Comic Books 101 Page 2

  Early comic strips were large, running the width of a newspaper page. Sunday strips were even more impressively sized — tabloid-sized newspapers ran some strips across the entire page, nearly a square foot of space per strip. In these halcyon days, strips were scattered throughout the paper, but once papers created a dedicated comics page, their real estate would be drastically reduced.

  The advent of sophisticated adventure strips like Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan, Lee Falk's Mandrake the Magician, Harold Gray's Little Orphan Annie, Chester Gould's Dick Tracy and Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates paved the way for the creation of the comic book. These action strips, launched in the period just before World War I to the start of World War II all feature ongoing, serialized tales of action and adventure. Lee Falk's The Phantom even featured a costumed adventurer — a popular archetype in pulp novels but a new invention for newspaper strips.

  FAMOUSLY FIRST

  It was 1929 when the comic-book industry was launched in a rather humble fashion. Dell Publishing's The Funnies kicked things off with what amounted to little more than a folded, stapled collection of newspaper strips inserted inside a tabloid newspaper. Then in 1935, Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics was distributed at Woolworth's department stores, becoming the first separate comic book to be distributed. Regardless of which comic book came first, the true birth of American comics as it applies to Comic Books 101 starts and ends with the debut of DC Comics' Action Comics.

  GETTING IN ON THE ACTION

  Action Comics #1, dated June 1938, forever changed the face of comic books. The lead strip in the anthology was a caped superhero named Superman. Superman's creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, pitched their initial concept, The Superman, to newspapers for years, finding themselves rebuffed at every turn. While newspaper strips were now showcasing stories of costumed adventurers like The Shadow and Flash Gordon, the idea of a costumed, super-powered character held no appeal to newspaper editors. It was from such humble beginnings and rejections that a new fantasy genre was born.

  Superman the comic-book character proved so successful that Superman the newspaper strip launched less than a year after the comic's debut, an ironic turn for Siegel and Shuster. The newspaper strip ran for nearly three decades, and featured all-new stories, even introducing future comic-book favorites like Mr. Mxyzptlk. The comic strip was originally created and produced by Siegel and Shuster, too, until their increasing comic-book duties — and wartime responsibilities — precluded their ability to keep up with the added workload.

  CHRIS SAYS

  At the same time Dell released Famous Funnies, a competitor called National Allied Publications released a comic book called New Fun. This was the first comic to offer all-new content, and many cite it as being the first true comic book. Of course, some European historians cite their comics The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck or Max und Moritz as being the very first. In comics, as with so many other areas of history, most “firsts” are up for debate, and opinions vary. That's what makes it all so fun.

  THE LITTLE DIFFERENCES

  Newspaper strips and comic books share many traits of visual language, such as the use of word balloons and captions placed within an image's panel borders. So what, then, makes them different? It's got to be more than just the staples, right?

  For one thing, the sheer scope of the story is dictated by the format. A daily comic strip needs to impart very little story, just enough to keep the reader engaged so he wants to read more the next day. Before the days of ongoing adventure stories, strips featured gags that could be read and absorbed in their entirety each day. Characters were not tied to any continuity, and the strip was all about delivering the day's punch line, not telling an extended storyline.

  Milton Caniff's Terry and the Pirates is an early example of a serialized adventure strip in newspapers.

  TERRY AND THE PIRATES © 2004 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC. LICENSED BY CLASSIC MEDIA, INC. PUBLISHED BY IDW PUBLISHING. ART BY MILTON CANIFF.

  Once strips like Dick Tracy introduced ongoing stories, the format and readers' expectations evolved. Strips needed to ensure that the reader was interested enough to come back to the story the following day, and the day after that. As such, ongoing newspaper strips began to rely heavily on daily cliffhangers.

  Sundays could be confusing for readers of these serialized strips. For a while, Sunday strips featured a separate, standalone storyline. The reader could be engrossed in the ongoing weekly adventures of, say, Terry and the Pirates, but come Sunday, the strip told an unrelated story, in an attempt to accommodate the many Sunday-only subscribers. Soon enough, however, Sunday strips began to tie in with the weekly plot, telling a longer, more coherent storyline to capture the reader's attention week in and week out.

