History of Comics/Graphic Novels

http://www.informationgoddess.ca/Comics&GraphicNovels/history.htm

History of Comics &
Graphic Novels
I have found much information
about the history of comics and graphic novels online and in print, but am
dissatisfied that there is no single resource that encompasses a chronology of
events, publications, and male and female creators including
Canadians.
I have attempted to do this by
including the major events and publications that molded the history of comics
& graphic novels. It primarily focuses on the North American phenomenon with
smatterings from other cultures.
This is in no way conclusive or
pervasive, but links to much more information on the web and points to resources
in print for further information.


1790s Richard
Newton and English Caricature

1849 Punch in Canada by John Henry Walker
1882 Le Chat Noir Journal by Rodolphe Salis
The journal was very cheap and quickly became popular,
achieving a print run of 20,000 copies per issue. Its format remained
essentially constant throughout the years: four newspaper pages consisting of
poetry, satire, reviews, and cartoons and comical drawings by graphic artists
like Henry Somm (1844-1907) and Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859-1923). Besides smaller
decorations sprinkled among the text pages, these comic drawings had a page to
themselves each issue.
1895 The Yellow
Kid by Richard F. Outcault
Comics Sell Newspapers

1896 Rose
O'Neill
the only female cartoonist for Puck
Magazine

1897 The
Katzenjammer Kids by Rudolf Dirks
"Dirks was an early adopter or inventor of many of
the devices - speech balloons, sweat-drops, frantic motion lines - that became
the LEXICON of comics." (Spiegelman, 2004)

1909 Bobby Blake & Dolly Drake by
Grace
Drayton

1913 Bringing Up
Father by George McManus

1915 Krazy Kat by George Harriman
1920's "Belgian artist Frans
Masereel first coined the term romans in beelden (novels in pictures)
during the 1920s, when he published socially conscious novels narrated in
wordless black-and-white woodcuts." (Beronä,
2004)
1925 Little Orphan Annie
by Harold
Gray

1925 The City by Frans
Masereel
1926 Passionate Journey by Frans Masereel
1929 God's Man by Lynd Ward


1929 Popeye by EC Segar
1930's the dirty thirties
1930'3 Comics of the Thirtiesearly comic book magazines
mysteries, adventure, romance stories

The "comic
book" is born!
1934 Famous Funnies
by Max
Gaines

1933 Superman by Jerry Siegel & Joe
Shuster
The Superman
Encyclopaedia

1934 - 1977 L'il Abner by Al
Capp

1935 Little Lulu by Marjorie Henderson Buell
1937 Prince Valiant by Hal Foster
1938 Superman by Jerry Siegel & Joe
Shuster

1939 Batman by Bob Kane & Bill
Finger

Heroines of the
Golden Age


1940 Captain
Marvel by Bill Parker & Charles Clarence Beck
Comics
during WWII were filled with patriotic heroes & propaganda.They were
supplied to troops by the U.S. military.
The War Exchange Conservation Act was passed in
Canada. It restricted the importation of nonessential goods including comics.
This essentially kick started the Canadian comics industry.
Bing Bang Comics, Lucky Comics and
Rocket Comics
Freelance
Commander Steel, Red Rover, Dr.
Destine, Purple Rider
Better ComicsIron
Man by Vernon Miller

1941 Nelvana
of the Northern Lights by Adrian Dingle another one decide
later

1941 Captain America Jack Kirby & Joe
Simon

1941 Plastic Man by Jack Cole
1941 Classics
Illustrated created by Albert Kantner

1942 Johnny Canuck by Leo
Bachle
1942 Wonder Woman by
Harry G.
Peter
1943 Canada Jack by George Menendez Rae
1944 Brok Windsor by Jon St.
Ables
1945 The term "teenager" was
coined. This would be the 1st generation to grow up with comic
books.
1947 The first romance comic My Date Comics by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon
1949 Nipper by Doug Wright
1950's Young
Romance

The Silver Age of Comicscirca 1956-1972
1954 Wertham's Seduction
of the Innocent Wertham
Turned Advocate?
Comics Code
Authority
Two Fisted Tales
1956 The Flash by
Julius Schwartz & Carmine Infantino
1960's
By the mid-1960s, two companies dominated the British industry: IPC, the
descendent of Amalgamated Press, and DC Thompson, the Scottish giant. (Sabin,
32)
“Surveys
have a tendency to focus on the very best examples in the field, but it is
important to recognize that most comics produced in this period were not
anywhere near the quality of the Beano, Eagle, or
Fantastic Four, and were produced with the aim of making as
much money as possible for as little effort. Hence, most humour comics were made
up of hackneyed, repetitive gags; most adventure comics were contrived and dull;
most girls’ comics were trite and “wet;” and most superhero comics were
constructed around endless fight-scenes.” (Sabin, 33)
1970's
It Ain't Me Babe was an underground comix anthology, edited by
Trina Robbins in 1970.It was among the first comics to feature all women
artists, and it stands as an early example of the feminist art produced as part
of the Women's Liberation movement.
Wimmins Comixhttp://www.lambiek.net/magazines/wimmenscomix.htm
UNDERGROUND
COMICS

