Modern Age of Comic Books
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The Modern Age of Comic Books is an informal name for the period of American comic books generally considered to last from the mid-1980s until present day. In this period, comic book characters generally became darker and more psychologically complex, creators became more well-known and active in changing the industry, independent comics flourished, and larger publishing houses became more commercialized.
Other terms include the Dark Age of Comic Books (due to the popularity and artistic influence of grim titles such as Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen), and the Diamond Age of Comic Books (suggested by Scott McCloud, because of the new diversity found in the medium).
The period is sometimes referred to as the Bronze Age of Comic Books , although this term is usually used more specifically in reference to comics published between the early 1970s and early 1980s.
[edit] Important events
Because the time period encompassing the Modern Age is not well defined, and in some cases disputed by both fans and most professionals, it is difficult to write a comprehensive history. In rough chronological order by the beginning of the trend, here are some important developments that occurred during the Modern Age, many of which are interrelated:
[edit] Fantasy, horror and "sophisticated suspense"
Horror and science fiction titles were absent from the comics market since the establishment of the restrictive Comics Code in the 1950s. In the mid-1970s, Marvel revived these genres with their new fantasy and horror comics, including Conan the Barbarian comics and Tomb of Dracula.
Starting with Alan Moore’s groundbreaking work on DC Comics's Swamp Thing in the early 1980s, horror comic books incorporated elements of science fiction/fantasy and strove to a new artistic standard. Other examples include Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman and Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon’s Preacher. These new comics transcended easily identifiable genres. Striving to apply some label to these titles, some of which did have at a similar feel and approach, some people began to use the phrase "sophisticated suspense." DC’s Vertigo line, launched in 1993, specializes in this genre.
[edit] The revival and sales boom of the X-Men
[edit] Development of the X-Men
In Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), Marvel Comics introduced a new, ethnically diverse team of X-Men conceived by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum. Under writer Chris Claremont and artist/co-writer John Byrne, this version of the team became one of the most successful properties of the 1980s and spawned several spin-offs. By the early 1990s, the X-Men franchise was the most popular in the comic book industry.
The success of the team lead to several spin-offs, deemed "X-Books." By the mid-1990s, over a dozen X-Men-related comic books, both continuing and limited series, were published each month. On an almost annual basis from 1986 until 1999, one storyline crossed-over into almost every X-Book for two to three months. These "X-Overs" usually lead to a spike in sales.
This sales boom resulting in a great deal of merchandising, such as action figures, video games and trading cards. This success was thanks in no small part to the Fox Network's animated X-Men series, which debuted in 1992 and drew in a large number of younger fans.
The sales boom began to wane in the mid to late 1990s, due to the crash of the speculators market and the effect it had on the industry. Marvel declared bankruptcy, and as a result, scaled back all of their franchises, including X-Men. A number of "X-books" were cancelled, and the amount of limited series published, as well as general mechandise, was reduced.
In the early 2000s, a series of blockbuster X-Men movies have kept the X-Men franchise healthy, and have resulted in a larger market presence outside of comics. In 1999-2000, a new animated series, X-Men: Evolution debuted, while new toys have been developed and sold since the success of the first X-Men feature film. The comic books themselves have been reinvented in series such as Grant Morrison's New X-Men and the Ultimate X-Men, which, like Marvels other "Ultimate" series, is an alternate universe story, starting the X-Men tale anew. (This was done for X-Men, and other books, because Marvel feared that the long and complex histories of the established storylines of certain titles were scaring off new readers.)
[edit] Effect on other comics
The success of the X-Men had several effects on the comic book industry. Series featuring superhero teams, especially ones in which internal friction contributed to storylines, became much more common. DC Comics's The New Teen Titans series of the 1980s show the influence of the X-Men as do 1990s Image Comics teams such as Youngblood, WildC.A.T.s and Gen¹³. By the peak of the X-Men's popularity in the early 1990s, the team's chemistry was often imitated and many series featured an obvious Cyclops character (stoic leader), Wolverine character (gruff loner) and Storm character (strong-willed woman).
