The 90's....worst decade for comics?

[Kevin Roegele]

Worst decade for superhero comics? How about the 90's.....when every character became a badass, inanely over-muscled Schwarzenegger wannabe? When classic characters like Batman, Spider-Man and Thor were given horrible new costumes. When to be a comicbook artist, all you needed to do was be a very poor Jim Lee clone. And to sell a book, all you needed was a superstar artist and a thousand variant covers, never mind a writer.

Let's look at some 90's.....stuff....

 

[E-Man]

lol at those pics.

I think the 90s was the worst decade in comics, but for a different reason than what you said. We all know the story of the 90s boom and bust that is still affecting comics to this day. There are reasons for that, and what you mentioned is definitely a factor. Where the 90s really hurt comics though was in crippling the indie market so much that it's damn near impossible to get into the business independently. It's always been hard, but in a shrinking niche market indies suffer much more than anyone else.

When comics were booming, you had a larger audience to target and sell to. You may not have the same success as Marvel or DC, but there was still plenty of room to be profitable. Now you really have all of the regular odds going against you when running a business and you have to deal with a small market that doesn't respond well to new characters.

The reason why this is huge is because it stagnates the pool of creators. There are only so many slots(heh, Dan Slott) available to creators that editorial has to really pick and choose carefully who to put on titles. There still are many who would love to write or do art, but many might be discouraged from going the indie route to make their way to the big two. They also could be trying to get out their dream but are defeated by the industry.

I've seen some really talented people have to give up their comics dream because they weren't making enough to be profitable. I'm talking about some truly talented people as well who might have sold if the industry were bigger. The 90s crash(lol blame it on CrashnBurn) really hurt a lot of aspiring people because there's only so much room for creators nowadays.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

lol at those pics.

I think the 90s was the worst decade in comics, but for a different reason than what you said. We all know the story of the 90s boom and bust that is still affecting comics to this day. There are reasons for that, and what you mentioned is definitely a factor. Where the 90s really hurt comics though was in crippling the indie market so much that it's damn near impossible to get into the business independently. It's always been hard, but in a shrinking niche market indies suffer much more than anyone else.

When comics were booming, you had a larger audience to target and sell to. You may not have the same success as Marvel or DC, but there was still plenty of room to be profitable. Now you really have all of the regular odds going against you when running a business and you have to deal with a small market that doesn't respond well to new characters.

The reason why this is huge is because it stagnates the pool of creators. There are only so many slots(heh, Dan Slott) available to creators that editorial has to really pick and choose carefully who to put on titles. There still are many who would love to write or do art, but many might be discouraged from going the indie route to make their way to the big two. They also could be trying to get out their dream but are defeated by the industry.

I've seen some really talented people have to give up their comics dream because they weren't making enough to be profitable. I'm talking about some truly talented people as well who might have sold if the industry were bigger. The 90s crash(lol blame it on CrashnBurn) really hurt a lot of aspiring people because there's only so much room for creators nowadays.

.....well that's much better than my reasons.

I completely agree and thank goodness we have the internet as a medium to see the work of comic artists who don't get published.

It's weird (or perhaps not, action > reaction) how the 80s was such a great era for comics, including indies (Cerebus, Ninja Turtles), definitive takes on charcaters like Batman and Superman, and medium-redefining work like Watchmen and Maus. To go from that to the empty-headed 90's...

 

[E-Man]

Maybe the cycle will come back. Comics goes through a down period in the late 90s and new millennium, and then somehow the medium is booming again like it was before. I wonder what it would take to get the industry back to its roots though. It's a mighty task that's probably a job for Superman or Reed Richards.

 

[Watchman]

Yes...if you want to ignore things like Starman, Morrison/Waid Justice League, Aztek, Preacher, Hitman, Transmetropolitan, Sandman, The Invisibles, Kingdom Come, Supreme, From Hell, Acme Novelty Library, Palookaville, Box Office Poison, Bone, Supreme, The Maxx, The Spectre, Shade the Changing Man, Flex Mentallo, Doom Patrol, Much of Hellblazer and Legends of the Dark Knight, The Extremist...I could go on.

