Қомикстердің күміс дәуірі (1956-1970)

Mid 1950s to '70s era of comic books

The Silver Age of Comic Books was a period of artistic advancement and widespread commercial success in mainstream American comic books, predominantly those featuring the superhero archetype. Following the Golden Age of Comic Books, the Silver Age is considered to cover the period from 1956 to 1970, and was succeeded by the Bronze Age. The popularity and circulation of comic books about superheroes had declined following World War II, and comic books about horror, crime and romance took larger shares of the market. However, controversy arose over alleged links between comic books and juvenile delinquency, focusing in particular on crime, horror, and superheroes. In 1954, publishers implemented the Comics Code Authority to regulate comic content. In the wake of these changes, publishers began introducing superhero stories again, a change that began with the introduction of a new version of DC Comics' The Flash in Showcase #4 (October 1956). In response to strong demand, DC began publishing more superhero titles including Justice League of America, which prompted Marvel Comics to follow suit beginning with The Fantastic Four #1. A number of important comics writers and artists contributed to the early part of the era, including writers Stan Lee, Gardner Fox, John Broome, and Robert Kanigher, and artists Curt Swan, Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Steve Ditko, Mike Sekowsky, Gene Colan, Carmine Infantino, John Buscema, and John Romita Sr. By the end of the Silver Age, a new generation of talent had entered the field, including writers Denny O'Neil, Gary Friedrich, Roy Thomas, and Archie Goodwin, and artists such as Neal Adams, Herb Trimpe, Jim Steranko, and Barry Windsor Smith. Silver Age comics have become collectible, with a copy in the best condition known of Amazing Fantasy #15 (August 1962), the debut of Spider Man, selling for $1.1 million in 2011. In 2022, a copy of Fantastic Four #1 sold for $1.5 million.

Comics historian and movie producer Michael Uslan traces the origin of the "Silver Age" term to the letters column of Justice League of America #42 (February 1966), which went on sale December 9, 1965. Letter writer Scott Taylor of Westport, Connecticut, wrote: "If you guys keep bringing back the heroes from the [1930s–1940s] Golden Age, people 20 years from now will be calling this decade the Silver Sixties!" To address public concerns, in 1954 the Comics Code Authority was created to regulate and curb violence in comics, marking the start of a new era.

DC Comics sparked the superhero revival with its publications from 1955 to 1960. Marvel Comics then capitalized on the revived interest in superhero storytelling with sophisticated stories and characterization. In contrast to previous eras, Marvel characters were "flawed and self doubting". DC added to its momentum with its 1960 introduction of Justice League of America, a team consisting of the company's most popular superhero characters. Martin Goodman, a publishing trend follower with his 1950s Atlas Comics line, by this time called Marvel Comics, "mentioned that he had noticed one of the titles published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The [sic] Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes", Marvel editor Stan Lee recalled in 1974. Goodman directed Lee to likewise produce a superhero team book, resulting in The Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961). Under the guidance of writer editor Stan Lee and artists/co plotters such as Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, Marvel began its own rise to prominence.

One of the few most selling American comics publishers in 1956, Harvey Comics, discontinued its horror comics when the Comics Code was implemented and sought a new target audience. The publishers Gilberton, Dell Comics, and Gold Key Comics used their reputations as publishers of wholesome comic books to avoid becoming signatories to the Comics Code and found various ways to continue publishing horror themed comics in addition to other types. Gilberton's extensive Classics Illustrated line adapted literary classics, with the likes of Frankenstein alongside Don Quixote and Oliver Twist; Classics Illustrated Junior reprinted comic book versions of children's classics such as The Wizard of Oz, Rapunzel, and Pinocchio. During the late 1950s and the 1960s, Dell, which had published comics in 1936, offered licensed TV series comic books from Twilight Zone to Top Cat, as well as numerous Walt Disney titles. Its successor, Gold Key—founded in 1962 after Western Publishing started its own label rather than packaging content for business partner Dell—continued with such licensed TV series and movie adaptations, as well as comics starring such Warner Bros. Cartoons characters as Bugs Bunny and such comic strip properties as Beetle Bailey. With the popularity of the Batman television show in 1966, publishers that had specialized in other forms began adding campy superhero titles to their lines. As well, new publishers sprang up, often using creative talent from the Golden Age. Harvey Comics' Harvey Thriller imprint released Double Dare Adventures, starring new characters such as Bee Man and Magicmaster. Dell published superhero versions of Frankenstein, Dracula and the Werewolf. Archie Comics also launched its Archie Adventure line (subsequently titled Mighty Comics), which included the Fly, the Jaguar, and a revamp of the Golden Age hero the Shield. In addition to their individual titles, they teamed in their group series The Mighty Crusaders, joined by the Comet and Flygirl. Their stories blended typical superhero fare with the 1960s camp. Among straightforward Silver Age superheroes from publishers other than Marvel or DC, Charlton Comics offered a short lived superhero line with characters that included Captain Atom, Judomaster, the Question, and Thunderbolt; Tower Comics had Dynamo, Mercury Man, NoMan and other members of the superhero espionage group T. H. U. N. D. E. R. Agents; and even Gold Key had Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom.