Also, many series tried to imitate the model the X-Men carved as a franchise. Marvel and DC expanded popular properties, such as Spider-Man, Batman and Superman into networks of spin-off books in the mid-to-late 1980s. Like the X-Books, some of these spin-offs highlighted a concept or supporting character(s) from a parent series, while others were simply additional monthly series featuring a popular character. Also like the X-Books, these franchises regularly featured crossovers, where one storyline overlapped into every title in the “family” for a few months.
[edit] The rise of anti-heroes
In the mid 1970s Marvel anti-heroes such as the X-Men’s Wolverine, the Punisher and writer/artist Frank Miller’s darker version of Daredevil challenged the previous model of the superhero as a cheerful humanitarian. Miller also created Elektra who straddled the conventional boundary between love interest and villain.
Two artistically influential DC Comics limited series contributed to the trend: Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, also by Frank Miller and Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, both of which were series of impressive psychological depth that starred troubled heroes.
By the early 1990s, anti-heroes had become the rule rather than the exception, and among the most popular were Marvel comics' Cable and Venom and Image Comics' Spawn, although some fans complained that too many of them were unlikable psychopaths of little depth and originality.
Some critics believe that this trend is tied to the cynicism of the 1980s, when the idea of a person selflessly using his extraordinary abilities on a quest for good was no longer believable, but a person with a deep psychological impulse to destroy criminals was.
The trend of creating characters with more psychological depth that were less black and white also affected supervillains. For example, Batman's enemy The Joker was portrayed less as an evil criminal and more of a mentally ill psychopath who can't control his actions, Marvel Comics' galactic planet-eater Galactus became a force of nature who meant no personal malice in his feedings, and the X-Men's nemesis Magneto became more benign and sympathetic as a man who fights for an oppressed people, albeit through means others deem unacceptable.
[edit] Creator rights and Image Comics
In the mid-1980's, artist Jack Kirby, co-creator of many of Marvel's most popular characters, came into dispute with Marvel over the disappearance of original pages of artwork from some of his most famous titles. Alan Moore, Frank Miller and many other contemporary stars, became vocal advocates for Kirby.
This event, as well as the influence of vocal proponents of independent publishing, helped to inspire a number of Marvel artists to form their own company, Image Comics, which would serve as a prominent example of creator-owned comics publishing.
By the early 1990s, Marvel artists, such as X-Men’s Jim Lee, The New Mutants/X-Force’s Rob Liefeld and Spider-Man’s Todd McFarlane, became extremely popular and were idolized by younger readers in ways more common to sports stars and musicians than comic book artists.
Propelled by star power and upset that they did not own the popular characters they created for Marvel, several illustrators, including the above three formed Image Comics in 1992, an umbrella label under which several autonomous, creator-owned companies existed. Image properties, such as WildC.A.T.s, Gen¹³, Witchblade and especially McFarlane’s Spawn provided brisk competition for long-standing superheroes. However, many criticized Image for prioritizing flashy artwork and cheap gimmicks over storytelling and originality. (Image in particular is singled out by some fans for contributing to the conditions which led to the speculator market crashing, as Image was known to release many alternate covers, foil covers, and other "collectible" comics.)
Many popular creators followed Image's lead and attempted to use their star power to launch their own series; ones that they would have licensing rights for and editorial control of. Chris Claremont, famous for authoring Uncanny X-Men, created Sovereign Seven, Joe Madureira, also made popular by Uncanny X-Men, launched Battle Chasers, and Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross, the creative team behind the popular limited series Marvels, created Astro City.
[edit] The rise of independent comics and self publishing
In the late 1960s, "Underground comix" became popular and associated with the "counterculture" of the day, although they had little influence on the comic book industry at large. (Despite this, creator and artist R. Crumb has nonetheless gained a good deal of recognition and respect in the comics world.) In the Modern Age, independent comics had a more sizable artistic influence and market presence in the industry. The independent comics boom is often directly linked with the creators rights movement, as many independent publishers were very vocal supporters of the movement.
