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Ten Great Turning Points in Comic Book History

by Matt Nelson

The Wright brother’s first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903 realized man’s eternal dream to fly. It took three years of careful planning, trial and error.

Hitler’s decision to halt his forces moments from Dunkirk--for fear of stretching his forces too thin--allowed the English to escape across the English Channel, thus avoiding what could possibly have led to Nazi world domination. His decision, with no idea that the fate of the world hung in the balance, took mere moments.

Thus goes the great turning points in mankind’s history: an event, accident or on purpose, which causes the flow of history to turn sharply off course. Most are not planned, and practically none anticipate the effects such an event has on mankind.

Although much more minuscule in scope, the history of comic books holds some very fascinating turning points of its own during its 65+ years of existence. Who would realize a simple boating accident in 1947 would eventually be responsible for some of the most diverse, fantastic comics in the industry?

Even today, great turning points in comic history occur. Just in the past five years we have seen incredible changes in art styles, the collector’s market, and the distribution and sale of comic books. It is indeed a tumultuous time for fans of ephemera right now. But before I get ahead of myself, let me begin our journey of the ten most important turning points in comic history at the first, and quite possibly biggest, one of all...

#1 - Action Comics #1 - Few can argue against the release of Superman’s first appearance as being a major turning point in history. Simply put, it signaled the end of the beginning of comic books and the dawn of its Golden Age.

During the 1930’s comics were basically a reincarnation of popular newspaper comic strips. Original concepts for comic books were few and far between. Because of this, two young boys with a new comic strip idea were soliciting just the newspapers. Their concept, a man with super strength, was so different from anything popular at the time they had huge difficulties trying to sell it. After several discouraging years, one strip publisher suggested they try the new comic book medium for their character, and called Whitney Ellsworth, publisher of National Publications with the idea. It just so happened he was looking for a lead story for his new title, Action Comics, but was somewhat reluctant to use this far-fetched character called Superman. Nevertheless, Ellsworth placed him on the cover to #1, and waited to see what would happen.

After seeing the cover of Action #1 on the newsstands Ellsworth became so nervous he pulled Superman off of the cover of future issues. By issue #4 sales results were in, and Superman was a hit. By #7 Superman was cautiously placed back on the cover, only to be pulled off again. This went on for almost a year before Ellsworth was positive that Superman was the reason Action was selling so well.

The success of Action #1 and its subsequent issues were critical to comic books for several reasons. First, it broke the general rule that comics were basically meant to reprint the newspaper strips. Second, Action’s spin-off title, Superman, proved that a character could be successful in his own series. Third, it created a genre that would succeed tremendously during the war years just on the horizon, a period which would solidify the future of comics for years to come.

One can question the life span comics might have had if Superman never came about. Because almost all of the comics printed prior to Action #1 were reprints of strips, the future of comics would have been in serious question once the strip genre faded out. The success of Action #1 not only sent the path of comics shifting off of strips, but also diverted the comic book industry from eventual oblivion. Thus, many consider Action #1 to be the first, largest, and most crucial turning point in comic history.

#2 - December 7, 1941 (attack on Pearl Harbor) - If Action #1 was the dawn of the Golden Age of Superhero comics, then the attack on Pearl Harbor certainly solidified it.

In comic books, the success of superheroes varied conversely with their nemesis. Batman fought the Joker, and Superman battled Lex Luthor, but what about the throngs of imitators in 1940 and 1941? The answer (and their salvation) came on December 7, 1941 when the Japanese bombed Pearl harbor, thrusting America into World War II. Instead of fighting vague, generic villains, the superheroes could now place a name and a face on their enemy--the Nazis, the Italians, and the "Japs". Comics began to exploit these new foes with a fervor unparalleled in a printed medium. It helped with morale among readers at home and abroad, and especially helped with sales, which were at an all-time high.

During this period, sales of superhero comics reached levels of readership still unparalleled today. America’s entry into World War II elevated comic books from a second-rate medium to the forefront of periodicals with their famous characters bashing Hitler and Tojo in the face. The comic book became a mainstay of American culture during the 1940’s.

Because superheroes were dependent on the war to keep their popularity high, sales began to decline following the war’s end in 1945. By 1948, superheroes had all but disappeared from the newsstand, replaced by new genres of crime, funny animal, and teen humor comics. But the comic book medium was, indeed, here to stay.