Comics were much more than X-Men, Image superheroes and their copycats.

 

[Tron Bonne]

Yes...if you want to ignore things like Starman, Morrison/Waid Justice League, Aztek, Preacher, Hitman, Transmetropolitan, Sandman, The Invisibles, Kingdom Come, Supreme, From Hell, Acme Novelty Library, Palookaville, Box Office Poison, Bone, Supreme, The Maxx, The Spectre, Shade the Changing Man, Flex Mentallo, Doom Patrol, Much of Hellblazer and Legends of the Dark Knight, The Extremist...I could go on.

Comics were much more than X-Men, Image superheroes and their copycats.

Agreed. I think the '90s does deserve plenty of flak for a lot of reasons, but there's a lot of stuff from that time period that's damn classic really.

EDIT: Though, yeah, what E-Man said is definitely true as well. The crash really screwed a lot of stuff up in a lot of ways

 

[Blitzkrieg Bop]

90's comics are like a big litter box, with scattered jewels here and there. Only problem is, you're more likely to find a clump of **** or piss.

 

[Tron Bonne]

90's comics are like a big litter box, with scattered jewels here and there. Only problem is, you're more likely to find a clump of **** or piss.

Eh, I think all eras are like that to a degree. I think the '90s are seen this way more than others because it was bigger due to the nature of the market at the time.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

I loved the 90's.

My favorite comics of that period were:

Ghost Rider, Darkhold Redeemers, Night Stalkers, Spirits of Vengeance, X-Men, PITT, Death's Head II, Punisher, the Punisher War Journal, Wolverine, Groo the Wanderer, and SCUD the Disposable Assassin.

 

[greenrage36]

Yeah the 90's were when I left the comic world, more or less. At the time the primary motivation was for financial reasons, but looking back the over-blown artwork, goofy characterizations of characters, and INYOURFACE style of writing/presentation just kinda drained the desire to keep up with the medium back then.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

Its my opinion, and some might disagree, but most mainstream comics (DC/Marvel) at that time, Detective Comics, Superman, including the X-Men, etc, were still geared towards kids. I don't think Marvel would get away with the Demogorge ripping Ares to pieces or Ghost Rider's nemesis shoving a guys head into his own rectum and calling him "Buttview." On the same subject, kids could also forgive bad art in these stories. Back then, over muscled comic characters were relatively new and over muscled action stars were still the norm.

Another thing I admire about the 90s, (albeit with it's mostly bad, over-exaggerated anatomic art), there were also many great and talented artists. Some of my favorite artists were very active back then:

Adam, Kubert, Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, Dale Keown, Ron Garney, Javiar Saltaires, Mark Texeira, Dan Jurgens/Kevin Nowlan, Salvadore Larroca, Stephen Platt on Moon Knight (pre-Image), and Alex Ross.

 

[The Question]

Hardly. The 90s had some lame trends, but no lamer than the trends of previous decades. Just a new kind of lime that sticks in out minds. And there was a lot of golden stuff in the 90s. More off the beaten path, but still absolutely great. And even some of the stuff that had some of lame trends in it wasn't bad.

This run on The Hulk, for example, was great, and probably did more for the character than Planet Hulk ever did.

 

[greenrage36]

Hardly. The 90s had some lame trends, but no lamer than the trends of previous decades. Just a new kind of lime that sticks in out minds. And there was a lot of golden stuff in the 90s. More off the beaten path, but still absolutely great. And even some of the stuff that had some of lame trends in it wasn't bad.

This run on The Hulk, for example, was great, and probably did more for the character than Planet Hulk ever did.

Now that I look back on it, the hulk,(outside of the gun, lol), didn't fare all that badly during that time period. However when it was happening, it didn't seem like it me, but that could have just been my attitude about the comic scene as a whole I guess. I think I hit a burnout stage in terms of wanting to keep up with everything, and as a result NOTHING looked all that good for a while there. (At least for me...)

