The end of WWII “precipitated the decline of the American comic strip [3].” After 1946, “humorous strips were no longer so amusing, the adventure strips seemed to have lost their spirit. It is understandable that after a conflict that had cost 30 million human lives, humorists found it a bit difficult to be funny”. Adventure strip heroes now seemed “contemptible, futile, and almost unseemly” compared to the actions of real-life soldiers and combatants [3].
For cartoonists and comic writers, the end of battle meant bringing home the nation’s most famous war heroes. As discussed previously, many readers “tuned in” to comic pages to root on Superman, Joe B, and others in their fight against Nazis and the Japanese. Now that these fights were no longer relevant, what would writers bring to the table? What new spectacles could possibly best the latest real-life adventures [3]?
Ironically, it was about this time that “true” stories are exactly what became relevant to the times. However, instead of evolving from the adventure strip, more genres awoke from the staleness in the comic stands. By the mid-1950s, detective, romance, and horror comics would each take root and grow in their own rights, each with their own paths.
Although few creators found success when deviating from the tried-and-true methods, (their audience merely seeking a mental escape rather than unfamiliar territory), their attempts did generate interest in cartoonists to opening the adventure genre to wider possibilities [3].
Specifically, post-war military adventure stories became “a genre all its own”. Strips like Terry and the Pirates and Captain Easy were abandoned by authors to pursue serials more generated towards Air Force and Navy-topics/interests, like Steve Canyon and Buz Sawyer, respectively [1].
Sci-fi (then called pseudo-science) also became a popular topic, which became “very well served’ with strips like Space Cadet, Twin Earths, Flash Gordon, Planeteer, and even time-traveling adventures like Alley Oop and Beyond Mars. Eventually even sci-fi serials would develop the common problem of needing more and more content to stay relevant and to merely continue the story-line. These same needs were what would cause them to be “eventually strangled by the same space limitations that brought all serious continuity strips to their finish or a lingering impotence.” Outside of the action and sci-fi type stories, comedy also flourished again during the 1950s. Pogo and Peanuts made their comic strip debuts during this time-frame [1].
Pogo was an unusual example between the two mediums, as a character who transitioned from comic books to newspapers. Pogo first appeared in comic books through Animal Comics (1941) and Pogo Comics (1946). However, he would develop its international audience once incorporating politics in its own newspaper strip, acting as “defenders of civil rights and the environment, and opponents of censorship [5].”
Comic Books
Meanwhile, comic books continued to pick up steam with the
development of their own audience, namely comics generated towards children and
teenagers. Children comics came lightly
early in the decade, through Disney
(1940), Looney Tunes (1941), and Bugs Bunny (1942). In the 1950s, “kid comics” hit widely, with
various titles like Little Audrey
(1952), Little Dot (1955), Little Lotta (1955), and Richie Rich (1960). Children comics also
dabbed into the sci-fi and supernatural with Casper (1955), and Wendy the
Good Witch (1960) [5].
Teenager comics were still a bit of a novelty around the 1940s, as “adolescents had only recently been discovered to be a separate tribe”. Still, with Archie (1942) hitting its chart-topping popularity, imitating titles like Andy (1948), Ernie (1948), and Dudly (1949) allowed teen titles to pick up steam. The 1950s took this genre and ran, looking more like comedic and oddity comics we might recognize today. With MAD meeting with great sales when it was published in 1952, several more, entitled things like Crazy (1953), Wild (1954), and Help! (1960) followed suit [5].
In the 1930s, pulp magazines flooded the stands, with titles like The Ghost Super Detective, Captain Satan, King of Detectives, and Secret Agent X. They continued through the 1940s and 50s with several more denoting detectives, mysteries, and the supernatural. With titles/topics like these, it was clear that if comic demographics weren’t changing, its content was [4]. These new materials opened comics and other graphic materials to a larger, more mature scope of content, which at once created a larger audience base and a higher rate of critique backlash.
Pulps became popular with tales of adventure, oddities, and
other out worldly happenings. “Air-war magazines” became a topic with titles
like Robert Jasper Hogan’s G-8 saga.
