Bradford is an academic historian. Comic
Book Nation is intended to be a cultural history of comics. Of course,
Bradford can’t help but cover some the same ground that other writers cover,
though this book predates many of the more academic or journalistic books on
the subject. Some publishers, creators, and titles are just too important and
influential not to mention. Even so, he tries to stick to his purpose and show
how the times were reflected in comics.
I think it is fair to say that comics, and popular media generally,
reflect cultures more than they influence them. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t
be popular. This reflection isn’t always simplistic, even in comics. Comics
writers and artists, like other producers of popular media, tried to address
the concerns and interests of their audiences, sometimes realistically,
sometimes idealistically, and sometimes with cynicism.
Of course, it was Superman who
sparked the immense popularity of superhero
comics, and comics generally. That popularity spawned imitators, as it does
today. The early Superman, created by Cleveland high
school students Jerry Siegel
and Joe
Shuster, was a reformer. He battled gangsters and crooked politicians. He
was a New Dealer.
Many comics supported New Deal policies
to address the Great
Depression.
Superheroes made the transition to World War II
with ease. Writers had to address why the costumed crusaders weren’t enlisting
or bringing the war to a swift end. They must have succeeded, because superhero
titles were very popular, even among American
soldiers. Comics were pro-war, and many costumed heroes were battling foreign
menaces, especially the Nazis, even before
America entered the war.
Superhero titles floundered after the war, but other genres did well.
Comics generally supported American policies of intervention in smaller nations
and containment of Communism. The
medium reflected the post-war hopefulness that there could be peace and
international cooperation with America leading as a benevolent superpower.
The post-war years had troubles, too. People feared the misuse and
spread of nuclear weapons. The Korean War
was a doubtful venture that many felt lacked the clear and good purpose of
World War II. This applied to Viet Nam, too,
where the additional problems of guerilla warfare challenged notions of
heroism.
Comic books faced other challenges. The excesses of crime
and horror
comics brought about industry-operated censorship. Television
competed for the time and money of children.
Much of the latter part of the book shows how the comics industry found
a way to survive these problems. The 1960s introduced a
resurgence of creativity and superheroes, especially the flawed fantasy men of Stan Lee’s Marvel Comics.
New models of distribution were introduced in the 1980s. Electronic
media has the potential to reinvigorate comics.
Because my adolescence was in the 1980s, I’d like to mention a few
things about it. Unlike some comics historians, Bradford spends a fair amount
of time on that decade, especially in a book that covers more than 60 years. He
provides a pretty good description of how Frank Miller
and Alan
Moore challenged the superhero model and brought a lot of new interest to
it. If anything, Miller and Moore were too influential. A lot of comics are
still derivative of their best works.
Imitation of success is common in comics, and too often the imitators do
not have the skill or understanding of the masters.
What I’d really like to mention is that Bradford acknowledges John Byrne’s
contribution. Byrne was a very popular writer and artist in the 1980s. He did
some pretty good stuff, too. He also indulged in excesses that presaged the
excesses of the 1990s, but at least he did it with a self-aware wink. Byrne
brought fun back to comics. Then as now, I like comics with a good dose of fun.
If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Wright, Bradford W. Comic Book
nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore, MD:
Johns
Hopkins University Press, 2001.
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