The 1960s
saw a new breed of comic book, one that was not directed at children but at a
definite adult audience. These titles concentrated on specifically adult themes:
notably sex, drugs and radical politics. These titles both reflected and
transmitted the counter-cultural message and were satirical and revolutionary.
Produced outside the commercial mainstream, they were often called “comix”
(sometimes “komix”) both in contra-distinction to their straight counterpart and
to denote their “x-rated” content. However, they were not “underground” in the
sense that they were produced clandestinely under conditions of totalitarianism,
and always included the name and address of the publisher on the inside cover.
(Sabin, 36) They had, instead, different production and distribution channels
than regular comics. They were printed and produced by a variety of small
presses and cooperative ventures.
Creators retained the copyright for their materials, something that
mainstream creators could not do at the time. Instead of being sold at
newsstands, underground comix were sold mostly through a loose network of record
stores, alternative bookstores and head shops. (Rogers, 62)

Besides the much-heralded
innovations in popular music, the most influential and distinctive artistic
achievements of the 1960s counterculture were the uninhibited and socially
defiant underground comic books, which distinguished themselves from their
code-approved counterparts by adopting the soubriquet “comix.” . . . They were a
crucial phase in the development of sequential art as a means of artistic
expression, and the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and 1970s
formed the matrix from which emerged in the 1980s comic books that, unlike the
iconoclastic commix, made a new and unprecedented bid for acceptance as
literature . . . They were the first
significant group of comic books in America aimed at an entirely adult audience,
and the commix proved to a whole generation of readers who had been raised on
the vapid Code-approved comics that the sequential art medium is a powerful
narrative form capable of enormous range and flexibility. (Witek, 52)

The first widely available title was
Zap, first published in 1967 in San
Francisco by Robert Crumb. It introduced characters that became counter-cultural
icons such as: ‘Whiteman’ (an uptight, racist, pillar of the establishment) and
‘Mr. Natural’ (a misanthropic, capitalistic guru, a satire on the love
generation and “a cipher for the intellectual conundrum ‘how do you ‘teach’
wisdom?” (Sabin, 37)
In
1970, the first comic devoted to women’s liberation appeared. It Ain’t Me, Babe was followed by the better-known Wimmins Comix line in 1972. Both were a direct
feminist response to what was seen as the profound sexism present in many of the
existing undergrounds (particularly the work of Crumb, Wilson and Spain), and
provided a valuable platform for new female talent. (Sabin, 41)
Comix publishers were not
competing with mainstream publishers since they were going for an entirely
different readership. This is why they were able to so easily ignore the Comics
Code. (Sabin, 41) The economics of the underground were an entirely
different character to the mainstream comics industry, and, as Sabin points out,
this had a value above the purely practical: it gave creators a pride in what
they were doing, and inspired original, self-motivated work. (Sabin, 45) The
underground artists who grew up with comic books had found the format to be the
perfect medium to express their defiance of social norms. “What better way to
demonstrate their disdain of conservative taste than to pervert what the public
perceived as children’s entertainment?” (Nyberg, 138)
Nyberg
claims that these comics were important to the mainstream comic book industry in
three ways.
1.
They demonstrated that there was a market for adult comics.
2. The
retail network developed for distribution was an important precursor to changes
in the way more mainstream comics were distributed in the 1980s.
3. Some
underground artists went on to make a name for themselves with the new
mainstream adult comics that were to emerge in the 1980s. (Nyberg, 138)

THE DECLINE OF THE UNDERGROUND INDUSTRY
The
decline of the underground is essentially the story of the decline of the
counter-culture. There were three main reasons that applied in both Britain and
America:
v The
backlash from “straight” society,
v The
fracturing and co-option of alternative society and
v The
rise of new kinds of adult
comics. (Sabin, 46)

In retrospect, the comix were bound to provoke a
hostile reaction for two reasons: because they were an integral part of the
counter-culture and thus a conduit for anti-establishment ideas; and because
they subverted what was considered “by nature” a childish form. . . . The
mainstream press was the first to go on the offensive. The underground was a
story begging to be sensationalized, and duly shock articles began to appear
about “the American sex-comics”. They were characterized as pornographic,
perverted and generally beyond the pale, though usually very little attempt was
made to explain why. (Sabin, 47)

In
the United States, the chief unifying element for the old hippie consensus ended
when, in 1973, America withdrew from the Vietnam War. This also heralded the end
of the underground commix. However, influences and creative forces from the era
still formulate much of what is happening in the world of comics today.

