I think of the ages as Golden w 1st Superman appearance, Silver w imposition of CCA, Bronze w relaxation of that code in 1971; and modern w publication of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns. That's just it. It's all very subjective.
Always a pleasure to go over the history of comics from time to time. Knowing where we came from should always serve as a lesson as to where we're going.
I for one have had it up to here with grim and gritty, especially in superhero comics Like you said, DC especially has a bad habit of trying to recapture lightning in a bottle (not speaking to the argument about how well The Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen have actually AGED) and it leads to massive, exhausting crisis fatigue and characters who never get to have any fun.
My opinion on grim and gritty has been: I think when Watchmen and Dark Knight hit, a lot of writers said, "Wait...I can write for people my age?" And a lot of the grimmer stuff didn't really have a point, I guess you could say. It was just dark because, well, it could be.
Don't let Marvel off the hook so easy, they are just as bad. They even tied to do a Civil War II. At least DC was creative enough to come up with different names. And this is coming from someone that grew up liking Marvel a lot more than DC.
The modern age is the one that established all the elements, both good and bad, that have defined the industry up until now. The rise of creator owned comics, the stupidity of the variant cover market, the multimedia approach with movies, cartoons and the like. For better, and for worse, that is the age we live in. Wonder what kind of age will come next, if at all. Great video as always, hope your channel and your work gets the wider recognition it deserves. You truly are one of the best and most thorough comic book representatives in this godforsaken platform. 👍🏻👍🏻
@@brandonontama2415 that may well be the case. As a physical buyer myself, I just hope that there'll always be the option of buying your collections in that format. We'll see what the future holds.
Love that little shout out to Defiant Comics. They had a special place in my collection and hart because I knew who jim shooter was (i was a big legion of superheroes fan) and because i was able to buy and keep up with an entire company’s line of tittles for a while (the first time i was able to) the good guys was my favorite
Really digging this series. During the part of the video where you touch on the 90's shared universes, I noticed that you omitted the Milestone/DC Universe. You stated at the end of the video that this series is just a skeleton outline of the comic history, so I'm crossing my fingers that we get a Milestone video in the future. Keep up the great work.
I almost added Milestone to that section. But, to your question...yes, I do want to do a Milestone video. It's one of those overlooked areas of recent history. Right now, it's a matter of getting my hands on all the material and doing some more research.
@@StrangeBrainParts Conveniently, the second Milestone Compendium recently came out, which takes most of the longer-running books up to about 45% reprinted. Probably be two more volumes tops, since so many of the books had much shorter runs.
"i don't know what label to throw on myself" 1. the best comic book historian ever 2.the superior comic book internet content creator 3. the ultimate comic book reviewer here are some suggestions
As always, you've produced another satisfying video. Thank you. I still don't know precisely when Marvel abandoned the newsstand, but both their titles and DC's (plus others') were still finding their way to the local supermarket spinner rack in the late 2000s. (I remember buying the Arthur Adams-drawn issues of Hulk there.) I first learned of DC giving up on newsstand distribution sometime after I (finally) got online, circa 2015.
That may very well be true. Newsstand distribution is also regional, which makes it difficult to pinpoint when it finally died out. It also may be that Diamond was selling to supermarkets and such in your area at that point? That's pure speculation on my part.
This was a very solid video, and I really liked how you looked at the comics industry from so many different angles - not just the content within the comics, but also how the industry changed regarding distribution, creators’ rights, TPBs and so on. That said, however, there is a factual error I feel I should point out: event comics definitely didn’t go extinct when the comic book market crashed circa 1995. You can count 1996’s The Final Night and Onslaught* as “circa 1995,” sure, but 1997’s Genesis, 1998’s DC One Million, 1999’s Day of Judgment, 2000’s Maximum Security, 2001’s Our Worlds at War and Joker: Last Laugh all happened around/after the crash and before event comics were revived in 2005 with Marvel's House of M. If you want to point to the year where event comics really ended for a while, that was 2001 after Last Laugh, which as I recall didn’t give DC the sales boost it wanted. Releasing it so soon after Our Worlds at War was likely a factor - I know Last Laugh didn’t get the best reception online, either, though I don’t know to what extent that attitude was shared by the wider comics reading public. *I know Onslaught didn’t have a main mini-series at its center like most of the others I mentioned -- ditto Our Worlds at War -- but both definitely qualified as events.
