The History Of Comics; No Joking Matter
When a person says, “That was comical!” what comes to mind? Well, this phrase most likely came from when comics were all funny. Comics are a large part of popular culture here in America, but comics, in the form we know them today, are fairly new. Perhaps even more ironic is the fact that comics as we know them today did not originate here in America. However, the top comic publishers in the world today are all in America and it was America that made them popular.
Comics’ oldest form is political cartoons, which have been appearing in newspapers ever since newspapers have been around. The first true newspaper was published in Venice, Italy in 1556, by Notizie Scritte. Political cartoons have long been used to make fun of laws or politicians that the authors oppose, or have been used to get a point across to the audience in a humorous way. The first political cartoon published in America was in 1747 by Benjamin Franklin, stating “Live free, or die”. Political cartoons are still used, but have been used less frequently in recent years, to express ideas or beliefs about certain areas of politics.
Comic’s development and change came slowly, and over more than a century. The first actual comic to be published was “The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck”, by a Swedish man named Rudolphe Topffer, in 1837. Five years later, his comic was published in America in 1842, with great success and response. In 1859, Wilhelm Busch, a German poet and artist, introduced the idea of comics in newspapers, and drew the first one; in 1865, Busch published “Max and Moritz”, a famous and popular comic book. Finally, in 1895, “The Yellow Kid” was published by Richard Outcault, and is considered the first true comic book. Comics before “The Yellow Kid” published in America were published in the New York newspaper, The World. These comics that were published in newspapers were called “funnies” at the time, and the terms “comics”, or “comic strips”, didn’t come into common use in the U.S. until around the year 1900.
No more progress was made in the “development” of the American comic book from there, until, in 1929, Dell Publishing published “The Funnies”, and it was sixteen pages long. In 1933, four years later, Eastern Color Printing published Funnies On Parade”. However, this was just a collection of older comics that had been printed in newspapers, and it was only eight pages. Most comic books of that time were reprints, so this was not uncommon. The following year, Eastern Color Printing published was most historians believe to be the first true American comic book. The title was “Famous Funnies”, and it was printed in 1934. The American comic book as we know it today was finally invented.
The comic book didn’t become really popular until Marvel and D.C. came into the picture a few years later. Today, Marvel and D.C. have managed to stay the top two comic publishers in the world. D.C. started to form when Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson’s National Allied Publishing published New Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1, in 1935. The second title was “New Comics”, and it changed eventually to Adventure comics, and lasted until 1983, and ran through 503 issues. The third title, and also Wheeler-Nicholson’s last, was Detective Comics #1, in 1936. This series would introduce Batman in issue #27; this series was so popular, it was eventually used for the companies initials (D.C.). The reason that Detective Comics #1 was Wheeler-Nicholson’s final title was due to his financial troubles. He was in debt to Harry Denenfield, who operated in the Magazine Company Independent News, and also published pulp magazines, which were cheap fiction magazines that were 7 inches wide and 10 inches tall, and were published from 1896 to the 1950’s. Due to this debt, Nicholson had no choice except to take Donenfield as a partner, in order to publish Detective Comics #1. Detective Comics, Inc., was then formed, with Nicholson, and Liebowitz (Donenfield’s accountant) being owners. However, when cash-flow problems continued, Nicholson was forced out, and returned to National Allied Publishing. Soon after though, D.C. bought out National Allied Publishing at a bankruptcy auction. In 1939 Detective Comics produced Superman, and D.C. took off, and is still a powerhouse today.
D.C.’s biggest rival is Marvel. Marvel’s first name was Timely Publications, and was founded by Martin Goodman in 1939. Its first comic it published was Marvel Comics #1 in October of 1939, and it featured Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch, and it sold 900,000 copies. Joe Simon became the first editor and teamed up with Jack Kirby. Goodman then hired his wife’s cousin, Stanley Lieber, whom was using the pen name Stan Lee, as a general assistant in 1939. Lee later became the interim editor after Simon left, and remained as editor for 28 years, except for three years due to World War II military service. During the 1950’s, Marvel’s name became Atlas Comics, and Goodman dropped superhero titles, since they lost popularity, and turned to genres such as horror, sci-fi, and western. In the mid-50’s, Goodman tried to revive Sub-Mariner, Captain America, and the Human Torch, but with little success. However, in the late-50’s, and early-60’s, Goodman followed D.C.’s success of reviving superheroes, and beginning in 1961 with the creation of the Fantastic Four, Lee started adding new ones. Thor and Spider-Man debuted in 1962, and the Hulk, X-Men, Avengers, and Iron Man started in 1963, to start building the Marvel powerhouse. After this, the companies’ name changed to Marvel and it is still the top comic publisher in the world.
The 3rd largest comic publisher in the world, but not as well known, is Darkhorse Comics. This company began in 1986, by Mike Richardson, in Oregon. Richardson started a small comic store, and started writing and publishing his own comics, and after initial financial problems, his business actual became profitable. Darkhorse comics are based on such characters as Star Wars characters, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, and others. Darkhorse also has movies based on their comics, such as R.I.P.D. Although this company started small and is not that well known even today, it has become highly successful.
In more recent years, comics and comic publishers have diversified, and a lot of comic characters have movies of their own; this shows that comics and their characters are not just strictly comics anymore. D.C. was the first to diversify to movies consistently, as they had made a Superman series and a Batman series, along with a Supergirl movie, before Marvel had even made five movies, including the very first superhero movie ever, the 1944 Captain America.
Comics have become an important part of American culture over time, and popular culture, as comics and their characters have not only been portrayed in countless comics for well over 100 years, but also have been portrayed in more than fifty movies. Comics have taken time to change into what we know them today, and they are still changing. More and more new comic publishers continue to arise, and this rise of companies has happened ever since Marvel achieved success in the early 1960’s. The only thing that hasn’t changed is that Marvel and DC have remained the top two publishers in the world for over fifty years. But who knows; the future may have a few more changes for comic books and their publishers.
I delivered this speech at the 4-H public-speaking event on Februrary 22nd, 2014.
The Very First Superman Comic
1 Comment
You should have been a winner, hands down. What a wealth of information you had in this article. It was very informative and interesting. And I am not a comic reader. I enjoyed this. Hurrah another great job.