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I love discussions like this. Excuse my long-winded post.
Picking up general books on the history of comics, or reading interviews with various artists in magazines like Comic Book Artist, Alter Ego or The Comics Journal may even gain you more insight then trying to wrangle up the huge amounts of comics you would have to acquire to get a grasp on the subject.
Another problem is that there are a number of distinct camps in comics. You can attempt to simplify it by dividing them into Adventure and Humourous. Many cartoonists have no interest in adventure comics, or if they once did they no longer do. Examples that spring to mind include Seth, Joe Matt, Chester Brown, and Chris Ware. All these individuals have had a love affair with Adventure comics in the past(and still do if you include such titles as Uncle Scrooge or Little Orphan Annie as Adventure strips). Respectively, the above artists seem to be/once were channeling/reinterpretating New Yorker cartoonists, Crumb, Little Orphan Annie, and Gasoline Alley, with significant overlap. All these comics can be picked up in your local, well stocked alternative comic store, used book store or online book store (Gasoline Alley dailies will soon be published by D & Q this year!)
I don't think that the evolution of the superhero comic book really came directly from the early humour strips. I'm more inclined to believe that it was a mixture of the old pulps and the newspaper adventure strip, especially Terry and the Pirates. In fact, almost all the original comic book cartoonists seemed to be failed comic strip and commercial artists. It's telling that such giants as Will Eisner, Jack Cole and Walt Kelly were so ready to jump ship the second an oppurtunity to draw a daily was presented to them (Will Eisner found the format of a strip to be limiting, and came back, while Cole and Kelly never returned). Comic books were read by children and GIs, easily disposed of, and considered by the general public as beneath them. Newspaper strips, on the other hand, were a mass medium, and though they were also highly disposable, they had a solid status in the world of arts and entertainment. It wasn't until well into the history of the comic book that cartoonists actually wanted to work in the field, preferring more respectable positions in commercial art and animation. This stigma lasts well into the present, though there are obviously finally people who love the medium of the comics and the format of the comic book exclusively.
If you want some sort of laundry list, I'd be more than happy to throw my two cents in. |
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