The history of the comics

THE HISTORY OF THE COMICS
* PRE GOLDEN AGE
Before comic books, there were comic strips. In 1892, James Swinnerton published the first newspaper comic strip ever called "The Little Bears and Tigers," run by the San Francisco Examiner. The first successful comic series, though, was Richard Outcault's "Down in Hogan's Alley," which debuted July 7, 1895, in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World as asingle picture of life in an urban slum. Its central character was "The Yellow Kid, who was bald, impish tyke with a knowing grin
The first strip to make regular use of speech balloons was Rudolph Dirks's "The Katzenjammer Kids," which first appeared in 1897. In 1906, the graphic artists Lyonel Feininger and Winsor McCay began to achieve a wonderful quality that went beyond the popular notion ofcartooning. Feininger created two strips, "Wee Willie Winkie's World" and "The Kinder Kids," in a style that lay somewhere between Art Nouveau and expressionism. Winsor McCay, a master of Art Nouveau illustration, produced "The Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend" and "Little Nemo in Slumberland."
More comic strips followed. Soon, newspapers had sections dedicated to the things, featuring the adventuresand escapades of Dick Tracy, Popeye the Sailor Man, Flash Gorden, Charlie Brown, and many more characters.
Later on, a select collection of these strips were reprinted in magazine format, becoming the first comic book in recorded history.
* GOLDEN AGE
In the 1930's, America was introduced to the idea of comic books. The first comic book was a collection of several comic strips. And soonafter, many funny books came out. And, in June of 1938, Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman, appeared on the stands.
Ah, what I would give to go back and buy Action Comics #1. Why would I buy that issue of all issues? Quite simple. Not only did it contain the first appearance of Superman, but it is now worth $180,500, yet it originally cost only ten cents.
Many people still wonderhow Superman, a comic book created by two 18-year-olds, managed to become a media hit. Not only did it do great as a comic book, but also spun-off a radio series, a cartoon, a live-action television series, and all types of other doo-dads. And it's no wonder that soon after many more masked marvels appeared on the scene. From Batman to Wonder Woman to Namor the Submariner, these charactersrevolutionized an industry.
However, not everything is that simple. In the 1950's, Dr. Fredric Wertham published a book called Seduction of the Innocent proposing that comic book reading causes juvenile delinquency. In true McCarthy-era fashion, the U.S. Senate held hearings to investigate Wertham's claims. The Comics Code Authority was formed prohibiting any controversial comics. Because of this,comic books no longer were allowed to do whatever they wanted and some companies, such as EC Comics, were forced to shut-down. To this day the Comic Code Authority still governs comics, even if they do not have as much word as they used to.
There is one character who came about during the Golden Age who still diserves mentioning. Although he is no super-hero, Archie Andrews, who first appeared inPep Comics #22 in 1941, is as well-known as Superman. In fact, it is believed that today, more people in the United States have read comics featuring Archie than Superman, since he and his friends are so popular with the girls.
* THE SILVER AGE
For a long period of time comic books lost their popularity. Maybe it was because of the Comic Code Authority or maybe it was because of the debut oftelevision or maybe it was just the times, but people just weren't very interested anymore.
In a last ditch effort, Atlas Comics, formerly Timely Comics, revamped themselves into Marvel Comics, creating an all-new batch of super-heroes starting with the Fantastic Four. Fantastic Four went against most rules of super-hero comics. They didn't have secret-identities, they had normal lives, and...