Five Colours For A Dime
A History of Comic Books In North America
The history of comic books can find its origins in some of the earliest examples of media. In ages when literacy was a rare commodity, illustrations of stories was often used to convey the message to the uneducated masses, particularly for religious texts. With the invention of the printing press, these illustrations gained text allowing for "speech". Production of these illustrations were still time consuming and expensive and so mostly focused on religious matters. The rise of the newspaper saw these illustrations taking on political and satirical elements but were limited to one or two illustrations per page. Tucked away in newspapers, these illustrations were often seen as highbrow and adult only content, with children rarely if ever seeing them. That would soon change.
The origin of the first american comics be found in Rhode Island in 1837. Rodolphe Töpffer, was a Germanic Swiss immigrant who had fled the violence of the French revolution and Napoleons rise to power. Settling in Providence, Rhode Island, Töpffer earned a living as an illustrator and caricaturists for a local publishing house. It was during this time that American Fundamentalism began sweeping across the Republican Union. Töpffer soon found himself swept up the wave a religious and patriotic madness, quickly converting to the growing faith and going so far to anglicise his name to signify his religious rebirth.
The new
Randolf Topper found himself wanting to spread his new found faith even further. Randolf noticed that many of the stories, passages and holy prophecies from the Book's of Manifest Destiny were flying straight over the heads of many children and young adults, leaving them confused and without the same religious feverancy of their parents. Deciding to rectify this, Randolf set about adapting the Book's of Manifest Destiny into an illustrated form for the youth to better understand. Told through implied language and sequential art panels, the story of Burr, Benedict Arnold, and the Angel of Destiny were regaled.
In late 1837, the first copies hit shelves late and Toppers adaptations exploded in popularity virtually overnight as children and adults like fell in love with the animated tales of the Prophet Aaron Burr. Their success allowed Topper to found his own company
Oldbuck Publishing, who would go on to adapt the later books of Manifest Destiny and even the works of Marx and his scientific theories. The Oldbuck adaptations were many would learn the importance of their Precious Fluids and their destinies as Pinnacle Men and Women. The success of Toppers Animated Adventures of Aaron Burr would see a wave of similar illustrated texts flood the market but few would ever reach the success of Topper and Oldbuck.
To find the birth of what many would consider modern comics we must jump to New Jersey in 1895. Richard J. Outcalt was a young cartoonist working for the Newark Examiner adding satirical images to stories to fill up space. Extremely talented, Outcalt often found himself frustrated by his limited opportunities and could often be found doodling during work hours. A common reoccurring doodle was one of a child in a yellowed potato sack, based off of the street urchins living in the Inferior ghettos near the Examiners office. Outcalt's doodles would often be passed around the office, eliciting laughs from his Better co-workers. Soon Outcalt was writing entire stories around the kid, quickly named the Potato Sack Paddy, to share.
Potato Sack Paddy 1895
Outcalts big break would come during the summer of 1895 when a slow news week left the paper struggling for content to publish. The papers editor decided to throw in a few of Outcalt's easy to reproduce strips to fill up the pages. Potato Sack Paddy proved to be an immediate hit, with the Examiners offices flooded with letters asking for more. Sensing a business opportunity, Outcalt began publishing his stories independent of the Examiner under the banners of
Outcalts Comedies to huge success, and the first true american comic was born. Throughout the late 1890's and early 1900, the comics market would be largely dominated by funnies like Outcalts Comedies or religious epics like Oldbuck Adventures. That would soon change with the rise of Hero comics.
In 1902, the Custer Youth Brigade was founded by one Theodore Roosevelt. A youth group designed to instil patriotism and national service into the youth, Roosevelt needed a means to encourage membership. Noticing how much money the kids of the CYB spent on Outcalts comics, Roosevelt was struck by the idea to use the favoured medium of kids to drum up interest and fuel their patriotism. The first
Custer Youth Comics were met with mixed success, falling victim to clunky writing and poor art, often reading more like text books and field manuals then fun stories.