  Comic books, meanwhile, could take their time telling stories that lasted months, juggling numerous plotlines and characters. Perhaps even more importantly, the comics' larger size offered the artists greater flexibility for what they could do with the visuals.

  Though comic books have been subject to extreme censorship throughout their history, newspaper-strip creators of the day faced more restrictions and inflexible standards than comic-book writers and artists because of the wider audience of newspaper syndicates.

  The price of newspaper strips (free to anyone buying the paper) versus comic books (which started at a dime and now cost in the three- to four-dollar range for a typical monthly comic) also differentiated the two formats. Newspaper distribution has always been much higher than that of even the most popular comic book, so anyone wanting free comic strips has been readily able to find them.

  Though newspaper strips birthed some of the most original, innovative and mature examples of adventure tales that the public had ever seen, it was truly the publication of original comic-book content that gave birth to the superhero. And so began the revolution.

  With the introduction of serialized stories, newspapers began to rely heavily on daily cliffhangers.

  DICK TRACY® & © 2009 TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC. LICENSED BY CLASSIC MEDIA, INC. PUBLISHED BY IDW PUBLISHING. ART BY CHESTER GOULD.

  2 The Rise of National Comics

  National pride

  DC quickly branded itself with the name of its most popular creation.

  DC COMICS SUPERMAN LOGO © DC COMICS.

  New Fun was the first comic book to offer original content. A few years later, Action Comics gave birth to the world's first comic-book superhero, Superman. The connection? Both of these comics were released by National Allied Publications, the precursor to DC Comics.

  National was founded by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, a pulp magazine writer. New Fun, National's debut title of 1934 (dated 1935), featured early, pre-Superman work by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and caught people's attention by offering all-new content. National's second title, New Comics, wasn't as fortunate, but the series survived initially low sales and was renamed Adventure Comics. It went on to be one of the longest-running titles in comic-book history.

  Despite some early success, National struggled to find its place in the burgeoning comic-book industry. In 1937, the cash-strapped company launched a third series, Detective Comics, a title whose initials would become synonymous with the company. At the same time, Wheeler-Nicholson's financial problems prompted him to sell part of the company to his printer and distributor, Harry Donenfeld. The two, along with Donenfeld's accountant, Jack Liebowitz, launched a new company, Detective Comics, Inc., and Wheeler-Nicholson was ousted shortly thereafter.

  The timing of this move makes Wheeler Nicholson little more than a footnote in comic-book history. Soon after he was forced out, the company launched its fourth title, Action Comics, which introduced Superman to the world. A year later, Detective Comics #27 (May 1939) introduced Batman, another immense success story Wheeler-Nicholson was not around to experience.

  Liebowitz, meanwhile, owned another comics company, All-American Publications, in partnership with a paper salesman, Max Gaines.
All-American was home to such popular superhero characters as the Atom, the Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and Wonder Woman. In a rare cooperative venture, characters from National and All-American came together in All Star Comics series as the Justice Society of America. And by 1944, things would get even more conjoined.

  National Allied Publications and Detective Comics, Inc. merged in 1944, forming National Comics, which then absorbed All American Publications. Max Gaines allowed Liebowitz to buy out his concern, leaving him free to found yet another publisher, EC Comics.

  The newly reorganized National (now formally known as National Periodical Publications) was left with a stable of beloved characters that, according to Liebowitz, were often DC quickly branded itself with the name of its most popular creation. copied. Liebowitz actively pursued copyright violations by other companies. In fact, it was Liebowitz's suit against another publisher, Fawcett Publications, and its character Captain Marvel — at the time the most popular character in comics — that ultimately drove Fawcett out of comics. But more on that later.

  National unofficially referred to itself as DC Comics long before formally changing its name. For years, readers strongly identified with the Superman/DC Comics logo emblazoned on each of National's comics. Eventually the company made the name change official.

