A new mainstream
A new mainstream |
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Page 5 of 23  Daredevil (Marvel Comics. 1982). Art: Frank Miller. A relatively sophisticated yarn about a blind superhero who can still aim a magnum As for the independent companies, they did not have the wherewithal to compete at the same level, and so instead responded with satire. The 'teenage mutant' boom was mercilessly parodied throughout the 1980s by a string of titles inspired by the success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mirage, 1984). We have seen in Chapter 6 how this comic became the basis for a huge kids' craze (spawning movies, TV shows and endless toys). In its original form it was a fan-orientated, adult, satire, in black and white, with a print run of a few thousand. This 'teen team' was played purely for laughs, and the more involved the reader was in the comics subculture, the more gags they understood. Other satires in a very similar vein included the more obscure Naive Interdimensional Commando Koalas and Adolescent Radioactive Blackbelt Hamsters. This first wave of fan-orientated publishing was so successful that publishers began to think in terms of new strategies to keep up the momentum. They speculated that there might be more to the fan market than X-style heroes, and as they became more confident, so new comics were launched, which included more adult content and better production values. (After all, the fans were generally older than traditional comics buyers, with more disposable income.) This was the start of what became the boom in 'adult comics' - arguably the most artistically interesting phase in mainstream comics history. The resulting titles featured more politics, social parody and moral ambiguity, as well as liberal helpings of cinematic sex and violence. In this, they brushed aside the strictures of the Comics Code (within the confines of fandom, these could be ignored without fear of retribution). Yet the comics were still essentially superhero-orientated. For the publishers also recognized that it would be commercially unwise to stray too far from established formulas. Thus, the new genre was an odd hybrid - essentially consisting of a childish form (superhero comics) given adult overtones.  Swamp Thing |