A brief History of Comic Book art
The history of Comic book artwork is a timeline that is broken up into several distinct eras that reflect the artwork, values and trends of characters and society at that time.
The Golden Age 1938-1950
Prior to the Golden Age, comic books existed but were usually black and white publications of newspaper "funnies" or very dark and gritty detective pulp-fiction. It wasn't until the debut of Superman in 1938 that really revolutionized things. Superman's appearance and design was influenced circus strong-men and weightlifters and the printing press's limited pallet of colours at the time lead to the flamboyant, lavish and vibrantly coloured costumes and colour schemes artists of superheroes chose for their characters. During this time D.C. (Known as Active Comics and Detective Comics back then) introduced several of the big time superheroes we know today were introduced including Batman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Aquaman. And later in 1940 Marvel (previously Timely Comics) joined in shifting their focus from paranormal comics to the growing fad of superhuman stories and bringing us heroes like the original Human Torch, Namor the Sub-mariner and Captain America. During this time Superhero comic books reflected fantastic and imaginative stories about humans with strange powers. But these heroes did not lose their humanity, often embodying and personifying values and morals and using their powers to help their fellow man. Also during this time, art work was inspired by 1940s American culture, including growing industry and scientific breakthroughs and the influences of World War II heroes. At lot of superheroes had their designs and back stories influences by the military and we often depicted beating up Hitler, Nazis and the Japanese. Comic-Book art was subconscious influenced by and later influenced propaganda in this era. This era was also affected by the Atomic Age and the world's obsession with the devastation of the Atomic Bomb and the Cold War and this lead to many heroes being powered by radiation.
The Silver Age 1956-1970
At the end of World War II, with people sobered up from the effect of death and violence, superhero comic books started to decline in popularity. Romance and Thriller comics books filled with adult themes of sex and violence began to permeate the market and controversy arose over what affect this was having on youth and adolescents. This lead to the single biggest factor that influenced the silver age, The Comics Code Authority or CCA. The CCA was established a midst these growing concerns and served to filter and monitor the content going into books. Over all it blocked illicit depictions of sex and violent acts from being illustrated in materials accessible to kids but was also pretty strict in enforcing the positive portrayal of police and authority figures and blocking words and depictions of "horror, terror, vampires, werewolves and mummies". This radically changed many of the plots of superhero comics (which had previously dealt with war-time themes) to focusing on outlandish themes and surreal situations and lead to artists depicting villains as not down to earth bad guys but villains in elaborate costumes, aliens or giant monsters committing equally ridiculous acts and crimes like poisoning Superman with kryptonite xylophones. This lead to older readers dropping away from comic books as a form of entertainment and comic books being viewed largely as reading material only for kids. The Silver Age is the era comic books because known as "campy" and resulted in products like the 1960s Batman series. To improve sales writers and artists began dreaming up ridiculous "shock" and "what if?" specials and scenarios designed to entice the reader into reading the issue, this lead to heroes who were originally separate franchises becoming part of shared continuity but also many stories that were frequently reset or not consider "canon". For artists it was an era of great imagination uninhibited by reality with lots of bright colours as printing presses became more sophisticated.
The Bronze Age 1970-1985
The transition from the Silver Age into the Bronze age could be defined as the result of one single event. In Spider-Man Issue #121, Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy(a major recurring character)was permanently killed off by his nemesis the Green Goblin. This wasn't the first time someone had died in a comic book, but after years of non-canon "deaths" being used as a gimmick to sell comic-books, this was the first time since the CCA death had permanent consequences. During this time the CCA was lifted and more mature themes began to creep back in and to shape comic books and their art style. The "campy" tropes and themes of Silver Age comic books began to be examined and broken down to make way for grittier reboots. Golden age characters like Captain America were revived and shared continuities like the Avengers fully developed. The most influence books arrived at the very end of this time. wThe Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen completely broke the traditions of the CCA by presenting much more real and darker versions of silver aged heroes. These two books broke down silver-aged tropes and previous black and white understandings of good and bad to present more realistic anti-heroes and flawed characters. The Bronze aged paved the path for the modern versions of superheroes we see today. The most notably this is the era Batman and his universe was rebooted into the Dark Knight that we know and love today.
The Modern Age (1985-present)
Watchmen created a new era of comic books. Newer grittier comic books stocked the shelves and the most successful comic-book series that stocked the shelves during this time was X-Men. An original run in the bronze age had not faired well but X-men had been reinvented as edgier, more morally ambiguous characters. During this time art style changed dramatically, there was a lot more shading, more metalic/earthier colours were used and even character designs got changed. Costumes were no longer colour tights, they were over designed with many pockets and utility belts, often reflecting modern or futuristic fashion and there were a lot of trench coats. Characters were drawn with hairstyles that reflected '80s and '90s hairstyles (Superman sported a mullet for a very long time). During this time the comic economy crashed for several reasons (mainly the ill-treatment of artists and writers and the prices of comic books) and Marvel almost went bankrupt. Comic books also became a mess of continuity and plot, introducing a ridiculous amount of characters and special issues. (Such as Spider-Man's infamous "Groan Saga") Comic Books as part of pop-culture shifted into obscurity and became a closet hobby. However with advancements of television, superheroes lived on in the form of Saturday morning cartoons, their new animated art style shaped the lives and merchandise of many kids and superheroes started making a come back as they were translated to the big screen. More fans began to be attracted to comic books and writers of Marvel and DC began rethinking ways to reinvent characters and maintain consistency to keep people interested. Many great and interesting graphic novels were written during this time as people and artists began to reexplore comic books. However it was only with the advent of the internet, fans of comic books were able to reconnect and form sites and forums where they could discuss their passions. The internet also helped to connect artists and writers and form a new wave of digital art and new ways to illustrate and draw and create characters. Also movie adaptions of comic books finally started getting good this climaxing in Joss Whedon's Avengers. The Avengers and their tie-in movies completely regenerated the industry and opened a flood gate for new fans. Pop-culture shifted and it became entirely acceptable and common place to enjoy comic-books and superheroes as a means of art and fiction. In recent years DC and Marvel have re-shifted their line-ups and franchises to be more embracing of new readers to their books. Additionally technology is influencing comics with the increasing popularity of digital comic purchases.
The future?
I think we really are transitioning into a new age of comic book influenced culture as superheroes dominate the silver screen and more and more readers open up comic books for the first time. In the coming years, comics will be really popular and common place with the students of your classroom and tapping into that love and interest and passion for superheroes can be a really powerful and unique way to engage them.