Bronze Age Comics Download Cbr
Mirthe Luria
There is no one single event that can be said to herald the beginning of the Bronze Age. Instead, a number of events at the beginning of the 1970s, taken together, can be seen as a shift away from the tone of comics in the previous decade.
In 1970, Marvel published the first comic book issue of Robert E. Howard's pulp character Conan the Barbarian. Conan's success as a comic hero resulted in adaptations of other Howard characters: King Kull, Red Sonja and Solomon Kane. DC Comics responded with comics featuring Warlord, Beowulf and Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. They also took over the licensing of Edgar Rice Burroughs's Tarzan from longtime publisher Gold Key and began adapting other Burroughs creations, such as John Carter, the Pellucidar series, and the Amtor series. Marvel also adapted to comic book form, with less success, Edwin Lester Arnold's character Gullivar Jones and, later, Lin Carter's Thongor.
A concern with social issues had been a part of comic book stories since their beginnings: early Superman stories, for example, dealt with issues such as child mistreatment and working conditions for minors. However, in the 1970s relevance became not only a feature of the stories, but also something that the books loudly proclaimed on their covers to promote sales. The Spider-Man drug issues were at the forefront of the trend of "social relevance" with comic books noticeably handling real-life issues. The above-mentioned Green Lantern/Green Arrow series dealt not only with drugs, but other topics like racism and environmental degradation. The X-Men titles, which were partly based on the premise that mutants were a metaphor for real-world minorities, became wildly popular. Other well-known "relevant" comics include the "Demon in a Bottle", where Iron Man confronts his alcoholism, and the socially conscious stories written by Steve Gerber in such titles as Howard the Duck and Omega the Unknown. Issues regarding female empowerment became trends with female versions of popular male characters (Spider-Woman, Red Sonja, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk).
Starting with Neal Adams' work in Green Lantern/Green Arrow a newly sophisticated realism became the norm in the industry. Buyers would no longer be interested in the heavily stylized work of artists of the Silver Age or simpler cartooning of the Golden Age. The so-called "House Style" of DC tended to imitations of Adams' work, while Marvel adopted a more realistic version of Kirby's style. This change is sometimes credited to a new generation of artists influenced by the popularity of EC Comics in the 1950s. Artists who could distinguish themselves from these House Styles would achieve some renown. Such names include Berni Wrightson, Jim Aparo, Jim Starlin, John Byrne, Frank Miller, George Pérez and Howard Chaykin. A secondary line of comics at DC, headed by former EC Comics artist Joe Orlando and devoted to horror titles, established a differing set of styles and aggressively sought talent from Asia and Latin America.[citation needed]
During the Silver Age, comic books frequently had several features, a form harkening back to the Golden Age when the first comics were anthologies. In 1968, Marvel graduated its double feature characters appearing in their anthologies to full-length stories in their own comic. But several of these characters could not sustain their own title and were cancelled. Marvel tried to create new double feature anthologies such as Amazing Adventures and Astonishing Tales which did not last as double feature comic books. A more enduring concept was that of the team-up book, either combining two characters, at least one of which was not popular enough to sustain its own title (Green Lantern/Green Arrow). Even DC combined two features in Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes and had team-up books (The Brave and the Bold, DC Comics Presents and World's Finest Comics). Virtually all such books disappeared by the end of the period.
As the Bronze Age began in the early 1970s, popularity shifted away from the established superhero genre towards comic book titles from which superheroes were absent altogether. These non-superhero comics were typically inspired by genres like Westerns or fantasy & pulp fiction. As previously noted, 1971's revised Comics Code left the horror genre ripe for development and several supernaturally-themed series resulted, such as the popular The Tomb of Dracula, Ghost Rider and Swamp Thing. In the science fiction genre, post-apocalyptic survival stories were an early trend, as evidenced by characters like Deathlok, Killraven and Kamandi. The long-running sci-fi/fantasy anthology comic magazine Metal Hurlant and its American counterpart Heavy Metal began publishing in the late '70s. Marvel's Star Wars series was very popular with a nine-year run.