  Thanks to the strength of the company's three most popular characters, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman (as well as some dabbling in other genres such as war and romance), DC Comics survived the ebb and flow of the industry as other superheroes fell out of fashion. The Big Three cleverly adapted with the times enough to keep the company profitable, thus ushering in the Golden Age of comics.

  GUEST LECTURER

  GENE SIMMONS, KISS bassist, god of thunder and founder of Simmons Comics Group

  THE FIRST ISSUE I EVER READ

  I was an immigrant and came to the Land of

  Dreams. Even though I couldn't speak a word of English and had never seen a TV set in my life, I was drawn to comic books. The first book I picked up was the one on top of a pile my friend had, World's Finest, with Superman, Batman and Robin. I was floored. People wore costumes. They flew through the air. They fought for justice, freedom and (yes!) the American way.

  It wasn't long until I joyfully discovered the Kirby/Ditko/Lee monster books of Atlas Comics and then fell headlong in love with Marvel's astonishing output of heroes I could relate to — with zits, with girl problems, with anger management issues. I remember breathlessly waiting at my local candy store for the new shipments every Tuesday and Thursday.

  A testament to America is that a little immigrant boy who loved comics could one day become an actual superhero himself in the pages of Marvel's KISS comics. And to be given the opportunity to create my own heroes for my own masthead — Simmons Comics Group with IDW Publishing — is more than even I could ever have hoped for. God bless America.

  3 The Golden Age

  Turn back the page to the Golden AgeThe Golden and Silver ages are somewhat arbitrary divisions in the history of mainstream American comic-book publishing. comic-book writer and editor Roy Thomas is fond of saying, “The Golden Age of comics is eight,” meaning the age at which he, and many others, discovered and fell in love with the funnybooks — though that is not what most people mean by the phrase. The divisions between eras were first defined by the folks who published comic-book price guides, and most of the comics community is in agreement as to where the divisions begin and end, at least in the early years of comics.

  THE START OF THE GOLDEN AGE

  For most, the Golden Age of comics begins in June 1938 with the appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1. The arrival of Superman set off a superhero craze, and to a larger extent, a comic-book craze, that went on for more than two decades. At the Golden Age's height, there were numerous mainstream comic-book publishers, all doing extremely good business. In today's market, a circulation of 100,000 copies is considered wildly successful. It is staggering to look back on Fawcett's Captain Marvel comics (you know, Shazam!) regularly seeing sales numbers in the millions. And that, friends, is the Golden Age. Even after superheroes fell out of fashion in the late 1940s, the comic-book machine stayed in full gear with romance, western, horror, crime and “funny animal” comics all finding various levels of success at the newsstands.

  THE SILVER AGE

  Most people set the beginning of the Silver Age at October 1956, with DC's publication of Showcase #4, which revived the Flash, a revamp of one of National's more popular superheroes from the 1940s. The success of the Flash led to similar resurrections of characters such as Green Lantern, Hawkman and the Atom. Once these characters were teamed up with superhero perennials Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman (who had never gone away) in the pages of Justice League of America, a full superhero renaissance was in bloom. DC's spike in sales caught the eye of its downtown rivals at Atlas Comics. Atlas would soon take on the now familiar moniker of Marvel.

  Inspired by the success of the Justice League, Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee turned his attention to superheroes in a big way. He partnered with artists Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, and produced nearly every character that Marvel would come to be famous for — the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, the Silver Surfer, the X-Men, Iron Man and the Avengers. In addition to creating great characters and stories, Stan, Jack and Steve pioneered a new and different house style. It combined realism with an almost soap-opera-like emphasis on the personal lives of their heroes, and an editorial voice that respected the reader and refused to condescend. Moreover, Lee's insistence on frequent guest appearances of characters throughout the publishing line gave the reader a genuine sense that anything could happen in this new Marvel Universe, and it made missing out on issues unthinkable. The Marvel style soon revolutionized comics. DC's Flash may have kicked off the Silver Age, but Marvel owned it.

