Comic Books

Beginning in the early 20 th century (and very last few years, the 19 th century), comics have appeared in the newspaper "Sunday supplement. Yellow Kid by Richard Felton Outcault author of WR Hearst Hearst New York American newspaper is traditionally held were the first comics.

After the first publication to 1930 cartoon books have been sold to the public. These early books have introduced such memorable characters as the orphan Annie Lil ', Dick Tracy, Popeye, and Mutt and Jeff. Often these short books were issued as a reward for reading news, to increase circulation, redeemable for free by presenting a coupon from the newspaper. "Funnies" as comics were widely known, continued to expand in the interests of both characters were introduced (Chester Gould Dick Tracy, introduced as the mufti Tracy and Tarzan Hal Foster's from monkeys appeared between 1929 and 1930), but attempts to commercial production of standalone comic, as a rule , failed.

Eastern Color Printing Company in New York have discovered a success in 1933, the production of popular books of one character was originally to promote commercial products and were distributed to suppliers. These freely in this book have been used by various companies, including Canada Dry and Kinney Shoes, in particular, to promote their products in their places of sale. The company considered part of Eastern wisdom popularity of these books with their four-color 7-inch by 9-inch paper size, and decided to try to sell books printed in the same format.

In 1934, "Flash Gordon" comic strip was inducted into the newspaper and soon after his own comic book series format of Alex Raymond. Flash Gordon appeared in the popular weekly radio serial and as a result of his band became more well-read and popular among Americans of all stripes. Based on these sales, Universal Studies is a movie in 1936 starring the character, whose popularity continues to grow. The spin-off strip starring Jungle Jim, by Gordon hit, was presented in the same year. Mickey Mouse Magazine appeared a year later. In 1937, Detective Comics to the first question on the concentration of crime and suspense stories. The owners have an immediate commercial success, and shortly thereafter decided to publish a new anthology series based on different premises. As a result, Action Comics # 1, published in June 1938, the Golden Age of comics began with the appearance of Superman's Jerry Siegel.

Just a year later, supported by reports of huge amounts of money generated by Superman, Bob Kane created the superhero costume-wearing, without any authority, Bat-Man, appearing in Detective Comics ? 27. Since the mid 1930's until the end of World War II, the Golden Age continued to produce massive sales and extremely popular characters. Among other things: Shazam, Captain America, Human Torch, the various "War Comics" series, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Daredevil, and all during this period. Many reasons are offered to reduce the readers who have followed this period, the most popular is the drop in demand as soldiers returned from service during the Second ...