For many of us, all we know about comic books is that we like them and vintage comics are just old ones. No matter how old we get, there is still that strange appeal to pick one up at the store and look at it. I have noticed that the older I get the more I appreciate things. One of them is vintage comics.

I found out that the first comic was published over 100 years ago in 1895. It was Hogan’s Alley. The name comic book was at first a reference from a comic strip in 1897. This was when the first use of bubble speech allowed the characters to have a voice. The book was “The Yellow Kid in McFadden’s Flats”. The character Yellow Kid is credited with the term and it has stuck ever since.

Amongst collectors, I am not one just a novice admirer, there are five classifications of the comic book by era. For a comic book to be considered a Platinum comic book it must have been published between the years of 1897 and 1937. The Golden Age of comics are the ones published between 1938 and 1955. The Silver Age of comics were published between 1956 and 1969. Then came the Bronze Age of comics which fell between the years of 1970 and 1979. The modern era of comics started in 1980 and is still going today.

Comics first appeared in newspapers and for years this was the only way they were publicized. Mutt and Jeff was one of the first comic strips that were formed into a little book. These were sold at the newsstands for 10 cents. The first super hero was the Phantom. He made is ride into history in 1936.

Thus is the beginning of vintage comics. If you can find one of those old 10 cent books it is worth a fortune.

The Golden Age of comics begins in June 1938. This is the first appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1, published by DC Comics. There had been adventure comic books published before this point (Detective Comics predates Action by over a year, but Batman would not appear until 1939). However, these heroes had much more in common with their pulp magazine counterparts than they did to the super-heroes who would follow. For example, Doc Savage was described as being at the peak of human perfection, but still conceivably within the realm of human possibility, while Superman’s abilities were clearly super-human.

Superman’s (and subsequently Batman’s) immediate popularity caused publishers to launch a wave of super-heroes, or “mystery men” as they were called in the 30s and 40s, at their readers. They were introduced to the Atom, Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman, Captain Marvel, Captain America the Human Torch. But possibly the most popular character of all wasn’t a hero. He wasn’t even human. He was Scrooge McDuck.

Super-hero and adventure comics of the time featured simplistic characterization and power fantasies, with the heroes often battling Nazi threats. By the 1950s, the Nazi threat had been replaced by the Communist “Red menace.”

They also displayed some extraordinarily racist images and characterizations, much like many other forms of media at the time, as the cover to Detective Comics #1 illustrates.

But by the early 50s, comic books had begun to evolve thematically. Super-heroes were on the way out, to be replaced with horror and crime comics popularized by EC Comics. Only Superman, Batman and a handful of others were still being published by the mid-50s. Frederick Wertham’s book, Seduction of the Innocent, a scathing indictment of comic books in general and EC Comics in particular of their corruption of children, ultimately led to the creation of the Comics Code Authority, which prohibited EC Comics from publishing anything they had.

Western and War comics continued to be popular through this time, but it wasn’t until October 1956, when the all-new Flash appeared in Showcase #4 that the Golden Age of comics ended and the Silver Age began.

Most comic book historians and fans consider the era we’re currently in as modern. But there is no doubt that something in the comic book industry has created a fundamental shift in the foundation of both the business and entertainment sides of the medium sometime in the early part of the new millennium. Soon, I think the pundits will announce that comic book publishing has entered a new age, and the previous one-the one now known as the “Modern Age” will be reclassified as something else (the most likely candidates will probably be the Platinum or Iron Ages). However, since that era has not been labeled, the only thing we can accurately call the current era of comic book publishing is the “Post-Modern” era.

In the Golden Age of comic books, any one adventure in an issue would last more than 8 pages or so, and most titles were anthologies featuring several characters in short adventures. By the Silver Age, many titles had a 12-16 page lead and a 6-8 page back up. In the Bronze Age, most comic books featured just one character or concept, often in short two- or three-part stories, with subplots that might last a year or longer.

Today it is the norm in most super-hero comics to write in “story arcs,” a four- to eight-part story, with each issue serving as a “chapter” to that story, that may crossover into the title’s larger family of books, or into other titles completely.

The storytelling technique in these comic books is referred to as “decompressed,” because scenes are “allowed to breathe.” Instead of rushing from one scene to the next at a breakneck pace, the writer can linger on a scene or even a specific moment, in order to allow it to develop more fully.

The style may be typified (or even stereotyped) by a sequence of images that do not change and have no text, to indicate that a character is thinking, or the writer wants to indicate a pregnant, awkward pause in the dialogue. It may also be used in a series of text-less images to bring heightened awareness to some element in those images.