#3 - Death of M.C. Gaines (1947) - M.C. Gaines (or Max Gaines, more commonly referred to as) was a very influential man in comics during the 1930’s and 1940’s. Many of his achievements included creating the first modern comic book, selling the first comic book off of the newsstands, and having a hand in DC, one of the most successful companies during the Golden Age. He was a business man first and foremost, and was always full of ideas; comics were his life.

By 1947, after splitting off from DC, Gaines had started up a new line of comics called Educational Comics, or “EC”. The themes were mostly good-natured, and very mild in content, with titles such as “Picture Stories from the Bible”.

That year tragedy struck the Gaines family when Max was killed in a freak boating accident. In addition to the family loss there was the problem of who would continue Max’s comic book company. His son William was the least likely candidate. William was aspiring to become a chemistry teacher, and had no interest in comic books. But with no one else to take the helm of EC, he reluctantly took the reigns and, with no prior experience in the industry and no long term aspirations, proceeded to continue where his father left off.

Not happy with the subject matter his father used for his comic line, William steered his comics in a whole other direction. Instead of history and religion, EC (changed to stand for ENTERTAINING Comics) now displayed Crime and Romance, two popular genres during that period. To produce these comics, Gaines employed top-notch writers and artists in the industry, such as Johnny Craig, Al Feldstein, and Harvey Kurtzman.

After a short time, Gaines decided to try a new genre he had heard about: horror. With #12 War against Crime became Vault of Horror, Gaines’ first venture into the new genre. Within a year several new titles were produced from EC focusing on crime, science fiction, and fantasy, among others. Gaines was not the first to produce comics in these genres, but many consider him the best. The EC comics that came out over the next five years were unparalleled in quality of art and storytelling. Creators such as Frank Frazetta, Wally Wood, and Al Williamson, just to name a few, broke new ground in comic books and influenced countless artists for years to come. Many consider the comics put out by EC from 1950-1955 to be the finest work ever produced in the industry. It was a creative apex that has rarely been repeated in time.

This explosion of creative genius was squashed in early 1955 with the advent of the Comics Code Authority, and EC, its main target, was forced to disband by the end of the year after a dismal slip in sales. But because of its demise during its peak years, EC was immortalized in comic fandom. Many wonder what the industry might have produced had the comics continued on as they were back then.

In addition to its artistic influence, EC also marked the birth of comic fandom as we know it today. Because the popularity of EC was so tremendous, readers actually kept and traded their reading copies, becoming the first collectors of comic books. And thus, the collector was born. Also, correspondence between readers began as a result of EC comics during this period, which indirectly led to get-togethers and eventually comic conventions. During the 1960’s EC comics were some of the most valued on the back issue market. It is evident we have EC comics to thank for our fandom that exists today. Even though its life span was very short, the company’s fame and influence still permeates the comic industry today.

#4 - Seduction of the Innocent - By the early 1950’s the face of comic books had evolved, changing from the mainstay of Superheroes to a variety of genres. At the top of the heap were horror and crime comics, published en masse by EC and Lev Gleason, among others. The age group of readers changed as well, as many more adults adopted comics as a staple of their diet of entertainment. Thus, the content became more adult oriented, or “sophisticated”. During this gradual evolution attempts were made to establish regulations for content, but lacking influence, these rules fell by the wayside before long. The rising concerns of the nation during the McCarthy Era were beginning to threaten the comic book industry.

The man who lit the fire was a psychiatrist named Fredrick Wertham. Apparently, this man had been closely monitoring comic books for a while through studies conducted on children, “avid readers” of comics. He concluded that, in a nutshell, certain comic books were the cause of child delinquency. His studies were printed in a book titled “Seduction of the Innocent” which came out in 1954. Because of society’s return to “family values” during this period, parents took this accusation very seriously. Public outcry grew steadily until it climaxed with the famous Senate Committee hearings that year. A valiant effort was made by the comic companies to prove that comics did not cause child delinquency, albeit for naught. To avoid government intervention, a code was established for which every comic had to pass in order to see distribution. Unlike the codes before it, this one was much more concise in what it demanded of comics, as opposed to the vague references made to content previously. For instance, no cover could “prominently” display the word “CRIME”, “HORROR”, or “TERROR” in its title.