  Here's where it gets tricky. No one is in total agreement as to when the Silver Age ends, nor to what to call the time period that follows. Some comic historians like to peg the ending at The Amazing Spider-Man #121 in 1973, with the murder of longtime supporting character and Spidey's love interest, Gwen Stacy, citing it as the moment they lost their personal innocence regarding comic books. A bit sappy, but as good a definition as any, and a marker of the time period when Stan Lee quit writing, and even editing, most of the Marvel titles. (To this day, Stan swears he wasn't even in town when the decision to off poor Gwen was made, and that he found out when he read the published book for the first time.) Others like to place the end of the Silver Age at 1978, when the “DC Implosion” resulted in the cancellation of an armload of DC titles. Still others stretch the Silver Age all the way until the 1980s, when Marvel was revitalized with Frank Miller's Daredevil work, Chris Claremont's The Uncanny X-Men was firing on all cylinders and John Byrne was doing the best work of his career on Fantastic Four.

  THE BRONZE AGE

  Some comics-types call the 1970s and '80s the Bronze Age, slavishly keeping with the gold-silver pattern. Others refer to the 1980s as the Mylar Age because bagging comics in Mylar plastic bags became popular among collectors. For a while in the 1990s, some zealous fans started declaring it the Image Age, after Image Comics, when comics like Todd McFarlane's Spawn and Jim Lee's Wild C.A.T.s were breaking sales records left and right. If you ask us, there's the Golden Age and the Silver Age, and then there's everything else.

  4 Timely Comics

  A marvelous beginning

  Timely Comics logo circa 1939.

  TIMELY LOGO: © MARVEL ENTERTAINMENT, INC. USED WITH PERMISSION. PUBLISHED BY TIMELY COMICS.

  It's hard to imagine that the company responsible for creating Captain America could ever be relegated to the sidelines in the history of comic books, yet that's what happened with Timely Comics.

  Timely was originally known as Red Circle Comics when publisher Martin Goodman launched the company in 1939. Goodman's past experience had been in pulp magazines, but in 1939, he met a salesman for F
unnies, Inc., an organization of comic-book artists looking to publish their own works that needed financial help getting off the ground. Goodman helped them launch their first title, Marvel Comics (October 1939), under a new banner, Timely Publications.

  This first issue is historic for two reasons beyond its prescient name: it introduced the Human Torch, creator Carl Burgos's flaming android superhero that would have a great impact on a young creator named Stan Lee; it also gave life to the Sub-Mariner, a water-based antihero created by master draughtsman Bill Everett. (Another superhero featured in the issue, Paul Gustavson's character the Angel, wasn't as impactful.)

  This debut issue sold well, moving more than 100,000 copies in its two printings. Its success convinced Goodman to hire new employees to grow his fledgling company.

  He brought on Funnies, Inc. staff writer and editor Joe Simon, who in turn hired two of his frequent collaborators, artists Jack Kirby and Syd Shores.

  Timely launched a half-dozen new titles in its first two years, but nothing that set the world on fire like Marvel Comics (one, Red Raven Comics, was inexplicably cancelled after just one issue and before any sales information was ever received). The company's longterm success wasn't assured by any means, and things could have gone very differently were it not for the foresight of Everett and Burgos. They recognized that the Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner represented two opposite primal elements, fire and water, so they paired the two together in one comic. Characters crossing over into each other's stories was unheard of at the time, which is why the idea was such an instant success.

  THE BIRTH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA

  The Human Torch series launched soon after, and Goodman wanted more. He tasked Joe Simon with the creation of new superheroes, and Simon and his partner, Jack Kirby, set out to do just that. Simon and Kirby were Jewish, as were many of Timely's creators, so all had concerns with the political situation in Germany at the time. Many Timely characters had already fought Nazi soldiers within the pages of their stories, and Simon and Kirby followed suit with their latest creation, a superhero who played up the burgeoning nationalism running rampant in America.