Two of the first American comic books to use the style were Warren Ellis’ The Authority and Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man. In The Authority, it was usually referred to as “cinematic style” or “widescreen style,” because Ellis often used the device to “slow time down,” as popularized in movies like The Matrix. In Ultimate Spider-Man, the decompression was more often used in dialogues, where two characters would talk with each other for pages.

Both titles were smash hits, and many other writers tried to emulate Ellis’ and Bendis’ styles, with varying degrees of success.

Even when done correctly, there are costs and benefits to decompressed storytelling. On one hand, it gives the writer an opportunity to really develop his or her thoughts (characters, action sequences, etc) more fully and really bring them into tight focus for the reader. On the other hand, with less text to read, it can shorten the reading time of an issue, leading to dissatisfaction for the reader.

One common complaint among readers is that decompression is “padding,” the book, expanding a storyline in order to sell more copies of each issue, or to fill out a contract on a trade paperback collection of the series, which typically sell best when collecting 5-8 issues of a title. This is called “writing for the trade,” even though both DC Comics and Marvel Comics are publishing more of their more recent collections in the hardback format first.

Manga is such a broad term and experience that it would be impossible to examine the history and cultural impact of manga and anime with within the context of this article. For the purposes of our discussion here, we’ll be focusing primarily on the impact manga has had on the US comic book market.

“Manga,” on its most fundamental level, is just another term for a comic book created in one of the southeast Asian countries, or one influenced by the work coming out of those countries.

Manga has had an influence on western culture for decades, from Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets/G-Force, through the live-action Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers and its sequels in the 80s and 90s, to Pokémon and Dragon Ball Z today.

However, it was mostly an underground hobby in the United States, one for high school and college students. What finally pushed the popularity of manga over the top may have been the debut of Shonen Jump Magazine.

Shonen Jump, an English, monthly edition of Japan‘s Weekly Shonen Jump, debuted in late 2002. Among the seven stories serialized in the first issues were Naruto, One Piece, Dragonball Z and Yu-Gi-Oh! All have become major, cross-platform successes. Shonen Jump tapped into a huge underserved market for younger boys who wanted action-packed comics.

Viz, Tokyopop and other publishers capitalized on the manga explosion by making deals with Asian manga publishers to translate their original titles for an American audience and sell them in digest-sized collections. If you visit the “Graphic Novel” section of your local bookstore, chances are the shelf space for manga is 4-5 times that of American-style comics.

It’s uncertain what the ultimate impact on the sales of western-style comic books will ultimately be, but they are dealing with resistance within the American comic book community. Some fans and retailers have both rebelled against the idea of carrying manga in US comic book stores. It’s unclear what the reasoning behind these feelings is.

Identity Crisis was a mini-series written by best-selling Author Brad Metlzer and illustrated by Rags Morales, published by DC Comics in 2004. The seeds first planted by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in The Watchmen in 1986 finally reach their full fruition here.

Identity Crisis deals with subjects such as rape, murder, human rights violations, madness, corruption and deception in a very frank, adult manner. The Watchmen dealt with all of those themes as well, but Identity Crisis was the first time they were the focus in a title set firmly in the DC Universe. These were not some characters who were created for the sake of the story, they were icons of DC Comics’ Silver Age, they were the Justice League of America.

Whether you thought Identity Crisis was a good miniseries or not (and it was a very polarizing story), you have to acknowledge that it is at least an intellectual descendent of The Watchmen. The morally ambiguous quality of the story has set the general tone in the DC Universe. Since Identity Crisis, we’ve seen:

• A Justice League administrator shoot Blue Beetle in the head, killing him instantly
• Wonder Woman break a man’s neck on live TV around the world
• Batman use (and lose control of) a computer satellite in an attempt to spy on literally everyone in the world
• Even DC’s current crossover event, “Blackest Night,” has at its core the mistakes heroes made in their past literally coming back to haunt them

(A personal note: I am not passing judgment on either Identity Crisis or what’s happened since. But it is impossible to argue that the DC Universe isn’t a much darker place than it was even 10 years ago).

It’s true that it may seem that super-hero comics are entering their sunset, as sales continue to drift lower each year. But on the other hand, it’s possible that we’re just around the corner from another Golden Age. It’s obvious that super-hero stories on the big screen have been embraced by the masses. Perhaps, with new models of distribution like the iPhone or Longbox platforms, super-hero comics will regain their prominence in the national consciousness.

So whether we were in the modern age or the post-modern age, it is very possible that we just turned the corner into another era of comics publishing.

The Silver Age of comic books is a term that refers to a period between 1956 and the early 1970s. It’s characterized by the resurgence of super-hero comics, a re-interpretation of Golden Age heroes, increasingly outlandish storylines, and the debut of Stan Lee and Marvel Comics as a major force in comic book publishing.

