Source: http://comicsalliance.com/sheldon-moldoff-golden-age-artist-death/

I love comic books.

I have read thousands and thousands of issues.

I know the secret identities of hundreds of superheroes.

I consider myself something of an amateur comic book expert.

Reading Moretti’s analysis of the British Literary genres, I noticed some of the trends applied to the history of comics.  I know almost nothing about British Literary history, but I have a decent understanding of comic book history.

Comic books come into prominence in the late 1930s, replacing popular pulp fiction magazines. Comic book history is divided into several periods. The 1930s- 1956 was the golden age, followed by the silver age 1956-1970.  The bronze age lasted until about 1990. That ushered in the modern age of comics. Each age was defined by the types of narrative and tropes and themes common to that period. I noticed that these periods are roughly 25 years long. The length of a ‘generation’.

Moretti doesn’t like the concept of generations. “This, then, is where those 25–30 years come from: generations. Not a concept I am very fond of, actually, but the only one that seems to make sense of figure 9” I think this theory of generations has more merit than Moretti gives it.

Moretti quotes Mannheim, saying: “Whether a new generation style emerges every year, every thirty, every hundred years, or whether it emerges rhythmically at all, depends entirely on the trigger action of the social and cultural process” This is exactly what happened in the history of comic books. The social and cultural trends shaped them.

The Golden Age of comics was full of heroics mirroring the bravery of the WWII soldiers. In 1954, the book The Seduction of the Innocent, taught that comics would lead to delinquency. This fear of new and possibly foreign ideas polluting the children’s minds ran parallel to McCarthyism and xenophobia. The Silver Age of comics was ruled by the Comics Code Authority, designed to censor the books and keep them family friendly.

The Bronze Age began in 1970, coinciding with the civil rights movement. Black superheroes began to show up. Alcoholism, environmentalism, poverty, and other social issues were prevalent.

The Modern Age represented the realities of life. It is sometimes referred to as the Dark Age of comics. Comics became even more potent a medium for social commentary. The mutant X-gene became an allegory for homosexuality. Current superheroes deal with racism, political divisions, and sexism in their daily lives.

These generational changes in the comics bear a striking resemblance to what Moretti considers an inaccurate or lacking model. At least for comic books, I say it holds up well.