Mark Rogers quotes Amy Kiste Nyberg in citing three basic
reasons that underground comix were important to the mainstream comic book
industry. These are the same three reasons why we are looking at this genre of
comics as well.
They
demonstrated that there was a market for adult comics.
The
retail network developed for distribution would be an important precursor to
changes in the way more mainstream comics were distributed in the 1980s. “By
showing that comics could be sold to an already interested audience through
outlets other than newsstands, underground comix created an example that the
direct sales market would soon emulate. Furthermore, many of the head shops
would become the comic book stores of the late 1970s and early 1980s.” (Rogers,
62)
Some
underground artists would go on to make a name for themselves with the new
mainstream adult comics that would emerge in the 1980s. (Rogers, 62)
Examples
of titles created at this time include:
a. The
Adventures of Luther Arkwright,
an epic-length story by British creator Bryan Talbot, about an
‘intra-dimensional agent’ and his battle against the Puritan rulers of a
fascistic Britain. The comic’s “sheer
complexity and use of allegory marked it out as a major innovation in extended
narrative.” (Sabin, 72)
b. Elfquest, by Wendy and Richard Pini, is an ongoing successful
series about various communities of elves.
c. Cerebus the Aardvark,
by Canadian Dave Sims. This title began as a clever parody of the sword and
sorcery genre in general, and Conan the Barbarian in particular, and developed
into a strong satire on everything from state power to organized religion.
(Sabin, 73)
Comics
generated by direct sales and were orientated specifically to the comic book
stores. These were of two types: those produced by the new independent
companies, and those published by Marvel and DC.
v Examples
of titles created at this time include:
Love and Rockets,
by the Hernandez Brothers, which despite the fantasy and SF elements of the
early issues, soon developed into one of the more ‘realistic’ comics on the
market. The series features two main stories, both with female main characters:
one set in post-punk Los Angeles (by Jaime) and the other in a mythical village
in Mexico (by Gilbert). “The comic was well-received critically, especially
Jaime’s crisp, hard-edged art and Gilbert’s empathetic writing, which was
compared to that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” (Sabin, 76)
Daredevil,
an old Marvel superhero title with declining sales, which was taken over by
Frank Miller. “With more or less full artistic control, he remoulded what was an
essentially run-of-the-mill vehicle into a fast-moving thriller, much influenced
by the Dirty Harry movies of the time.” (Sabin, 77)
Writer
Alan Moore brought Swamp Thing, an old
DC title about a half-man, half-plant swamp monster, back to life. He relocated
the story into the present by turning the story into an ecological fable—“the
Swamp Thing becoming a symbol for Green consciousness.” (Sabin, 77) He used the
comic to comment upon American gun laws, feminism and multinational
economics.
Titles
which originated from alternative creative sources but which publishers found
expedient to sell from specialist shops. This included the avant-garde, the
small press and the continuing underground. An influential example is RAW, an anthology co-edited by Art Spiegelman
and Françoise
Mouly. Speigelman’s story “Maus” was the
anchor-strip.
70's The Hulk, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and old favourites
Superman and Batman


1966 Trina Robbins
1967

1975 Captain
Canuck by Ron Leishman & Richard Comely published by Comely Comics
Winnipeg http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Study/4273/cc.html
1976 American
Splendor by Harvey Pekar
1977 Cerebus the
Ardvark by Dave
Sim
1978 A
Contract With God and other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner
1986 Maus I: A
Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art
Spiegelman


1991 Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My
Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
Won the Pulitzer Prize
2000 and beyond
2003 Persepolis

????Pulp
Heroes
From The
Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck by Rodolphe Toffler - 1842.From Richard Outcault's The Yellow Kid - Created in 1895.Action Comics No. 1 by Jerry Siegel and Joe
Shuster - 1938.From
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets by Herge -
1930.



Further Reading
Online

Beyond
the Funnies: The History of Comics in English Canada and Quebec
Canadian
Superheroes
The Canadian Comic Art
Centre
Giants of the
North: The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame
Guardians of
the North
The Canadian EnclyclopediaCartoons and Comic
Strips
Cartoon Research Library at the
Ohio State University
Comic Art &
Graffix Gallery History of ComicsA good chronological source which
includes a pictorialHistory of
Sequential Art From Cave Painting to
Spider-Man andA
Chronological History of Comic Art in America
in 5 parts.
Comic Books in English
Canada
The Comic Page
Don Markestein's
Toonopedia A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge
The History of Comic
Books
The
History of Comic Books and Graphic Novels in Mexico
Comiclopedia
The
Museum From Then 'Til Now
Superhero
Chronology
Women's Cartoon Index

In Print
1986Canuck
Comics by John Bell

1999Children of the Yellow KidThe Evolution of the American
Comic Stripby Robert C. Harvey






1996Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic Historyby Robert C.
Harvey





1993The Great Women
Cartoonistsby Trina Robbins






1999From Girls to GrrrlzA History of Comics from Teens to Zinesby Trina
Robbins






1996Comics, Comix & Graphic Novelsby Roger
Sabin



2003Faster Than a Speeding Bullet:
The Rise of the Graphic Novel by Stephen
Weiner










References
Spiegelman, A. (2004). In the
shadow of no towers. New York: NY, Pantheon.
Baronä, D. A. (2004). Worth a thousand
words. Retrieved Dec. 06, 2004, from Library Journal Web
site: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA381420.