Children's comics were still popular with Disney reprints under the Gold Key label along with Harvey's stable of characters which grew in popularity. The latter included Richie Rich, Casper and Wendy, which eventually switched to digest format as well. Again Marvel and DC were unable to emulate their success with competing titles.
An 'explicit content' market akin to the niche Underground Comix of the late '60s was ostensibly opened with the Franco-Belgian import Heavy Metal Magazine. Marvel launched competing magazine titles of their own with Conan the Barbarian and Epic Illustrated which would eventually become its division of Direct Sales comics.
The paper drives of World War II and a growing nostalgia among Baby-Boomers in the 1970s made comic books of the 1930s and 1940s extremely valuable. DC experimented with some large-size paperback books to reprint their Golden Age comics, create one-shot stories such as Superman vs. Shazam and Superman vs. Muhammad Ali as well as the early Marvel crossovers.
This period is also marked by the cancellation of most titles in the genres of romance, western, and war stories that had been mainstays of comics production since the 1940s. Most anthologies, whether they presented feature characters or not, also disappeared. They had been used since the Golden Age to introduce new characters, to host characters that lost their own title or to feature several characters. This had the effect of standardizing the length of comics stories within a narrow range, so that multiple stand-alone stories would appear within a single issue. The underground comix of the 1960s counterculture continued, but contracted significantly and were ultimately subsumed into the emerging direct market.
So, I use modern sized bags for some of bronze age comics. I haven't started collecting any silver and golden age comics but I'm assuming that they wouldn't really fit in modern bags either. But for my bronze age comics I wonder, would it create a damage on my comics over time? Because it feels like kinda tight and I'm worried of getting them bend.
I'm planning to display some of my comics on my wall and I wanted to learn if there's any problem before doing it. Thanks for any help in advance and sorry for any grammar mistakes. English isn't my native lol.
This led to the first major revision of the CCA and a Renaissance of sorts as genres besides superheroes became fair game once again. There was a horror comics boom, as the new CCA guidelines allowed for vampires and other monsters depicted in a manner consistent with classic literature and folklore. There was a similar boom for fantasy comics, since heroes could now wield previously forbidden weapons and actually kill their enemies. This led to Tomb of Dracula, Conan the Barbarian and Warlord becoming some of the most popular comics of the era.
As the Civil Rights Movement and Feminist Movement advanced through the 1970s, so too did the comic book industry attempt to diversify itself. Of course there had been superheroines and minority superheroes before but a greater effort was made to give these characters their own comics instead of limiting them to guest roles or supporting roles in other titles.
Women didn't get quite as fair a shake, as superhero comics were still seen as a boys-only market at the time. Most of the new female characters introduced at this time were derivative of male heroes (i.e. Spider-Woman, She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel) and their solo adventures were usually confined to anthology comics, like Batgirl in Detective Comics.
Another important innovation that came from this time period was the beginnings of the Direct Market, where large distributors worked directly with the comic publishers to distribute comics. Before the Bronze Age, comics were largely sold at newsstands and grocery stores through the same distributors that handled magazines. These distributors were less than reliable, however, and it was all but impossible for collectors to be assured of finding their favorite books.
It was the Bronze Age when superheroes, now read and made by older fans, began featuring in more mature stories with a social consciousness. Narrowing down more than a decade of publication, here is the list of the 10 most impactful Bronze Age superhero comics.
Issue #85's famous cover, revealing Green Arrow's partner and ward Roy Harper/Speedy had become a heroin addict, is one of the Bronze Age's starkest indicators that comics were no longer afraid of hot button issues. The run is also notable for introducing John Stewart, one of the first major black superheroes, and beginning Green Arrow's long-running relationship with Black Canary.
Luke Cage was neither the first Black superhero (that honor belongs to Black Panther) or the first African-American superhero (that was the Falcon). He was, though, the first African-American superhero with an eponymous comic series. Moreover, unlike Black Panther, Cage's costume did not mask his face; his blackness was on full display for readers. Coupled with the series' Harlem setting and Blaxploitation genre trappings, Luke Cage, Hero For Hire was a major step forward for racial representation in superhero comics.
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