Is it possible that the Silver Age as we know it could have been averted and humour/romance comics like Archie have become the 'default' comic book genre with superheroes marginalised or even going extinct altogether?
WI: Humour and romance dominate American comics instead of superheroes?
- Thread starter Ditzy Vixen (RossN)
- Start date
In this TL, I could still see superheroes having some place in comic history, maybe as a trend during the second world war and then fizzling out when the war is over, just like IOTL.
In this TL, how would humor and romance comics compete with Tales From the Crypt come 1950?
Would anything butterfly Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent or the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency?
How would humor and romance titles influence Robert Crumb and all the other underground artists of the 1960's?
Would Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird still create Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come 1984?
In this TL, how would humor and romance comics compete with Tales From the Crypt come 1950?
Would anything butterfly Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent or the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency?
How would humor and romance titles influence Robert Crumb and all the other underground artists of the 1960's?
Would Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird still create Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles come 1984?
IOTL humour and romance competed with Horror just fine (certainly better than superheroes). The late 40s/early 50s were full of teen humor titles (Archie, Patsy Walker, Wilbur, etc.) dumb blonde titles (Suzie, My Girl Pearl), radio adaptations (My Friend Irma), celebrity humor comics (The Adventures of Bob Hope) and of course satire (Mad).
I'd imagine Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent would be a a great boon to the humor titles - it primarily hit the competing horror and 'true' crime books after all.
I'd imagine Wertham's Seduction of the Innocent would be a a great boon to the humor titles - it primarily hit the competing horror and 'true' crime books after all.
Cherry is an OTL underground comic that directly parodies Archie. Neil Gaiman apparently did a story for the series.
re: humor vs. horror, just a personal note, but as a kid in the 70s/80s, the only comics I read regularly were humor(mostly Archie) and horror. The reason being that the stories were always self-contained, you didn't have to have read a bunch of previous issues to know what was going on(as with most superhero comics).
That sounds plausible to keep the superhero genre weak. Perhaps Lee and Kirby would make something like the Fantastic Four, except they're an ordinary family, and silly stuff keeps happening to them. The Funny Four? However, the popularity of superheroes by 1960, to me, indicates that there was a demand for some sort of action titles with impossible themes, so I imagine that science fiction comics would be big, and before the 60s are over, would eclipse the humor titles. Most of these science fiction titles would surely include heroes in tight clothes, and some of them would have super powers, so the superhero genre wouldn't die. Also, I think the 80s and 90s would be about a lot of muscular heroes with guns. To keep humor comics the dominant genre in comics for the majority of the time for 50 years could be difficult.
By the way, Neamathla, do you have any plans for Five Colors for a Dime?
By the way, Neamathla, do you have any plans for Five Colors for a Dime?