comics

While comics today are often primarily associated with the superhero stories that provide fodder for blockbuster movies, they are and have been a much more diverse body of literature, and one worthy of study. A mainstay of childhood and young adult reading, comics have incorporated many genres, including action, humor, romance, crime, horror, drama, science fiction, and fantasy. There is also a strong subversive movement, largely aimed at adults, of ‘underground’ work that uses the medium in innovative ways. A database dedicated to this art form, Underground and Independent Comics focuses on those outside the mainstream, from the lurid 1950s horror and crime comics which prompted the restrictive Comics Code to cheekily irreverent like R. Crumb’s Zap Comix to much more … Continued

“It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No! It’s Superman!” While Superman is among the very first successful comic book characters, period, and the earliest comic book superhero, many important comics came in his wake. A market whose art and ideas were dominated by immigrants and their children, women and religious minorities, comic books were conceived by and for an audience left out of what might be termed “high culture.” The success of Superman, and other comic titles like New Fun, All-American Comics and others, led to a thriving comic market, where up to 15 million comic books were purchased by Americans every single week by 1941. Indiana University East boasts a large digital database of comic books, the Underground and … Continued

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Tales from the Comics Database: A Brief Look at EC Comics

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