While some fans argue over what exactly makes a publisher "independent," the most basic use of the term is for any publisher other than DC and Marvel. Some may include Image Comics in this list, but others would dispute that due to Image's huge financial assets. Image is covered elsewhere on this page, so this section will focus on other publishers.
While fans also argue over the origins and roots of self-publishing in the comics industry, most agree that Dave Sim had a huge amount of influence in this area, with his Cerebus the Aardvark, an offbeat title, published, written, and drawn primarily by Sim himself, starting in 1977. Sim is known for his activism in favor of creators rights and his outspoken nature in regard to the industry in general. (He often used the back of the book to deliver his "messages from the President", which were sometimes editorials concerning the comics industry and self-publishing.) The comic itself was published under Sim's own "Aardvark-Vanaheim Inc." imprint.
Other important early self-publishers include Wendy and Richard Pini, creators of Elfquest, Colleen Doran, creator of A Distant Soil and Jeff Smith, creator of Bone. Due to the financial pressures and heavy workload involved in self-publishing, many of these series were sporadically published and each were finished with the assistance of larger publishers with special financial and editorial arrangements (in the case of the Elfquest, Marvel's Epic imprint and then DC and in the case of Bone and A Distant Soil Image Comics).
Other important independent publishers include:
- Fantagraphics books, established in the late 1970s, which is known for its non-mainstream comic magazine The Comics Journal, and the underground hit Love and Rockets, as well as Daniel Clowes' Eightball.
- Dark Horse Comics, which arose in the 1980s. Dark Horse is known for being an early publisher of manga translations, as well as the home of Frank Miller's Sin City.
- Chaos Comics, which became well-known in the 1990s with characters such as Evil Ernie and Lady Death
- Milestone Media, which arose in the early 1990s through a partnership with DC Comics and gave birth to such "urban" franchises as Static, Blood Syndicate, Icon and Hardware.
- Slave Labor Graphics, which became well-known in the late 1990s and early 2000s for its "goth" comics, such as Squee, Johnny The Homicidal Maniac and Gloom Cookie.
- Dreamwave became known in 2002 for its publishing of a number of "retro" titles, such as Transformers based on 1980s animated series and toy properties, as well as a number of original creations.
New publishers continue to appear today as the advent of the Internet, the wider availability of printing equipment and computer publishing programs and the reduced costs of printing, have made self publishing much easier and less expensive.
[edit] Big budget film adaptations
While comics had been adapted as films since the serials of the 1940s, these films had low budgets and were generally aimed at children, and were never meant to be taken seriously.
In 1978, Superman: The Movie became the first superhero film to feature sincere performances, convincing special effects and a storyline geared towards both children and adults. 1989's Batman was a similarly successful film that mirrored the dark tone of Modern Age comic books. Although both the Superman and Batman franchises became less critically and commercially successful with each sequel, the series helped introduce the characters to new generations of fans, as well as demonstrating that comic based films could be major summer blockbusters. However, the mocking influence of the 1960s Batman television series still held sway and both of these film series eventually became self parodies by producers convinced that the public wouldn't accept the comic book medium's creation depicted in any other manner. That assumption was finally largely discredited with the release of Batman and Robin which became a critical and box office embarrassment for Warner Brothers. While its failure temporarily made comic book film adaptations a less desirable idea, it also encouraged film producers to suspect that Richard Donner's reverential approach in his Superman may have more audience appeal.
The early 2000s saw a renaissance of superhero films including 2000's X-Men, 2002's Spider-Man, 2003's Daredevil, X2: X-Men United, and Hulk, 2004's Hellboy and Spider-Man 2, 2005's Fantastic Four, Elektra and Batman Begins, and 2006's X-Men 3 and Superman Returns. These films have helped popularize or re-popularize many of these heroes, and many, including Spider Man 2 and Batman Begins, have lead to sequels that are already in production, Spider-Man 3 and The Dark Knight respectively.
