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The Golden Age of Comic Books: Difference between revisions
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In June of [[The Great Depression|1938]], National Allied Publications began a new comic-book series, featuring several different heroes. A new character created by two young men from Cleveland was featured on the cover. The comic was ''Action Comics'' #1, and the character was [[
Thus began The Golden Age Of Comic Books. Throughout the Golden Age, comics as a medium were not yet synonymous with superheroes as a genre -- horror stories, [[Funny Animal|funny animals]], mystery-solving detectives, Westerns, romances, and more all remained popular throughout this period, in some cases more popular than superheroes. However, the gradual rise of the [[Superhero]] defined the Golden Age in many ways. The [[Superhero]] had antecedents that went back beyond Superman -- indeed, Superman was in large part a product of these -- but they had never come together in this way before. The two-fisted pulp action hero merged with science fiction and fantasy, which merged with the crimefighting vigilante, which merged with ancient heroic sagas, to produce an explosion of new characters, individual men with strange abilities and the responsibility to use them against evil.
The first [[Superhero|Super Heroes]] were generally Superman [[Follow the Leader|ripoffs]]. Characters like Wonder Man, Flash Lightning, and Dynamic Man, with the full set of beat-bad-guys-up powers, proliferated quickly. In fact, DC sued Wonder Man's publishers, Fox Productions, for copyright infringement, and won ([[Will Eisner]], who "created" Wonder Man, actually testified against Fox). Probably the most popular character of the Golden Age was not Superman, but Fawcett Comics' [[Shazam|Captain Marvel]]; at its height, ''Captain Marvel Adventures'' was published weekly and sold 1.3 million copies per month, and the Marvel Family included Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., the three Lieutenant Marvels, Uncle Marvel, Freckles Marvel, and Hoppy the Marvel Bunny. Eventually, more specialized heroes started showing up. [[The Flash]], with the ability to run faster than anyone else (incidentally the first hero with only one power); Doll Man, with the ability to shrink down to six inches high; the Human Torch, with the ability to become living flame. These, in turn, received their own imitators, and a wide range of characters and titles were thus born. (Almost universally in Golden Age comics, each issue contained several short stories, each featuring a different hero. Only the biggest characters got their own books, and even they usually had back-up stories featuring other characters.) Also popular were the pulp heroes themselves, translated to four colors. Based on precedents like [[
This was also the era of the [[Sidekick]]. After Robin was introduced in 1940, nearly every hero picked up a young lad or lass to assist them in crimefighting. The Human Torch had Toro; Sandman had Sandy, the Golden Boy; Bulletman had Bulletgirl. [[Comic Relief]] adult sidekicks were also popular; they were usually fat and clumsy, like [[Green Lantern]]'s Doiby Dickles or Plastic Man's Woozy Winks. This being prior to the concept of political correctness, a few regrettable characters showed up here as well, especially the Whizzer's "Slow Motion" Jones, a chubby black man with huge lips and a heavy drawl.
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** ''Sensation Comics'' ([[Wonder Woman]])
* [[Dell Comics]] ([[The Owl]])
* [[EC Comics]] (Tales from the Crypt, the early comic book issues of ''[[
* Fawcett Comics
** ''Whiz Comics'' ([[Shazam|Captain Marvel]])
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