Love your stuff, have you ever considered doing a history on newspaper comic strips and the decline of print media? I know it’s a broad topic, but you’d probably nail it.
This is a great overall history. So cool. I think you’d do well to talk about Scott mcCloud’s creation books. It democratized the process at the same time as digital creation. I’m sure he’d be a great interview.
While I was finishing this video last night I realized I hadn't mentioned Understanding Comics. So, something Scott McCloud related is on my very long list of topics.
FWIW, newsstand, book store and grocery/drug store distribution has never fully ended. There were handful of Marvel books in regional grocery chain right up until they completely removed their periodicals section last year, and their biggest competitor still has both DC and the inevitable Archie digests. Where they get them from I have no idea, but distribution has diversified somewhat post-lockdown. My local comic shop gets more than half their comics through Penguin/Random House these days, which means books stores (what few are left) also have access to them and likely at better discounts.
The Flash's involvement in "Crisis on Infinite Earths", in my opinion, had a impact closest to his "Showcase issue". It sparked the "event" comic which leads into "Secret Wars" and all that followed. I can't remember a comic where the stakes felt so high. Many known characters where killed. At the time this was earth shattering for readers. Superman holding Supergirl, lifeless in his arms, on one of the covers.. The Flash's death in the series kicked that off.
I await to see your next part to get to "the Present", but I feel like somewhere around when Saga started that there was a shift for all kinds of comics NOT about Supers to come back into fashion. More specifically 1985-2011 "feels" quite different than 2012 to today as far as the greater diversity of what you might see on the shelves. Although this trend had been happening since the early 2000s -- so it's hard to place a demarcation point or select a certain Title where one can say where/when things changed. But an era that has Lumberjanes and Sex Criminals (and many other examples) feels very different than anything in the late 80s, 90s, or before 2002 (when Y the last Man started) or 2003 (when Walking Dead started). So did the Silver age have decades of change or diversity to compare?
I'd love to see a video on how Marvel put Defiant out of business, I met Joe James and Janet Jackson (the colorist, of course) at a shop a few months after the line's debut and they said Shooter had big plans. The books were definitely different.
That could be a short, actually. Because all that happened was Marvel objected to Defiant using Plasm, which was apparently a Marvel character. So the title changed to Warriors Of Plasm and...I can't recall whether that settled the legal action or if there was something else.
@@StrangeBrainParts another Shazam/Superman situation, except Warriors and Plasmer had absolutely nothing in common except for the name. I didn't like all their titles, but they were a really unique take on a superhero universe.
The artwork of 90s comics is completely different from artwork nowadays, and deconstructed storytelling makes the structure of comics completely different from how they were in the 90s, so it's kind of bizarre to me that 90s comics are still considered of the modern-age, never mind the fact that they came out 25-30 years ago.
Bronze and Copper Age. Frank Miller and Alan Moore's stories feel like The Bronze Age of Comics still kept going. They are not a part of the edgy Grimdark Era of Comics. And have nothing to do with the edgy comic book era. Rob Liefeld is the one who truly began the Edgy era of Comics. Whose storylines are filled with style but without any substance or awareness. That's a critique to many critics and fans are known for. Frank Miller, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman were a part of the Copper Age. Taking influences from Dennis O'Neil, Chris Claremont, Len Wein (RIP), and Neal Adams. The second Bronze Age. Or maybe, a continuation of the Bronze Age of Comics. The Bronze Age truly ended once the Rob Liefeld aesthetic and trend was introduced.
