Welcome to Comic House

Comic Books – The Modern Age

If one were to classify which the Modern Age of comic books would be, it would probably start in the middle of the 1980s and go right up to today. It really is a kind of a continuing of the Bronze Age with the difference being that there were suddenly comic book publishers that came out of nowhere. Of course, there were well known people from the two comic book giants who set up their own independent companies as well. Companies like First, Eclipse, Pacific. One wonders why there was this need to set up independent companies. Well, the main reason was the fact that there were no restraints and controls so there was a lot more freedom of expression. Creativity could be let loose again and this obviously made for much better comic books.

Side by side with this was the decreasing power that the Comic Code Authority could exercise so the two genres that took off in the light of this were science fiction and horror. So there came Conan the Destroyer and soon you had many more following suit with similar characters. Dracula returned and so did Batman – in fact they even had a comic book encounter! So super heroes and horror started coming together and suddenly the whole comic book saw a brand new character thanks to these independent comic book companies.

Of course, once things started flowing and creativity started gushing forth, it was time for a bit of a change – so enter the anti-hero. In fact, an anti-super hero. So we saw Batman morphing into his evil side like a Jekyll and Hyde. Then we saw the incarnation of Robin – Jason, who got killed by the Joker. The comic book character Wolverine was also pretty much in the same boat. He helped people and yet he had an attitude and he had a terrible temper which he struggled to control even though he helped a lot of people in need.

Another superhero with a dark side was Daredevil who wears a terrifying costume, like a devil and who is blind. However, all his other senses are alert even though he is a mutant. He is fully aware that he is different and while he does undergo trials and tribulations because of that, he has a strong personality and this perhaps is a super hero's best asset.

It isn't very easy to say when exactly the Modern Age began and whether it really is an age apart from the Bronze Age barring a few differences. However, it is great to see the whole comic world growing and expanding and evolving, creating characters who become a part of our lives.

Cartoonist Katz draws on absurdity

Cartoonist Katz draws on absurdity San Antonio Express-News Copyright 2012 San Antonio Express-News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Updated 10:49 a.m., Thursday, January 19, 2012 Handlebar mustache aside, Farley Katz finds plenty of other ways to show off his quirky wit. Usually it's in the pages of The New Yorker, where, in 2007 ...

Road show assessing local treasures

York, PA - Pauline Sheffer wanted top dollar for her nickel. In 1906, the silver coin with a Roman numeral V on the back could only fetch five pennies.

Record albums aren’t dead quite yet

Quick, tell me the top-selling album on vinyl for 2011. It was The Beatles' " Abbey Road," released in 1969. That's according to a year-end industry report released last week by Nielsen SoundScan , a company that keeps track of music sales.

Back stage

Leaping lizards

The Most Common And Costly Investment Mistake

I’d like to tell you about a study I read recently. It’s a slim little booklet titled One-Way Pockets by Don Guyon (a pen name for a broker). The book, which was first published in 1917, covers some studies he did on the trading behavior of accounts at the time. What he found was timeless.