My take is that comics in & of themselves these days is far superior to what was put out 10 years ago....but like FNB stated above,without new readers it's not gonna do much good.Quite a shame actually.With all of the current crop of Marvel movies coming out & character awareness reaching millions,there should be more readers.But to get into comics themselves,I didn't become a huge fan until the late 80's,after DKR & the death of Jason Todd.Let's see....the whole firing of Steve Rogers & replacing him as Captain America,the departure of Reed & Sue & replacing them with Ms.Marvel & Crystal in FF.The Inferno storyline in X-Men,the Invasion that ran through all the DC books & so on..these are,to me anyways,the greatness of comics.
Like Rob,I'm not too entirely hung up on the Silver Age of comics.Oh,I enjoy reading them & all,but they don't do much for me.Now the Marvel books from that era,I really do like as they provide an interesting backstory to the characters today(The Essential books are great cheap reading).Now as a kid I enjoyed reading the 50's era Batman that was collected in the "Batman:From the 30's to the 70's" book.They were fun reading no doubt about it.
I didn't read too many comics in the 70's....maybe the occasional Spider-Man or Batman comic.But nothing major so I really don't have an opinion on that era(although the recent "Batman in the 70's" TPB is really good stuff).Of course back in the day when I first started reading them,there weren't many diversions for kids...video games had fizzled out for a time(except for this new fangled Nintendo system that seemed to be catching on),and except for going outside,or hanging with your friends,comics were the best thing to distract yourself.
I suppose the comics of today aren't much competition for what's out on the market to amuse the little ones but who knows,there might be a resurgance.The thing is....what can comics do that hasn't already been done to catch the eye of the public?That's the trick & I wish I had an answer.The 40's sold comics by the tons based on the war effort alone(you had to be a junior member of just about every characters fan club so you can do your part in defeating the Axis powers),the 50's comics seemed to make it on Westerns,horror & romance(things that were important to kids & teeneagers),the 60's comics seemed to have derived from the advent of true science fiction & the slamming of the communists(any early issue of FF has Reed & Ben spouting something about pinkos,reds & commies).The 70's comics more or less took characters back to their roots & really started complex storylines & more realism in the characters(how that affected kids,I have no idea).The 80's comics hit their stride;great stories,art,recognition by the public,Superman & Batman turning 50,this Tim Burton guy making a Batman movie,Superman's a test tube baby & so on...
The 90's comics...well....there was some good stuff in amongst all the shiny covered crap but they got lost in all of the glitz & were soon cancelled.The crash that comics experienced after the speculator boom really was a good thing...it made the companies start focusing on good stories as well as art,get more talent from outside the field,shake up the status quo in the books,turn things around.Not all of today's books are pure gold mind you.I still buy all the Superman books...more out of loyalty to the character than anything else(they just can't seem to get it right here of late),but for the most part,I'm enjoying comics now more than I was say 8 years ago.