Additionally, some non-superhero films based on comic books have helped draw attention to the diversity of the medium. These films include The Crow (1994), Ghost World (2001), Road to Perdition (2002), American Splendor (2003), Sin City (2005), A History of Violence (2005), Constantine (2005), and V for Vendetta (2006).
[edit] Big events
In 1984, Marvel Comics debuted the first large crossover Secret Wars, a storyline featuring the company's most prolific superheroes, which overlapped into a 12-issue limited series and many monthly comic books. A year later, DC Comics introduced its first large scale crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, which had long term effects on the "DC Universe" continuity (see below).
In the early and mid-1990s, big events were regularly published by Marvel and DC, often leading to extra publicity and sales. These events helped fend-off competition from Image Comics and such events were more likely to become "collector's items." Some events, such as DC's "Zero Hour" and Marvel's "Onslaught saga" spanned a publisher's entire line while others only affected a "family" of interrelated titles. The X-Men and Batman franchises featured crossovers almost annually.
Some of the most significant mid-1990s events, such as Spider-Man's "Clone Saga," Batman's "KnightSaga" and particularly "The Death of Superman" caused dramatic changes to long-running characters and received coverage in the mainstream media.
These events led to significant sales boosts and publicity but many fans began to criticize them as excessive and lacking in compelling storytelling. They also complained that monthly series had become inaccessible because one had to follow a number of comics to understand the full storyline. By the end of the 1990s, the number of large crossovers decreased but were still launched sporadically.
[edit] Crisis on Infinite Earths
Starting in the early 1960s, DC Comics maintained some aspects of its continuity through the use of a multiverse system of parallel Earths. A cosmic event in the 1985 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths merged all of these realities and their respective characters into one universe, allowing writers to rewrite from scratch such long-running characters as Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman and also as an attempt at simplifying the DC Universe. In some ways, this helped revitalize DC's characters, though some fans debated (and continue to debate) whether such changes were necessary to begin with or truly beneficial.
Since Crisis, the trend of such retconning/revamping of characters' histories has increased in superhero comics, as has such large-scale crossover events. Even DC found cause to revamp its universe again (but on a smaller scale) with 1994's Zero Hour crossover storyline.
In the late 1990s, the concept of Hypertime was introduced as an attempt to satisfy fans of alternate realities, by stating that all comics published by DC (whether pre- or post-Crisis) had taken place in some corner of reality.
In 2005, the Infinite Crisis series revived the idea of a multiverse.
[edit] Watchmen and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
In 1986, DC published two groundbreaking limited series: Watchmen by writer Alan Moore and artist Dave Gibbons and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. As described above, these series helped usher in the era of anti-heroes. But, more importantly, they were two of the most artistically ambitious and psychologically complex comic book series ever produced. They helped gather respect for the medium and set the bar for subsequent writers.
[edit] Maus and other prominent non-traditional comics
In 1987, Art Spiegelman published the first volume of the graphic novel Maus, which recounts his parents’ struggle to survive the Holocaust as Polish Jews and Spiegelman’s own attempts to connect with them. The second volume was published in 1992. The work won a Pulitzer Prize Special Award in 1992, the first comic book to do so.
Maus signified that the medium of comic books is capable of telling stories other than those of superheroes and other fantastic beings, including ones of great emotional weight. Although superheroes remained by far the most prominent form of the medium, at least in the U.S., adult-oriented, non-superhero comics received notice after the publication of Maus. These include Ghost World by Daniel Clowes, American Splendor by Harvey Pekar, Strangers in Paradise by Terry Moore, and by Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware.
These series, often called "graphic novels," have helped increase public respect for the comic book medium and have drawn in audiences who do not usually read comic books.