Supernatural and oddities grew with stories inspired from HP Lovecraft stories
and Weird Tales. “Pseudo-science” genres (which predated the
term ‘sci-fi’) covered topics from fantasy to space tales with Planet Stories and Captain Future: Wizard of Science. Horror tales also became popular
with their graphic and dark-themed stories [4].These new comic and pulp genres brought about its own growing pains in the comic world, with parents and various religious and community leaders continuously questioning the validity of what their youth were reading. Although not a new topic of conversation (as we will discuss further), the developing comic content (and other social changes) allowed these various outlets to boost their argument. As we will see in our upcoming segments, “Comics thus became a discussion topic in newspaper opinion columns and on radio chat shows: the question was, where they ‘a good thing’ or not [5]?”
Pulps and comic
books, as most entertainment and art forms do, took influence from each
other [4]. Pulps would continue to influence comic books for years.
In fact, several staff (writers and illustrators) of DC and Marvel began their
careers in pulps, either as writers or book cover illustrators. “Thus, the
adventure comics developed a different aesthetic [5].”
The aesthetic wasn’t the only thing pulps and comic books shared. In 1934, a short run detective series called Black Bat Detective stayed a “mysterious detective” called the Black Bat. In 1939, the character known as The Black Bat appeared in Black Book Detective. Comic book star Batman also arrived in 1939, and attributed more than just the name and genre from his pulp magazine counterpart. Batman wasn’t the first cross-media character (see our previous mention of Superman and Doc Savage), and certainly was not the last [4].
While pulps and comic books took plenty of suggestions from each other, the history of one seemed to diminish almost as soon as the other began. Pulp magazines, named after the recycled paper it was printed on, was literally built off of the ability to write and print as much as possible as cheaply as possible, granting it the nickname ‘dime novels’ [4]. Once comic books began hitting their popularity streak, both pulp publishers and readers saw the significance. Writers could “tell a story faster” with comic books, and readers were hit with “less intellectual drag”. As the decade continued, pulp magazines like Timely Comics and those from Fiction House practically began to transform into comic books. Despite the medium change, familiar characters could still be seen in alternate forms, being found “in paperbacks from time to time [4].”
Superhero comics “were essentially aimed at children, but derived from a pulp tradition, and thus often contained political and social overtones.” The “bold, figurative art with strong colors” (which pulp artists help bring to the medium) became iconically separate from the “abstract poetic fantasies that distinguished the more artsy newspaper strips.” Action comics also made their own impression on comics by being one of the genres that included cinematic qualities like close-ups, panoramas, and exciting ‘cuts’ [5]. These cinematic qualities helped change story-telling techniques and transform comics into its more updated or modern form.
Between the 1940s and 1960s, comic book stands would see several comic companies attempt great popularity, with many having to quit due to various reasons. The two major comic book companies around was DC & International Publication Corporation (IPC). These two became large enough that they did not receive much competition until the 1960s. Smaller companies were either unable to stay afloat or would become absorbed by either of the two larger names. Ironically, once competition did hit, the comic giants, then DC and Marvel, practically outshined all other comic company and businesses, “which corresponded with the overall decline in comic circulation [5].”
The aesthetic wasn’t the only thing pulps and comic books shared. In 1934, a short run detective series called Black Bat Detective stayed a “mysterious detective” called the Black Bat. In 1939, the character known as The Black Bat appeared in Black Book Detective. Comic book star Batman also arrived in 1939, and attributed more than just the name and genre from his pulp magazine counterpart. Batman wasn’t the first cross-media character (see our previous mention of Superman and Doc Savage), and certainly was not the last [4].
While pulps and comic books took plenty of suggestions from each other, the history of one seemed to diminish almost as soon as the other began. Pulp magazines, named after the recycled paper it was printed on, was literally built off of the ability to write and print as much as possible as cheaply as possible, granting it the nickname ‘dime novels’ [4]. Once comic books began hitting their popularity streak, both pulp publishers and readers saw the significance. Writers could “tell a story faster” with comic books, and readers were hit with “less intellectual drag”. As the decade continued, pulp magazines like Timely Comics and those from Fiction House practically began to transform into comic books. Despite the medium change, familiar characters could still be seen in alternate forms, being found “in paperbacks from time to time [4].”