Sure enough, comics cleaned up almost overnight in early 1955. Even though parents and lawmakers were happy, no one had any idea how detrimental the effects of such a code would be on the industry. From an artistic standpoint, many of the most prolific creative teams were driven out of comics because their genre specialties were all but outlawed (see previous section). Whole companies closed. Entire genres of comics ceased to exist. What once was a healthy, evolving, exploding realm of creative genius was reduced to an empty shell of an industry in the blink of an eye.

The voice of one man ultimately caused the fall of a medium on the verge of artistic greatness. Instead, it plunged into the depths of disparity from which it would not recover for many years.

#5 - Showcase #4 - In 1956 the entertainment industry was booming. Rock and Roll was in full swing and televisions were in homes everywhere. America was enjoying a time of prosperity. And yet, comic books were at an all-time low. Following the wake of the Code, Most of the comic publishers closed their doors as whole genres, such as horror and crime, disappeared from the newsstand. The industry was a barren wasteland, the worst shape it had ever been in since its inception.

Funny animal and teen humor comics, published mainly by Dell, Harvey, and Archie, were relatively unaffected by the code. DC comics were also, for the most part, spared the affects of the Code, due mainly in part to their standard tame approach to the questionable genres. Atlas had to cancel a few titles deemed unworthy of code standards, and change others to conform, but remained intact as a company. Others who depended heavily on horror and crime, such as EC, Gilmore, and Superior, eventually met their demise once the strict code rules were in place.

Prior to the code’s initiation, the industry always enjoyed a constantly changing “flavor of the month” genre. The early 40’s overflowed with superheroes, while funny animals and teenagers invaded the stands during the late 40’s. By the early 50’s, crime, romance, western, and jungle were hot, and by 1955 horror and science fiction ruled supreme. But following the code, the newsstand that once boasted a huge selection of comics now offered only a meager amount, scaled down to meet code standards. Had it continued down this path, the industry might have died.

Instead, a new DC title single-handedly pulled the industry away from the brink of destruction. Showcase, a “tryout” series for new characters, was the brainchild of editor Julius Schwartz. Initially, each issue would feature a character created by the readers, but after only a lukewarm reception, Schwartz decided to leave the “ideas” up to the employees of DC comics. With issue #4, the Flash, an old character from the Golden Age was given a makeover and thrown onto the cover. Because of skepticism of how the fans would react, the Flash was removed from Showcase until sales reports were in. As it turned out, #4 was a success, and the Flash was put into #8.

As a result of the Flash’s success, a flood of new superheroes hit the newsstands. Other Golden Age characters, such as Green Lantern and the Atom, were revamped as well. It was the dawning of a new era deemed the Silver Age.

By 1961, DC’s line of comics had changed drastically. Many new titles were devoted exclusively to superheroes, and all of the anthologies headlined them as their main feature.

Although DC is credited with starting the Silver Age, another company that entered the picture in 1961 sustained and evolved the genre throughout the 1960’s.

#6 - Golf Game between Martin Goodman and Jack Liebowitz - During Atlas’ heyday in the 1950’s, the company had a hand in virtually every genre “fad” the comic industry was experiencing. Some of the more popular fads of the decade included Western, Crime, Romance, Humor, Horror, Science Fiction, and Jungle. Stan Lee, once an errand boy for Martin Goodman’s company, now ran production.

Despite moderate success during the early part of the decade, Atlas was in dire straits by 1957. That year, an event coined the “Atlas implosion” by collectors occurred, during which the company literally discontinued practically every title it was printing and shut down its operations for several months. Having no need for his staff, Stan Lee was forced to lay off everyone, referring to it as, “the hardest thing I ever had to do.”

By 1958, Goodman’s company was back in the business, somewhat leaner, but once again printing comic books. Only a handful of titles survived the implosion, and the company changed its cover and contents format. The Atlas symbol disappeared, and the monster genre became the majority of material published.