Frederic Wertham’s book, Seduction of the Innocent and the Comics Code Authority that came as a response to it in the early 1950s torpedoed EC Comics and set extremely tight limits in what could be included in a comic book. Super-heroes were out of fashion, but westerns, romances and war comics were on the decline as well.

Most scholars agree that the Silver Age begins with Showcase #4 and The Flash. During the Golden Age, The Flash was Jay Garrick, a football star. The new Flash introduced in Showcase #4 was Barry Allen, police forensic scientist. The success of the character led DC Comics Editor Julius Schwartz to spearhead a campaign to revamp many of the Golden Age heroes. A major characteristic of these heroes was that they were often based in science fiction, whereas their predecessors were either based in fantasy, science fantasy or just superb athletes: Green Lantern was a test pilot who became a member of an intergalactic peace-keeping force; Hawkman and Hawkgirl were alien police officers trapped on Earth; The Atom was a college professor who had a fragment of a dwarf star in his hand that gave him the ability to change his size or mass. A new team, the Legion of Super-Heroes travels back in time from the 30st century to recruit Superboy to their team.

DC did so well with their revamps and science fiction heroes, that rival publisher Martin Goodman asked Stanley “Stan Lee” Lieber to create a team of super-heroes to compete. What he and Jack Kirby came up with was The Fantastic Four in 1961.

The creation and style of Marvel Comics begins the slow decline of DC’s Silver Age mentality in favor of a more “realistic” tone in Marvel’s comics: The Fantastic Four’s Thing was a monster, Spider-Man was a science nerd driven by the murder of his uncle and reviled by all of New York City, and the X-Men were misfits who were hated by the very people they were vowed to protect. Nobody got along, and many heroes were just plain unhappy. But their problems were much easier to relate to than what practical joke Superman was going to play on Lois Lane this month.

There is no consensus on when the Silver Age ended and the Bronze Age began, but there were several things that happened in the early 1970s:

• Marvel Comics published Conan the Barbarian #1, portraying a tone and style of violence that hadn’t been seen since the creation of the Comics Code Authority.
• Marvel publishes Amazing Spider-Man #96-98, featuring a drug abuse storyline, in direct violation of the Comics Code.
• The Comics Code’s regulations are loosened, and DC Comics begins to emulate Marvel’s style with more realistic storylines and characterizations, as in Green Lantern #85-86, where Green Arrow’s sidekick Speedy (now called Red Arrow) deals with his own drug problem.
• The trend established by Marvel in Fantastic Four #1 for darker, more dramatic storylines and themes is a model that is followed by most comic book companies even today.

The Bronze Age of comic books is a period of time between the early 1970s and 1986.

The 70s were a time of transition for the comic book publishing industry. Marvel Comics, with its more realistic take on super-heroics, was quickly surpassing DC Comics’ Silver Age sensibilities to become the more profitable comic book publisher.

The Comics Code Authority had loosened some of its restrictions after the US government asked Stan Lee to write a Spider-Man story about drug abuse. As a result, Marvel reintroduced horror comics to the scene with titles like Tomb of Dracula and Werewolf by Night.

Underground comix were becoming more popular with older readers as a more mature alternative to the super-hero titles from DC and Marvel. While the subversive elements of many underground comix eventually died away for the most part, the independent spirit of them took hold, and independently published, non-CCA-approved comics like Dave Sim’s Cerberus and Wendy and Richard Pini’s Elfquest became high points on the independent scene that still highly regarded.

In response, both of the larger publishers (especially Marvel) start experimenting with different kinds of heroes inspired from other media, like the “blaxploitation film” that was the genesis of Luke Cage in Hero for Hire, and the kung-fu movies that inspired the character who would become Cage’s partner, Iron Fist.

It’s also in the Bronze Age that we begin to see the newsstand distribution model that comic books had used since the very beginning start to crumble. One on hand, traditional magazine outlets (newsstands, drug stores convenience stores, etc.) weren’t ordering as many copies of each title. On the other hand, comic book specialty stores could cater specifically to comic book readers and stock older issues. By the late 80s, comic books all but disappeared from traditional outlets.

And the 70s saw the premiere of the last true stand-out, cross-over super-hero character. You may have heard of him. His name is Wolverine, and he’s the best at what he does.

The Bronze Age comes to a distinct halt in 1986, where two things happened, both involving writer Alan Moore:

• Even with the more adult tone super-hero comic books were taking, Moore‘s Watchmen miniseries took a dramatically darker tone, exploring themes and subjects that had never been explored in super-hero comics before.
• “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” also written by Moore, was a capstone to the character of Superman as portrayed up to that point. John Byrne’s Man of Steel miniseries later that year “re-booted” the character of Superman to make him more relevant for the 80s.

The Comics Code Authority is a self-regulatory body that governs content in comic books.

