Literary History

From Comic Strips to Graphic Novels

Overview
The comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels that we know today all had earlier forms, dating back to the mid-1800s.

The dime novel appeared after the Civil War. These were pocket-sized books featuring flashy cover art that sold by the millions. Comic strips first appeared in New York newspapers in the 1890s. One of the first, The Yellow Kid, was immediately popular, and soon comic strips were syndicated in newspapers all over the country.

Comic strips evolved into comic books in the 1930s. DC Comics was the publisher of comics featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, and others. These comics featured moral superheroes that battled evil forces. This era is referred to as the Golden Age of Comics because sales exploded during this time. By the end of the 1950s, the superheroes of DC Comics were replaced by more violent crime and horror comics.

In the early 1950s, people criticized comics for being unsuitable for young people. The industry then adopted what was called the Comic Code, or guidelines for comic book publishers. Comic books became uninteresting and sales went down. However, later on in the decade, Marvel Comics came onto the scene with Spider-Man, who was different from the superheroes in that he also battled evil but was not perfect. The 1950s through 1970s was a boom era for the comics industry and is referred to as the Silver Age of Comics. Marvel’s X-Men and The Avengers also were created during this time.

The comic book evolved into the graphic novel, or comics in book form. Graphic novels have grown tremendously popular. Contemporary graphic novels include Daniel Clowe’s Ghost World and Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s V for Vendetta, which was dramatized for film in 2006.

Bibliography
The DC Comics Encyclopedia. London: DK Adult, 2004. An illustrated resource to more than one thousand characters from DC Comics, from the 1930s to the present.

Marvel Universe. New York: Henry N. Abrams, 1998. An overview of the characters from Marvel’s comics, from the 1930s to the present, by Marvel archivist Peter Sanderson.

Essential X-Men, Vol. 1. New York: Marvel Comics, 2002. The original X-Men comics were published in the 1960s, and then revived in the 1970s with new writers and illustrators. This book is a collection of the first twenty-seven issues of the revived X-Men comic.

Ghost World. Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 1998. Daniel Clowes’s graphic novel about the relationship between two young women.

V for Vendetta. New York: Vertigo/DC Comics, 1995. Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s graphic novel about the masked entity “V” and his mission to liberate people from fascist Great Britain.

Web links
American Treasures of the Library of Congress: Dime Novels
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/treasures/tri015.html
A collection of cover art for the dime novels, a predecessor of the comic strip and comic book, from the mid-1860s to the early twentieth century.

The History of Superhero Comic Books
http://www.psu.edu/dept/inart10_110/inart10/cmbk2fungold.html
A retrospective look at comic books, from The Yellow Kid to The Funnies, to the Golden Age of Superheroes.

Words and Pictures Museum
http://www.wordsandpictures.org
This is the Web site for the Words and Pictures Museum, a nonprofit organization. It includes information about graphic novel creators, conventions, the latest news, and international comics, including Japanese manga, anime, and European comics.