WeeK Four: The Comic Book

Cover of Little Lulu by John Stanley

This week we will consider the history of the comic book. 
The comic strip introduced mass readership to the pleasures of the graphic narrative with stories or episodes that unfolded serially, a few panels at a time. When offered the opportunity to buy reprints of comics in which entire story arcs or adventures could be read at once, or even just having the opportunity to read more comics at one sitting than could be experienced on the pages of the newspaper, audiences responded. and the comic book emerged.
First comic books were generally issued as advertising giveaways, but soon they flourished as independent publications, distributed through newstands and magazine outlets regularly offering a collection of comics for a dime or 15 cents. Coinciding with the decline of the pulp magazine, comic books often took the shelf space and the financial backing freed by an audience that was gradually turning away from print as a primary source of high adventure and going to the movies or switching on their radios.

As this new form of graphic narrative took hold, the comic book quickly exceeded the content available from the leftovers of comic strip production.  New characters, artists and production methods began growing up to support the format of the comic book. One of the killer applications deployed within this new environment was the costumed hero who quickly became closely associated with the new medium. During the Second World War the comic book increased in popularity and widened its appeal in part due to the easy portability of its format. It's popularity among the members of the military during the war created a demand for a new level of realism and adult subject matter among readers during the late 1940s and early 1950s. The conflict between the demands of the expanding and maturing audience for comics and public perception of the comics as a medium for children resulted in the creation of a strong censorship system for the comics that restricted mainstream comics to child appropriate subjects and representations. A number of creators, like Carl Barks for example, were able to produce compelling and effective stories within these limitations, but the medium itself was restricted in such a way as to frustrate its evolution into a genre that might appeal to a more mature and educated audience. Comic books became associated with illiteracy, juvenile storytelling, and lack of graphic sophistication. By the middle of the 1960s, comics were largely considered as something like a folk art, lacking in literary or cultural legitimacy, but a good source for expropriation or study as a sub-culture.

Please read some comic books from the course resources page. This week the featured artists we will consider are Jack Kirby, some EC comics, some Carl Barks stories, and some TinTin stories by Herge. Read some additional examples in any of the sub-genres you might enjoy. 

Options will be posted on this week's Activity Page here.

Want to see what comics were coming out the same month as you were born? Or maybe when your mom was born? Or your grandmother? Try Mike's Amazing Comics Time Machine and just fill in the proper data to see a list of covers of those comics.