By 1960 the monsters were becoming repetitive, and Stan Lee was getting tired of the comic business he had been in for almost twenty years. About that time an interesting turn of events occurred, when Goodman played a game of golf with one of his competing publishers over at DC, Jack Liebowitz. During the game Liebowitz casually mentioned that DC was having considerable success with a new superhero book done in the same vein as the JSA, called the Justice League of America. Goodman, always looking for the next hot idea, went back to Marvel and contacted Lee. He was instructed to create a superhero comic for Marvel. Lee, who at the time was seriously considering retiring from comics, decided, with a nudge from his wife, to give it a go one more time. Should the idea fail, it would be Stan’s last. He sat down with Jack Kirby and began to create what would become the Fantastic Four.

The rest is history.

Ironically, Goodman’s books were distributed by DC at the time, a deal cut so his company could function following the implosion. DC allowed Goodman to print only a certain number of titles per month. In order to print Fantastic Four #1, he had to drop another title. FF #1 was distributed with a cover date of November 1961. By #3, it was being touted as “The World’s Greatest Magazine!”

Stan Lee of course stayed in comics, and went on to co-create Spider-man, Thor, Iron Man, X-Men, and the Hulk, among others. Eventually Marvel would surpass DC not only in popularity, but (in this writer’s opinion) in content as well. Marvel did eventually break off its distribution from DC to put out its own books.

Had the golf game never occurred, would there be a Marvel now? This question may never be answered, although given the immense talent that was active at the time (Kirby, Ditko, etc.) there’s no doubt that some company would have come along and challenged DC eventually.

#7 - Direct Distribution - By the late 1960’s comic book sales were down considerably from the boom of the Silver Age. Despite success of the "Batman" television show, the market was shrinking, and for the first time since the mid-1950’s, the life-force of comics was in question.

During the 1960’s, steady growth of a collector’s market created a new breed of reader, one who not only bought a comic to read, but to keep and collect. Theses “collectors” usually looked for back issues, as well as new ones. At that time, newsstands were the only outlets to purchase new comics. These newsstands had the privilege of returning any unsold copies for credit. Once the covers were ripped off and returned for credit, the newsstands were forbidden to sell the remainder comic. As a result, surviving copies of an issue were limited to those bought by readers. All of the rest were destroyed. This made it increasingly difficult for collectors to keep up with issues they missed one month.

In response to the growing demand of back issues, a couple of specialty shops opened across the U.S. (but mainly on the east and west coasts). Places such as Cherokee Book Store (run by Burt Blum), Collector’s Book Store (owned by Malcolm Willits and Leonard Brown), and Pop Hollinger’s place began selling old back issues of comics. Besides a few mail-order dealers, these stores were the only source of back issues for a collector.

In the midst of comics’ declining sales, a teacher named Phil Seuling saw a connection between comic readers and these specialty shops. Seuling, a show coordinator living on the east coast, began negotiations with DC and Marvel to distribute comics through these comic stores, as well as newsstands. No return policy would exist, but the comics could be sold for any amount of money above the cover price, something that was considered illegal through newsstand distribution.

After lengthy discussions, an acceptable agreement was made. To sweeten the deal for comic shop owners, the weekly shipment of comics would arrive sooner to the comic stores than the newsstands. The separation between these two distribution techniques would become known as “direct distribution” (for comic stores), and “newsstand distribution” ( for the newsstands and drugstores).

This shipping change gave a major boost for the industry in two ways: first, many more copies were being sold by publishers because of the “no return” policy. Second, sales of new comics coupled with back issues made the business of a comic book store a successful venture. As a result of Phil Seuling’s negotiations for direct sales, the comic industry was saved, and comic stores multiplied across the U.S. during the 1970’s. Today, there are thousands of specialty stores, and direct sales serve as the backbone of the industry, generating millions of dollars each year in sales for distributors and retailers.

#8 - Shazam #1 - Prior to the 1960’s fan movement, comic books were not considered collectible. But during that decade comic conventions, mail order dealers, and even a few shops emerged, catering to the collector as well as the readers.

When something becomes “collectible”, prices tend to rise steadily as more and more collectors try to locate copies for their collections. In early comic fandom, most Golden Age comics sold for around $1.00 to $2.00. Some “keys”, such as Action #1 and Whiz #2, sold for as much as $100.

