A brief history of comic books and graphic novels

This summer was great for superhero and comic book movies. The Dark Knight and Iron Man were both very well reviewed and made tons of money. Surprisingly, the other superhero movies (Hancock, The Incredible Hulk, Wanted, Hellboy 2) were also pretty good. So, how did superheroes get to being taken seriously in pop culture? Aren’t comics supposed to be for kids? Well they sort of were a long time ago. You can read the entire history of American comic books here, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_comic_book, but to briefly sum it up:


1938: Superman appears in Action Comics #1. Thus starts the Golden Age of Comics. Soon Batman, Wonder Woman and The Flash are created and comic books become really popular since they’re still only 10 cents.

The early 50’s: Superhero comic books start to become lame and lose some popularity to horror, crime and romance comic books. Some psychiatrist guy says that reading comics turns kids into sadistic criminals. He also believes that Batman and Robin are a couple. People believe him and the Comic Code is created that completely sanitizes comics. Without sex and violence, only superhero and kiddie comic books survive.

1956: The Silver Age of Comics begins when DC Comics reintroduces The Flash. Superhero comic books generally get better but they still lack sex and violence.

The 60's: The Fantastic Four #1 is published. Stan Lee somehow creates the entire Marvel Universe in just a few years. Spider-Man becomes popular because, unlike previous superheroes, he can’t get a date and nerdy teenagers everywhere can relate.

The early 70’s- mid 80‘s: The X-Men are re-launched, now with Wolverine. The Green Goblin kills Spider-Man’s girlfriend. Superheroes start to fight drug dealers. Both Marvel and DC have giant cross-over storylines that effect all of their titles. This is the Bronze Age of Comics. Storylines start to become more mature.

1986: The Modern Age of Comics begins. Superheroes start becoming darker. Alan Moore’s Watchmen mini-series begins and everyone thinks it is the greatest comic book ever. Partially because it may be true. Soon after Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns is released. This causes everyone to love Batman again. Soon comic books are filled with sex and violence again, making them somewhat better. Comics are published with an older demographic in mind.

1989: Tim Burton’s Batman movie is released and this sets of the comic book craze of the early 90’s.

The early 90’s: Everyone begins to think comics are a good investment (note: they’re not). Marvel Comics releases more X-Men comic books than anyone can afford. Readers vote to have the Joker kill Robin. Superman dies. A bunch of hot shot artists leave the big publishers to form their own company, Image Comics, mostly because they want more money. These comics don’t adhere to the Comic Code and have way more sex and violence. People buy them for a while until they realize they aren’t very good. Plus everyone still prefers Wolverine, Batman and Spider-Man to characters like Spawn and The Savage Dragon.

The mid 90’s: Way too many comic books get published. People stop buying them for awhile. A movie about Spawn gets made. The Batman movies suck. Lots of quality graphic novels are created (like Sin City) One of the worst Spider-Man stories ever is published (it is a long story, but trust me, everyone hated it, but at least it wasn’t as bad as the worst ever Spider-Man storyline published last year).

2000: The X-Men movie comes out and is way better then people thought it would be. Even my mom liked it.

2002: A Spider-Man movie finally comes out and makes a ton of money. Soon every superhero gets their own movie.




2009: The Watchmen movie is finally made. This causes a new generation of readers to discover how awesome graphic novels are. Parents buy it for their kids without looking inside to see that is completely inappropriate for children.

So that's how we got to the point of having a third movie about the Punisher being made and your grandmother asking you about the new Wolverine movie.

Most graphic novels today are aimed at teenage and older audiences. They don't shy away from featuring the type of violence and sex that is seen in most PG-13 and R rated movies. Many of the heroes are "anti-heroes" that don't obey authority or traditional heroic values. If you enjoy the action-packed movies based on comic books, you should read some of the graphic novels that this site recommends.

Some Essential Marvel Graphic Novels

For the past 40 years or so, Marvel comics has been selling more comic books than anyone else. Almost all of their classic stories have been reprinted into the graphic novel form allowing new generations of readers to discover them. Some of the essentials:



Spider-Man: Death of the Stacys by Gerry Conway, Stan Lee and Gil Kane.
(Marvel Comics, 2007). This graphic novel reprints one of the most important stories in Spider-Man lore. The Green Goblin kidnaps Spider-Man’s girlfriend, Gwen Stacy. Will Spidey be able to save her? The title sort of gives away the ending.



X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga by Chris Claremont and John Byrne. (Marvel Comics, 2006). This was the most epic X-Men story ever and cemented their position as the most popular comic book of the past 25 years. Jean Grey of the X-Men inherits new cosmic powers which start to consume her. Will the X-Men be able to stop one of their own when she becomes evil and all powerful?





Iron Man: Demon in a Bottle by David Michelinie, Bob Layton and John Romita Jr. (Marvel Comics, 2008). Iron Man’s problems start getting to him and Tony Stark starts drinking just a little too much. Will alcoholism be Iron Man’s biggest foe?






Civil War by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven (Marvel Comics, 2007). After some inept superheroes cause a school to be destroyed, the US government forces all superheroes to register and reveal their secret identities. Some heroes register immediately. Their first mission is to hunt down the heroes that haven’t registered. Which side do you root for?






Wolverine: Origin by Paul Jenkins and Andy Kubert (Marvel Comics, 2006). Wolverine’s origin is finally revealed. Set in the 1800’s young Wolverine discovers his mutant powers and makes some choices that shape the kind of hero he will eventually become.