Another great video as usual. If anything I would just like to address the use of the word 'unfortunately' when mentioning the transition from Vertigo to Image - why is it unfortunate? Actual question, I don't know anything about what happened in the background that would make this transition something 'unfortunate'. As an 'outside' reader it remains the same to me, only changes where I'm going to find those comics not necessarily changing the quality of said comics. As for defining the age of comics I tend to think the post-modern age started with the creation of Image. For better or for worse (I'd argue both) Image changed western comics into what it is today in one way or another.
The "unfortunately" is because Vertigo had a great history and seeing a very good imprint, that established quite a few creative voices get shuttered in favour of darker, mostly superhero content is, well, unfortunate. More importantly, it's one less option for creators. While Image is a great platform, some creators might prefer the umbrella DC offered. That is, they didn't have to worry about all the tiny details of publishing and could focus on the work, rather than the hustle to get it to an audience. Mainly, it's losing the legacy of Vertigo and the one less option for creators. That's what makes it unfortunate.
Awesome summary of the medium history. One day those dates will be set in stone, modern also means current and that means something published 30 years ago cannot be fresh at the same time. That’s why separating 90s and 00s makes sense for me, books released in that one decade are visibly different than those produced in the next (like those from 1965 compared to those from 1975). Heck, if Marvel took the opportunity with Secret Wars in 2015 to relaunch their titles with changes that had a significant impact (not a complete clean slate but a revamped take and a new intro point) we could say that we are living in the Modern Age since 2016. But stars didn’t align and that year lacks a special event.
I agree! I've said it before that Marvel missed a great opportunity to clear the slate with Secret Wars. And I would have placed that as the end of the later part of the Modern Age (which needs its own name) and the beginning of the Digital Age.
@@StrangeBrainParts Someday they’ll have to do it, with all that backstory even heroes won’t be able to take themselves seriously. How many times did Marvel consider rebooting their continuity? Four? Once in the 80s, then with Heroes Reborn, also Wizard magazine and many fans were pushing to replace main books with the Ultimate line in 2003
Sales of Vertigo comics weren't great but they made more money through the sales of their Tradepaperback compilations in bookstores, which nationwide, still outnumber comic book shops! Independent creator Terry Moore noticed the same pattern with his series STRANGERS IN PARADISE, with most of his mostly female fans flocking to bookstores while shunning comic shops!
Could you explain how the market collapsed in 1995 specifically as a year? I've heard that it imploded after Death of Superman etc, but as far as 1995 vs 1994 the only difference I see is that they started to use the computer coloring and market to a new audience of children who watched superhero cartoons rather than the speculators purely, but I've never heard any argument made about sales flatlining in '95. Love your Marvel 'event' video series, hope they continue soon and maybe we'll see DC as well eventually!
It's all outlined in the video I'll link here: ruclips.net/video/BRXQpOsDo1c/видео.html In a nutshell: The market collapsed over time and when it specifically began is hard to discern. But by roughly 1995, after a glut of first issues and special covers, it was obvious sales were tanking. It's likely something that started in circa 1994, but didn't become obvious until 1995. And, then ka-blam! Comic stores found themselves with stock they couldn't give away.
Gold standard content, as usual. The current era could be call "the rut". They are so stuck in their habits they can't seem to do anything, anything good anyway. It's all events and variants and super heroes from the big two. It's all surrendering to manga and fighting for scraps from them. Independent books are a lot healthier in my opinion, and doing what they can with what they have. But when DC and Marvel are putting out so many books every month, there literally is no room for the indies. The the comic shops around here, you have to dig through the indie stacks on the shelves because not only will different titles be in the same spot, but often different publishers even. Part of it is the comic book shops fault, for not telling the big two to stick it. They need to stop playing the game with them, stop giving them all the space, the premium space, and stop with all the variants. They need to just order what makes sense if they that means they only get two or three covers instead of 10, even better in my opinion. I've had an on again/ off again relationship with comics since the late 80s, and it just makes me so mad to see some of the crap going one now that's holding the industry back. They're not killing it, but they are hurting it and keeping it from being what it could be with a lot of their practices. And that's not even getting into the content of the books or the behavior of creators. That's an issue to solve once the larger industry issues are taken care of.