According to John Strausbaugh of The New York Times, "traditional" comic book historians feel that although the Silver Age deserves study, the only noteworthy aspect of the Silver Age was the advent of underground comics. While a large number of mainstream comics professionals both wrote and drew their own material during the Silver Age, as many had since the start of American comic books, their work is distinct from what another historian describes as the "raw id on paper" of Robert Crumb and Gilbert Shelton.

The Silver Age of comic books was followed by the Bronze Age. John Strausbaugh also connects the end of the Silver Age to Green Lantern. He observes that in 1960, the character embodied the can do optimism of the era. Silver Age historian Craig Shutt disputes this, saying, "Gwen Stacy's death shocked Spider Man readers. Such a tragedy makes a strong symbolic ending. This theory gained adherents when Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross's Marvels miniseries in 1994 ended with Gwen's death, but I'm not buying it. It's too late. Too many new directions—especially [the sword and sorcery trend begun by the character] Conan and monsters [in the wake of the Comics Code allowing vampires, werewolves and the like]—were on firm ground by this time." He also dismisses the end of the 12 cent comic book, which went to 15 cents as the industry standard in early 1969, noting that the 1962 hike from 10 cents to 12 cents had no bearing in this regard. According to historian Peter Sanderson, the "neo silver movement" that began in 1986 with Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? by Alan Moore and Curt Swan, was a backlash against the Bronze Age with a return to Silver Age principles.

The Silver Age marked a decline in horror, crime, romance, talking animal humor, and Westerns as American comics genres. An important feature of the period was the development of the character makeup of superheroes. Young children and girls were targeted during the Silver Age by certain publishers; in particular, Harvey Comics attracted this group with titles such as Little Dot. Adult oriented underground comics also began during the Silver Age. Some critics and historians argue that one characteristic of the Silver Age was that science fiction and aliens replaced magic and gods. Others argue that magic was an important element of both Golden Age and Silver Age characters. Many Golden Age writers and artists were science fiction fans or professional science fiction writers who incorporated SF elements into their comic book stories. Science was a common explanation for the origin of heroes in the Silver Age. The Silver Age coincided with the rise of pop art, an artistic movement that used popular cultural artifacts, such as advertising and packaging, as source material for fine, or gallery exhibited, art. Roy Lichtenstein, one of the best known pop art painters, specifically chose individual panels from comic books and repainted the images, modifying them to some extent in the process but including in the painting word and thought balloons and captions as well as enlarged to scale color dots imitating the coloring process then used in newsprint comic books. An exhibition of comic strip art was held at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs of the Palais de Louvre in 1967, and books were soon published that contained serious discussions of the art of comics and the nature of the medium. In January 1966, a live action Batman television show debuted to high ratings. Circulation for comic books in general and Batman merchandise in particular soared. Other masked or superpowered adventurers appeared on the television screen, so that "American TV in the winter of 1967 appeared to consist of little else but live action and animated cartoon comic book heroes, all in living colour." Existing comic book publishers began creating superhero titles, as did new publishers. By the end of the 1960s, however, the fad had faded; in 1969, the best selling comic book in the United States was not a superhero series, but the teen humor book Archie. Swedish cartoonist Joakim Lindengren draws a Silver Age pastiche in his Kapten Stofil comic book series (1998–2009) about the powers of nostalgia in a grumpy, old comic book named Captain Geezer who longs to return to the Silver Age. Lindengren also borrows many elements from Silver Age comics in United States of Banana, a comic book he created with Puerto Rican author Giannina Braschi.

