It's hard to think back to when I was in high school, to a time when I thought comics were...well, dumb. I'm an avid reader of them now, in fact that's my shelf in the background of this timeline. But it's not just my personal perception of comics that have changed over the years, but American society’s in general. For this project, I wanted to go back and trace how the stereotypes began, and how comics changed from children's “junk”, to dangerous material, to popular culture. There are many case studies of censorship, and more recent studies on the graphic novel in education, but what I wanted to study was the perception of the book form itself, from both within and without the industry. As the comic book industry is currently experiencing resurgence in popularity, it is important to look back over past trends and see how it got to this point. Perhaps it will help us understand current marketing strategies and future trends. Being knowledge about the foundation of the stereotypes may also help defend against challenges to libraries looking to include more graphic novels or to schools who seek to utilize them. I looked through some secondary sources, but I wanted to stick mainly on primary sources, such as author/illustrator interviews, ads, and comics themselves. What better way to see how comics changed over time than to look at the publications? I thought I would get stuck in a ‘chicken vs. the egg’ debate—did comics ‘age’ up because the audience did, or did unsupervised writers create a new audience by creating different content? (It can still be debated, but it was largely agreed that the former was true.) I have a personal interest in this project, and since I was expanding off a previous apex’s research, I thought I knew what to expect when digging more into comic history. I was mistaken! The biggest weakness to this project, in my mind, came from of the sheer amount of information. There were so many aspects that could have made for an entire project themselves…criminal cases, library challenges, the Comics Authority Code, on and on. By sticking to my original idea, of tracking the popular perception of comics, I feel the project was arguably a little too broad in-scope. However, I feel this could be good as ‘springboard’ research, a starting point for future research further into comics.
Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founds the National Allied Publications, the company that will go on to become known as Detective Comics, Inc., or DC Comics, Inc. - Daniels, Les. (1995) DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes. New York, NY: DC Comics.
Martin Goodman, previously working as a pulp magazine publisher, founds Timely Publications, the company that will eventually take the name Marvel, after its first-ever series. - Howe, Sean. (2012) Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers.
Along with promoting healthy eating and exercise, the character of Superman is used to push "good" reading. "Get into the habit of reading at least one good book a month!" Superman tells his fans, as the editorial page lists a number of classic literature titles. This shows that even DC Comics were drawing a line between "good" reading and comic book consumption. If kids wanted brain powers like Superman, they wouldn't get them by reading the comics he featured in. - Superman Says. (1940). Superman #4. National Comics Publications [DC Comics].
In 1937, 150 comic books were published. In 1940, 700 were published. The industry had boomed and suddenly filled a lot more jobs. Tom Gill, cartoonist for the New York Daily News said "...[comics] would accept me, because it didn't know where it was going, and I didn't know what the hell I could do, either, and that made it easy and exciting." Even as a fledgling industry, comics struggled to form an identity, even though America was quick to label them--"kid stuff". Mickey Spillane, who wrote for dozens of pulp comics in 1940, said "You call it kid stuff, comic books, garbage, you name it--labels like that, guys put on things so they don't have to think about them. That's just the way I like it. Leave me alone..." Spillane would prove to be correct, that nobody thought about comics until after WWII, after mature-content comics had taken off. Gill and Spillane's sentiments would be echoed decades later by Art Spiegelman, who would lament the almost-need for comics to present themselves as art to satisfy higher standards. In the early years, artists and writers were content to create without pressure to conform. However, this counter-cultural tendency of comic books would cause trouble for years to come. - Hajdu, David. (2008) The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Harvey Zorbaugh conducts a survey which finds that more than 90% of elementary-aged kids and more than 80% of teens read comic books. These are exceptionally high numbers that, in retrospect, indicate that the comic industry will enjoy a long and prosperous life, rather than just be a passing fad. However, this survey also reinforces the budding stereotype--that comics are meant for children. - Zorbaugh, Harvey A. (1944). "The Comics—There They Stand!" Journal of Educational Sociology, 18(4), 197–199.