In the final part I do obliquely address what you bring up. And it has to do with the major companies being property farms, rather than comic book publishers. However, that's a pretty subjective opinion...but I don't think it's wildly off the mark. It just needs some elaboration.
It's a bit odd trying to define something that requires time & effort to define to the satisfaction of the Yt community, which wants Everything Now. This community is very much the expression of the subconscious (SC) which, in adulthood retains the urges of a child whose Need To Know is far beyond its capacity _to_ know. This is why children that age are appeased by _replies_ now over Truth in its time. This is the good & bad of the SC (which keeps most people in the childish state well into adulthood) which evolves short-cuts. The best example is "2+2=4." This is a short-cut formula to *remind most of us* what _all_ of math is as most people need it sporadically throughout their lives, but it is something most of us need to stop everything else they're doing in order to use it. For instance does anyone *remember* consciously opening a file in their SC minds & sticking "2+2-4" _in_ there? Me neither. Most people never think _about_ these things but are 100% affected by them. For instance, like movies, comic books allow us to express an ideal rarely obtained in life. Like Dark Mirror, the comic books are an unrealistic compensation for the real life lack. Even when watching some cheesy cop show, we'd know the _instant that_ the 'guest star in the role of an authority figure' with any connection to anything criminal was going to end up being the villain. In Real Life however, everyone *immediately excuses* anything & everything done by authority figures. So in both, we avoid the reality & remain in denial, which are characteristics we'd recognize as being those of villains through the comfort of fiction - _also_ because of retaining the SC desire of a child to avoid dealing with Truth. Which isn't itself a Bad Thing: except when we retain this avoidance in real life & behave like villains.
I hate comic book speculators, as they almost ruined the medium. Then there's the current Era of comics, which is like the grim and gritty Era all over again... I just want to enjoy comics, but this crap keeps getting in the way... 😠
Yeah, I remember shop-owners hoarding copies of the Death of Superman to sell for outrageous prices, then offering people a dollar or two when they tried to sell their 100 dollar book a month later. A lot actual fans quit collecting out of disgust for the industry.
Oh, the hoarding was outrageous during that time. If you saw what I saw (and I'm guessing you did) then you'd say the video about the Speculator Era was a rather measured look at that period. :)
The modern comic book industry needs another crash to get their heads on straight again. They'll probably get it too with the way they run everything into the ground and try to change everything that made the books interesting in the first place.
Love that background music, it has a very ethereal feel.
It took me a while to find something that kind of went with my voice. I'm glad it works for you!
¡Gracias!
Thank you very much!
I think of the ages as Golden w 1st Superman appearance, Silver w imposition of CCA, Bronze w relaxation of that code in 1971; and modern w publication of Watchmen and Dark Knight Returns. That's just it. It's all very subjective.
It is VERY subjective.
Oh man... you learn something new everyday, including how a charity fund crippled what it fought against.
Always a pleasure to go over the history of comics from time to time. Knowing where we came from should always serve as a lesson as to where we're going.
Absolutely.
I for one have had it up to here with grim and gritty, especially in superhero comics
Like you said, DC especially has a bad habit of trying to recapture lightning in a bottle (not speaking to the argument about how well The Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen have actually AGED) and it leads to massive, exhausting crisis fatigue and characters who never get to have any fun.
Agreed, I just want some escapism, Goddamnit!
My opinion on grim and gritty has been: I think when Watchmen and Dark Knight hit, a lot of writers said, "Wait...I can write for people my age?" And a lot of the grimmer stuff didn't really have a point, I guess you could say. It was just dark because, well, it could be.
