Looking down on older comics...

I've been reading some golden and silver age stuff, and it's really gotten me thinking about certain people's dislike for it.

Things are crazy, the dialogue can be wacky, and continuity is an afterthought but it's simply fun. I can imagine being a kid back in the late 30s-60s reading this stuff and just having a blast. It's filled with laughs, maybe not intentional ones for modern viewers, and simple adventure.

I get that writers like Frank Miller, a personal favorite, hurled comics into a darker and more serious age. I love that stuff as much as the next guy. That doesn't mean it has to be the end all be all of how comics should be. If you really think about it, are constant reboots, cosmic apocalyptic events, multi-verses, etc.. really any less crazy or negative as the stuff from older comics?

I think somewhere along the line we forgot that comics were weekly entertainment for a younger audience, with appeal to older readers, and now see it as something quite serious.

Here's some food for thought. http://www.comichron.com/yearlycomicssales.html Look at the the older sales figures and look at the newer ones. (Off-topic side note, holy crap does Star Wars make bank)

Would love to hear your thoughts on this.

@richnightwing:

They're only 'fun' if you're a white, straight, suburban boy.

#checkyourprivilegeatthedoor

........but yeah they were great. I read some silver age Doom Patrol comics the other day and they were weird as shit. I was into it.

lol, I really hope that was a joke.

@richnightwing: 30s - 60s was a time of major discrimination of black race in USA. They had to attend to special schools, were only allowed to drive in the second half of the bus, couldn't use many privileges etc. So yes, if you're reading comics from those times you're very much likely to encounter some racist things and discrimination. That might explain why we don't have a major black super hero from the 20th century. So no, it is not a joke.

Comics were reaaaaaly weird until like the late 90's.

Don't you even dare get me started with those comics from the 80's...

Some of the best comics of all time come out of the 80s. Comics were always "weird."

I've got some Golden/Silver Age Flash omnibuses which I read every so often. Some of the stories in them are very wacky and outlandish, but that is what's entertaining about them.

Not a fan of the Silver Age stuff. The stories got better in the 80's

@lonewanderer23: I think everyone knows there was discrimination back then. Its not that evident in the comics from that age though. More so in the 60's it was often artists who were trying to rebel against that sort of thing which is partly why you saw quite a few black heroes being introduced at Marvel during that time(late 60's/early 70's). Its also semi important to differentiate between the south and the rest of the country where segregation wasn't nearly as pronounced. I mean Cleveland had a black mayor in 1967 so its not like black people were de facto second class citizens everywhere in the country back then.