Modern Age of Comic Books
The Modern Age of Comic Books is an informal name for the period of American comic books generally considered to last from the mid-1970s until present day. In this period, comic book characters generally became darker and more psychologically complex, creators became more well-known and active in changing the industry, independent comics flourished, and larger publishing houses became more commercialized.
The Modern Age is the most widely used name for the period following the Silver Age of Comic Books. Other terms include the Dark Age of Comic Books (due to the popularity and artistic influence of grim titles such as The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen), and the Diamond Age of Comic Books (suggested by Scott McCloud, because of the new diversity found in the medium). The period is sometimes referred to as the Bronze Age of Comic Books (by analogy with archeological Bronze Age), although this term is usually used more specifically in reference to comics published in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Important events
Because the time period encompassing the Modern Age is not well defined, and in some cases disputed by fans, it is difficult to write a comprehensive history. In rough chronological order by the beginning of the trend, here are some important developments that occurred during the Modern Age, many of which are interrelated:
Fantasy, Horror and "sophisticated suspense"
Horror and science fiction titles were absent from the comics market since the establishment of the restrictive Comics Code in the 1950s. In the mid-1970s, Marvel revived these genres with their new fantasy and horror comics, including Conan the Barbarian comics and Tomb of Dracula.
Starting with Alan Moore’s groundbreaking work on DC Comics's Swamp Thing in the early 1980s, horror comic books incorporated elements of science fiction/fantasy and strove to a new artistic standard. Other examples include Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Preacher. These new comics transcended easily identifiable genres. Striving to apply some label to these titles, some of which did have at a similar feel and approach, some people began to use the phrase "sophisticated suspense." DC’s Vertigo line, launched in 1993, specializes in this genre.
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The revival and sales boom of the X-Men
Development of the X-Men
In Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), Marvel Comics introduced a new, ethnically diverse team of X-Men conceived by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum. Under writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, this version of the team became one of the most successful properties of the 1980s and spawned several spin-offs. By the early 1990s, the X-Men franchise was the most popular in the comic book industry.
The success of the team lead to several spin-offs, deemed "X-Books." By the mid-1990s, over a dozen X-Men-related comic books, both continuing and limited series, were published each month. On an almost annual basis from 1986 until 1999, one storyline crossed-over into almost every X-Book for two to three months. These "X-Overs" usually lead to a spike in sales.
This sales boom resulting in a great deal of merchandising, such as action figures, video games and trading cards. This success was thanks in no small part to the Fox Network's animated X-Men series, which debuted in 1992 and drew in a large number of younger fans.
In the early 2000s, a series of blockbuster X-Men movies have kept the X-Men franchise healthy while the comic books themselves have been reinvented in series such as Grant Morrison's New X-Men by acclaimed writer Grant Morrison and the Ultimate X-Men.
Effect on other comics
The success of the X-Men had several effects on the comic book industry. Series featuring superhero teams, especially ones in which internal friction contributed to storylines, became much more common. DC Comics's The New Teen Titans series of the 1980s show the influence of the X-Men as do 1990s Image Comics teams such as Youngblood, WildC.A.T.s and Gen 13. By the peak of the X-Men's popularity in the early 1990s, the team's chemistry often imitated and many series featured an obvious Cyclops character (stoic leader), Wolverine character (gruff loner) and Storm character (strong-willed woman).
Also, many series tried to imitate the model the X-Men carved as a franchise. Marvel and DC expanded popular properties, such as Spider-Man, Batman and Superman into networks of spin-off books in the mid-to-late 1980s. Like the X-Books, some of these spin-offs highlighted a concept or supporting character(s) from a parent series, while others were simply additional monthly series featuring a popular character. Also like the X-Books, these franchises regularly featured crossovers, where one storyline overlapped into every title in the “family” for a few months.
The rise of anti-heroes
In the 1970s Marvel anti-heroes such as the X-Men’s Wolverine, the Punisher and writer/artist Frank Miller’s darker version of Daredevil challenged the previous model of the superhero as a cheerful humanitarian. Miller also created Elektra who straddled the conventional boundary between love interest and villain.
Two artistically influential DC Comics mini-series contributed to the trend: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, also by Frank Miller and Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, both of which were series of impressive psychological depth that starred troubled heroes.
By the early 1990s, anti-heroes had become the rule rather than the exception, and among the most popular were Marvel comics' Cable and Venom and Image Comics' Spawn, although some fans complained that too many of them were unlikable psychopaths of little depth and originality.