[edit] Celebrity writers and artists
While many creators, artists, and writers had achieved celebrity status by the modern age (1960s-era Marvel Comics innovators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee being perhaps the best known), the late 1980s and the 1990s saw this phenomenon become very widespread.
Artists Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, and Jim Lee, writers Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, and Grant Morrison and writer/artist Frank Miller, became very well known and developed dedicated fans who followed their work closely. This changed comics readership to some extent. Previously, fans were more dedicated to specific characters and franchises than creators. By the 1990s, many readers, especially older ones, began to follow their favorite artists and writers more fervently.
The rise of celebrity artists and writers helped to make the independent comics boom possible. Moore and Miller launched independently-published unconventional comics, such as Moore's historical fiction epic From Hell and Miller's noir series Sin City. Meanwhile, Liefeld, McFarlane and Jim Lee banded together with four other former Marvel artists to form Image Comics in 1992, which used the star power of its owners/contributors to instantly become the biggest competitor to Marvel and DC in 30 years.
[edit] The rise and fall of the speculator market
By the late 1980s, important comic books, such as the first appearance of a classic character or first issue of a long-running series, were sold for thousands of dollars. Mainstream newspapers ran reports that comic books were good financial investments and soon collectors were buying massive amounts of comics they thought would be valuable in the future.
Publishers responded by manufacturing collectors’ items, such as trading cards, and “limited editions” of certain issues featuring a special or variant cover. The first issues of Marvel Comics' X-Force, X-Men, vol. 2 and Spider-Man became some of the first and most notorious examples of this trend. This led a market boom, where retail shops and publishers made huge profits and many companies, large and small, expanded their lines. Image Comics in particular became notorious for this, with many of its series debuting with alternate covers, wide use of embossed and foil covers and other "collectible" traits.
This trend was not confined to the books themselves, and many other pieces of merchandise, such as toys, particularly "chase" action figures (figures made in smaller runs than others in a particular line), trading cards, and other items, were also expected to appreciate in value. McFarlane Toys was notable for this, as it created many variations in its high-quality toys, most of which were main characters or occasional guest stars in the Spawn series.
But few, in the glut of new series, possessed lasting artistic quality and the items that were predicted to be valuable did not become so, often because of huge print runs that made them commonplace. A crash occurred, sales plummeted, hundreds of retail stores closed and many publishers downsized. In 1996, Marvel Comics, the largest company in the industry, declared bankruptcy (it has made a slow recovery since). The industry has still not yet fully recovered from the speculator crash.
The crash also marked the relative downfall of the large franchises, inter-connected "families" of titles that lead to a glut of merchandising. While the big franchise titles still have a large amount of regular titles and merchandising attached to them, all of these things were notably scaled back after the crash. Several franchises have once again gained prominence, such as the X-Men, due in large part to the feature films X-Men and X2, and many DC heroes thanks to the success of various animated series' based on their characters, such as Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, and Teen Titans.
[edit] The rise of the trade paperback format
Although sales of comic books dropped in the late 1990s and the early 2000s, sales rose for trade paperbacks, collected editions in which several issues are bound together with a spine and often sold in bookstores as well as comic shops. Some series were saved from cancellation solely because of sales of trade paperbacks, and storylines for many of the most popular series of today (DC’s JLA and various Batman series and Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man and New X-Men) are put into trade paperback instantly after the storyline ends. Trade paperbacks are often even given volume numbers, making them serializations of a serializations of sorts.
Because of this, many writers now consider their plots with the trade paperback edition in mind, scripting stories that last four to twelve issues, which could easily be read as a “graphic novel.”
The popularity of trade paperbacks, has resulted in older material being reprinted as well. Marvel Comics launched a series of trade paperbacks reprinting series from the 1960's and 1970's. THE ESSENTIAL line of trade paperbacks has reprinted heroes such as Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four and has been able to introduce these silver age stories to a new generation of fans. These editions tend to resemble a phone book in that these are very thick books and are black and white (to help keep the cost down).