The value of new comics rarely rose above cover price back then. Terms, such as “hot”, and “investment copies” were not yet being used in relation to the new market. But with the advent of the Direct Market in the early 1970’s, availability of new comics were even greater, and the grapevine of collectors had lengthened considerably. Because of the ever expanding base of collectors and collector shops around the country, the comic market was taking on a whole new meaning. Collectors would “value” a new comic, the same as they would a Golden Age comic that had come out 30 years earlier. Although speculation had never been attempted on a large scale, circumstances developing in comics were beginning to make it a very tempting proposition.

The wake-up call came in 1970 when Marvel produced Conan #1. As a result of a new, intricate web of correspondence between fans, news of high anticipation for the book traveled fast around the country. Within a short time, retailers were sold out of their order of Conans, and prices for copies were on the rise. Seeing this, many people saw an investing opportunity in the new comic market. As opposed to the slow growth in value of Golden Age, new comics seemed to increase in value much quicker. The only trick was to guess which comics would become “hot”. And thus, the mentality for the new comic market was born.

Two years after Conan #1, investors saw their chance. DC decided to revive Captain Marvel, an old Fawcett character from the Golden Age. Unfortunately, Marvel already had a comic named Captain Marvel, so DC called the series Shazam, Captain Marvel’s famous expression. Anticipation for the first issue of Shazam was tremendous, mainly because it used to be the world’s best selling superhero comic book. C.C. Beck and Otto Binder, the original team who handled the character during the 1940’s and ‘50’s, were slated to create this run (another plus for collectors). Investors, who remain nameless to this day, purchased huge quantities of #1, rumored to be as high as half of the print run, in hopes of cornering the market. As a result, only a fraction of #1’s actually made it into the hands of collectors.

To worsen matters, the book proved to be disappointing, and demand fell shortly after #1. As a result, the book never rose in value much higher than its cover price, and many investors took a bath on their investment. Some think a few people still own thousands of copies, unwilling to sell until the price increases.

Despite the failure of this first attempt at large scale comic investing, people have not been discouraged. To this day, investors still gamble on new comics, as if it were the stock market. There have been huge payoffs at times, and many more “Shazam #1” cases, as well. Despite the negative impression recently given to new comic investing, it has still brought many new people (and much more money) into the market.

#9 - Formation of Image - Since the 1960’s, the market had been dominated by Marvel and DC, “the Big Two”. In the 1980’s a resurgence of independent companies occurred, but only Dark Horse gained a secure foothold in the long run, as the rest folded within a handful of years. Between 1988 and 1992 the gap between the Big Two and everyone else widened considerably. During this period, Marvel was wielding an unusually large, tremendously popular stable of artists and creators. Todd McFarlane was gaining widespread fame during his stint on Spider-man and Hulk, Jim Lee on X-men, and Rob Liefeld on New Mutants, among others. While these artists worked at Marvel, the market was going through a radical period during which a new investor’s market was developing. People were buying hoards of comics, sometimes many copies of any one issue at a time. Because of this, and the huge popularity of Marvel’s titles, sales records were being set and broken repeatedly. These artists were developing huge throngs of fans over the course of their careers at Marvel, and by 1991 were gaining a substantial amount of clout in the industry. The massive success of their creations for Marvel, such as Spider-man #1, X-men #1, and X-force #1 (all with multiple covers), made for a new brand of comic creator. They began to demand creator control, profits, and ownership of their creations. These demands clashed sharply with Marvel’s long standing tradition of the boss-employee relationship.

By 1992 it was clear that their demands would not be met, so the core of Marvel’s stable of artists quit to form their own creator-owned company. This event was not new, as many a hot artist had left Marvel (and DC) in the past to start his own line of comics. The difference this time was the fact that the artists were Marvel, the reason that the company was so popular to begin with. Never before had so many creators with so much influence left all at once.

Image was born shortly thereafter, showcasing new characters such as Spawn, Youngblood, Savage Dragon, and Wildcats. The anticipation was tremendous, and sales were very good for the company’s inception. Now, it must be understood that the following these artists had was nothing short of phenomenal. Before a single page was printed, retailers were expecting instant sellouts. Orders placed for the comics were so big, they rivaled Marvel’s best selling titles. Image could do no wrong.