During WWII, superhero comics were all the rage--this period is known as the Golden Age of comic books. With the war going on, nobody spared much attention for comics. However, after veterans came home and wanted to read, the comic industry hurried to cater to them. Horror and romance genres grew, but even though they were meant for adults, kids snapped them up as well. Once the war ended, parents' attention was free to wonder about age-inappropriate 'trash' their children were consuming. Child researchers around this time were beginning to make statements that only children "who were not brought up well" read comics, and that "all child drug addicts...were inveterate comic-book readers." So even though the more adults began to read comics, they did so quietly. The outcry of parents and concerned moralists was much louder, and gave non-readers, who may otherwise not have had much prejudice, the idea that all comics were bad for children. This is similar to the recent view of video games, which suggests that perhaps every fast-growing entertainment industry has its own bumps along the way, or that there is always trouble adjusting to age-appropriate material as an industry develops. - Tilley, Carol L. (2012) "Seducing the Innocent: Fredric Wertham and the Falsifications That Help Condemn Comics." Information & Culture, vol. 47, iss. 4, pg. 383-413. Accessed online at http://tinyurl.com/nagxj28
Similar to Hollywood and their Hays Code, the comics industry were inflicted with their own morality police, the Association of Comics Magazine Publishers. Sex was not to be published, nor any "sadistic torture" or obscene language. Criminals should never be sympathetic, nor the police or justice system ineffective. Divorce was also not allowed to be "treated humorously." If a comic complied and passed its review, it could have the ACMP stamp of approval. However, it was not mandatory for publishers to undergo the review. Only 14 of the 35 comic companies who published approximately 300 titles per month joined the association. Marvel and DC were not among them. Again, writers and illustrators wanted their freedom, with no undue pressure. This low-compliance rate, along with the under-staffing which made it impossible to read over all pages submitted in time, spelled doom for the ACMP. That more than half of the biggest comic publishers refused to work with the ACMP could only have been more fuel for critics' fire. - Hajdu, David. (2008) The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
The first Comic-Con is held. It is a fan-organized event, meant to mimic the conventions that science fiction literature fans enjoyed, and lasted only a day with the purpose of raising funds for a larger convention. One hundred people attended, and it did allow for a three day convention later that year in August, with Jack Kirby among its guests. The success of the convention shows that comic fans were not only growing up, as how could children afford to travel and attend, but that they were willing to make a hobby out of what they loved, and build a community around it. By making comics a social thing, not just a solitary experience, readers could make a stronger push against censorship. Now, Comic-Con draws in 13,000 fans, and is one of the biggest annual highlights for pop-culture enthusiasts. The money and the people it brings in show that comics and their culture have become mainstream. - comic-con.org
In August 1969, Zap Comix #4, an underground 'comix', was published with a short story featuring an incestual orgy meant as a satire on American life. Within that same month, New York held a sting operation to arrest three booksellers for "promoting obscenity." No evidence was submitted by the People, and the judges were simply urged to look at the comic and judge for themselves that it was obscene. Many others in the comic industry stood up for the booksellers, and even Judge Tyler dissented. (Supposedly he was a dedicated reader of the Harvey series and took offense during testimony that comics were meant for children and simpletons.) In the end, two of the three booksellers were found guilty of pushing obscene material. There was general outrage among the creative community, and Charles Brownstein of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund states that this decision "negatively impacted comics for decades." While disheartening that concrete legal action was taken against comic books and that censorship won at the expense of those three men, it was encouraging to see writers, museum curators, and teachers among those who stepped up to defend comics. While still battling negative common perception, the sides are becoming a little more even. - Sergi, Joe. "Obsecenity Case Files: People of New York v. Kirkpatrick (Zap Comix #4)". CBLDF.org, accessible at http://tinyurl.com/qg5w27m
Using their various characters, Marvel had a specialized ad ready for every issue. This one is particularly interesting as it is definitely targeting children. The talk of school and "wipeable covers", along with the illustrations, clearly indicate elementary-age kids. With the vets, the Comic-Con, and the dark trend coming in the 80's, it shows that the comic industry has not forgotten their original constituency. Superheroes, with some exceptions, will remain aimed at the more juvenile crowds. - ad found at the back of Amazing Spiderman #163, issued Dec 1976.