Superhero comics “were essentially aimed at children, but derived from a pulp tradition, and thus often contained political and social overtones.” The “bold, figurative art with strong colors” (which pulp artists help bring to the medium) became iconically separate from the “abstract poetic fantasies that distinguished the more artsy newspaper strips.” Action comics also made their own impression on comics by being one of the genres that included cinematic qualities like close-ups, panoramas, and exciting ‘cuts’ [5]. These cinematic qualities helped change story-telling techniques and transform comics into its more updated or modern form.
Between the 1940s and 1960s, comic book stands would see several comic companies attempt great popularity, with many having to quit due to various reasons. The two major comic book companies around was DC & International Publication Corporation (IPC). These two became large enough that they did not receive much competition until the 1960s. Smaller companies were either unable to stay afloat or would become absorbed by either of the two larger names. Ironically, once competition did hit, the comic giants, then DC and Marvel, practically outshined all other comic company and businesses, “which corresponded with the overall decline in comic circulation [5].”
CASUALTY OF WAR-
CAPTAIN AMERICA
“Captain America’s popularity varied in direct proportion to
the intensity of the war.” When war events were high, Captain American
flourished. When they looked poorly, so did he [4]. Finally, after the
war was over, what was his life to be?In 1944, Cap began his life of chasing crime, after “bizarre criminals who perpetrated strange crimes” and seemingly, running out of time. His costume, set for American patriotism rather than chasing criminals, according to Steranko:
“In Issue 58, Steve Rogers had switched from army khakis to civilian clothes. By number 60, he had enigmatically became a teacher at Lee High School complete with briar pipe and school --- spectacles.”
Betsy Ross, Roger’s new love interest, was introduced in 1948. She was groomed as his assistant, Golden Girl [4].
Captain America’s Weird Tales took shelves in October 1949, in attempt to keep the hero relevant in recent sales. However, by the next issue, Red Skull had taken center stage and Cap was officially replaced, with “no other recognition or mention [4]. “
In the end, the majority of comic superheroes had reached the end of the line. They each served their time, but once the air had cleared and the war settled, their retirement was in sight. The few that did make it past the 1940’s, like their soldier counterparts, lived very different lives than what they had left behind. They had served their purpose but the world had to move on…
But what was that world to be? Time could only tell.
Next time on A Scroll in Time: Comics are about
to take a drastic change! Next time, we take a look back throughout the decades
to see the development in critique and hostility against American comics, which
led to a massive shift in the censorship of comic books throughout the United
States, ultimately changing how we know comics today!
[1]
Marschall, Richard. America’s Great
Comic-Strip Artists. New York, NY. 1989. Print.
[2] Blackbeard, Bill and Crain, Dale. The Comic Strip Century: Celebrating 100 Years of an American Art Form. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 1995. Print.
[3] Couperie, Pierre, Maurice Horn, Proto Destefanis, Edouard François, Claude Moliterni, Gérald Gassiot-Talabot, and Eileen Hennessy. A History of the Comic Strip. New York: Crown, 1968. Print.
[4] Steranko, James. The Steranko History of Comics. Reading, PA. 1970. Print.
[5] Sabin, Roger. Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels. Hong Kong. 1996. Print.
[6] Garcia, Santiago. On the Graphic Novel. University Press of Mississippi. 2015. Print.
[2] Blackbeard, Bill and Crain, Dale. The Comic Strip Century: Celebrating 100 Years of an American Art Form. Englewood Cliffs, NJ. 1995. Print.
[3] Couperie, Pierre, Maurice Horn, Proto Destefanis, Edouard François, Claude Moliterni, Gérald Gassiot-Talabot, and Eileen Hennessy. A History of the Comic Strip. New York: Crown, 1968. Print.
[4] Steranko, James. The Steranko History of Comics. Reading, PA. 1970. Print.
[5] Sabin, Roger. Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels. Hong Kong. 1996. Print.
[6] Garcia, Santiago. On the Graphic Novel. University Press of Mississippi. 2015. Print.
