Don’t be alarmed by the title, everything’s fine, I’m not going anywhere. But like I noted yesterday, my initial attempt at my Monday post someway, somehow, caused a glitch in the matrix here. Comments couldn’t be posted on the post, and for some folks the site as a whole wasn’t loading properly.
Well, I managed to do a brand new version of that post that appears to work fine…some of you have posted a couple of comments, so it all looks good.
As I also said yesterday,I wondered if the 16-year-old template I’m using is part of the problem. I’m using a WordPress theme called “Hanami,” which has been a solid and faithful visual layout for my site for all this time, but it’s very possible the cracks are starting to show. Hence, my quest for a newer, more modern-looking theme that will retain the simplicity of what I have now, but be more responsive to, say, desktop and mobile screen sizes. Oh, and will also allow for a banner across the top of the page with my site name and tagline superimposed over it.
And also won’t break everything. That’ll be good, too. Any ideas, feel free to let me know in my hopefully-functioning comment section.
If you were around the last time I changed up the site, back in early 2010, you know that was a bit of a challenge. But that was switching from Blogger to WordPress, a full transition of blogging platforms. This new template, whatever it is, will hopefully just be a visual shift on an existing platform, one that will hopefully work better with the software involved.
My feeling is that it’ll be a smooth transaction, since my site isn’t terribly demanding programming-wise. But I imagine there will still be a period of adjusting things here and there once I make the switch, so I’ll give you sufficient warning before I start messing around with the site.
Speaking of that Squeak the Mouse post, a couple of you noted that the cat vs. mouse cartoon characters Herman and Katnip are more of a direct inspiration. In fact, it’s specifically cited by folks from The Simpsons as such…this in-depth article by Brian Cronin tells you all about it.
Plus, in response to my calling Justice League of America #200 “post-Bronze Age,” Athelind asks
“I’m intrigued that you refer to a 1981 comic as ‘post-Bronze Age,’ I tend to think of the Bronze Age as running from around 1970 (Adams/O’Neil on Batman and GL/GA, Kirby leaving Marvel, Spider-Man Drug Issues) to around 1985-86 (Crisis on Infinite Earths/The Dark Knight Returns/Watchmen, the shift from newsstands to specialty shops, the black & white/indy boom).
“I’m curious to know what your benchmarks are for the transitions between Silver, Bronze, and Iron.”
And…hoo boy. I’ve talked about this before (like here and here and here), and, okay, at that last link, I note that Overstreet defines “Bronze Age” as “1970-1984.” But I’m also old enough to remember when Overstreet used to define “Bronze Age” as an informal, not generally accepted term.
But to keep this from going on too long (too late, I know) in my head I generally think of “Silver” as “mid-’50s to late ’60s,” Bronze as “’70s,” and anything past that more or less as “Modern,” because I’m fighting “Copper Age” with all the power my aging body will allow. And I don’t think I’d ever heard Iron Age before, which Googling tells me is 1985 to 2011, and man, I just don’t have it in me right now. I know I’ve said “Modern Age needs to be broken up,” but every time someone suggests something my initial reaction is “no sir, I don’t like it.” So, yeah, don’t pay attention to me on this…I’ll come to terms eventually.
Basically, all I meant was “post 1970s,” as ’70s JLA certainly felt different from ’80s, even early ’80s, JLA.
And in other site news…I will be returning to the “My Fantastic Four-Ay” series shortly, and will be getting into my non-spoiler-free post about the final issue of Rick Veitch’s Swamp Thing 1989. So, yes, soon I shall posts on the site that aren’t just about the site. I’m sure you all will appreciate that!
I’ve long held the opinion that we should talk about the decades, rather than ‘ages’.
The “Iron Age” can’t be considered to go beyond the start of the “Teen Tony” fiasco. Maybe “Iron Age” works better with the character’s popularity suddenly blooming after the release of the Iron Man movie until that fad passed.