I think the industry got so into the "not just for kids " mentality they forgot that they're also for kids.
Don't let Marvel off the hook so easy, they are just as bad. They even tied to do a Civil War II. At least DC was creative enough to come up with different names. And this is coming from someone that grew up liking Marvel a lot more than DC.
Good point!
The modern age is the one that established all the elements, both good and bad, that have defined the industry up until now. The rise of creator owned comics, the stupidity of the variant cover market, the multimedia approach with movies, cartoons and the like.
For better, and for worse, that is the age we live in. Wonder what kind of age will come next, if at all.
Great video as always, hope your channel and your work gets the wider recognition it deserves. You truly are one of the best and most thorough comic book representatives in this godforsaken platform. 👍🏻👍🏻
I think that the digital age will be next.
@@brandonontama2415 that may well be the case. As a physical buyer myself, I just hope that there'll always be the option of buying your collections in that format. We'll see what the future holds.
Love that little shout out to Defiant Comics. They had a special place in my collection and hart because I knew who jim shooter was (i was a big legion of superheroes fan) and because i was able to buy and keep up with an entire company’s line of tittles for a while (the first time i was able to) the good guys was my favorite
It's unfortunate that the cost of a lawsuit brought the company down before it could establish itself.
Really digging this series. During the part of the video where you touch on the 90's shared universes, I noticed that you omitted the Milestone/DC Universe. You stated at the end of the video that this series is just a skeleton outline of the comic history, so I'm crossing my fingers that we get a Milestone video in the future. Keep up the great work.
I almost added Milestone to that section. But, to your question...yes, I do want to do a Milestone video. It's one of those overlooked areas of recent history. Right now, it's a matter of getting my hands on all the material and doing some more research.
@@StrangeBrainParts Conveniently, the second Milestone Compendium recently came out, which takes most of the longer-running books up to about 45% reprinted. Probably be two more volumes tops, since so many of the books had much shorter runs.
That was a great little taste of my favorite era. Cheers!
"i don't know what label to throw on myself"
1. the best comic book historian ever
2.the superior comic book internet content creator
3. the ultimate comic book reviewer
here are some suggestions
Thanks!
Wow! Thank you again!
Consistently great content here!
Thank you very much!
As always, you've produced another satisfying video. Thank you.
I still don't know precisely when Marvel abandoned the newsstand, but both their titles and DC's (plus others') were still finding their way to the local supermarket spinner rack in the late 2000s. (I remember buying the Arthur Adams-drawn issues of Hulk there.) I first learned of DC giving up on newsstand distribution sometime after I (finally) got online, circa 2015.
That may very well be true. Newsstand distribution is also regional, which makes it difficult to pinpoint when it finally died out. It also may be that Diamond was selling to supermarkets and such in your area at that point? That's pure speculation on my part.
This has been a great series so far! It's very interesting to see how the industry evolved and matured over time. Keep the good work up!
Only found your channel a few days ago and I'm glad I did. You've taught me a lot about comic books especially those before my time
Thank you! I hope you continue to find the videos informative and entertaining.
Great video! Looking forward to Part 3.5 😊
This was a very solid video, and I really liked how you looked at the comics industry from so many different angles - not just the content within the comics, but also how the industry changed regarding distribution, creators’ rights, TPBs and so on.
That said, however, there is a factual error I feel I should point out: event comics definitely didn’t go extinct when the comic book market crashed circa 1995. You can count 1996’s The Final Night and Onslaught* as “circa 1995,” sure, but 1997’s Genesis, 1998’s DC One Million, 1999’s Day of Judgment, 2000’s Maximum Security, 2001’s Our Worlds at War and Joker: Last Laugh all happened around/after the crash and before event comics were revived in 2005 with Marvel's House of M. If you want to point to the year where event comics really ended for a while, that was 2001 after Last Laugh, which as I recall didn’t give DC the sales boost it wanted. Releasing it so soon after Our Worlds at War was likely a factor - I know Last Laugh didn’t get the best reception online, either, though I don’t know to what extent that attitude was shared by the wider comics reading public.
