The Comic Book: From Cave Drawings to Superheroes

Comic books have been a staple of entertainment for children in America, as well as other countries, for many years now. In fact, according to Thomas Andrae, author of Carl Bark’s and the Disney Comic Book (2006), “Before television, rock music, and video games, comic books were the mainstay of entertainment in America” (p. 3). Indeed, comic books were “a universal experience for children who grew up from the Great Depression through the baby boom years” (Andrae, 2006, p. 3).

That statement, however, is not meant to imply that comic books have waned in popularity. If anything, they have become even more popular, and for reasons surpassing mere entertainment value. As Andrea relates, “Comic books, like other pop cultural ephemera, have become highly priced collector’s items” (2006, p. 3). For example, according to CNBC (2014), a copy of the first issue of Action Comics featuring Superman sold for $3.2 million on EBay in August of 2014. On the other hand, comic books today are prized for more than their sentimental and monetary value; they are also celebrated as important works of art (Andrea, 2006).

Then again, regardless of their continued popularity, there was a time when comic books did not exist, and the question that arises is, exactly when and where did this form of creative expression originate?   

The Origin of Comic Books

According to Wikipedia (2015), comic books had their origins in the 1700’s in Japan and the 1800’s in Europe, and they were introduced into the United States in the 1930s. Moreover, “The first modern comic book, titled Famous Funnies, was “released in the United States in 1933,” though it was merely “a reprinting of earlier newspaper comic strips” (para. 3).

Alternatively, according to The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin (2013), Rudolphe Topffer, a Swiss artist, published the first book to combine cartoons and text in 1837; and after being translated and published in several European countries, the book came to the United States in 1842. The title of the American version was The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, and the book contained 6 to 12 panels per page in a 40-page side-stitched booklet, measuring 8 ½ by 11 inches.

It’s interesting to note, however, that the thematic elements of comic books, according to Random History (2015), can arguably be traced back to tales of the mythological gods and superheroes of ancient Greece, as well as figures in the Holy Bible. For example, the modern comic-book hero Flash explicitly draws on the iconography of the Greek god Hermes with his winged helmet and boots; and Samson’s weakness in the Old Testament, a haircut, echoes the vulnerabilities that afflict modern heroes, such as Superman, who is weakened by kryptonite.

On the other hand, it’s possible that the origin of comic books dates back even further. In fact, according to Random History (2015), “The format of the modern day comic book perhaps can be traced to ancient narrative sequences of cave paintings, but more likely to the medieval broadsheet, which was a narrative strip carved into woodcuttings (Hayman and Pratt 2005). As Random History explains, “Broadsheet authors would often create cartoonish narratives of public executions and caricatures of public figures. As the printing press allowed mass circulation of the broadsheets, they were often gathered into collections, or what could be considered a prototype of the modern magazine or newspaper and, by extension, the comic book.”

So, all of that said, perhaps one can conclude that comic books originated, at least in a fashion, with humankind’s earliest artistic renderings. Regardless of where and when they originated, however, comic books have endured and will continue to endure for generations to come.

Sources:

Andrae, T. (2006) Carl Barks and the Disney Comic Book: Unmasking the Myth of Modernity. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi

CNBC (2014) The Most Valuable Comic Books. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/id/101944524

Random History (2015) Archetypes, Commercialism, and Hollywood: A History of the Comic Book. Retrieved from http://www.randomhistory.com/1-50/033comic.html

The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin. (2015) Comic Book. Retrieved from

http://www.tititudorancea.com/z/comic_book.htm

Wikipedia (2015) Origin of the Comic Book. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comic_book

Images:

Action Comics (2015) Google Images: www.technobuffalo.com

Famous Funnies (2015) Google Images: www.thecomicbooks.com

Flash Comic Book (2015) Google Images: wikipedia.org

Prehistoric Cave Painting (2015) Google Images: wurstwisdom.com

What we mean by "Family Friendly"

When Andy, Jason and I first started writing stories for 3Twins.net, we made the decision that we were going to maintain a family friendly atmosphere on our website. But the question is, what exactly does that mean?

I'll start with a little background. During the Silver Age of Comic Books (1956 - circa 1970) comics were much more clean than they are today. This was largely due to the fact that the newly created Comics Code Authority (sort of like what the MPAA is to film) imposed somewhat strict regulations on the content of comics. With The Code in place, most comics strayed from graphic violence, sexual content, foul language and drug use.

Throughout the 1960's, however, an underground comic book market began to grow where The Code did not apply and comics were free to explore whatever sort of content they pleased. Additionally, in 1971, Stan Lee and Marvel Comics were approached by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare to do a comic that would combat illicit drug use. Lee accepted and did a three part Spider-Man series showing the harm of abusing drugs. The Code, however, did not approve, but Marvel published the comic anyway and gained widespread acceptance.

The unfortunate side-effect of this action, along with the rise in the underground comic book industry, was that The Code began to undergo a series of revisions that loosened up its rigid standards. Throughout the 70's and 80's, grittier comics began to emerge, such as Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, depicting harsher displays of violence, more sexual content, and drug use. Today The Code has mostly gone out of favor as many comics do not even apply for it and even Marvel has abandoned it in favor of its own ratings system. So while many if not most, comics maintain a family-friendly element - the door is now open for comics to take on any terrain they wish.

