The most common misconception about comic books is that they are the sole publishing form for stories about super-heroes. Well it is a misconception for the following reason…comic books are a medium. They are one of the media of the arts, the same as novels or movies or television shows or even video games. As such a media comic books publish stories in all sorts of genres beyond the exploits of superheroes. The media of comic books has some origins as early as 18th century Japan, which later became the largest market in the world with “manga’. However during the late 1930s and 1940s comic books became hugely popular in the United States and the United Kingdom. And there are many examples of genres and popular in the coming decades, not many of which are as widely popular or generally well known as Superman or Spider-Man.
Speaking of Japan, a popular manga is the Samurai epic title Lone Wolf and Cub. The manga, created by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima in 1970. The title ran for six years and has been adapted into six films, four plays and a television series. The globally popular series ran for 28 volumes, (as reprinted by Dark Horse Comics) and spun off Samurai Executioner, by the same creators whom also worked on Path of the Assassin, which is an unrelated manga based on two historical figures. Of course these are just a few examples of the Manga industry which include many titles such as Akira, Ghost in the Shell, One Punch Man, Deathnote and so on. Many popular video game franchises have also become popular mangas such as Legend of Zelda and Street Fighter. The Manga industry has become so massively successful it has spawned thousands of anime adaptations as well as influenced Japanese animation, as well as arguably worldwide animation to a scale that is unfathomable.
A popular and notable example is George Remi’s, (a.k.a. Herge’s), ‘Tintin’ which first appeared in the belgian newspaper Le Petit Vingtieme in 1929. Tintin is a personal favourite of mine, having enjoyed reading his adventures in my younger years in school. The comic books have been adapted into animated adventures and even a feature length animated movie co-directed by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson, as well as being translated into 70 languages and has sold over 200 million copies world wide. One can argue the character fits neatly into the adventure genre and has influences from pulp stories, although the debut story ‘Tintin in the land of the Soviets’ was more of a humour strip. The comic books, or if you prefer ‘magazines’ or ‘graphic novels’, are a fantastic phenomenon.
Another globally popular non-superhero, coincidentally Belgian, comic book character, is Asterix. Asterix first appeared in the French comic magazine ‘Pilote’ in 1959. Created by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, the comic character has proven so popular the stories have been translated into 111 different languages and dialects over the years. Also there have been 13 feature length adaptations of the stories, nine of which are animated and four live action. Asterix is a fantastic melding of humour, adventure and action in a period setting of Gaul (France) in the year of 50 b.c. and has a great appeal to readers of all ages. And it’s awesomely fun!
Although comic books, in some form, were published in the United Kingdom as early as 1828, our native comic industry became popular in the 1930s with the debut of The Beano and Dandy published by D. C. Thompson. For those of you unfamiliar with the titles they’re humour anthology comics which continue to be published to this day. The most famous characters include Dennis the Menace, The Bash Street Kids, and Desperate Dan. Possibly due to a lack of children’s entertainment at the time, comics such as these held the market until titles such as Tiger, which introduced the football comic ‘Roy of the Rovers’, Eagle, Century 21, Valiant, Warrior and Viz debuted. Eagle popularised Dan Dare the science fiction comic. Warrior reintroduced the 1950s superhero Marvelman, who evolved later as Miracleman written by Alan Moore in the 1980s. However it was not until punk era England in 1977 that 2000ad debuted and became one of the most arguably influential comic books of the 20th century. Its second issue introduced future cop Judge Dredd, a science fiction based character which has appeared in the comic every week for the past 40 years.
Of course, the most well known comic franchises in the world are arguably from the American comic book industry. American comics also became popular during the late 1930s at a period of time in the years following the depression. Many people still lived in poverty and in a slightly more comfortable but extremely thrifty lifestyle. It was at a time like this when comic books, an affordable entertainment, became popular among children. One of those children would become the world famous novelist George R. R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, which began with A Game of Thrones. Examples of late 1930s and early 1940s comic books, which are the most popular titles of the medium at the time of course, include such characters as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Human Torch, and the original Captain Marvel. There are many more examples and the genre has proven to be the most popular for 80 years now, but it is not the only genre American comic books are famous for. Sometimes taking the lead from Hollywood, comic book publishers would create characters from different genres such as westerns (Rawhide Kid), monsters (Groot), and horror too (Tales from the Crypt). Comics of the time became increasingly popular through to present day but there have always been several genres which readers follow avidly such as: war comics with Sgt Fury and Sgt Rock; spy comics with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.; horror with Tomb of Dracula, I, Vampire, Werewolf By Night, John Constantine: Hellblazer, Vampirella, and Berni Wrightson’s adaptation of Frankenstein. Even the satirical comic Howard the Duck. Genre crossing comic series followed in the 1980s and 1990s which became more popular than the superhero genre too which include the supernatural/western Preacher, the gothic/supernatural influenced Sandman, and of course the popular survival horror/western The Walking Dead.
There are many many titles to mention and discuss which span the now century crossing medium of comic books. But the beauty of the medium is the malleability and scope of comic books, stories bound only by the imaginations of their creators. As with novels, the stories created can cross genres, time and space and create something unique and timeless. Pure escapism, amazing stories, and beautiful art, and much more than just superheroes.
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