Saturday, September 25, 2010
Golden age?
Why is it when comic books first originate they start in the golden age, then degenerate to the silver age and after that the bronze age? This seems to be contradictory to how things should actually progress. When the industry first started it seems as if both the art and the stories are more crude then many of their more contemporary counterparts would be. Why is it when comics first start and they are just republished strips from the Sunday funnies called the golden age, later in the golden age comic books become original funnies and finally stories new stories which have mystery, suspense, and superheroes. Is this called the golden age just out of nostalgia for the industries origin? This seems to be a plausible explanation to me. What may also be the case for the names of the different ages of comic books is the the names are not reliant to the quality of the content in the books, but just arbitrary names given to different ages to periods in the comic book industry. The names could just signify that the trends in what the qualities of the comics were at the time. Maybe the golden age was called golden because the content in those books was the most clean and proper, but the silver and then bronze age progressively got into darker and more gritty topics of the time.
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It's an interesting question. I have been waiting for the explaination on this one as well! All I have for a guess is perhaps its linked to how the more time that passes the more favorably we look on the memories.
ReplyDeleteI would say the title Golden Age for the comics of the 30s and 40s is mostly due to nestalgia. Obviously this was not the origin of comics, which started long before.
ReplyDeleteOn the one hand I can understand that the comics at this time are nothing like the next generation in the 60s and 70s. The artwork, storyline, and character development in the Silver Age is phenominal.
However, the same can be said about comics nowadays compared to the Silver Age. Indeed the comic book industry is all about the evolution of this art form. I believe the 30s and 40s are deemed the Golden Age not because of the quality, but rather the originality. Certainly comics as they were known at this time were dramatically changed with characters such as Batman and Superman.