So what does this have to do with 3Twins? Well, as I said, with the decline of The Code came an increase in violence, sexual content, inappropriate language and drug use in comic books. This means that many comics are no longer suitable for children and that many adults who do not wish to look at this type of content will avoid them altogether. So when Andy, Jason and I began writing our own stories, we decided that we wanted to make content that anyone could view and enjoy without having to worry about these things.

We believe that a comic can be a multi-layered and deep story that adults will appreciate without having to delve into the use of violence, swearing, sex and drugs. However, we knew that some potential viewers might see our approach as too soft and they might assume that "Family Friendly" means that our target audience is children and parents. In reality, though, we want anyone who loves comics and cartoons to love our stories.

Thus we have always sought to maintain a delicate balance in our comics in order to keep them both appealing and appropriate for all ages. This is not always an easy task, but we believe that keeping this standard in mind helps us as writers to not simply go for the easiest joke or device to draw in viewers. Ultimately we believe this will help us to be better writers and offer you better stories.

~Steve

Upcoming Hatman stories

I've tossed it around in my head a bit and I think that the whole idea of this blog thing is to give you fans a sneak peek at whats coming up, so I'm going to list the titles of our upcoming Hatman issues, leading up to issue 50 with a very brief teaser of what to expect.




Issues 37B-39: Back to the Beginning parts 2B, 3 & 4 (Hatman and Indigo have traveled back in time to prevent the Terrible Trio from stopping Henry Hattington becoming Hatman, will they succeed and if they do, will they create more time travel troubles that need to be fixed in order for the present to be restored? One of the parody covers will be of: Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure)




Issues 40-43: Superheroes (As the Damsel family gets ready for a graduation party for Blonde finishing college, Hatman recieves an invitation to a Superhero convention. A new characer will be revealed in this story! One of the parody covers will be of: Giant Size X-Men #1)





Issues 44 & 45: Many Happy Returns... (The Terrible Trio are at it again as they attempt to steal the leprechauns ruining Hatman's birthday party. The parody cover will be of: Super Smash Bros. Brawl)





Issues 46-48: The Revenge of The Big Giant Pumpkin Headed Man (Halloween at the Bill farm, need I say more? One of the parody covers will be of: The first Scooby Doo Movie)





Issue 49: A Hattington Christmas Story (Hatman recalls a christmas from his childhood, this issue is loosely based on the family classic "A Christmas Story". The parody cover will be of: A Christmas Story)





Issue 50: Attonement (In our milestone 50th issue, expect the unexpected. One of characters will never be the same again! We will feature 50 variant covers some by YOU!)





-Jason

We all have a story

A few days ago I read an article on NPR's website by Glen Weldon titled Question: Who's the Longest Running Fictional Character Ever? (If you don't want me to spoil the answer then read the article before continuing!)

The answer was Superman who has been fighting bad guys with his super strength for 70 years now. The point of the article, it turned out, was to illustrate how Superman is a bad example of an open ended story gone awry. Stories, according to Weldon, are designed to have an end. They are not intended to go on forever or they just have to rewrite their own rules, throw in cheesy gimmicks and end up turning into soap operas - even if the characters can fly and wear spandex.

While I see Weldon's point, I have to say that I don't agree. I have loved to write and tell stories for as long as I can remember, and I think I can safely say that the same applies to Andy and Jason. One aspect of story telling that we have discussed numerous times is how we hate to see a story end. Once we have created a great set of characters and come to the end of a tale, we anxiously await their next series of events.

I even do this when I watch movies or read books. When I really fall in love with the characters in a story and then come to the end, I imagine what life is like for them beyond what I just witnessed. Will they go on to have more adventures? Will the new couple stay together? Is the villain really defeated? And I feel this way every time even though I know that sequels most often disappoint.

I've thought about why this is, and the conclusion I keep coming back to is that each of our lives is a story. Maybe not the kind of story you'd read on the news or turn into a reality TV show, but it's a story nonetheless.

Think of the elements any story needs, they're all a part of our every day lives: good characters who develop over time, a setting, a plot (sometimes many of them), conflict (often more than we really care for), antagonists, protagonists... it's all there. Maybe the only thing that isn't there is a climax and a resolution. Sure, there are major events and turning points in our lives that ultimately get resolved, but unlike a movie or a novel the story doesn't end there.

Now, in some situations I can see Weldon's point. Certain stories are more plot-driven than character-driven and end when the plot comes to a close. Take a fable like The Tortoise and the Hare, for example, no one is really interested in the Hare's back-story, it's the plot that moves things along. And some stories serve to convey a point that is much bigger than book or the film. Take Harper Lee's classic To Kill a Mockingbird, while it contains great characters, the point is to serve as a commentary on racism in the South.