*I know Onslaught didn’t have a main mini-series at its center like most of the others I mentioned -- ditto Our Worlds at War -- but both definitely qualified as events.
Love your stuff, have you ever considered doing a history on newspaper comic strips and the decline of print media? I know it’s a broad topic, but you’d probably nail it.
I might not do newspaper strips, but I did look at the topic of print versus digital a while back.
This is a great overall history. So cool. I think you’d do well to talk about Scott mcCloud’s creation books. It democratized the process at the same time as digital creation. I’m sure he’d be a great interview.
While I was finishing this video last night I realized I hadn't mentioned Understanding Comics. So, something Scott McCloud related is on my very long list of topics.
@@StrangeBrainParts Hooray! Loving your channel.
Just love you and your content ❤️
Thank you and thank you!
FWIW, newsstand, book store and grocery/drug store distribution has never fully ended. There were handful of Marvel books in regional grocery chain right up until they completely removed their periodicals section last year, and their biggest competitor still has both DC and the inevitable Archie digests. Where they get them from I have no idea, but distribution has diversified somewhat post-lockdown. My local comic shop gets more than half their comics through Penguin/Random House these days, which means books stores (what few are left) also have access to them and likely at better discounts.
Informative and entertaining 👍🏻
Great video as always!
Thank you!
The Flash's involvement in "Crisis on Infinite Earths", in my opinion, had a impact closest to his "Showcase issue". It sparked the "event" comic which leads into "Secret Wars" and all that followed. I can't remember a comic where the stakes felt so high. Many known characters where killed. At the time this was earth shattering for readers. Superman holding Supergirl, lifeless in his arms, on one of the covers.. The Flash's death in the series kicked that off.
I await to see your next part to get to "the Present", but I feel like somewhere around when Saga started that there was a shift for all kinds of comics NOT about Supers to come back into fashion.
More specifically 1985-2011 "feels" quite different than 2012 to today as far as the greater diversity of what you might see on the shelves. Although this trend had been happening since the early 2000s -- so it's hard to place a demarcation point or select a certain Title where one can say where/when things changed. But an era that has Lumberjanes and Sex Criminals (and many other examples) feels very different than anything in the late 80s, 90s, or before 2002 (when Y the last Man started) or 2003 (when Walking Dead started).
So did the Silver age have decades of change or diversity to compare?
Love these videos
I'd love to see a video on how Marvel put Defiant out of business, I met Joe James and Janet Jackson (the colorist, of course) at a shop a few months after the line's debut and they said Shooter had big plans. The books were definitely different.
That could be a short, actually. Because all that happened was Marvel objected to Defiant using Plasm, which was apparently a Marvel character. So the title changed to Warriors Of Plasm and...I can't recall whether that settled the legal action or if there was something else.
@@StrangeBrainParts another Shazam/Superman situation, except Warriors and Plasmer had absolutely nothing in common except for the name. I didn't like all their titles, but they were a really unique take on a superhero universe.
The artwork of 90s comics is completely different from artwork nowadays, and deconstructed storytelling makes the structure of comics completely different from how they were in the 90s, so it's kind of bizarre to me that 90s comics are still considered of the modern-age, never mind the fact that they came out 25-30 years ago.
So true. Modern to me, occurred in early 2000s. Huge shift in tone and more emphasis on the writer rather than the character.
Good stuff
*Three* ages of comic books? I thought there were only *two* -- when you're 12 and when you're 30...
I waited and waited for the "until next time" that never came 😅.
