What was the best era for comics?

[CyberCubed]

What era or decade would you say was the best era for comics? People seem to be fed up with modern comics, and the 90's was a notorious low point for comics as well. I'm not sure about the early 2000's.

Is it generally agreed the 70's and 80's were the best time for comics? A lot of the campiness from the 50's and 60's was gone by then but the storylines also weren't too "dark" or complicated either.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

Yeah, i would agree it's the 70s and 80s.

[Leo656]

My personal favorite era was from the early-80s through 1994-ish, particularly 1986 through 1991, although great stuff obviously came out before and after as well.

I'm most familiar with DC, and Superman, Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern were all on a super hot streak during that era. The Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, and Justice League books were all pretty great as well. I'd make a strong case for that being the strongest DC era, ever. Crisis gets a ton of the credit, but honestly, a lot of stuff was getting really good even before that. Crisis just streamlined everything, but the books were already trying to move in that general direction for some time.

You could just as easily find gems if you go a little farther back or a little farther forward, though, for sure. A ton of Batman stuff going back to the late-70s was absolutely golden. Frank Miller gets all the credit and attention for taking stuff Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams were doing in the 70s, dressing it in black and putting a 5 o'clock shadow on it. That always annoyed me. And well past the 80s into the mid-90s, there was great stuff like Guy Gardner's solo book, Dan Jurgens's run on JLA, Morrison's JLA reboot, Mark Waid's run on Flash... tons of great stuff in either direction.

To me, and keep in mind I can pretty much only speak for DC here, but it seemed like they had a hot run of great stuff from like, the mid-70s until the mid-90s. Then, a lot of the characters started getting farther away from their core, as the editors and creators tried to make them younger, fresher, and "hip", and for a few years in the late-90s, things were pretty bad. Then, in the early 2000s, all at once it was like they wanted to go back to 1991 and take everything back to basics, and from a couple years before Infinite Crisis up until 2011, things seemed like they were getting really good again. Now, it's like a repeat of the late-90s, when they're trying to update things and make radical changes, and it's not quite having the desired effect. But things seem to run in those cycles.

[Candy Kappa]

When comics where in the highlight and sold more then one million copies per issue?

[Mew]

X-Men
X-Men
Hulk
X-Men

[MrPliggins]

As a general Marvel fan I'd say the 60s. It introduced many now-iconic superheroes. Amazing art by Kirby, Ditko, Romita, etc., who produced some memorable covers as well. True, there was some campiness in the stories but that was part of their charm. Plus, the comics were only 12 cents.
As a fan of the Hulk, I'd say the '90s era was the best time for that title. It grew boring in the mid-'70s through the mid-'80s until Peter David breathed new life into it.
As a fan of TMNT, I still like the original 11 comics the best, so I'll say the '80s.

[plastroncafe]

Now. Which is what I would likely have answered if you'd asked me 20 years ago, will likely be my answer 20 years from now.

[ZariusTwo]

I would have to say the 60s-late 80s was the best period for Marvel and the 2000s was the best period for DC. 2000s Marvel comes close but is let down by the second half of the Quesada era when it became clear they were making so much damn money they did'nt need to try anymore, and came completely unglued once Alonzo took over and most of the books started pandering to tumblr twits. It's rather telling all the more popular books now are completely irreverent ones rather than any with substance.

The 90s has some decent Spidey and X-Men material in it (yes, I like the Clone Saga and Onslaught, sue me), but wasn't kind to many other books in that era

I think now has seen the best years for Archie and the independents more than the big two.

[TheBlueTurtle1]

What era or decade would you say was the best era for comics? People seem to be fed up with modern comics, and the 90's was a notorious low point for comics as well. I'm not sure about the early 2000's.

Is it generally agreed the 70's and 80's were the best time for comics? A lot of the campiness from the 50's and 60's was gone by then but the storylines also weren't too "dark" or complicated either.

Yes, I really love the chris claremont john byrne run on the x-men. They tended to keep smaller teams on each series, so things were always consistent.

[Leo656]

Zarius: You'd place 2000s DC ahead of 1980s DC? That's interesting. I'm not sure I've heard that one before. :)

I liked both eras fine; it seemed to me more like 2000s DC as just remembering and refining what worked in the 1980s, with glossier paper. And the good times didn't last as long, it felt like.

They definitely had a heck of a run from right before Infinite Crisis and for a couple years after, though. Seemed like the build-up to Final Crisis and overall "event fatigue" ruined things before too long.

[ZariusTwo]

Zarius: You'd place 2000s DC ahead of 1980s DC? That's interesting. I'm not sure I've heard that one before. :).

It could well be fueled by all the wild times I was having in college...skipping clases to read Superman and the Bat-Books, or the JL, and Jones' Titan stuff (I couldn't resist the BB/Raven 'shipping), it really put my mind at ease sometimes. To think there was a time where Jeph Loeb was one of my favorites from that period.

[Da Senzai]

I would say 2000´s and onward. My impressions is that Comics have never been better than they are now :P.

Y: The Last Man, Invincible, Empowered, Saga.

Image Comics are really killing it, with a lot of good stuff :P

[Wolfie65]

For Disney, I'd say 40's-60's, For other US comics and German comics, I'd say late 60's - early 80's.

[MikeandRaph87]

I would say the period of the Bronze Age which is arguably 1970-1985. Both DC and Marvel put out great work on many titles that has not reached a level of my personal interest in any other period. The best stable of creators, best set of characters, the storytelling was perfect in tone and great self-contaoned or two part stories instead of a mere 10 pages or stretched out for at least three issues and not be nearly as interesting as stories told in this era.

[Powder]

My personal favorite era was from the early-80s through 1994-ish

Word up, yooooo.

[MsMarvelDuckie]

Speaking solely for Marvel, I'd say from 90's to mid-2,000's. Early 2,000's wer good for a lot of the indies, too, with books like Y, Perhapanauts, Zorro, Red Sonya, and many others.

[snake]

X-Men
X-Men
Hulk
X-Men

That's not an era.


And Hulk has terrible comics.

And X-Men is a f*cking mess.

[PangolinFeets]

Now. Which is what I would likely have answered if you'd asked me 20 years ago, will likely be my answer 20 years from now.

My favorite publishers are becoming more successful by the day. I love now.