Some critics believe that this trend is tied to the cynicism of the 1980s, when the idea of a person selflessly using his extraordinary abilities on a quest for good was no longer believable, but a person with a deep psychological impulse to destroy criminals was.
The more moral relativism also affected supervillains. For example, Batman's enemy The Joker was portrayed less as an evil criminal and more of a mentally ill psychopath who can't control his action, Marvel Comics' galactic planet-eater Galactus became a force of nature who meant no personal malice in his feedings, and the X-Men's nemesis Magneto became more benign and sympathetic as a man who fights for an oppressed people, albeit through means others deem unacceptable.
Creator Rights and Image Comics
Ownership of characters and trademarks became a major issue for both DC and Marvel Comics in the late 1970s. In 1975, Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster launched a publicity campaign claiming unfair treatment from DC Comics. The two successfully sued Time-Warner, DC's parent company, and were awarded lifelong royalties and accreditation for Superman.
At the same time artist Jack Kirby, co-creator of many of Marvel's most popular characters, came into dispute with Marvel over the disappearance of original pages of artwork from some of his most famous titles. Alan Moore, Frank Miller and many other contemporary stars, became vocal advocates for Kirby.
The combination of these events, as well as vocal proponents of independent publishing, helped to inspire a number of Marvel artists to form their own company, Image Comics.
By the early 1990s, Marvel artists, such as X-Men’s Jim Lee, The New Mutants/X-Force’s Rob Liefeld and Spider-Man’s Todd McFarlane, became extremely popular and were idolized by younger readers in ways more common to sports stars and musicians than comic book artists.
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Propelled by star power and upset that they did not own the popular characters they created for Marvel, several illustrators, including the above three formed Image Comics in 1992, an umbrella label under which several autonomous, creator-owned companies existed. Image properties, such as WildC.A.T.s, Gen13, Witchblade and especially McFarlane’s Spawn provided brisk competition for long-standing superheroes. However, many criticized Image for prioritizing flashy artwork and cheap gimmicks over storytelling and originality. (Image in particular is singled out by some fans for contributing to the conditions which led to the speculator market crashing, as Image was known to release many alternate covers, foil covers, and other "collectible" comics.)
Many popular creators followed Image's lead and attempted to use their star power to launch their own series; ones that they would have licensing rights for and editorial control of. Chris Claremont, famous for authoring Uncanny X-Men, created Sovereign Seven, Joe Madureira, also made popular by Uncanny X-Men, launched Battle Chasers, and Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, the creative team behind the popular miniseries Marvels, created Astro City.
The rise of independent comics and self publishing
In the late 1960s, "Underground comix" became popular with associated with the "counterculture" of the day, although they had little influence on the comic book industry at large. In the Modern Age, independent comics had a more sizable artistic influence and market presence in the industry. The independent comics boom is often directly linked with the creators rights movement, as many independent publishers were very vocal supporters of the movement.
While some fans argue over what exactly makes a publisher "independent," the most basic use of the term is for any publisher other than DC and Marvel. Some may include Image Comics in this list, but others would dispute that due to Image's huge financial assets. Image is covered elsewhere on this page, so this section will focus on other publishers.
While fans also argue over the origins and roots of self-publishing in the comics industry, most agree that Dave Sim had a huge amount of influence in this area, with his Cerebus the Aardvark, an offbeat title, published, written, and drawn by primarily by Sim himself, starting in 1977. Sim is known for his activism in favor of creators rights and his outspoken nature in regard to the industry in general.
Other important early self-publishers include Wendy and Richard Pini, creators of Elfquest, Colleen Doran, creator of A Distant Soil and Jeff Smith, creator of Bone. Due to the financial pressures and heavily workload involved in self-publishing, many of these series were sporadically published and each were finished with the assistance of larger publishers with special financial and editorial arrangements (in the case of the Elfquest, Marvel's Epic imprint and then DC and in the case of Bone and A Distant Soil Image Comics).
Other important independent publishers include:
- Fantagraphics books, established in the late 1970s, which is known for its non-mainstream comic magazine The Comics Journal, and the underground hit Love and Rockets, as well as Daniel Clowes' Eightball.
- Dark Horse Comics, which arose in the 1980s. Dark Horse is known for being an early publisher of Manga translations, as well as the home of Frank Miller's Sin City.
- Chaos Comics, which became well-known in the 1990s with gruesome characters such as Evil Ernie and Lady Death
- Slave Labor Graphics, which became well-known in the late 1990's and early 2000s for its "goth" comics, such as Squee, Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and Gloom Cookie.