But what about Superman? Or The Adventures of Hatman and Indigo for that matter? While at times these stories may contain a moral or an over-arching point, the heart of the story will always lie with the characters themselves. We long to see what will happen to them, how things will develop, where their lives will take them. And I believe we do this because of an innate belief that our stories are bigger than the events of our lives.

Yes, as Weldon says, this may tempt the author's of these stories to "jump the shark" in order to keep viewers, and this is a sad reality. But I don't believe it changes the fact that we can relate to stories that don't necessarily have an end. It just means that as writers, we need to work even harder to continue telling new and great stories without losing the essence of the characters that made them great in the first place.

-Steve

Comic layouts

One of my many, many tasks at 3twins is doing the comic layouts. I am not the only one who does this, but part of being the "big cheese" is making sure things get done, and if everyone else is too busy to do something, then I take that "thing" on myself.

Now, I'm not complaining, I actually like doing this, although, it is quite creatively taxing. You see, we write Hatman & Indigo in a script format because we have actors who come in and read the lines. However, since it is a comic book it needs to be layed out as such after the actors have read their lines. I know this is different than say, Marvel Comics, does it. But they don't have actors record audio for the characters, do they?

Anyhow, I take the script and break it down into pages and panels with little descriptions of how I see the panels in my head. Sometimes the artists actually follow those, other times they use them as a guideline. I call this part the "Text Layout".

We have a nifty little program called "Comic Life" its only $30 for the delux version and I highly recommend it for anyone even remotely interested in creating their own comics (there is a version for Mac as well as Windows). It is an incredibly helpful tool for drafting what I call the "Panel Layout".

For the Panel Layout, I put the script with the completed Text Layout on one monitor and Comic Life on another monitor. (I also highly recommend multiple monitors for anyone who would like to work in any type of media, it makes life so much easier, but if you don't like that sort of thing, it's your call. :) ) I read through the "Text Layout" and either choose from the many template layouts that come with "Comic Life", or tweak my own to fit the script. Sometimes, I realize that something won't really work the way I had layed it out in the script, so I tweak it a little bit. After I get the Panel Layout finished, I send it onto the artist who does the really magical part, the art.

I have a lot of these to do, right now, so instead of working on them, I blogged about it. I guess, my stalling is pretty much done and I'd better get to it, huh?

-Jason

2006 Remastered?

Last Summer we brought you a remastered version of "Hatman & Indigo: Origin parts 1 and 2". Where we brushed off the old script, edited it some, re-wrote it a bit and created a whole new layout to hopefully tell the story better. This in no way was a slam against Chris Secondi, the original artist. But more that we had grown in our skills as writers and we wanted to really portray the Origin of our heroes in a more complete way. Origin Remastered was well received and we all feel tells the story we originally tried to tell.

We recently decided that most of our early stories could really use the "Remastered" treatment. Again, this is in no way a slam to the original artists we just feel we can now do a better job telling the origins of our major villains.

One main reason why we have decided to do this is because that many people when they first come to 3Twins.net jump to the very first comic, which is understandable. However, it doesn't portray our current skill level. So, the goal is going to be, that once we have remastered all of our original stories we will put them on the comic page, in place of the originals. "But isn't that rewriting history?" you may ask. Well, we've thought of that as well, and on the start page of the new version we will have a link to the original version.

But one more problem arouse, if we are going to replace the original 2006 comics with new "Remastered' ones then our numbering will be off because Origin Remastered was issues 29 and 30 and that will make the amazing issue 50 that we're currently working on be only issue 48. So, We decided that both the Zapman and Super Cold Frozen Man stories could use a major revamp to the point of making them 3 issues long each! This will fix our numbering and help develop the origins of those characters even more.

-Jason

Parody Covers

Many of our comics have parody covers (to understand what this is, just compare the images to the left and right). In fact, we actually have more parody covers than original covers. The pattern usually is that issue one of a multi-issue story is an original cover and the subsequent issues have parody covers. We have broken this pattern a couple of times, (technically only once on the one part Christmas Carol issue, but the following issues "Omniscient" weren't parody covers, however, the part 2 cover could arguably be a parody of the part 1 cover, and at this point your probably saying "who cares") but we try to have that be the pattern.

Anyhow, a lot of thought is put into the parody covers that we do. I spend a lot of time searching cover databases (coverbrowser is a great one) looking for covers to possibly parody. We are usually working about six months to a year ahead, so I am constantly jumping around the different stories and issues thinking of what would best portray the comic issue at the time. Some comics lend themselves to a specific cover naturally. Like "Back to the Beginning", as I mentioned in a previous post, the part 2 cover is going to be a parody of the "Back To The Future part 1" box cover (refer to that post for the reference image). However, some comics don't so easily lend themselves to a parody cover, so we have to put a little thought into it.

Our first few parody covers were specifically parodying "first" issues. Like Action Comics #1 (shown on the above left), which is the first appearance of Superman, Incredible Hulk #1 (you can guess who that featured) and so on. We still have a few "first" issues in mind for future covers, but we have expanded to include other interesting covers as well as ones you might recognize right off the bat and some that may be a little more obscure.

I will continue more on this topic later.

-Jason