Between 1900 and 1905, adults were sneered at for reading comics and many of them switched to reading magazines and newspapers, which meant that comic publishing companies had to change their target audience or go bust.
As the first comics started to disappear because of these changes, some began to tone down their content and aim the comics at children. This was a key turning point in comics – the invention of the children’s comic, and this is particularly key to the question posed. ‘Puck’ was a comic that changed in this way, and was around from 1904-1940. ‘Rainbow’ was one of the first comics that was invented primarily for children, and was around from 1914-1956. ‘Nursery Comics’ was around at this time, and was aimed at infants and very young children. Comics at this time were known as ‘inkies’ because they were printed on very cheap paper and were only in black and white.
In the 1920s, improvements in the speed of communication meant that American comics began to be seen and read by the British market. The 1920s was also the start of the action genre, with comics like ‘Tarzan’ and ‘Buck Rogers’ being produced at this time.
The 1930s was known as the Golden Age of comics. One of the reasons for this is because it was the arrival of the superhero from the US – Spiderman, Superman and Batman. The arrival of the first completely colour comic ‘The Mickey Mouse Weekly’ was also a significant change and this was probably the first comic that resembled something like what we know as comics today. This was obviously a major turning point.
Because of all the competition from America, there was fierce British competition, in the shape of the Beano (1938-present) and the Dandy (1937-present), which are both published by DC Thompson. Their rival, The Amalgamated Press produced ‘Radio Fun’ and ‘Knockout’ were both started in 1939 but were short lived compared to the comics produced by DC Thompson. A new size – A4 – started to be used for comics and this is still used today, which is obviously a major turning point in the development of all comics, including children’s comics. This is also when speech bubbles first appeared.
World War Two signified the end of the Golden Age. There were too many comics on the market, so much so that the government introduced a law restricting the launch of new comics. There was also a shortage of paper, due to the war, and comics were had low priority.
The 1950s is commonly known as the Silver Age of comics. This is because of the end of the paper shortages, and people wanted something interesting and different to read because of the end of the war. There was a severe reaction against America and American comics, and none were imported for a short while. British quality comics were produced for a more sophisticated audience. Some comics from this time are ‘Swift’, ‘Girl’ and ‘The Eagle’. There were many new British comics at this time.
There were not many changes in comics until the 1970s which signalled the end of the reign of British comics and American comics started to dominate the market again. There were few British comics left, especially for children.
More recently, comics have started to become more glossy and expensive and there has been an expansion in fanzines and more specialised comics, which are sold to a more selective group of people and the target audience is carefully researched. There have also been more comics tying in to the internet with most or all comics having their own internet page.
In summary, I would say that there have been many changes in comics since their invention. There have been key turning points throughout the history of comics.