DC Comics has followed suit by introducing a line called SHOWCASE PRESENTS. The first four have included Superman, Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, and Metamorpho, The Elemental Man. Other characters have included Green Arrow, The Superman Family, The Teen Titans and The Elongated Man.
[edit] Timeline of events
[edit] 1980s
- 1981: The Brothers Hernandez self publish the first issue of Love and Rockets, a title that would become one of the most popular independent/alternative comics of the modern age.
- 1982: Alan Moore begins writing the comic-strips V for Vendetta and Marvelman for the British comic book Warrior.
- 1984: Alan Moore takes over writing on Swamp Thing
- 1984: Marvel begins releasing the first "big event" storyline, Secret Wars, which would, along with Crisis on Infinite Earths, popularize big events, and make them a staple in the industry.
- 1985: DC begins to publish Crisis on Infinite Earths, which would drastically restructure the DC universe, and popularize the epic crossover in the comics industry along with Secret Wars.
- 1986: DC publishes Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, setting a new grim tone for Batman.
- 1986: DC Comics begins publishing Watchmen, seen by many as a pivotal title of the Modern Age.
- 1986: Dark Horse Comics is founded. It would come to be the third largest comic publisher in the U.S., and would be known for its line of film-based comics (notably Alien and Predator), its small line of Manga, and the titles Sin City (Frank Miller) and Hellboy (Mike Mignola.)
- 1986-1987: Superman is relaunched by John Byrne. The relaunch starts in 1986 with the six-issue limited series titled The Man of Steel. A new Superman # 1 begins in Summer 1987.
- 1987: The first volume of Art Spiegelman's Maus is published. It would become one of the most famous graphic novels of the modern age.
- 1988: Neil Gaiman's The Sandman debuts.
- 1988-1989: Batman: A Death in the Family published. The storyline called for readers to phone a 900 number to decide the fate of then-Robin Jason Todd. The majority decided he should die, so he was brutally murdered by the Joker.
- 1989: Tim Burton's Batman film premieres, to commercial success and critical acclaim.
- 1989: Fantagraphics Books publishes the first issue of Daniel Clowes' Eightball, which would became a famous alternative comic, and would serialize a number of Clowes' most famous stories, including "Ghost World" and "David Boring".
[edit] 1990s
- 1990: The first issue of Hate by Peter Bagge is published by Fantagraphics books. The comic would come to be associated with the Seattle Grunge scene, which was becoming popularized by bands such as Nirvana and Alice in Chains.
- Summer 1990: Todd MacFarlane releases Spider-Man #1 with two alternate covers (one green, one black). It becomes the best-selling comic book in history, only to be supplanted by X-Men #1 the following year.
- 1991: The X-Men universe is radically reinvented, with a new X-Men monthly series, including 5 different covers for the first issue, running alongside of the Uncanny X-Men, a new X-Factor lineup, and the creation of the follow up to The New Mutants, X-Force. Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee ascend to star status, partly because of their work on these titles. At this time, X-Men became a huge franchise and would remain so until the mid 90's, with toys and an animated series giving the series wide mainstream exposure by drawing in a new generation of fans.
- 1991: Jeff Smith begins publishing Bone, which would become well known in the comics world. It would end its run in 2004.
- 1991: Volume 2 of Maus is released.
- 1991: Frank Miller's Sin City begins, originally in Dark Horse Presents.
- 1991: The beginning of foil stamped, and other gimmick covers begins with Silver Surfer # 50.
- 1992: Maus wins a Pulitzer Prize
- 1992: Dark Horse begins to publish comic books based on the Star Wars films. The first project is titled Dark Empire.
- 1992: Image Comics is founded by a number of former Marvel artists who were unsatisfied with how Marvel handled them and its books. The artists included Todd MacFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Jim Lee, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri and Erik Larsen. The company would become controversial in the comics world, but had a huge number of fans following the work of the artists, whom published their own creations under the Image name. This same year, naturally, saw the first issues of many of the best known image titles, including Spawn, Youngblood, Savage Dragon, and WildC.A.T.s
- 1992: November - The Death of Superman in Superman #75.