In 1986, the first monthly issue of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen hit the shelves. It would receive critical acclaim and the series win the Hugo Award ever given to a graphic novel, but it also represents something else. Watchmen set the dark, gritty tone that would be prevalent in modern comics. Comics have fully matured, but again, not all their reader base was old enough to enjoy it. As Watchmen is about superheroes, it can be confused for its Marvel and DC counterparts, however parents would quickly take offense to its strong sexual themes and hyperviolence. - Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. (1989) Watchmen. New York, NY: DC Comics. The Hugo Awards official website, accessed at http://www.thehugoawards.org/. The Ask-A-Question section addresses the 'controversy' of Watchmen's win.
VIZ Media begins to import Japanese manga to American comic book stores. The West has already been exposed to anime through Astro Boy, but comic stores are still unwilling to invest in a foreign product. VIZ begins referring to their comics as "graphic novels" to infer a sense of high art about them, to interest traditional bookstores. Legend of Kamui is one of the first manga series to be introduced to America. Manga would be a constant source of challenges to libraries everywhere over time. This may be because Japan is more lax about sexual themes, while censoring violence, the opposite of American culture. - Oikawa, Tomohiro. (2007) "Weekend Beat: Cashing in on Over-the-Counter Culture." Asahi.com, Sept. 1, 2007. Archived version can be accessed at http://tinyurl.com/otmrr67 Shirato, Sanpei. (1999) The Legend of Kamui: The Perfect Collection, vol. 1. San Francisco, CA: VIZ Media, LLC.
We've seen an example of Marvel's targeted ad for elementary children, but this ad for one of Wolverine's first stand-alone adventures is in stark contrast. The X-Men were and still are a popular franchise about mutants seeking equality in a human world. Yet here is Wolverine standing on top of pile of dead bodies. This is another example of the dark, mature tone comics took in the 80's, but it is also an example of how Marvel is beginning to play with its narratives, publishing separate material within franchises for different age groups.
Sandman is another dark title to be born out of the 80's. Gaiman, friends with and inspired by Alan Moore, got his start with fiction by writing for comics. Gaiman would later go to become a 'rockstar' writer, with international readership and many awards to his name, perhaps proof that comics can field very real talent. According to Karen Berger, the former Executive Editor of Vertigo, Sandman was a "landmark series", and one of its achievements was drawing in a "disproportionate number of women who read the series." "The Sandman's appeal has transcended the traditional comics market." Yet for its critical and commercial acclaim, it had its detractors as well. Parents did not like this shift comics were taking, and Sandman was one the biggest offenders. The ALA has listed Sandman as one of the most banned and challenged graphic novels. It has been removed from libraries for the following reasons: “anti-family themes,” “offensive language,” and for being “unsuited for age group.” Libraries then and still now struggle with knowing where to place comics as the idea that the genre is for children fades. - Gaiman, Neil, et. al. (2010) The Sandman, vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes. New York, NY: DC Comics. http://cbldf.org/, official website for Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. You can find their case study on Sandman at http://cbldf.org/banned-comic/banned-challenged-comics/case-study-sandman/
Maus by Art Spiegelman, a re-telling of his father's survival in a concentration camp, won a Pulitzer Special Citation for Letters. This shows that comics are starting, slowly, to be taken as serious literature and as a vehicle to discuss issues of personal and historical import. According to Christine Pyles of Public Libraries Online, Art Spiegelman and this award were instrumental in convincing librarians that graphic novels were worth including in their collections. - Spiegelman, Art. (1986) Maus. New York, NY: Pantheon Books. list of 1992 Pulitzer Prize winners: http://www.pulitzer.org/awards/1992 Pyles, Christine. (2013) "It's No Joke: Comics and Collection Development." Public Libraries Online, accessed online at http://tinyurl.com/p6qrsyt
