Modern comics started off way back in the 1890s as collections of short strips on newspapers. Sometime during the 1930s they developed into magazines and comic book publishing houses were set up to capitalise on this growing market. The golden age of comic books is widely agreed to have taken place from the 1920s to the 1940s, when a large number of comics were syndicated, and in 1938 Action Comics #1 was published, with the first appearance of Superman. It was at this point that comic books became more closely associated with the superhero genre than with short comedic (comic) strips.
After World War II comic book sales began to slowly decline and have been declining ever since. The superhero genre has been losing popularity since the 1960s and is only now regaining some lost momentum with the plethora of superhero films which are being released. One can argue that since World
War II and the advent of telecommunications, the population, in general, has become more cynical and you cannot easily pick up a comic book about some guy running around in tights and empathise. The easy, black or white moral dilemmas presented within the covers of comic books could not draw large readerships anymore. Even worse, comic books are not interactive enough. Why bother reading a comic about Spiderman when you can control Spiderman on your Playstation?
20070310-lifestyle--bookcapam.jpgThis all began to change in the 1980s with new artist-writers such as Alan Moore and Frank Miller revitalising the superhero genre in comics and presenting more complex, mature, and darker protagonists. One trade paperback any comic devotee should read is Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller.
The emergence of more complex characterisations and mature plot lines within mainstream comic books culminated in 1987 with the publication of The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman. During its 10-year publication The Sandman won more literary awards than any other comic book in history and was the most popular comic published by DC Comics. The Sandman was the only comic ever to win a World Fantasy Award for best short fiction. Some of the people behind the World Fantasy Awards were so outraged that a comic book could win over "real" literary fiction they subsequently changed the rules so that comics could no longer be nominated.
Concurrently another movement in comic book writing had started in the 1960s and was slowly gaining prominence. This movement was called comix and was a number of underground or alternative comic book writers who shunned the major comic book publishers and wrote and published comic books which were about real life. They wrote about drug culture, crime and every day monotonous occurrences. The popularity of real-life comics has been on the increase since the 1960s, and on a recent visit to Forbidden Planet in New York City, I was not surprised to see that the section devoted to real-life comics was larger than that devoted to traditional super-hero comics. Houghton Mifflin, publishers of the best selling The Best American Series, also began publishing The Best American Comics series in 2006, with a collection of great comics, and not one of them is about superheroes.
Leading publications in real-life comics are Drawn and Quarterly, Mome (an anthology published by Fantagraphics), and the Comics Journal. Unfortunately, there are so many real-life comic books out there it would be pointless to begin giving specific recommendations. There are comics for everyone.
If you're still interested in the superhero genre, and there must be a few out there somewhere, the big thing at the moment is the Civil War story arc which is being published by Marvel comics. In Civil War all the superheroes and mutants turn on each other and begin fighting, either siding with the government which wants to tag all mutants and control them, or fighting on the side promoting personal freedom. So if you've ever wanted to see who would win between Spiderman and Captain America, now's your chance!
• Michael Vella is a comic book enthusiast and dreams about the day when all people everywhere will turn into pixellated representations on his computer screen
After World War II comic book sales began to slowly decline and have been declining ever since. The superhero genre has been losing popularity since the 1960s and is only now regaining some lost momentum with the plethora of superhero films which are being released. One can argue that since World
War II and the advent of telecommunications, the population, in general, has become more cynical and you cannot easily pick up a comic book about some guy running around in tights and empathise. The easy, black or white moral dilemmas presented within the covers of comic books could not draw large readerships anymore. Even worse, comic books are not interactive enough. Why bother reading a comic about Spiderman when you can control Spiderman on your Playstation?
20070310-lifestyle--bookcapam.jpgThis all began to change in the 1980s with new artist-writers such as Alan Moore and Frank Miller revitalising the superhero genre in comics and presenting more complex, mature, and darker protagonists. One trade paperback any comic devotee should read is Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, by Frank Miller.
The emergence of more complex characterisations and mature plot lines within mainstream comic books culminated in 1987 with the publication of The Sandman, written by Neil Gaiman. During its 10-year publication The Sandman won more literary awards than any other comic book in history and was the most popular comic published by DC Comics. The Sandman was the only comic ever to win a World Fantasy Award for best short fiction. Some of the people behind the World Fantasy Awards were so outraged that a comic book could win over "real" literary fiction they subsequently changed the rules so that comics could no longer be nominated.
Concurrently another movement in comic book writing had started in the 1960s and was slowly gaining prominence. This movement was called comix and was a number of underground or alternative comic book writers who shunned the major comic book publishers and wrote and published comic books which were about real life. They wrote about drug culture, crime and every day monotonous occurrences. The popularity of real-life comics has been on the increase since the 1960s, and on a recent visit to Forbidden Planet in New York City, I was not surprised to see that the section devoted to real-life comics was larger than that devoted to traditional super-hero comics. Houghton Mifflin, publishers of the best selling The Best American Series, also began publishing The Best American Comics series in 2006, with a collection of great comics, and not one of them is about superheroes.
Leading publications in real-life comics are Drawn and Quarterly, Mome (an anthology published by Fantagraphics), and the Comics Journal. Unfortunately, there are so many real-life comic books out there it would be pointless to begin giving specific recommendations. There are comics for everyone.
If you're still interested in the superhero genre, and there must be a few out there somewhere, the big thing at the moment is the Civil War story arc which is being published by Marvel comics. In Civil War all the superheroes and mutants turn on each other and begin fighting, either siding with the government which wants to tag all mutants and control them, or fighting on the side promoting personal freedom. So if you've ever wanted to see who would win between Spiderman and Captain America, now's your chance!
• Michael Vella is a comic book enthusiast and dreams about the day when all people everywhere will turn into pixellated representations on his computer screen