Marvel Zombies by Robert Kirkman and Sean Phillips (Marvel Comics, 2008). What if the Marvel superheroes all became zombies? Find out here in this funny story set in an alternate universe.






Thor Visionaries- Walt Simonson, Vol. 3 (Marvel Comics, 2004). Thor’s nemesis and half-brother Loki casts a spell on him. The effect? Thor is transformed into a frog. Will Thor still be able to defeat Loki while he is a frog?



World War Hulk by Greg Pak and John Romita Jr. (Marvel Comics, 2008). Some of Marvel’s “smarter” heroes decide to ship the Hulk off of Earth so he’ll stop causing so much damage. Of course the Hulk finds his way back home and he wants revenge!

Neil Gaiman- Writer of Fantasy Novels and Comics

Neil Gaiman may now be known mostly as an author of fantasy novels such as Stardust and American Gods, but he started out as a very well respected writer of comic books. His Sandman series was published by DC Comics from 1989 though 1996 and is now collected in a series of ten graphic novels.


Sandman wasn’t your usual comic book series. It centered around the character of Morpheus who was a magical character that could travel through people’s dreams and different fantasy realms having bizarre adventures. Many of the stories took place in different eras of history since Morpheus (also known as Dream) was an immortal entity. Morpheus’ visual appearance and the romantic/depressing nature of the stories helped the series be very popular in the goth community also.



From the Sandman series, Gaiman spun off the graphic novel Death: The High Cost of Living (DC Comics, 1993). It was drawn by Chris Bachalo. This story centered on Dream’s older sister - Death. She isn’t like other representations of Death though. She’s a spunky goth girl that has to take human form for one day to experience life with mortals.

Neil Gaiman’s other notable works include graphic novels like 1602 (Marvel Comics, 2003) and Eternals (Marvel Comics, 2006) as well as novels like Neverwhere (BBC Books, 1996) and Anansi Boys (Harper Collins (2005).

Alan Moore- Weird writer of weird graphic novels

Alan Moore is a pretty weird guy. Besides sporting a tremendous beard, he is an active anarchist and part of some strange cult that worships a snake god. He also hates the major comic book companies and prefers to write for smaller publishers. Moore totally disowns all of the movies made out of his graphic novels. He doesn’t even want to see them!



The most well known work of his is Watchmen (DC Comics, 1986). It is often called the most important graphic novel ever. It was drawn by Dave Gibbons. The story takes place in an alternate universe where most superheroes have retired and someone begins murdering them. But really it is about the end of world. There isn’t an easy way to summarize it, so I’d recommend just reading it. You’ve never read anything this serious before that was about men in capes. You’ll also be able to say “the graphic novel was way better then the movie” after everyone has seen the upcoming movie.








Before Watchmen, Moore began V for Vendetta (DC Comics, 1988) which was drawn by David Lloyd. This story also takes place in an alternate reality in which England has a fascist government which is being terrorized by a vigilante/terrorist named V. Moore’s anarchist side is pretty apparent throughout. Maybe you saw the movie, but the graphic novel is much better and worth picking up.



Maybe you also saw The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. If so, I’m sorry you wasted your time. But don’t hold the film version against the far superior graphic novel drawn by Kevin O‘Neill (America’s Best Comics, 2000). In fact they’re completely different except for the basic premise- characters from different works of fiction (such as Mina Harker from Dracula, Alan Quartermain, Captain Nemo, and the Invisible Man) are banded together to have various adventures. The tone of the story is very adult and not something you’d want kids reading.



If you enjoy these works, also look for From Hell (Top Shelf Productions, 2000) and Swamp Thing: Saga of the Swamp Thing (DC Comics, 1998).

Frank Miller- Comic book genius

One of the most important figures in modern comics is Frank Miller. He’s some sort of comic book genius that can both write and draw great comics. He’s even directing movies about comic books now! Let’s look at his most important works.

In the early 80’s Daredevil wasn’t that popular of a Marvel character. But then Frank Miller took over the title and that all changed. The stories started to get darker and grittier. Daredevil started fighting organized crime. Elektra the assassin is introduced. Ninjas kept popping up. The best place to start is Daredevil Visionaries- Frank Miller Volume 1 (Marvel Comics, 2002).

In 1986 Frank Miller started the Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (DC Comics, 1987). If you read only one graphic novel, this is the one to read. The story- Gotham city is overrun with crime and an older Batman needs to return from retirement. Then the Joker shows up, crazier then ever. And then old Batman has to fight old Superman. Plus Robin is a girl now. At the time, this graphic novel blew everyone away because it was so violent in comparison to other comics of the time. It also heavily influenced Tim Burton’s Batman movie and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight.

In the early 90’s, Miller started the series of Sin City graphic novels (Dark Horse Comics, 2005). The series was set in the seediest city imaginable and featured all sorts of despicable characters. The stories had a film-noir style to them and were mostly in black and white. In 2005, a film was made which featured stories from several of the graphic novels.

Frank Miller’s 300 (Dark Horse Comics, 1998) won the Eisner award for best limited series. Maybe you’ve heard of it because it was made into a movie last year. If you haven’t, 300 tells the story of the King Leonidas and 300 Spartans trying to fight off the entire Persian army.

So if you enjoy these, you can also look for Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again (DC Comics, 2001), Ronin (DC Comics, 1983) and Elektra Lives Again (Marvel Comics, 1990). Frank Miller is also directing the upcoming film The Spirit.