smaller publishers and independents became a feeder source for the DC and Marvel. And those publishers probably wouldn't be around if you hadn't had success stories like Cerebus or the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, both of which were inspired by Marvel Comics series. If this rise of smaller publishers hadn't happened would we have had things like Watchman or Sandman being created?