The First Comics

Americans Embrace a New Art Form

Americans had seen comics published before 1895, but Richard F. Outcault's single-panel cartoon, The Yellow Kid, was the first to catch widespread public attention. America was undergoing a cultural revolution. The movie industry was beginning, and tinkering with the product that would become radio had begun a few years earlier. Comics in the newspaper were another new form of entertainment, and the public embraced them. Soon products featuring the image of the Yellow Kid were everywhere: on shirts and cigars, lunch pails and cigarette cards, stationery and dolls.

Within a few short years, comic strips themselves were omnipresent, and not only because newspaper editors liked them. Publishers discovered that comic strips sold newspapers. Radios became widely available by the 1920s, but they were not a visual medium. Comic strips were a welcome relief in homes that otherwise had only novels as printed entertainment. Most of the comic strips published were forgettable, as with any medium, but some were terrific: E. C. Segar's Popeye, Al Capp's Li'l Abner, George Herriman's Krazy Kat, and Hal Foster's Prince Valiant. Comics appealed to readers because they seemed easy to decode, and words were tacked on as dialogue to make the messages even clearer. Every picture told a story.

Comic books, magazines containing a few stories, were first published in the early 1930s, and were initially reprints of newspaper comic strips. But quickly comic book publishers realized that there was a market for new stories and sought out fresh material.

Early comic book magazines consisted of genre stories told in comic book format, including mysteries, adventure, and romance. To provide publishers with fresh stories for this burgeoning medium, companies sprang up, employing teams of artists and writers to create the stories as quickly and cheaply as possible. Completed stories were sold to comic book publishers such as DC and Timely (later Marvel).

The comic book world really exploded, however, when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, a couple of Jewish kids from the Midwest, created Superman, ushering in a new tradition in heroic storytelling. Other superheroes followed Superman. Just as with comic strips, most of the new creations were mediocre, but some stood out — Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Captain Marvel, and Plastic Man. Popeye, Little Orphan Annie and Li'l Abner found the doorway out of the comic strip into successful adaptations in other media, and many superheroes have become stars of film, plays, and novels.

During the Second World War, comic books featured decidedly patriotic heroes. Led by Captain America, who landed a roundhouse punch on Hitler's chin on the cover of his very first issue, these heroes had the war well underway before the country officially began fighting. Once the war began, many heroes, super and otherwise, spent a great deal of their energy fighting with the Allies. Stories were predictable, often crude and enthusiastic propaganda, and the craftsmanship of the comics rarely was more than mediocre. Many of the best writers and artists were overseas, fighting the real war.

Newspaper comic strips were always recognized as something read by everyone, but from the beginnings of the new medium, comic books were perceived as a format for children. In order to help children participate more fully in the stories, superheroes were given teenage sidekicks, such as Batman's Robin, Captain America's Bucky, Wonder Woman's Wonder Girl, and the Human Torch's Toro.

Until the end of World War II, superheroes had plenty of fighting to do, and were very popular. Comic books and their heroes promoted the war effort by battling the enemy and encouraging readers to purchase war bonds. After the war, however, the superheroes seemed as confused as their creators about what to do next. There was no longer a genuine enemy to fight and, as a bunch, the costumed brawlers battled aimlessly.

In postwar America, society was changing as well. A new American subgroup, the "Teen-ager," was defined by the media and marketers when this term was coined in 1945. Segments of the entertainment industry, such as popular music, began to be produced for consumption by this newly defined group, those in the period between childhood and adulthood. They were the first generation to have grown up with comic books, and they liked them. As a result, comic books appeared everywhere teens hung out.

Despite the talent pool within the comic book industry, few professionals saw the field as a real career. Comic books were the lowest rung of the cultural ladder; the pay was poor, the production shoddy. Given the opportunity, many moved on. One prominent comic book writer and artist who broke out of the comic book industry was Jack Cole. Cole's major contribution to the comic book field was the creation of Plastic Man, a superhero who could stretch and mold his body into any shape. The stories were full of irreverence and quirky humor, and Cole's highly individualistic work demonstrated that an artist's personality could be expressed through the comic book medium. Cole moved on to become one of Playboy magazine's first cartoonists. Some comic book artists followed him into the world of magazine illustration if they were good enough. Others, such as Jack Kirby, continued working in the comic book field, exploring different genres, because they liked the comic book method of storytelling.

As the 1940s drew to a close, interest in superheroes waned. But if they could find subjects that appealed to them, comic book publishers had a new group of readers who were in the process of remaking popular entertainment and who could secure the future sales of the medium: teenagers.

The 1950s

The Shadow of McCarthyism

In the 1950s, a new era dawned for the comic book industry as comics publishers began to focus on new genres of titles and a new audience. As America put World War II further and further behind it, interest in superheroes decreased. Superheroes had enthusiastically battled the Axis powers, but the public's attitude toward Korean War was far more ambivalent. For the most part, the superheroes stayed out of the conflict. Instead, the comic book response to the war in Korea might best be represented by Harvey Kurtzman's Two-Fisted Tales, a meticulously researched war comic book that unflinchingly depicted the horrors of war rather than glorifying it.

The comic book...