Comics History - Blog Posts

I read a post earlier and then lost it before I could reblog it with some interesting information so I'm gonna throw the information out into the void.

The original post was a comment about how no one who has ever inked a comic has ever met a person of color before. They had very valid complaints about bad shading and inconsistent skin tones.

And y'all know me. I am a fiend for comic industry history.

Color in comics is obviously a huge deal, not just in skin but for iconic costume designs. The oldest and most well-known characters tend to be bright shades of red, blue, green and/or black. This is true across the board in early comics and it's due to a variety of factors. The biggest one being that most comics, to be made cheaply, could only use around 63 colors for a standard issue. On top of that, the way the DC and Marvel printed their comics was basically with pointillism and shifting densities.

Before I wind up regurgitating the whole article, let me link one of my go-to resources.

WWAC

4 Colorism, or, the Ashiness of it All - WWAC %

Zoe D. Smith looks at the printing process for comics in the 1960s and 70s and how that affected portrayals of black characters in Marvel an

And

WWAC

4 Colorism, or, White Paper/Brown Pixels - WWAC %

Zoe D. Smith looks at the printing process for comics in the 1960s and 70s and how that affected portrayals of black characters in Marvel an

Actually, womenwriteaboutcomics.com in general is a fantastic educational tool and a great way to keep an eye out for opportunities to submit your own comic story submissions.

Thanks for letting me nerd out about comic history again!

Comic book history is so much fun and such a fascinating way to measure the changes in society. In fact, it can be super interesting to measure any society by what censorship laws are in place at any point in time!

I'm not sure about OG Joker being gay, but I do know that sexual deviancy was not allowed to be shown, and since we queers are deviant by default, we weren't exactly in the spotlight.

If you're up for a good read, cbldf.org has a great article from 2012 by Joe Sergio. "Tales from the Code: How Much Did Things Change After the Enactment of the Comics Code of 1954?"

And Academia.edu is a fantastic resource for even more reading!

Me, skimming pages of Batman year one and two, with Jaybin: . . . The f#&% you mean Batman has killed before in self defense? •-•

WHAT!!!??? BATMAN HAS KILLED PEOPLE!?!?!? ._.

This... This messed with my character analysis so much.

WHAT. DO. YOU. MEAN?!

"I'm glad they're dead!" Careful, Jason, the writers took that singular comment and haven't let it go since.

Also, just shout out to Jaybin for being all cute and >:/ and :D