Research: A brief history of comics by John petty And Baby boomer comics by Craig Shutt

To set the scene for the essay, I felt it necessary to research the history of comics,which has handily been laid out within these two books. Any opinions on the history of comics I found online have been weird to say the least. There seems to be a constant bickering about what constitutes as certain events, or where things started. These two sources seem to be highly regarded though, and both come from people that work in the sales of classic comics. It’s there job to understand the relevance of the works and the events surrounding them.

It is important that I don’t take too much information though. As previously mentioned, the essay is about what is to be in comics, not the past. Noting that, there still needs to be the context of what has been in comics, in order to better understand how things are changing, and why that may be.

So here’s a little list of events that I feel should be included within the essay:

• Neither of the books cover it, but I feel that I should at least mention the human history of creating cave paintings and other historical arts to tell stories.
• George Crookshanks pioneered the use of speech bubbles within his political newspaper illustrations
• Around the 50’s the staple for comics were the strips still found in newspapers, mainly consisted of comedy.
• The war happened, and superheroes became a means of escape for the youth of America
• They stuck, and still remain the staple genre within the medium
• The companies that rose then (under different names) are still the top dogs, being Marvel and DC

And I hope that would cover it, it’s the bare minimum, so hopefully won’t take too much of the essay. If I need to cut anything, I need to at least ensure I convey the importance of superhero’s and marvels role, so that it explains my choice of marvel as a point of reference.