[[File:Nick Fury7. jpg|thumb|upright|Nick Fury: Agent of S. H. I. E. L. D. #7 (December 1968)<small>Cover art by Jim Steranko, whose work here owes a debt to Salvador Dalí his naturalistic depictions of anatomy, faces, and gestures changed comics' style in a way that Strausbaugh sees reflected in modern graphic novels. Strausbaugh credits him as one of Marvel's strongest creative forces during the late 1960s, his art owing a large debt to Salvador Dalí. Steranko started by inking and penciling the details of Kirby's artwork on Nick Fury, Agent of S. H. I. E. L. D. beginning in Strange Tales #151, but by Strange Tales #155 Stan Lee had put him in charge of both writing and drawing Fury's adventures.

The following comics are sought after by collectors due to their historic significance. A near mint plus copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider Man, sold for $1.1 million to an unnamed collector on March 7, 2011. Title & IssueCover datePublisherRelevanceDetective Comics #225Nov. 1955DCFirst appearance of Martian ManhunterShowcase #4Oct. 1956DCFirst appearance of the Silver Age Flash (Barry Allen) First Silver Age comic. Adventure Comics #247April 1958DCFirst appearance of the Legion of Super HeroesAdventure Comics #260May 1959DCFirst appearance of the Silver Age AquamanAction Comics #252May 1959DCFirst appearance of Supergirl (Kara Zor El), cousin to SupermanShowcase #22Oct. 1959 DCFirst appearance of Green Lantern (Hal Jordan)The Brave and the Bold #28March 1960 DCFirst gathering of DC's superheroes as the Justice League of AmericaRichie Rich #1Nov. 1960HarveyRichie Rich gets his own title. Showcase #30Feb. 1961DCFirst of four pilot issues for AquamanThe Brave and the Bold #34 March 1961DCFirst appearance of the Silver Age Hawkman and HawkgirlThe Flash #123Sept. 1961DCReappearance of the Golden Age Flash; introduction of Earth TwoShowcase #34Oct. 1961DCFirst appearance of the Silver Age AtomThe Fantastic Four #1Nov. 1961 MarvelFirst appearance of the Fantastic FourTales to Astonish #27Jan. 1962 MarvelFirst appearance of Henry Pym, the future Ant ManHulk #1May 1962 MarvelFirst appearance of the HulkThe Fantastic Four #5July 1962 MarvelFirst appearance of Dr. DoomAmazing Fantasy #15Aug. 1962MarvelFirst appearance of Spider Man (Peter Parker)Journey into Mystery #83Aug. 1962 MarvelFirst appearance of Marvel's Thor (Thor Odinson / Donald Blake)Tales to Astonish #35Sept. 1962 MarvelFirst appearance of Ant Man (Henry Pym)Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom #1Oct. 1962Gold KeyFirst appearance of Doctor SolarMagnus, Robot Fighter #1Feb. 1963Gold KeyFirst appearance of Magnus, Robot FighterTales of Suspense #39March 1963 MarvelFirst appearance of Iron Man (Tony Stark)Strange Tales #110Jul. 1963 MarvelFirst appearance of Doctor StrangeJustice League of America #21Aug. 1963DCReappearance of the Golden Age Justice Society of AmericaThe X Men #1Sept. 1963 MarvelFirst appearance of the X Men and MagnetoThe Avengers #1Sept. 1963 MarvelFirst gathering of Marvel's superheroes as the AvengersThe Avengers #4March 1964 MarvelReappearance of Captain America (Steve Rogers) from the Golden Age of Comic BooksDaredevil #1April 1964 MarvelFirst appearance of DaredevilDetective Comics #327May 1964DC"New Look" Batman and Robin. The Brave and the Bold #54June 1965 DCFirst appearance of the Teen TitansDetective Comics #359Jan. 1967DCFirst appearance of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) Green Lantern #76April 1970DC"The New Green Lantern / Green Arrow" tackles social issues