- Dreamwave became known in 2002 for its publishing of a number of "retro" titles, such as Transformers based on 1980s animated series and toy properties, as well as a number of original creations.
New publishers continue to appear today as the advent of the Internet, the wider availability of printing equipment and computer publishing programs and the reduced costs of printing, have made self publishing much easier and less expensive.
Big budget film adaptations
While comics had been adapted as films since the serials of the 1940s, these films had low budgets and were generally aimed at children, and were never meant to be taken seriously.
In 1978, Superman: The Movie became the first superhero film to feature sincere performances, convincing special effects and a storyline geared towards both children and adults. 1989's Batman was a similarly successful film that mirrored the dark tone of Modern Age comic books. Although both the Superman and Batman franchises became less critically and commercially successful with each sequel, the series helped introduce the characters to new generations of fans, as well as demonstrating that comic based films could be major summer blockbusters.
The early 2000s saw a renaissance of superhero films including 2000's X-Men, 2002's Spider-Man, 2003's Daredevil, X2: X-Men United, and Hulk, 2004's Hellboy and Spider-Man 2 and 2005's Fantastic Four and Batman Begins. These films have helped popularize or re-popularize many of these heroes, and many, including Spider Man 2, Batman Begins, and X2 have lead to sequels are already in production. Several more superhero films are set to debut, including the eagerly anticipated Superman Returns
Additionally, some non-superhero films based on comic books have helped draw attention to the diversity of the medium. These films include The Crow (1994), Ghost World (2001), Road to Perdition (2002), American Splendor (2003), Sin City and A History of Violence (2005).
Big events
In the 1984, Marvel Comics debuted the first large crossovers Secret Wars, a storyline featuring the company's most prolific superheroes, which overlapped into a 12-issue maxi-series and many monthly comic books. A year later, DC Comics introduced its first large scale crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, which had long term effects on the "DC Universe" continuity (see below).
In the early and mid-1990s, big events were regularly published by Marvel and DC, often leading to extra publicity and sales. These events helped fend-off competition from Image Comics and such events were more likely to become "collector's items." Some events, such as DC's "Zero Hour" and Marvel's "Onslaught saga" spanned a publisher's entire line while others only affected a "family" of interrelated titles. The X-Men and Batman franchises featured crossovers almost annually.
Some of the most significant mid-1990s events, such as Spider-Man's "Clone Saga," Batman's "KnightSaga" and particularly "The Death of Superman" caused dramatic changes to long-running characters and received coverage in the mainstream media.
These events lead to significant sales boosts and publicity but many fans began to criticize them as excessive and lacking in compelling storytelling. They also complained that monthly series had become inaccessible because one had to follow a number of comics to understand the full storyline. By the end of the 1990s, the number of large crossovers decreased but were still launched sporadically.
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Starting in the early 1960s, DC Comics maintained some aspects of its continuity through the use of a multiverse system of parallel Earths. A cosmic event in the 1985 miniseries Crisis on Infinite Earths merged all of these realities and their respective characters into one universe, allowing writers to rewrite from scratch such long-running characters as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman and also as an attempt at simplifying the DC Universe. In some ways, this helped revitalize DC's characters, though some fans debated (and continue to debate) whether such changes were necessary to begin with or truly beneficial.
Since Crisis, the trend of such retconning/revamping of characters' histories has increased in superhero comics, as has such large-scale crossover events. Even DC found cause to revamp its universe again (but on a smaller scale) with 1994's Zero Hour crossover storyline.
In the late 1990s, the concept of Hypertime was introduced as an attempt to satisfy fans of alternate realities, by stating that all comics published by DC (whether pre- or post-Crisis) had taken place in some corner of reality.
Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns
In 1986, DC published two groundbreaking mini-series: Watchmen by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. As described above, these series helped usher in the era of anti-heroes. But, more importantly, they were two of the most artistically ambitious and psychologically complex comic book series ever produced. They helped gather respect for the medium and set the bar for subsequent writers.
Maus and other prominent non-traditional comics
In 1987, Art Spiegelman published the first volume of the graphic novel Maus, which recounts his parents’ struggle to survive the Holocaust as Polish Jews and Spiegelman’s own attempts to connect with them. The second volume was published in 1992. The work won a Pulitzer Prize Special Award in 1992, the first comic book to do so.
Maus signified that the medium of comic books is capable of telling stories other than those of superheroes and other fantastic beings, including ones of great emotional weight. Although superheroes remained, by far, the most prominent form of the medium, adult-oriented, non-superhero comics received notice after the publication of Maus. These include Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, American Splendor by Harvey Pekar, Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore, and by Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware.