- 1993: DC launches its Vertigo imprint. The early titles include Sandman, Animal Man and the Doom Patrol.
- 1993: Dark Horse launches "Comics Greatest World." Their first venture into Super-Heroes features characters such as the undead vigilante X, Ghost and Barb Wire (which becomes a film starring Pamela Anderson). The series includes 16 books released weekly for $1 each.
- 1993: Malibu Comics launches the Ultraverse, including characters such as Prime, Hardcase, and Mantra; several issues come bagged with a coupon. Upon getting all the coupons, fans could mail in the coupons to receive Ultraverse # 0. Malibu Ultraverse becomes well-known for its computer colouring process and is acquired by Marvel Comics in 1995.
- 1993: Azrael assumes the role of Batman in Batman # 500.
- 1994: February - Kyle Rayner becomes the new Green Lantern.
- 1994: Lady Death and Shi are both published, by Chaos! Comics and Crusade, respectively. This begins the Bad girl art phase.
- 1994: Warren Ellis starts writing in America. His early works include Doom 2099 and Hellstorm.
- 1994: October - The Spider-Man Clone Saga begins.
- 1994: Gen13 debuts and quickly becomes one of the most popular titles in the medium. Its popularity not only ignites a trend of bad girl/good girl superhero titles but capitalizes on the craze of alternate covers. Gen13 Vol. 2, No. 1 has 13 covers including spoofs of the Janet Jackson Rolling Stone cover, Heavy Metal, the Brady Bunch, Sandman, and Pulp Fiction.
- 1995: Sam Kieth begins publishing The Maxx via Image Comics.
- 1995: Artemis becomes the new Wonder Woman but dies in issue # 100.
- 1995: The last issue of Sandman is published. The acclaimed DC/Vertigo series ends at # 75.
- 1995: David Lapham publishes Stray Bullets and the craze towards alternative comics begins.
- 1996: December - The Spider-Man Clone Saga ends.
- 1996: Amidst a sales slump, the speculators crash, and massive downsizing in the industry, Marvel officially declares bankruptcy.
- 1996: Summer - Marvel Comics unleashes Onslaught. The battle against Onslaught results in the "deaths" of Captain America, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and the Fantastic Four. The result is the cancellation of Captain America, Iron Man, Avengers, and Fantastic Four. All four books are relaunched in Fall 1996 with Rob Liefeld and Jim Lee spearheading the creative teams.
- 1996: The Amalgam Comics run, an infusion of DC Comics and Marvel Comics, begins
- 1997: Batman and Robin premieres in theatres, and is a huge financial and critical flop, causing Warner Bros. to put the Batman franchise on hold. There would not be another Batman film until 2005, with Batman Begins. The flop of Batman and Robin resulted in studios exercising more caution in adapting comics to film.
- 1997: The Amalgam Comics run ends, with a total 24 books published
- 1999: DC Comics begins to publish its MILLENNIUM EDITIONS. A total of 56 editions are published on a weekly basis as a way of honouring the great achievements in DC Comics history. All editions contain reprinted material and the first edition is a reprint of Action Comics # 1. Other reprints include Detective Comics # 27 and Showcase # 4.
[edit] Unknown dates in the 1990s timeline
- The rise and fall of the speculator market occurred roughly in the frame of 1990-1996, but pinpointing exact dates for this events is difficult, although some would argue that one of the definitive moments of the crash was when Marvel declared bankruptcy. Many would go so far as to argue that the Marvel bankruptcy marks the end of the era of the speculators market. The rise of the market is trickier to pinpoint, though most would place it in the timeframe of 1989-1991, with the seeds being planted by mainstream media reports on comics appreciating in value. The seeds grew in to the full speculator boom sometime in the early 1990s, but the process was so gradual that specific dates are not possible.
