I collect mostly Golden Age Comics— in fact I’d say that’s pretty much all I collect. I started waaaaaay back in the early 1980s with a copy of BATMAN #14 from my good friend Paul Howley who ran the greatest comic book store on Earth, That’s Entertainment, in a tiny space on Chandler Street here in the Woo. Paul if you have any pics of the old shop please send them over!
My focus is not on BATMAN per se, but as you can see I have some multiples of several— if I see one at a good price I’ll scoop it up.
The yellow cover in the middle is a BATMAN #14 (two of them actually)
So what exactly is a GOLDEN AGE Comic book? Glad you asked!
Comics have been around since the early 1930s* when publishers first started producing reprints of comic strips— this is where the term “Funny Books” came from— because they were reprints of the Funny Pages from the Sunday Comics. There is debate as to where the first comic book is published. FUNNIES ON PARADE was published in 1933 featuring reprints of comic strips like Joe Palooka and Mutt and Jeff— it’s hard to image today how important newspaper comics were to people of the day— today DILBERT is published as a tiny little gag strip in the throwaway section of a newspaper section— there was a time when people rushed out to get a paper because they needed to know what was happening to DICK TRACY today. But I think it starts with the first full color all original content of NEW FUN #1 from National Comics (now known as DC Comics) in 1935.
The industry takes off with the 1938 publication of ACTION COMICS #1 which features the debut of Superman, ironically the story is cut up and pasted comic strip design because that is how creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster planned to sell him— only to be rejected by every comic syndicate and comic publisher.
The Golden Age continues with characters like Batman, Captain Marvel, Captain America, The Black Terror, Catman, The Flash, Hawkman, Aquaman, The Human Torch and The Sub Mariner soon filling newsstands with colorful adventures. Comedy is well represented with Archie Andrews, Wilbur and a whole host of comedy characters. Bob Hope even gets his own series. World War II finds many back issues destroyed during paper drives bringing up the value as available copies are harder to find.
With the end of WWII in 1945 Comics enter into what is known as The Atomic Age, superheroes continue but they are no longer as popular and Horror, War and Romance titles take the lead. The creators of Superman sue the creators of Captain Marvel for plagiarism and the suit is settled out of court leading to the end of Captain Marvel (whose sales often dwarfed Superman’s).
As the 1950s come to a close comic book sales dwindle, SUPERMAN becomes more popular than ever thanks to his syndicated TV Show with George Reeves, but overall publishers are struggling. Congress considers the dangers of Horror and Crime Comics creating a nation criminally minded children and the Comics Code is enacted which bans pretty much anything that made comics popular in the first place.
DC Comics continues to chug along with a relaunch of Green Lantern and The Flash in what would be known as The Silver Age of Comics— they even put characters together in a redo of their popular Justice Society feature that appeared in ALL STAR COMICS during the war and rebrand it as The Justice League— at a chance golf game between the DC and Marvel Comics publishers its remarked how well this new Justice League is doing, and the publisher goes back to his sole employee Stan Lee and tells him to come up with a superhero group for Marvel to publish and the Fantastic Four soon usher in the Marvel Age of Comics.
The Bronze Age of Comics comes in around 1970 with a more sophisticated level of offerings notable with the first comic book version of CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Batman gets away from his camp roots of the popular Adam West TV show and is once again depicted as a loner when they send Robin off to College and bring Batman back as a night creature.
The Copper Age of Comics comes in around the mid 1980s with the introduction of prestigious graphic novel formats which mimic the way comics are done in Europe (with respect and quality production). The Pixel Age comes in with the introduction of digital comics and today comics are called The Modern Age which seems like a poor choice because where do you go from there?
So there you have it, the ages as defined by many of us.
Starting next Wednesday I’ll be spotlighting comics in my personal collection, I’m not sure why anyone would care but then again I’m not sure why anyone reads this blog in the first place.
Important to note that scholars often city 1837s The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck or the 1987 Yellow Kid book, I disagree because the formats were different and more like picture books.