These series, often called "graphic novels," have helped increase public respect for the comic book medium and have drawn in audiences who do not usually read comic books.
Celebrity writers and artists
While many creators, artists, and writers had achieved celebrity status by the modern age (1960s-era Marvel Comics innovators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee being perhaps the most well known), the late 1980s and the 1990s saw this phenomenon become very widespread.
Artists Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, and Jim Lee, writers Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Grant Morrison and writer/artist Frank Miller, became very well known and developed dedicated fans who followed their work closely. This changed comics readership to some extent. Previously, fans were more dedicated to specific characters and franchises than creators. By the 1990s, many readers, especially older ones, began to follow their favorite artists and writers more fervently.
The rise of celebrity artists and writers helped to make the independent comics boom possible. Moore and Miller launched independently-published unconventional comics, such as Moore's historic epic From Hell and Miller's noir series Sin City. Meanwhile, Liefeld, McFarlane and Lee banded together with four other former Marvel artists to form Image Comics in 1992, which used the star power of its owners/contributors to instantly become the biggest competitor to Marvel and DC in 30 years.
The rise and fall of the speculator market
By the late 1980s, important comic books, such as the first appearance of a classic character or first issue of a long-running series, were sold for thousands of dollars. Mainstream newspapers ran reports that comic books were good financial investments and soon collectors were buying massive amounts of comics they thought would be valuable in the future.
Publishers responded by manufacturing collectors’ items, such as trading cards, and “limited editions” of certain issues featuring a special or variant cover. The first issues of Marvel Comics' X-Force, X-Men, vol. 2 and Spider-Man became some of the first and most notorious examples of this trend. This led a market boom, where retail shops and publishers made huge profits and many companies, large and small, expanded their lines. Image Comics in particular became notorious for this, with many of its series debuting with alternate covers, and wide use of embossed and foil covers, and other "collectible" traits.
This trend was not confined to the books themselves, and many other pieces of merchandise, such as toys, particularly "chase" action figures (figures made in smaller runs than others in a particular line), trading cards, and other items, were also expected to appreciate in value. McFarlane Toys was notable for this, as it created many variations in its toys, most of which were main characters or occasional guest stars in the Spawn series.
But few in the glut of new series possessed lasting artistic quality and the items that were predicted to be valuable did not become so, often because of huge print runs that made them commonplace. A crash occurred, where sales plummeted, hundreds of retail stores closed, many publishers downsized. In 1996, Marvel Comics, the largest company in the industry, declared bankruptcy (it has made a slow recovery since). The industry has still not yet fully recovered from the speculator crash.
The crash also marked the relative downfall of the large franchises, inter-connected "families" of titles that lead to a glut of merchandizing. While the big franchise titles still have a large amount of regular titles and merchandising attached to them, all of these things were notably scaled back after the crash.
The rise of the trade paperback format
Although sales of comic books dropped in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, sales rose for trade paperbacks, collected editions in which several issues are bound together with a spine and often sold in bookstores as well as comic shops. Some series were saved from cancellation solely because of sales of trade paperbacks, and storylines for many of the most popular series of today, such as DC’s JLA and various Batman series and Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man and New X-Men, are put into trade paperback instantly after the storyline ended. Trade paperbacks are often even given volume numbers, making them serializations of a serializations of sorts.
Because of this, many writers now consider their plots with the trade paperback edition in mind, scripting stories that last four to twelve issues, which could easily be read as a “graphic novel.”
Timeline of Events
1970s
- 1970: Marvel began publishing its Conan The Barbarian comics.
- 1971: DC Comics introduces the character of Swamp Thing in its House of Secrets title.
- 1972: Marvel begins to publish Tomb of Dracula.
- 1972: First issue of Swamp Thing published.
- 1975: Len Wein and David Cockrum recreate the X-Men, introducing a multi-ethnic cast, many of whom are still some of the most recognizeable characters in the comics world. The team debuted in Giant Sized X Men,
- 1976: The New Nostalgia Journal, which would later become The Comics Journal, is published.
- 1977: Dave Sim begins work on his Cerebus The Aardvark title. The book would run for 300 issues, ending in 2004, and both the book and its creator would become both revered and controversial in the comics world.
- 1978: Superman: The Movie, starring Christopher Reeve, premieres.
1980s
- 1981: The Brothers Hernandez self publish the first issue of Love and Rockets, a title that would become one of the most popular independent/alternative comics of the modern age.