[edit] 2000s
- 2000: Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth, is published by Fantagraphics as a single graphic novel. The story was previously serialized in the Acme Novelty Library magazine, but it gained a great deal of attention when it was published in 2000 in a single edition. It received some mainstream media exposure, including an article on CNN's website.
- 2000: Marvel launches its Ultimate Marvel line, which would feature recreations of its most popular titles, due to the fear that the complex history behind their established books was turning off potential new readers.
- 2000: The long awaited X-Men film adaptation is a big enough hit to revive the superhero film genre, which had been damaged reputation wise by 1997's massive flop, Batman and Robin.
- 2001: Marvel Comics hires writer Grant Morrison to reinvent the X-Men, resulting in New X-Men, or "Grant Morrison's X-Men" as some fans would call it.
- 2001: The hit television series Smallville (TV series) begins it's first season.
- 2001: As a way of honouring the tragedy of September 11, 2001, all comics companies create special edition comics. Marvel Comics creates Heroes, A Moment of Silence (a comic consisting solely of art, without dialog or narration), and Amazing Spider-Man # 36 (an issue devoted to Spider-Man's reaction to the tragedy, featuring a black cover). DC Comics and other companies publish two special editions called 9/11. A black and white version. 9/11 Emergency Relief, is also published.
- 2002: The first ever Spider-Man movie launched and broke the record of the highest grossing movie in first day and week. Spiderman super success was also followed by Spider-Man 2 in 2004 which was even a bigger success and made the Spider-Man franchise the most successful superhero movie series ever made.
- 2004: Dave Sim and Jeff Smith both end the runs of their respective books, Cerebus and Bone, both of which had become famous in the comics world and helped popularize self publishing.
- 2004: DC begins the Identity Crisis limited series. This series resulted in the death of Elongated Man's wife, Sue Dibny, and marked the start of a darker tonality for DC's product line.
- 2004: Green Lantern: Rebirth is published, marking Hal Jordan's return to the mantle of Green Lantern. The character had ceased being Green Lantern nearly a decade earlier. The move is seen by some as the start of a nostalgia movement within DC Comics.
- April 1, 2005: Sin City is released in theaters. Co-directed by Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller.
- June 15, 2005: Batman Begins is released in theaters as a reboot of the Batman film series. A commercial and critical success, it is credited with reviving the franchise. A sequel is scheduled for 2008.
- 2005: Vertigo/DC along with Warner Brothers Studio release V for Vendetta movie based on Alan Moore's graphic novel.
- 2005: DC begins the Infinite Crisis limited series, a sequel to the Crisis on Infinite Earths of two decades earlier. This series results in a "new Earth" being created, restoring bits of continuity back into the DC Universe, such as Wonder Woman being a founder of the JLA. Marvel releases its own crossover event limited series, House of M. The House of M series results in "M-Day", in which most of the mutant characters lose their powers.
- 2005: DC launches their "All Star" brand of comics, beginning with All Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder #1, by Frank Miller and Jim Lee. This brand is created in an attempt to tell iconic, out-of-continuity stories about DC's characters, using some of the more popular creators in the industry. All Star Batman and Robin is followed by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All Star Superman.
- 2006: DC follows up Infinite Crisis with One Year Later, where all storylines jump ahead one year and 52, a weekly comic lasting 52 issues which will chronicle that missing year.
- 2006: Marvel begins the Civil War. After a group of superheroes accidentally kill some school children while fighting a group of supervillains, the US government passes the Superhero Registration Act, subjecting superheros to government oversight. Some heroes, most prominently Iron Man, see it as a necessary step and are quick to register; others are opposed to it and form a resistance movement under Captain America, bringing them into conflict with those registered heroes who try to enforce the new law. In a move controversial with fans, Spider-Man unmasks at a press conference and reveals his identity to the public.
- 2006: X-Men 3 and Superman Returns are released in theatres.
- 2007: Nicolas Cage becomes the Ghost Rider February 16.
