1.O1.O’Neil and Adams on Batman-Detective Comics #395(Jan 1970)

2.     2.Green Lantern/Green Arrow #79 (Apr 1970)

3.     3.Conan the Barbarian #1 (Oct 1970)

4.     4.KIRBY IS COMING!

5.     5.Kryptonite Nevermore!-Superman #223 (Jan 1971)

6.     6.Spider-Man drug issues-Amazing Spider-Man #96-98(May-July 1971)

7.     7.Black and White magazines

8.     8.Relaxing of the CCA

9.      9.Swamp Thing-House of Secrets #92 (Jun-Jul 1971)

10.  10.100-PageSuper Spectaculars (1971)

11.  11.JonahHex-All-Star Western #10 (Feb-Mar 1972)

12.  12.Tombof Dracula (Apr 1972)

13.  13.LukeCage-Hero for Hire #1 (July 1972)

14.  14.TabloidComics (Dec 1972)

15.  15.Starlin’sCosmic Odyssey-Captain Marvel #25 (Mar 1973)

16.  16.Deathof Gwen Stacy-Amazing Spider-Man #122 (Jul 1973)

17.  17.Masterof Kung Fu-Special Marvel Edition #15 (Dec 1973)

18.  18.ThePunisher-Amazing Spider-Man #129 (Feb 1974)

19.  19.Deathlokthe Demolisher-Astonishing Tales #24 (Aug 1974)

20.  20.Wolverine-IncredibleHulk #181 (Nov 1974)

21.  21.AtlasComics (1975)

22. 22.Giant-SizeX-Men #1

23.  23.WonderWoman on TV (1975)

24.  24.Howardthe Duck #1 (Jan 1976)

25.  25.Supermanvs. The Amazing Spider-Man (Jan 1976)

26.  26.AmericanSplendor #1 (1976)

27.  26.JenetteKahn at DC (1976)

28.  27.LiberatedMarvel Heroines-Ms. Marvel #1 (Jan 1977)

29. .28.2000A.D. (Feb 1977)

30.  29.HeavyMetal #1 (Apr 1977)

31.  30.StarWars #1 (Jul 1977)

32.  31.“TheDefinitive Batman”-Englehart/Rogers Detective Comics #471 (Aug 1977)

33.  32.Cerebusthe Aardvark #1 (Dec 1977)

34.  33.Claremont/Byrneon X-Men

35.  34.TheDC Implosion (1978)

36.  35.Elfquest-FantasyQuarterly #1 (Spring 1978)

37.  36.Birthof the Graphic Novel-McGregor/Gulacy’s Sabre (Aug 1978)

38.  37.Superman:TheMovie (Dec 1978)

39.  39.FrankMiller on Daredevil #158 w/ McKenzie

40.  40.Thefirst mini-series- World of Krypton #1 (July 1979)

Th He also mentions another Bronze Age milestone-The Age of the Artist-Bronze Age "breakouts" include- John Byrne, Howard Chaykin, Dave Cockrum, Michael Golden, Paul Gulacy, Mike Grell, Michael Kaluta, Frank Miller, George Perez, Marshall Rogers, Walter Simonson, Jim Starlin, Barry Smith and Berni Wrightson.  

ToTAnd, looking back, personally for me, there will never be another time for comics, like the Bronze Age. I think that decade was for readers like myself, lightning in a bottle. I miss those days.

ToT

To

Al

Al

(A reminder of how much I loathe this golden/silver/bronze nonsense.)

••

You seem to have missed my point, which I shall reiterate:

Decades ago, some people started referring to the 1940s as the "Golden Age" of comics. This is a term lifted from any of a number of other such references, the Golden Age of Greece, the Golden Age of Exploration, the Golden Age of Automobiles, the Golden Age of TransAtlantic Travel, etc. In each instance the term referred to the beginning of something, when people were exploring and discovering and everything was new.

Unfortunately, almost immediately after this term appeared in comics, there were idiots (imho) who crossed the term with the Olympics, and gave us the Silver and Bronze ages. (In the real world, the Bronze Age was a reference to when various cultures began using that metal to make tools and weapons, not a reference to those cultures "coming in third," as with a Bronze medal.)

So, because of this absurd cross-polination, the "Marvel Age" of Lee and Kirby and Ditko and the FF and Spider-Man and the X-Men and the Avengers and the Hulk and so much more was placed in the "Silver Age," automatically placing all that work as somehow inferior to the work done in the previous decades. (It also generated a great deal of utterly pointless debate over when one "Age" ended and another began.)

So I, for decades, had discouraged the use of these "age" labels, and suggested that instead we use the far more clear and non-pejorative decades to describe when something was published. The Forties. The Fifties. The Sixties. Simple!

The Forties give us the birth of the Superhero in the modern sense, and and explosion of creativity. Also an explosion of utter crap, but that's how it goes!

The Fifties see American comics becoming soft and complacent, with the Comics Code grinding the spine out of most books, and little or nothing in the way of real innovation. Even the "rebirth" of Superheroes in the middle of the Decade was very derivative.

The Sixties gives us comics beginning to develop a "social conscience," as well as starting to forget the target audience. It begins with the birth of the "Marvel Age," another creative explosion, and continues up thru GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW and the coming of "relevance".

The Seventies see plummeting sales, but also the beginnings of the Direct Sales Market, and a distinct shift, if a subtle one, from genuine readers to "collectors" and "speculators."

The Eighties see the shift into more and more product created solely for the DSM, and the beginnings of a dependence upon that extremely narrow venue. Also, "grim and gritty" becomes the rule.

The Nineties arrive, and the madness is locked in. The Speculators are our gods, and everything is about EVENTS and GIMMICKS.

The Century Turns -- and it's pretty much the Nineties continued, with ever shrinking audiences and more and more reliance on suicidally short-term thinking.