If you didn\u2019t know where the above snippet was from, there is still a good chance, even if you aren\u2019t a comics aficionado, that you would be able to predict is was \u2018old timey\u2019 (1939 being the year that this was first published).<\/p>\n What makes it so distinctive? \u00a0Clearly it is one part art style, one part panel layout, one part subject matter, and one part word choice and location.\u00a0 There is a certain zeitgeist that comics of this era have \u2013 a collective way of thinking about and presenting the story that makes it distinctive \u2013 much like the movies of the 1930s and 1940s. \u00a0Even more distinctive than the art, the attitude of the main characters signal the period in U.S. history when this was produced.\u00a0 The Human Torch seems completely unconcerned about the havoc he is wreaking and the firefighters act completely unconcerned about their own safety.\u00a0 There is a certain carefree quality that typically marks the stories from this time span.\u00a0 Even when the characters display serious emotion, there is very little in the way of equivocation or self-doubt and debate.<\/p>\n As time progressed, this Golden Age Zeitgeist stayed remarkably unchanged during the lead up to World War II.\u00a0 It was as if the industry thought there was only one way to please the audience and, as with other popular arts of its time, rock steady was the watch word.\u00a0 Bright optimistic colors and stories were the mainstay.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of the war, the superhero genre just about died, being replaced with \u2018more sophisticated\u2019 fare.\u00a0 The horror comics from EC set the standard and were the best reflections of this new zeitgeist.\u00a0 A page, taken from the Vault of Horror<\/em> #14, shows the characteristic tone and mode.\u00a0 The panel layout doesn\u2019t differ much from the previous era, but the art is darker and more angular.\u00a0 This change in look-and-feel reflects the change in content.\u00a0 Upbeat optimism is replaced by cynical and cautionary tales that are much closer in content to a cross between the morality play and the Greek tragedy, with a heavy dose of irony thrown in for good measure.<\/p>\n Characters ponder and debate with themselves. \u00a0They dabble in shady and morally ambiguous behaviors.\u00a0 Lies and subterfuge are common motifs that add to the suspense of the tale.\u00a0 This mood persisted, even after the Seduction of the Innocent<\/em> events in the mid-1950s.\u00a0 Explicit displays of horror and terror within the tales may have been blunted but the content continued to focus on the bizarre and fantastic (monsters, magic, or science fiction), the cautionary and the twist, as evidenced by this page from Amazing Adventures<\/em> #1 showing what happens when science runs amok.<\/p>\n The bright colors had returned but not the bright attitude.<\/p>\n Perhaps ironically, the force of censorship that Wertham championed married the two earlier styles and made the fertile ground that gave birth to the revival of the superhero comic in the mid-1960s.\u00a0 Thus bringing back in popularity the wish-fulfillment he warned so vehemently against.<\/p>\n The next change in mood accompanied the social upheaval of the 1960s and brought along in its wake a fresh approach to page layout and content.\u00a0 Panels were no longer as clearly delineated as they had been before but became more \u2018organic\u2019.\u00a0 Artistic freedom matched a more liberal range in subject matter, covering institutional of societal woes like racism, drug use, and social unrest.\u00a0 Perhaps no single series made as big an impact as the Green Lantern\/Green Arrow Tales.\u00a0 Consider the following page from Green Lantern<\/em> #78 dealing with cults.<\/p>\n Mood, character tone, and dialog are an amalgam from the earlier eras.\u00a0 Bright costumed adventurers are found side-by-side with creepy elements and moody images.\u00a0 The dialog is also ambiguous, harkening in style to the horror comics of the 1950s but with a far more moral outlook.\u00a0\u00a0 This deeper dialog was often wordier as well; action took a back seat to more in depth and drama and cerebral activity were more important that throwing punches and causing mayhem.<\/p>\n The 1980s saw a regression-to-the-mean as many comics backed away from the social issues and cerebral tales and returned to more action.\u00a0 But the nature of the action was different; super hero comics became grittier (e.g. the rise of the Punisher) even while the overall page look-and-feel became more traditional and the subject matter less controversial.<\/p>\n Still, not all creators were willing to let go of the freedom and flexibility to explore alternative subject matter.\u00a0 New genres and sub-cultures started springing up (Vertigo leading the forefront) and the 80s epoch would mark the last time that a common zeitgeist would exist across most of comics.<\/p>\n As an example, consider the stark difference between this page from The Legion of Super-heroes<\/em> #291 (1982)<\/p>\n and this one from Sandman<\/em> #3 (1988)<\/p>\n Both are from DC. The Legion story deals with end of the galaxy under the subjugation of Darkseid while the Sandman story deals with the torment of one person and degradation of a single person and yet the former is far lighter in color, line, mood and dialog than the latter.<\/p>\n This continuous fracturing only accelerated in the 1990s and 2000s.\u00a0 The primary difference in artistic mood being driven by technical matters rather than by a collective aim to provide uplifting messages or societal examination or the like.\u00a0 The rise of digital arts and new composing and printing processes was accompanied by the loss of gutters and panels.\u00a0 Images superimposed on images were the norm, regardless of subject matter and story mood.\u00a0 An excellent example of this is from Darkseid versus Galactus: The Hunger<\/em> (1995)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/aboutcomics.blogwyrm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Marvel-Comics-1_page5.jpg\")
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