Since then, Image has enjoyed marginal success, hindered no doubt by their unshakable reputation of lateness and lack of capable writing. Despite these shortcomings, the company has withheld the test of time, and presently has a sizable market share not far behind DC and Marvel, a feat that has not been accomplished by any other company in decades. In addition to the success of their market share, Image has been a big influence on other companies and countless creators, having brought about a new style of art that Marvel has now largely adopted. In short, Image has revolutionized the new comic industry. Whether people feel the results are good or bad is irrelevant. What was once only the Big Two has now become the Big Three.

#10 - Marvel’s exclusive distribution - The latest turning point in the market’s history occurred just a couple of years ago, when Marvel decided to exclusively distribute their own comics. Even though the final outcome of this arrangement is still not completely evident, it is obvious at this stage that the effects of Marvel’s self distribution has been detrimental to the market.

By 1995, the comic market had cooled down considerably from its heated activity during the first half of the decade. In terms of sales, comics had taken a considerable dip from 1992 and 1993, two very successful years. The market saw a steady decline in both collectors and investors. The distinction between the two is important in the new comic industry: collectors, people who bought primarily for the pleasure of reading, were discouraged by the ever-increasing gate-fold, enhanced, embossed, multiple, bagged covers, and rapidly increasing prices. Investors, people who bought not only to read, but primarily to invest, found new comics did not give such a good return. Books they had been buying multiples of, and paying $100.00 for, were rapidly decreasing in value.

As a result, the number of copies purchased shrunk disproportional to the decreasing number of readers. To further aggravate the problem, companies (mainly Marvel and Image) continued to put out as many titles as before, at a higher price. Dealers could not keep up with ordering so many titles when their customers were buying less with each passing month. Within a span of months, the number of dealers nationwide dwindled by almost 50%. As it had 40 years previous, the industry, following a big boom, was going bust.

In the midst of all of this, Marvel, now incorporated, attempted to increase profit margins by purchasing a local company to distribute their own books. This action was completely new to direct distribution, which had always consisted of healthy competition between several distributors all putting out the same comics. Now, every distributor immediately lost their Marvel accounts, significantly decreasing profits.

To worsen matters, Marvel’s handling of their own distribution was nothing short of disastrous. Their attempt at turning a small, local distribution company into a nationwide provider overnight was a failure, mainly because nobody understood the mechanics of national distribution (much less with one tiny, incapable location). It was like trying to run a Wal-Mart with one employee. Weekly shipments began to arrive late, or not at all. Some retailers would not get billed, while others got billed twice as much. Phone lines were tied up at all times, and reorders were out of the question.

Seeing Marvel’s massive success at self distribution, DC, Image, Dark Horse, and everyone else scrambled to exclusively distribute their own books as well. Luckily, these companies decided to go with already established national distribution chains. After a tough battle, the dust settled and Diamond Distribution stood the victor. They were able to secure the accounts to virtually every major comic company. While this was a blessing for the retailer, who would now not have to deal with several different distributors to receive books every week, it sounded to death knell for nearly every other distributor, who now had no books at all to distribute. Within a matter of weeks, almost every one closed their doors or shifted their distribution to other industries.

In early 1997, what seemed impossible ten years earlier, happened: Marvel declared bankruptcy. In the wake of this, the company decided to give up self distribution, and handed the reigns to the more competent Diamond. The transaction went smoothly, and retailers almost didn’t know the difference (except for the fact that orders started to arrive correct and on time).

In a nutshell, events have turned full circle, coming back to where they began. Only now, distribution is controlled by one single company. Many critics have spoken out about the detrimental effects this arrangement will have on the market, but so far Steve Geppi, the owner of Diamond, has not abused his vast power. Only time will tell what long term effects one sole distributor of comics will have on the market.

My choices for the biggest turning points in comics are strictly my opinion, and readers are welcome to offer theirs, as I’m sure there are divergent choices out there. Talking with fellow collectors has brought forth a multitude of ideas other than the ten listed above, such as New Fun #1 (first original material), Detective #1 (first comic devoted to a single theme), Detective #27 (first appearance Batman, second most popular character; first superhero considered the antithesis of Superman, causing a flood of imitations), Superman #1 (first book devoted to a single character), Eerie #1 (first horror comic), Neal Adams and Jim Steranko’s contributions (which evolved the style of comics), and The Dark Knight Returns (Frank Miller’s masterpiece that caused a revival in the slumping market, as well as indirectly causing the creation of the Batman movie), among others.