I like to keep it random. :)
Yay new video
Bronze and Copper Age. Frank Miller and Alan Moore's stories feel like The Bronze Age of Comics still kept going. They are not a part of the edgy Grimdark Era of Comics. And have nothing to do with the edgy comic book era. Rob Liefeld is the one who truly began the Edgy era of Comics. Whose storylines are filled with style but without any substance or awareness. That's a critique to many critics and fans are known for. Frank Miller, Alan Moore, and Neil Gaiman were a part of the Copper Age. Taking influences from Dennis O'Neil, Chris Claremont, Len Wein (RIP), and Neal Adams. The second Bronze Age. Or maybe, a continuation of the Bronze Age of Comics. The Bronze Age truly ended once the Rob Liefeld aesthetic and trend was introduced.
Thanks man :)
Would you cover the Duck books or Franco Belgian stuff in your channel ?
Another great video as usual. If anything I would just like to address the use of the word 'unfortunately' when mentioning the transition from Vertigo to Image - why is it unfortunate?
Actual question, I don't know anything about what happened in the background that would make this transition something 'unfortunate'. As an 'outside' reader it remains the same to me, only changes where I'm going to find those comics not necessarily changing the quality of said comics.
As for defining the age of comics I tend to think the post-modern age started with the creation of Image. For better or for worse (I'd argue both) Image changed western comics into what it is today in one way or another.
The "unfortunately" is because Vertigo had a great history and seeing a very good imprint, that established quite a few creative voices get shuttered in favour of darker, mostly superhero content is, well, unfortunate. More importantly, it's one less option for creators. While Image is a great platform, some creators might prefer the umbrella DC offered. That is, they didn't have to worry about all the tiny details of publishing and could focus on the work, rather than the hustle to get it to an audience.
Mainly, it's losing the legacy of Vertigo and the one less option for creators. That's what makes it unfortunate.
I see a Love & Rockets cover in the thumbnail, I click the link.
Awesome summary of the medium history. One day those dates will be set in stone, modern also means current and that means something published 30 years ago cannot be fresh at the same time. That’s why separating 90s and 00s makes sense for me, books released in that one decade are visibly different than those produced in the next (like those from 1965 compared to those from 1975).
Heck, if Marvel took the opportunity with Secret Wars in 2015 to relaunch their titles with changes that had a significant impact (not a complete clean slate but a revamped take and a new intro point) we could say that we are living in the Modern Age since 2016. But stars didn’t align and that year lacks a special event.
I agree! I've said it before that Marvel missed a great opportunity to clear the slate with Secret Wars. And I would have placed that as the end of the later part of the Modern Age (which needs its own name) and the beginning of the Digital Age.
@@StrangeBrainParts Someday they’ll have to do it, with all that backstory even heroes won’t be able to take themselves seriously.
How many times did Marvel consider rebooting their continuity? Four? Once in the 80s, then with Heroes Reborn, also Wizard magazine and many fans were pushing to replace main books with the Ultimate line in 2003
Man I was all in on Crossgen when they started and I was so disappointed they managed to F it up so badly.. and quickly.
Is there going to be a part 4?
Yes. I'm working on it right now. And it will be the conclusion.
I love your videos. ❤I
Sales of Vertigo comics weren't great but they made more money through the sales of their Tradepaperback compilations in bookstores, which nationwide, still outnumber comic book shops! Independent creator Terry Moore noticed the same pattern with his series STRANGERS IN PARADISE, with most of his mostly female fans flocking to bookstores while shunning comic shops!
Love you video
Could you explain how the market collapsed in 1995 specifically as a year? I've heard that it imploded after Death of Superman etc, but as far as 1995 vs 1994 the only difference I see is that they started to use the computer coloring and market to a new audience of children who watched superhero cartoons rather than the speculators purely, but I've never heard any argument made about sales flatlining in '95.
Love your Marvel 'event' video series, hope they continue soon and maybe we'll see DC as well eventually!
