What are golden age comics? Silver age? Bronze age?
I love reading comic books. But I went into a store the other day and noticed a sign saying "silver age comics" and boy, those comics were expensive! Then I saw "Bronze age comics" and "Golden age comics"... but I just bought 3 new comics xD I'm wondering what those signs mean... show more
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Best Answer: In comic book, Ages represent specific time where specific story types and character types were popular.
The Golden Age is the time superheroes first came about, from mid 30's until the late 40's. There were comic books before that, it's not a completely new art fro the 20th century, but during WWII and the Depression people needed a real pick-me-up, and comic books were a cheap and popular way. Golden age stories aren't known for their quality, and sometimes they're silly, but they're a product of their time.
Between the late 40's and late 50's there was an "intermission" period. Comic books were still being made but they weren't as popular. America flourished and people had more money to see movies, for example, or buy one of those new fancy televisions. Plus, some people started claiming comic books corrupt the minds of the young ones. This caused the creation of the Comic Code. The Comic Code was a set of rules that defined what should and shouldn't be published in comic books, and mainstream comic book companies had to obey, otherwise no one would buy their stuff.
From the late 50's to the early 70's there was the period of the Silver Age. The Comic Code ruled. It restricted the themes of the stories, so writers had to use more imagination. Considering we're talking about the 60's, it wasn't that hard. Silver Age stories were often silly and sometimes downright weird. No one ever died, no sex, no killing, barely any blood, no homosexuals, no drugs, etc. A lot of weird aliens, illogical science and crazy characters, though.
From early 70's to mid 80's there was the Bronze Age. Mainstream comic books slowly started to break to comic code, mainly because they were popular enough to get readers even without it. (the first one, BTW, was Spider-Man). The stories weren't as dark and gritty but they did feel more mature. Many famous story-lines came about at that time, mostly ones that included death and heavy themes, like The Dark Phoenix Saga.
From mid 80's came about the Dark Age, or, if you want to keep to the metal naming, the Iron Age. Some say it's lasting to this day, but I disagree. In the Dark Age everything dark was cool, metal was used aplenty, tons of blood, lots of death, all heroes were broken and jagged, being a hero wasn't cool, being an anti-hero was. Women wore the skimpiest clothes possible, the Punisher was super popular, etc. Being good was being naive.
I believe it ended at the early 2000's. From them on I tag it as the Modern Age. Or the Aluminum Age. Better printing and coloring techniques, lots of events, movie tie-ins... I don't really know what will be remembered most from out time. I'll wait and see.
The Golden Age is the time superheroes first came about, from mid 30's until the late 40's. There were comic books before that, it's not a completely new art fro the 20th century, but during WWII and the Depression people needed a real pick-me-up, and comic books were a cheap and popular way. Golden age stories aren't known for their quality, and sometimes they're silly, but they're a product of their time.
Between the late 40's and late 50's there was an "intermission" period. Comic books were still being made but they weren't as popular. America flourished and people had more money to see movies, for example, or buy one of those new fancy televisions. Plus, some people started claiming comic books corrupt the minds of the young ones. This caused the creation of the Comic Code. The Comic Code was a set of rules that defined what should and shouldn't be published in comic books, and mainstream comic book companies had to obey, otherwise no one would buy their stuff.
From the late 50's to the early 70's there was the period of the Silver Age. The Comic Code ruled. It restricted the themes of the stories, so writers had to use more imagination. Considering we're talking about the 60's, it wasn't that hard. Silver Age stories were often silly and sometimes downright weird. No one ever died, no sex, no killing, barely any blood, no homosexuals, no drugs, etc. A lot of weird aliens, illogical science and crazy characters, though.
From early 70's to mid 80's there was the Bronze Age. Mainstream comic books slowly started to break to comic code, mainly because they were popular enough to get readers even without it. (the first one, BTW, was Spider-Man). The stories weren't as dark and gritty but they did feel more mature. Many famous story-lines came about at that time, mostly ones that included death and heavy themes, like The Dark Phoenix Saga.
From mid 80's came about the Dark Age, or, if you want to keep to the metal naming, the Iron Age. Some say it's lasting to this day, but I disagree. In the Dark Age everything dark was cool, metal was used aplenty, tons of blood, lots of death, all heroes were broken and jagged, being a hero wasn't cool, being an anti-hero was. Women wore the skimpiest clothes possible, the Punisher was super popular, etc. Being good was being naive.
I believe it ended at the early 2000's. From them on I tag it as the Modern Age. Or the Aluminum Age. Better printing and coloring techniques, lots of events, movie tie-ins... I don't really know what will be remembered most from out time. I'll wait and see.
Rebbi · 6 years ago
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- Bronze Age Comics
- To comic collectors, those represent time periods. The 1930s and 1940s represented the "Golden Age" of comics, when characters like Superman and Batman were first introduced. Especially during World War II, there were tons of comics published, including the original Captain America. After the war, superheroes sort of fell out of favor until the mid/late fifties, when superheroes came back big time--DC started it with the Flash and JLA and so on, then pretty soon Marvel started coming out with Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Avengers--so the "Silver Age" is late 50s through mid/late 60s era super heroes. Bronze Age is, I think, not as popular or as well defined as Golden and Silver Age comics, but I think it refers to comics from the 80s.
- Define Bronze Age
- The Golden Age of comics is stated as starting at the year 1938 to the year 1950, in this time, American comics were starting to get their first wave of super heroes, notable ones such as Superman and Batman had first emerged.
The Silver Age came in 1956 -1970 in this time comics about World War II had begun to decline, so more fantasy was invovled. Mystery, Horror, Romance. It also gave us Silver Age Superman, who is one of the most over powered characters in the entire DC World.
The Bronze Age ran from 1970 - 1985, and while retaining some elements of the Silver Age, it began to introduce darker themes, including ones dealing with problems in real life such as drug use and alcholism.
1985 - Present is considered the Modern Age of comics.