If “Modern Age” needs to be broken up, surely this “Iron Age” designation looks very random as well. Once you get to the early-1990s, everything changes so greatly that it does start to make more sense to use the decade as a description.
Strict cutoff points are always problematic, whether we’re talking comics, generations or archaeology.
I think All-Star #57 out in December 1950 feels more like the end of the Golden Age than anything about 1955. EC Comics do not feel at all like Golden Age to me. But then what is 51-55? The Atomic Age that I think Overstreet was trying to make happen?
Bronze Age from 70-85 makes a kind of sense because Crisis really is a line in the sand. But so much about the early 80s is very much not Bronze Age.–Weirdo and Love & Rockets started in 81 for Jebus’ sake.
I’d go one further on Chris V and say we should forget the Ages completely and just talk about the decades.
@Daniel T
It would be interesting to know when the term “Golden Age” was first applied to comics from the late ’30s through the early ’50s. I’m assuming it would have been some time in the very late ’50s or early ’60s by someone in the zine/fan community like Jerry Bails, to differentiate and/or wax nostalgic about “the good old days” of comics and the first wave of “mystery men”/superheroes.
I think 1930s comics should be refereed to as “Pulp Age” comics or “New Deal” comics. 1940s comics up through 1945 should be “WW II Age” comics–or “Smash Fascism Age” comics. Comics post-WW II from 1946 until around 1965 should be considered “Atomic Age” comics — because many characters from the ’50s up through the early ’60s were steeped in “Weird Science” and Space Age tropes — Barry Allen/Flash, Hal Jordan Green Lantern, Challengers of the Unknown, Captain Atom, The Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, The Hulk, X-Men,Doom Patrol, Solar –Man of the Atom, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, etc. From 1965-1979 should be the “Groovy Age” of comics, as youth culture, anti-Vietnam War sentiment, race relations, Environmentalism, Feminism, psychedelics, etc. were often tropes in comics of this era, and Teen Titans, Hawk & Dove, The Creeper, Brother Power the Geek,New Gods, Swamp Thing, the rise in popularity of Marvel Comics as Pop culture fixtures, Conan, New X-Men, Adam Warlock, Star Wars, the short-lived Atlas-Seaboard brand,the publication of Zap Comix and other Underground comix, and pioneering independent comics like Witzend, First Kingdom, Elfquest, and Sabre all happened. 1980-1990 should the “Independent Retailer/Corporate Age” of comics–the Groovy Age still had momentum and lead to great Independent comics, Pacific, Eclipse, First, etc., but corporatism was also rearing its ugly head via Secret Wars, COIE, Legends, Millennium, and various cross-title continuity gimmicks at Marvel and DC, and the original and offbeat vibe from ’70s comics was getting increasingly homogenized as the ’80s progressed.
@Daniel T: Out of order, I would call the 90s, the Extreme Age. At some point we would need a creater-owned age, or even Independent Age. I like the idea of Pulp Age.
At this point, Silver Age could easily be 70s to 80s comics. That period would cover Atlas and First Comics.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard Iron Age either. I kind of hate how The EC/Horror era between All-Star #57 and Detective Comics #225 gets lumped in with the Golden Age now, but then, I always thought All-Star #57 came out years earlier than it did.
Everything post-Bronze can’t be Modern any more. The real questions are when does the Bronze Age end? With Crisis or earlier (which is where eBay’s guidelines have it. Part of the problem with Crisis as a cut off, is that then potentially creates another micro era- as 1991 could be another cut-off point with the creation of Image. So my suggestion:
Bronze Age: Starts with Marvel getting out of its distribution deal with DC in 1968.
Copper Age: Starts With Warrior #1 (1982)
Diamond Age: Marvel Buys Heroes World (1995)
Modern Age: DC Leaves DC Diamond (2020)
Other major events to potentially use:
Death of Gwen Stacey (1972)
Crisis (1986)
Formation of Image (1991)
The Authority (1999)
Quesada’s promotion at Marvel (2001)
The MCU (2008)