Catherine Labio counts herself as one those in "the budding field of Comics Studies." Yet in this article, she argues against the term "graphic novel" being used as the new umbrella term for the genre. "Indeed, much would be lost if scholars were to jettison the comparative study of the complex sociolinguistic and cultural codes associated with comics in favor of a monocultural, one-note 'graphic novel' in a sad search for respectability, relevance, and larger classes." This indicates that while comics are receiving academic attention, they still struggle with being perceived positively. This struggle, of decadent "low culture" versus "art", has already been seen in the 1940's and will continue to nag the industry and those who study it for years to come. What other genre or special form of books has struggled this hard to find its identity? - Labio, Catherine. (2011) "What's in a Name? The Academic Study of Comics and the 'Graphic Novel'." Cinema Journal, Spring 2011, vol. 50, iss. 3, pg. 123-126. Accessed online at http://tinyurl.com/n2ve4dn
The Avengers movie releases, the first time audiences would see superheroes from multiple Marvel franchises on one screen. It currently holds several box office records, including being the #3 highest grossing movie of all time. Captain America and Iron Man have gone from being qualified as "trash" in the 1950's to pop culture icons that international audiences can not get enough of. Was it by sheer persistence of existence, that eventually the stigma wore off comics as other demonized fads came along to distract 'us'? Or did those 80-90% kids from 1944 pass on their favorite superheroes to their children, who have now grown up with a familiarity for comic books that wasn't in society before? Surely not everyone who went to the theater reads comic books, but by crossing format, some of comics' longest-standing characters are reaching new fans of all ages. - Box Office Mojo, All Time World-Wide Grosses: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/world/ Box Office Mojo: All Time Records, the Avengers: http://tinyurl.com/pdfqrbp
Art Spiegelman, whose graphic novel Maus was the first ever to win a Pulitzer Prize, gives an interview in which he discusses the shifting attitude towards comics. He believes it began in the 1970's, as comics' popularity began to wind down. "...it has to become art or it dies. ...And I thought of it very literally as a Faustian deal that had to be made with the culture, and it was a fraught one and a dangerous one...And I figured it was necessary for comics to find their way into libraries, book stores, universities, and museums, because otherwise there wouldn’t be an apparatus that could sustain what had been sustained by Sunday newspapers and pamphlet comics and things like that in the later part of the century. It was a Faustian deal because the medium gets tainted by its aspirations toward legitimacy, and I was part of the taint; I was part of creating the problem at a certain point." From this interview, it becomes clear that even some of the writers and artists of comic books are having trouble deciding the identity of comics and the graphic novel. The audience and thus the demand are changing, but even Spiegelman, famous for graphic novels with heavy content, isn't sure if maturing the genre or just raising the standards is the way to go. - Spiegelman, Art. (2012) "What the %$#! Happened to Comics?" Interview with W.J.T., May 19. 2012. Transcript available online at http://tinyurl.com/qywcbcg
Kat Kan, a public librarian who has worked with YA programs around the country, publishes an article advocating for graphic novels as learning tools. She tells the stories of herself and other non-English speakers who used graphic novels as a way to learn English, while still enjoying the story from the pictures. She writes of a girl she knew who struggled to read because of her learning disability, but was able to find pride in finishing a comic book. Answering her own question, all kinds of kids read comics! She has witnessed its positive impact in helping struggling readers and high circulation rates, and advocates for libraries to develop their collections, using age-appropriate comics to promote literacy. This is almost the polar opposite of opinion 60 years ago, when comics were denounced for their negative affect on children. - Kan, Kat. (2013) "What Kinds of Kids Read Comics?" Knowledge Quest, Jan/Feb 2013, vol. 41, iss. 3, pg. 30-33. Accessed online at http://tinyurl.com/kacxfnu
As suggested with the Marvel ad in 1988, Marvel and DC have both followed through with publishing separate material for each age group. Some parents still look down on comics, seeing traditional books as "good reading", much like the Superman ad suggests in 1940. However, superheroes are popular with children. This is a photo of the books at the Ossian Branch of the Wells County Public Library, and they almost fly off the shelves as young kids see their favorite movie characters on the covers. Comic books, much as Kat Kan suggested, promote reading in a fun way that gets kids enthusiastic. And the benefit of comics, is that as kids grow older, so do these stories, so they can always feel they have something to turn to, something that can make them feel nostalgic. In this way, comics can fulfill that psychological role that reading can often have for people.
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