- 1984: Alan Moore takes over writing on Swamp Thing
- 1985: DC begins to publish Frank Millers The Dark Knight Returns. The book will become one of the most acclaimed Batman stories ever, and will permanently set the grim tone of the franchise.
- 1985: DC begins to publish Crisis on Infinite Earths, which would popularize the epic crossover in the comics industry, as well as drastically restructure the DC universe.
- 1986: DC Comics begins publishing Watchmen, which will become critically acclaimed, and will be seen by some as the pivotal title of the Modern Age.
- 1986: Dark Horse Comics is founded. It would come to be the third largest comic publisher in the U.S., and would be known for its line of film based comics (notably Alien and Predator), its small line of Manga, and the highly acclaimed titles Sin City (Frank Miller) and Hellboy (Mike Mignola.)
- 1987: The first volume of Art Spiegelman's Maus is published. It would become one of the most famous graphic novels of the modern age.
- 1988: Neil Gaiman's Sandman debuts on DC's Vertigo imprint.
- 1989: Tim Burton's Batman film premieres, to commercial success and critical acclaim. It is hailed as one of the finest comic based films ever, and would spawn a number of sequels.
- 1989: Fantagraphics Books publishes the first issue of Daniel Clowes' Eightball, which would became a very famous alternative comic, and would serialize a number of Clowes' most famous stories, including "Ghost World" and "David Boring".
1990s
- 1990: The first issue of Hate by Peter Bagge is published by Fantaagraphics books. The comic would come to be associated with the Seattle Grunge scene, which was becoming popularized by bands such as Nirvana and Alice in Chains.
- 1991: The X Men universe is radically reinvented, with a new X-Men monthly series running alongside of the Uncanny X Men, a new X Factor lineup, and the creation of the follow up to The New Mutants, X-Force. Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee ascend to star status, partly because of their work on these titles. At this time, X-Men became a huge franchise and would remain so until the mid 90's, with toys and an animated series giving the series wide mainstream exposure.
- 1991: Jeff Smith begins publishing Bone, which would become well known in the comics world. It would end its run in 2004.
- 1991: Volume 2 of Maus is released.
- 1991: Frank Miller's Sin City begins, originally in Dark Horse Presents.
- 1992: Maus wins a Pulitzer Prize.
- 1992: Image Comics is founded by a number of former Marvel artists who were unsatisfied with how Marvel handled them and its books. The company would become controversial in the comics world, but had a huge number of fans following the work of the artists, whom published their own creations under the Image name. This same year, naturally, saw the first issues of many of the most well known image titles, including Spawn, Youngblood, and W.I.L.D. Cats
- 1995: Sam Kieth begins publishing The Maxx via Image Comics.
- 1996: Amidst a sales slump, the speculators crash, and massive downsizing in the industry, Marvel officially declares bankruptcy.
- 1999: Marvel comics hires writer Grant Morrison to reinvent the X-Men, resulting the The New X-Men, or Grant Morrison's X-Men as some fans would call it.
Unknown Dates in the 1990s timeline
- The rise and fall of the speculator market occurred roughly in the frame of 1990-1996, but pinpointing exact dates for this events is difficult, although some would argue that one of the definitive moments of the crash was when Marvel declared bankruptcy. Many would go so far as to argue that the Marvel bankruptcy marks the end of the era of the speculators market. The rise of the market is tricker to pinpoint, though most would place it in the timeframe of 1989-1991, with the seeds being planted by mainstream media reports on comics appreciating in value. The seeds grew in to the full speculator boom sometime in the early 90's, but the process was so gradual that specific dates are not possible.
2000s
- 2000: Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan:The Smartest Kid on Earth, is published by Fantagraphics book, as a single graphic novel. The story was previously serialized in the Acme Novelty Library magazine, but it gained a great deal of attention when it was published in 2000 in a single edition.
- 2000: Marvel launches its Ultimate Marvel line, which would feature recreations of its most popular titles, due to the fear that the complex history behind their established books was turning off potential new readers.
- 2000: The long awaited X-Men film adaption is a big enough hit to revive the superhero film genre, which had been damaged reputation wise by 1997's massive flop, Batman and Robin.
- 2004: Dave Sim and Jeff Smith both end the runs of their respective books, Cerebus and Bone, both of which had become famous in the comics world and helped popularize self publishing.
- 2004: DC begins the Identity Crisis miniseries.
- April 1st, 2005: Sin City (the film) is released in theaters. Co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller.