Hi /co/ im writing an essay about the silver age of comics,apart

Was the whole "EC Comics, violence corrupting the youth of America" thing during the Silver Age?

Influence of politics and the space race on the topics the comics handled.

>>87106123
Flash debuting reviving the superhero genre and boosting comics in general

Fantastic Four turning Marvel into a major player

Batman TV show and its eventual implosion

MAD Magazine going magazine format to avoid censorship

Warren Publishing telling the censors to go fuck themselves and getting away with it

R. Crumb selling a shitload of "alternative comix"

>>87106165
Yes.
>>87106123
There was a really good book/article on how Silver Age Superman was this one writers outlet on his disenfranchisement with women. Every cover was basically Superman treating Lois like shit because she was being a bitch.

1956 launches the Silver Age with Showcase #4, the debut of the Flash. Julius Schwartz, one of the absolute most key people in this era, spearheaded an effort to bring back more supeheroes from the Golden Age, starting with the Flash. Robert Kanigher along with iconic artist Carmine Infantino created Barry Allen as a complete reimagining of the classic character.

He was a huge hit and soon got his own title with Flash #105 (continuing the numbering from the 1940's Flash Comics).

>>87106165
No, that was actually the death knell of the Golden Age.

>>87106165
No.

>>87106266
No it wasn't.

>>87106280
Golden Age really ended with the collapse of superheroes after WWII.

>>87106266
Ignore this faggot's post. The entire thing, every word of it, is garbage.

>Rise in the popularity of superheroes
>Comic Code Authority
>Rise of the big two, DC and Marvel

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Stan Lee

What he did, it was inspirational, it's like a miracle

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>>87106280
Next was Green Lantern in Showcase #22 in 1959. John Broome and Gardner Fox created him with a sci-fi bent (the big comics writers were basically all sci-fi nerds, including Jerry Siegel, co-creator of Superman) with artist Gil Kane.

He was another hit, and soon after he got his own title too. The Atom was reimagined as Ray Palmer, Hawkman came back, Green Arrow came back, the Martian Manhunter came back, and finally the very concept of the Justice Society was rebooted as the Justice League of America, including their new stars Flash and Green Lantern, accompanied by the somewhat obscure Golden Age characters Aquaman and Martian Manhunter (reinvisioned as a more Superman-like character as opposed to his detective roots), and with Wonder Woman to round out the set. Batman and Superman were on the team but rarely showed up.Not long after Hawkman, Green Arrow and the Atom joined. The whole book was a massive hit.

>>87106123
basically talk about the comics code, seduction of the innocent, all that, and tie it in to the greater overall movement in fiction for it being mindless, throwaway material not suited for sensible adults, and the effect this may have had on culture at large, causing it to become mindless and stagnated, leading to the revolutions in the 60s which went too far and led to basically all problems we face today.

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Meanwhile over at Atlas aka Timely Comics, Stan Lee had just cleaned house and recruited his old buddy Jack Kirby to come back and make some comics for him. Their first order was to create a superhero team to compete with the JLA. Kirby dusted off his old Champions of the Unknown concept and gave them superpowers, and the Fantastic Four was born.

Revamped as Marvel Comics, Fantastic Four was a big hit with how it eschewed classic superhero tropes for more sci-fi and even light horror elements. The character of the Thing specifically is a watershed moment for comics, being a superhero whose power makes him a monstrosity. Using this as a template, Lee and Kirby pumped out tons of new characters, some very different from the norm like Doctor Strange and Thor, and some that were more traditional but with a Marvel twist, like Spider-Man and Iron Man.

The more "adult" direction attracted fans like Roy Thomas, who promptly left his new job at DC to become Stan Lee's apprentice. Thomas was one of the key writers of the Silver Age and continued to be a key figure in the Bronze Age.

So essentially you now had Marvel and DC putting out fantastic material, but with Marvel's being skewed a little older.

>>87106123
Consider skimming Comic Book Comics.

>>87106123
Definitely talk about Amazing Spider-man #121 and how Marvel said "fuck the Comics Code Alliance" and opened the gates for comics to portray drugs. Also, for the hero to actually lose ones close to them, that Gwen Stacy started.

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>>87106674
Both companies had individual moments that shaped their own histories, but for the industry as a whole, the most historic issues are Showcase #4, Brave and the Bold #28, Fantastic Four #1, Amazing Fantasy #15, and probably Avengers #4.

Now keep in mind I'm a capefag so none of this covers underground comix which was hugely important.

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>>87106835
>>87106674
>>87106467
>>87106280
Thank you Texas anon, my essay will be a few pages longer now thanks to this

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>>87107043
>texas anon
>not anon at all

>>87106358
DC and Marvel dominating didn't really happen until the direct market came around. MAD and Archie were still selling in the MILLIONS for a long time. Warren Publishing was a major player in the 70s and 80s as well. Charlton and Gold Key were HUGE in the Silver Age.

>>87107100
I actually just forgot to take my name off. I only use it for storytimes.

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people have a very capecentric view of comic's history, back in the 60's licenced comics from Dell and Gold Key dominated the stands, capes were dwarfed by cowboys and romance but it wasn't until the late 70's that the market was overtaken by capes

One of the big deals was Fredric Wertham's "Seduction of the Innocent", which caused the formation of the Comics Code and the fall of EC and horror books mostly.

And two big nails in the coffin of the Silver Age were Kirby going over to DC and Crisis on Infinite Earths.

>>87106123
>Hi /co/ im writing an essay about the silver age of comics,apart from the historical historical overview and mention of various artist what are some of the most important things i should write about?
Most importantly? You should fucking work on your capitalization and grammar.

>>87107192
Dude Crisis wasn't until fucking 1986.

>Hey /co/, I decided to do my essay on this /co/-related subject, now do my research for me because googling is HAAAARD
Every-fucking-time. If you chose the essay topic, then you should've chose something that actually interested you enough that you don't mind researching it. If you DO find this subject interesting, then get the fuck outta here. There are already metric tons of online resources about comic history, why would you want a bunch of posts from anonymous chucklefucks that you can't even cite?

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>>87107216
Oh yeah, sorry about that, english is my second language, and i also made this thread just as a a little break, i'll come back to the thread when im done to see if i can add any of the things that you guys talk about here

>>87107305
don't worry anon i already had 2 pages when i made this thread, this thread is just for shit giggles im not going to cite a discussion of 2 random anons but some of them have little interesting facts that cold be useful

>>87107182
To be fair, capes had an explosion of popularity in the Silver Age due to the CCA that's definitely worth mentioning, even though people need to be aware of this.

>>87107182
Any good recs for non-cape Silver Age stuff? Especially underground comix. I'm also pretty familiar with romance and Westerns already.

>>87107182
Don't listen to this anon. Only Archie was the non cape to compare to something like Superman. Capes were declining in the 70s, so DC and Marvel brought back Horror anthologies and more horror titles. Here is even comichron's sales from the 60s.
http://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales/1960s/1968.html

>>87107469
Not really, I have mostly learned about this by actually looking up comics from the era.

>>87108713
>Avg. paid circ.
>Superman 636,400
No way this is real. back on this era comics circulation should be on the seven digits.

I also have seen DC's Bronze age horror mags but never heard too much about them.