It's all outlined in the video I'll link here:
ruclips.net/video/BRXQpOsDo1c/видео.html
In a nutshell: The market collapsed over time and when it specifically began is hard to discern. But by roughly 1995, after a glut of first issues and special covers, it was obvious sales were tanking. It's likely something that started in circa 1994, but didn't become obvious until 1995. And, then ka-blam! Comic stores found themselves with stock they couldn't give away.
Gold standard content, as usual.
The current era could be call "the rut". They are so stuck in their habits they can't seem to do anything, anything good anyway. It's all events and variants and super heroes from the big two. It's all surrendering to manga and fighting for scraps from them. Independent books are a lot healthier in my opinion, and doing what they can with what they have. But when DC and Marvel are putting out so many books every month, there literally is no room for the indies. The the comic shops around here, you have to dig through the indie stacks on the shelves because not only will different titles be in the same spot, but often different publishers even. Part of it is the comic book shops fault, for not telling the big two to stick it. They need to stop playing the game with them, stop giving them all the space, the premium space, and stop with all the variants. They need to just order what makes sense if they that means they only get two or three covers instead of 10, even better in my opinion.
I've had an on again/ off again relationship with comics since the late 80s, and it just makes me so mad to see some of the crap going one now that's holding the industry back. They're not killing it, but they are hurting it and keeping it from being what it could be with a lot of their practices. And that's not even getting into the content of the books or the behavior of creators. That's an issue to solve once the larger industry issues are taken care of.
In the final part I do obliquely address what you bring up. And it has to do with the major companies being property farms, rather than comic book publishers. However, that's a pretty subjective opinion...but I don't think it's wildly off the mark. It just needs some elaboration.
It's a bit odd trying to define something that requires time & effort to define to the satisfaction of the Yt community, which wants Everything Now. This community is very much the expression of the subconscious (SC) which, in adulthood retains the urges of a child whose Need To Know is far beyond its capacity _to_ know. This is why children that age are appeased by _replies_ now over Truth in its time.
This is the good & bad of the SC (which keeps most people in the childish state well into adulthood) which evolves short-cuts. The best example is "2+2=4."
This is a short-cut formula to *remind most of us* what _all_ of math is as most people need it sporadically throughout their lives, but it is something most of us need to stop everything else they're doing in order to use it. For instance does anyone *remember* consciously opening a file in their SC minds & sticking "2+2-4" _in_ there?
Me neither.
Most people never think _about_ these things but are 100% affected by them. For instance, like movies, comic books allow us to express an ideal rarely obtained in life. Like Dark Mirror, the comic books are an unrealistic compensation for the real life lack.
Even when watching some cheesy cop show, we'd know the _instant that_ the 'guest star in the role of an authority figure' with any connection to anything criminal was going to end up being the villain. In Real Life however, everyone *immediately excuses* anything & everything done by authority figures. So in both, we avoid the reality & remain in denial, which are characteristics we'd recognize as being those of villains through the comfort of fiction - _also_ because of retaining the SC desire of a child to avoid dealing with Truth. Which isn't itself a Bad Thing: except when we retain this avoidance in real life & behave like villains.
I hate comic book speculators, as they almost ruined the medium.
Then there's the current Era of comics, which is like the grim and gritty Era all over again...
I just want to enjoy comics, but this crap keeps getting in the way... 😠
Yeah, I remember shop-owners hoarding copies of the Death of Superman to sell for outrageous prices, then offering people a dollar or two when they tried to sell their 100 dollar book a month later. A lot actual fans quit collecting out of disgust for the industry.
Oh, the hoarding was outrageous during that time. If you saw what I saw (and I'm guessing you did) then you'd say the video about the Speculator Era was a rather measured look at that period. :)
Comic Historian.
Just a guy who likes the medium. :)
The modern comic book industry needs another crash to get their heads on straight again. They'll probably get it too with the way they run everything into the ground and try to change everything that made the books interesting in the first place.
Thanks!
Thank you very much! Again!
Thanks!
Thank you very, very much for that very kind donation!