In a bid to save face, Roosevelt enlisted the aid of local publishing house MLJ Magazines and Stanley Kirby, one of their top writers and artists. In order to get children interested and enlisting in the CYB, Kirby proposed a massive imagining of the endeavour. Gone were the clunky stories, instead a new narrative was forged around the fictional Stephen Higgins, an everyday youth who through enlistment in the CYB is able to unlock the full potential of his Precious Fluids and Marxists spirit, and become the ultimate Pinnacle Man. Taking the colours of the flag as his new uniform and a vow to fight all enemies of america, Higgins had become
Colonel Union, All American Hero!
Issue 1 of Colonel Union, 1903
The creation of Colonel Union would see membership in the CYB skyrocket as youth everywhere wanted to be just like their new hero and become Pinnacle Men just like Higgins.
The success of Colonel Union would mark the start of the the golden age of comics, as companies everywhere fought to get their own Hero comics on the market. Of these, perhaps the most famous is the
Mighty Wasp of Carolina. Conceived by Confederated Carolina Publishing as a response to Colonel Union and as a desperate bid to keep the Carolina comics market from being swamped by their northern neighbour, the WASP would quickly grow to be a cornerstone of Carolinian pop-culture. Taking inspiration from the acronym
White Anglo-Southron Protestant, the Mighty Wasp comics followed one Daniel Boone Zachary, a young man in the fictional city of New Troy (based on CCP's native Charleston) who dons a mask and title of The Mighty Wasp to fight corruption and crime plaguing his city. Just like his northern counterpart, the Mighty Wasp proved to be hugely successful, even across the border where his comics became a popular commodity among kids.
Issue 1 of the MIGHTY WASP, 1905
While Hero comics would prove to be a heavily male dominated filed, we would be remiss to not mention the female heroes who pioneered this new frontier during these early days of the industry. Perhaps the greatest of these early titans is Valkyrie. The brain child of William Moulton Marston, a young RUMP officer from Massachusetts who made his name in Shicagwa, Marston's true passion lay in myths and legends, particularly those of the ancient nordic people. It was from these tales of Asgard that Marston crafted Elena Baldursdottir,
The Valkyrie. The daughter of Odin's son Baldur, Elena was fearsome warrior and champion of the Valkyries, the warrior legion of Asgard. Closed off from Earth for centuries, Odin would choose Elena as his herald to root out evil and prepare the Midgard for the return of Asgard. With such a heavy focus on a pre-christian faith, Marston's stories initially had trouble getting off the ground. Eventually, Marston rewrote his initial draft to make the Asgardian a Lost Tribe of Israel akin to the ancient Nipponese who had lost their history fighting sinful Ice Giants.
These re-writes from much more popular and Valkyrie was soon picked up the Shicagwa Eagle Magazines, becoming a huge hit among both young girls and boys. It wasn't long before young women all the country were asking for swords and battle armour to imitate their favourite comic book heroine. Marston would continue writing Valkyrie for the next decade, using her as a platform to champion various ideals of liberty, equality, freedom and politics. Marston was eventually pushed out of Shicagwa Eagle when rumours about his home sex life began to bubble up. Rumours that Marston was in not only a polyamorous relationship but also enjoyed BDSM cause public outrage and fearing harsh consequences from ORRA and the AFC, Marston was forced to quit in disgrace. Despite the Marston controversy, Valkyrie would remain popular.
Valkyrie issue 212 The Battle for Baldur's Blade 1932. Sadly, few early issues of Valkyrie survive to this day due to a fire in the Shicagwa Eagle archives
During the World War, comics would only go from strength to strength as publishers played into the growing militarism, patriotism, and prosperity of the age. Fuelled by their success, MLJ Magazines, Shicagwa Eagle, and Confederated Carolina Publishing united under the banner of
All-Star Comics, with Colonel Union, the Mighty Wasp, and Valkyrie becoming
The Sentinels of Liberty
Authors notes: so yeah, comics in the Madnessverse. I had to take a few creative liberties, like having the golden age of comics happen 20 years early and smashing Jack Kirby and Stan Lee together as neither would be born till 1917 and '22 respectively. Let me know your thoughts