 

[E-Man]

Adam, Kubert, Andy Kubert, Joe Kubert, Dale Keown, Ron Garney, Javiar Saltaires, Mark Texeira, Dan Jurgens/Kevin Nowlan, Salvadore Larroca, Stephen Platt on Moon Knight (pre-Image), and Alex Ross.

That list of artists is pretty damn impressive. One of my all time favorite artists, Jim Lee, got a lot of his fame in the 90's as well.

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

Jim Lee on Punisher was great. Can't remember if that was 80s or 90's though.

 

[8Diagrams(WU)]

Loved the 90s. Lots of big names made their names during that time. I really got into comics around that era. I think all eras have their good and bad, but I personally enjoyed the 90s

 

[gn6196]

A lot of good things came from the 90"s : Valiant , The better Image books, Topps, DH comics, creators rights were made important in the industry.
It's too bad that the only thing remembered are the special covers that catered to the speculators.

 

[E-Man]

Quantum and Woody came out in the 90s too! Hooray for goats!

 

[Chris Wallace]

As bad as the 90's were for comics-with all the gimmickry and bad marketing ideas-I can't say things have significantly improved over the last 10 years.

 

[Kevin Roegele]

As bad as the 90's were for comics-with all the gimmickry and bad marketing ideas-I can't say things have significantly improved over the last 10 years.

I think the diference is that the focus used to be on the artist, now it's the writer. So whereas comics used to sell on the basis of flashy covers, who they were drawn by, and were full of pin-up shots and flashy poses, now comics sell of the basis of dramatic storylines, who wrote them, and are full of story-arcs and 'realistic' dialogue.

 

[Webley]

One thing that sucked in the 90s the price of a comic whent from 75 cents to a dollar

 

[JewishHobbit]

I loved the 90's. Honestly, I think the worst decade in comics just finished... the 00's.

 

[Chris Wallace]

I think the diference is that the focus used to be on the artist, now it's the writer. So whereas comics used to sell on the basis of flashy covers, who they were drawn by, and were full of pin-up shots and flashy poses, now comics sell of the basis of dramatic storylines, who wrote them, and are full of story-arcs and 'realistic' dialogue.

You're right. Add to that the Hollywood-inspired "realism" that's polluting the art form.

 

[JewishHobbit]

The problem with me, regarding being directed by writers now, is that writers often don't follow what other writers are doing. They write their stories and then the next writer comes and writes their stories and then the next person and so on... with very little connection between the stories. I mean, some writers even write arcs with nothing connecting between them. I mean, you'd think that writers could write a cohesive run of comics and learn how to go from one writer to the next for the betterment of the story.

But no, they ignore or change what came before to tell THEIR story. It always makes what's come before feel pointless and we can expect that whoever's next will make the current run pointless as well. Also, there are core titles, such as Uncanny X-Men, New Avengers, and Amazing Spider-Man.... and other titles that are in connection due to genre have to adapt to those titles or else they fall to the wayside. I mean, trying to read titles like Initiative or New X-Men on their own are about a nightmare. It's hard to read the Initiative without reading the rest of the Avenger line. You can, but you're not getting the full story or reasonings of what's going on.

Say what you want about the 90's, at least storyline's flowed well. I mean, the X-Men were what I focused on most and it was a consistent storyline from X-Men 1/Uncanny X-Men 281 through X-Men 99/Uncanny X-Men 380ish. Things and characters came and went, but it flowed well.

You can't hardly find that on modern titles for crap. Daredevil and Captain America are about it. Either differant creative teams redo everything or a title doesn't last long enough to experience different creative teams. Personally, I prefer it when editorial had more control (granted, editorial these days suck, but maybe more exercise would better their work).

 

[fifthfiend]

Decades... the worst unit by which to measure the quality of comics?