History of American comics

The history of American comics started in 1842 with the translation of Rodolphe Töpffer's work: The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck. Local artists took over this new medium and created the first American comics. But it is not until the development of daily newspapers that an important readership is reached through comic strips. The first years corresponded to the establishment of canonical codes (recurring character, speech balloons, etc.) and first genres (family strips, adventure tales). Characters acquired national celebrity and were subject to cross-media adaptation while newspapers were locked in a fierce battle for the most popular authors.

The second major evolution came in 1934 with the comic book, which allowed the dissemination of comics (first reprints of comic strips) in dedicated media. In 1938, when Superman appeared in one of those comic books, began what is commonly called the Golden Age of Comic Books. During World War II, superheroes and funny animals were the most popular genres. Following the decline of the superheroes, new genres developed (western, romance, science fiction, etc..) and reached an increasingly important readership. At the beginning of the 1950s, with the emergence of television, comic books sales began to decline. Meanwhile, they suffered many attacks on their alleged harm to youth. For instance, the introduction of the Comics Code Authority removed the detective and horror series incriminated; though nor comic strips or magazines were affected by these attacks.

In 1956 began the Silver Age of Comic Books with the return of the preference for superheroes, such as Flash and Green Lantern by DC Comics. If Dell Comics and its comics for children remained the leading publisher of comic books, genres other than superheroes started to decline and many publishers closed. Very popular superheroes, mainly created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, appeared in Marvel Comics. This turned into the leading publisher of comics in the next period known as the Bronze Age of Comic Books (from the early 1970s to 1985) during which the stories became less manichean while superhero comics maintained their hegemony. The distinction between these two periods is often associated by historians to an event but it is rather a series of changes that affected many aspects of the comics world. At the same time, underground comics appeared, which, aesthetically, addressed new themes, and economically, were based on a new distribution model. Comic strips continue to be distributed throughout the country and even some of them gained international dissemination, such as Peanuts.

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