In 1954, psychologist Frederic Wertham published Seduction of the Innocent,  a scathing book discussing how the media in general and comic books in particular corrupt young minds. The book was such a sensation that it catapulted Wertham into celebrity, and the US Congress convened the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency to address the issues brought up in the book. The primary target for both Wertham and the Senate was EC Comics’ horror and crime titles. EC had established a strong niche for itself in the industry for publishing what would be considered “mature” titles today. But since comic books at the time were considered solely as children’s entertainment, Wertham considered EC Comics as especially dangerous for children.

In a proactive move, EC Comics publisher William Gaines gathered together the other comic book publishers and suggested they create their own governing body to regulate content, in order to not be officially censored by the government. In an ironic twist, the body that was formed, the Comics Code Authority, created guidelines that were so strictly enforced that EC Comics was not able to publish the kinds of comics they specialized in. Gaines and EC Comics were all but forced out of the comic book business. Their final title, MAD, switched to a magazine format to bypass the restrictions of the Comics Code Authority. It has been in continuous publication since 1952.

Some of the restrictions in the Code as originally written include:

• No comic magazine shall use the word horror or terror in its title.
• Crimes shall never be presented in such a way as to create sympathy for the criminal, to promote distrust of the forces of law and justice, or to inspire others with a desire to imitate criminals.
• In every case, the criminal must be punished in every case.
• The letters of the word “crime” on a comics-magazine cover shall never be appreciably greater in dimension than the other words contained in the title. The word “crime” shall never appear alone on a cover.
• Scenes dealing with, or instruments associated with walking dead, torture, vampires and vampirism, ghouls, cannibalism, and werewolfism are prohibited.
• Divorce shall not be treated humorously nor represented as desirable.
• Illicit sex relations are neither to be hinted at nor portrayed. Violent love scenes as well as sexual abnormalities are unacceptable.
• Sex perversion or any inference to same is strictly forbidden.

By agreement of the publishers, no comic book would be published without the CCA’s authority, which would be symbolized by a stamp on the cover of each issue approved. The first mainstream super-hero comic published after 1954 without the Code’s approval was Amazing Spider-Man #96 in 1971. It was written by Stan Lee at the request of the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare to warn about the dangers of drug abuse. It was rejected by the CCA for violating the clause about depicting drug abuse in any fashion. Marvel Comics published the story anyway, and it resulted in the first of many revisions and reversals of the Code.

Since the rise of the direct market as the primary distribution model for comics, more and more comic books have been published without the Code. Marvel Comics dropped the Code entirely for their own in-house rating system in 2001. DC Comics only submits comics from their Johnny DC and DCU lines, and only some of the latter. The only publisher that still submits all of their titles to be approved is Archie Comics.

Comics have been around for kids and it is often thought that they are primarily intended for kids. A stroll through a specialised comics store would alleviate anyone of that notion. Not only do kids rarely visit comic stores, the main audience for mainstream comics is boys from 14 and up. Finding comics that aren’t violent or sexually explicit these days can be quite a challenge. So here is a list of some of the best new comics available.

In regards to modern incarnations of kids comics you need to look no further than Boon Studios. Boom Studios used to be known as a small independent comic publisher whose main library consisted of zombie, horror and superhero comics. In 2007 they announced their ZOOM! Imprint which would grow over the next three years to include such licences as The Muppets and Disney/Pixar giants like Wall-e, Finding Nemo and Toy Story.

These are, not surprisingly, highly popular and Boom have done an amazing job with the comics. Boom Studios have also bought the rights to produce comics for the Disney characters Uncle Scrooge, Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse so their studio accounts for a significant percentage of the total comics produced for kids each month.

Marvel and DC have their own imprints directed at kids. Titles like Tiny Titans and Mini Marvels are versions of the world’s greatest superheroes reinterpreted for kids. In these stories instead of super-villains that threaten the world the costumed heroes encounter bullies in the schoolyard and parents that substitute teach in their classroom! Aimed at grades 2 and up these comics are entertaining for new readers and established fans alike.

Popular books and franchises like Geronimo stilton and the Disney Fairies have also recently appeared in comic form, this time from publishing company Papercutz. These hardcover comics are a great read and highly durable so recommended for school and library collections. Both franchises crossover readily into comics, being highly visual stories already.

Now that parents, schools and libraries have decided comics are ok for kids again, publishers have realized comics can sell well so it’s heartening to see the increase in comics becoming available aimed solely at young readers (and kids at heart as well). Hopefully the trend will continue into 2011.

Hope everyone has an amazing, blessed Mother’s Day enjoying the day and their families.

Blessings to all…

Particularly with regard to posters that were preserved in poster frames in dim rooms since immediately after they were created, they could be almost as highly valued as many antique works of art.