The Gold, Silver & Bronze Ages of Comics Explained
Comic book readers often refers to the Golden, Silver andBronze Ages of comics — and here's what these terms mean. Comics have existed for a long time; going by Scott McCloud's definition of comic books as sequential art to tell a story, the genre hails back to before the Reformation. But, of course, when most people think of comics they imagine slim books for sale in specialist retailers, usually focused on superheroes.
Nowadays, superhero comics are big business — in large part because they serve as an inspiration for something even bigger, Hollywood. Until 2008, there had only really been a relatively small number of successful comic book film adaptations; the release of Iron Man in 2008 changed everything, with every film studio and TV network eager to get in on the act. That means there's more interest than ever in the comics that inspire these stories.
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Unfortunately sometimes terms are tossed out without much definition. It's common to hear people refer to the Golden Age, the Silver Age, and the Bronze Age — but rarely does anyone stop to define what these terms mean, or what the difference is between a comic from the Golden Age or the Bronze Age. Here's everything you need to know about these three eras in relation to the superhero genre.
The Golden Age of comics is pretty much the only one that can be tied to a fixed point in time — the publication of Action Comics #1 in April 1938. The first issue had a print run of 200,000 copies, and sold for just 10 cents; it's now considered the most valuable comic in the world, with copies selling at auction for over $3.2 million. It introduced readers to Superman — albeit a very different version
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