In the latest Overstreet Guide there is an attempt to redefine comic history by adding new ages. Among the suggestions are Copper, Brass and Chrome ages. I'm going to submit the following idea to them, but I'd like some feedback & suggestions first:
The problem with comic book ages as it stands now is why we are naming them and what we are naming them with.
When we started ages were named by the rise and fall of one genre's popularity, that being superheroes. We also named them after valuable elements and after going down to bronze everything else seems a bit ridiculous. Comic history will still be ongoing 50 years from now. If we keep up the current pace we will eventually end up naming things the tin age, the lead age, etc.. Today Gold, Silver, Bronze is simple, but when we start using other elements this will be confusing to readers in the future. Further complicating matters are the periods that superheroes were not popular. The Atom Age? Because there were some covers that had Atomic explosions on them? The consistency of the logic is already falling apart.
I think it's time to admit that our Ages system was good for it's time, but that time is behind us. Superheroes are not the only popular genre (nor where they ever really) and it's becoming a disservice to the genre to have our history surround them exclusively. I propose we admit the obvious problems and start from scratch using a naming system that is not tied to a specific genre and won't fall flat as we move into the future.
We should name the era's based on how/where comics were sold. This is a way of "easily" splitting the various periods without confusing people and isn't divided by fannish impulses that may date over time. Plus the various markets did have an effect on how the comic stories were done and which ones were done. In short, the newsstand market was used for serial entertainment, to get the readers to come back and buy the next issue. The comic bookstores allowed more limited series and one shots. Stories about the comic universes and continuity - things that regular readers cared about began to be emphasised. Bookstores allowed thick done in one stories, often of more sophisticated content. The Overstreet guide has already taken a small step in doing this, separating promotional comics from the regular books. This I applaud and think we should continue down this road. Specifically, here are my era's and why I name them:
Railroad Era: ??? - 1921. This is not my area of expertise. I name it Railroad because Doug Wheeler once told me that most comics prior to newsstands were sold at Railway stations. This being new area of exploration I'd feel more comfortable if the Plat and Victorian age experts to look at this one. We might even have to put two Era's in here, one for the comic book/graphic novels like Oldbuck and another for magazines like Punch.
Newsstand Era 1. 1922 - 1958. This era goes from the first newsstand comic, that being The Comic Monthly and ending with the collapse of American News - who controlled 50% of the distribution at that time. With them gone (and several smaller distributors before them) the comic industry changed. This wiped out many publishers leaving only a small handful of survivors and changed the market.
Newsstand Era 2: 1959 - Present. During this period publishers either had to be the very top of sales or be closely attached to a distributor to survive. DC and Charlton survived as they had their own distribution. Marvel survived by piggybacking with DC. Archie and Harvey Comics were in good with PDC. All other publishers would soon fall by the way side; the longest surviving would be Harvey Comics and Western Printing and Lithography (via dropping Dell and going at under Gold Key and Whitman.) Despite the dwindling sales throughout this period, there are still comics being published for the newsstand and we should acknowledge that. Since there are periodic attempts to spruce up Newsstand comic sales (Marvel Magazine) and Comic Magazines like Heavy Metal, Cracked and Mad still around, we need to keep this period active. Publishers still use this market with licensed properties in hopes of making extra sales to non-traditional comic readers.
Underground (or Headshop) Era: 1964 - 1973. This assuming Overstreet will ever list these comics. In case he finally changes his mind, we would start with the self published God Nose by Jack Jackson (Jaxon) which is widely considered to be the first underground comix. This ends when the courts rule Zap Comix #4 to be Obscene and kill the then limitless expression of creators. Stories here were a free for all. Creators did what they wanted. Often there were anthologies, sometimes a comic could be devoted to a single story. Any topic could and would be discussed, but with the new found freedom many creators chose to express what couldn't or wouldn't be expressed in traditional channels. Sex, drugs, radical political views, environment and more were common topics.
Comic Store Era: 1974 - Present. By now there are a number of comic specialty stores open. The Direct Market is forming out of the ashes of the underground distribution. This allows for different type of stories to be told. The first being Jack Katz's The First Kingdom. While the title was published by Bud Plant (who was very active in the underground era) a series like this played to the Comic Store die hard readers far better than the head shop casual readers. It was a limited series and the entire thing was done by one creator. By being a continuing story it followed more closely to newsstand method than the typical underground book which could read without needing to know what happened in the previous issue. Newsstand publishers Marvel and DC joined in around 1975. With a devoted fan base publishers were able to experiment with formats more than they could with the newsstand market. One shots, mini and maxi series, prestige format, trade paper backs and odd shaped books were able to be sold.
Bookstore Era: ???? - Present. These represent graphic novels that were not typically sold in comic shops. An easy first start would be A Contract with God by Will Eisner, but there have been many graphic novels prior to this book. We can go back as far as Milt Gross's He Done Her Wrong (1930), or possibly earlier depending on how we define the Plat/Victorian Age Comics. When did bookstores rise in popularity and when did graphic novels begin selling there in significant numbers? Again, I refer to the Plat/Victorian age crew to help with this one. Regarding which books to put in here, I would just put all TPB's in this area. Even though most of them sell mainly in the comic stores, some of them do not and there would be endless debates over where certain TPB's should go if we do the hair splitting. Maus would definitely go into graphic novels, what about Dark Knight Returns? Since it spent some time at the top of the New York Times best sellers lists it should. Then what about Watchmen? Or Sandman trades? Rather than go through all this every year we should acknowledge that TPB's market is not the same as traditional comics. Most TPB's are kept in print and as a result it is not as value driven as traditional comics. Because of these differences we shouldn't mix the two format types. But since some TPB's do go up in value (Miracle Man) this category should continue to be listed.
Note: I believe TPB's/Graphic Novels should be defined as:
1. Squarebound
2. Over 100 pages (because traditional newsstand comics rarely went over 100 pages).
3. Include an ISBN number
or 2 out of the 3 anyhow.
There are lots of examples that don't meet all three but are clearly Graphic Novels. Allowances should be made for books like Sabre which probably didn't have an ISBN number when it was first published, but does now. There are quite a few of DC Prestige format books that are sold in bookstores with ISBN's, but they don't meet the 100 page requirement. So 2 out of 3 is a loose enough way to catch the appropriate books.
Promotional Era: 1870? - Present. Again I refer to the Plat/Victorian Experts on the earliest known promo comic. At a glance I notice there is one form the 1870's (Home Made Happy, A Romance for Married Men in Seven Chapters). There are others from the same decade, which came first I don't know. These comics being "free" and designed to promote something they were often kid friendly and had some form of advertising or coupons within them. You're already listing them separately and I do think this is a good thing.
That said I don't think you should split up your guide listings by ages or era's (be a pain in the ass flipping back and forth for a book like Action Comics), but the comic history framework does need to be rebuilt.
Comic Book Ages
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