The decade beginning with the late 1930s is known as the Golden Age of comic books. Many of the superheroes from today’s blockbuster franchises, including Batman, Superman, and Captain America, emerged during this period, and the industry grew into a commercial powerhouse. Following a sales dip during the early 1950s that marked the end of the Golden Age, the Silver Age began (circa 1956) and lasted for some fifteen years. During this era, superhero comic books initially lost steam — letting stories of horror, romance, and crime grow in popularity — before emerging triumphantly once more with characters like Spider-Man and The Flash. While copyright remains very much in effect for such titles, a slew of comic books from the same period, many of which have narrowly missed attaining such iconic status, are available online at Comic Book Plus.
Similar to the Digital Comic Museum, which we wrote about last week, Comic Book Plus contains a near inexhaustible quantity of Golden and Silver Age comic books. The collection’s timespan ranges from the late 1930s through to the early 1960s, and includes many thousands of comic books in the Superhero, Sci-Fi, and Horror genres.
Those hankering for something a little more unusual will also be in luck. Desperate to read about a hospital romance? Why not give Linda Lark Student Nurse a read in the Medical Love category? Sick of landlubbers hogging all the attention in comic books? Head to the Water/Boats section, where you can read all about Davy Jones, the navy lieutenant who lives in Atlantis and does battle with the evil Dr. Fang, in Undersea Agent.
Comic Book Plus also has a terrific selection of foreign comic books, including impressive collections in German, Hindi, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. You can see Super Hombre here.
Finally, the site contains a number of U.S. government educational pamphlets, including Bert The Turtle Says Duck And Cover, a guide to surviving atomic bomb blasts.
For further reading, head on over to Comic Book Plus. You can preview all materials without registration. But you will need to register (for free) if you want to download the various comic books.
H/T to Yocitrus for making us aware of this archive.
Ilia Blinderman is a Montreal-based culture and science writer. Follow him at @iliablinderman, or read more of his writing at the Huffington Post.
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Comments (3)
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.- Andrew McIntosh says . . . | March 10, 2014 / 6:44 pm“Following a sales dip during the early 1950s that marked the end of the Golden Age, the Silver Age began (circa 1956) and lasted for some fifteen years.”More like a sales *peak*—combined circulation in 1952 was double what it was in 1946, and slowly but steadily creeped back down to 1946 levels by 1960, where it remained steady throught the 60s.
