The comic industry has been through a lot of ups and downs over the decades, but only one decade truly captured the dizzying highs and the cavernous lows like the ’90s. The ’90s are one of the most interesting decades in the history of the comic industry for a variety of reasons. Marvel and DC Comics put out massive selling comic events, Image Comics was formed by the most beloved artists of their generation, and Dark Horse Comics was the home of quality indies from legends like Frank Miller, John Byrne, Mike Mignola, Paul Chadwick, and many more. DC’s Vertigo line was creating comics that would go down as some of the best of all time, and Alan Moore was working everywhere but the Big Two, including bringing some much needed great writing to the artists of Image. The ’90s are a decade of great extremes (which is perfect for the decade that is often called “the decade of extreme”), and nowhere is that more evident than comics.
However, for fans who weren’t there, the ’90s have a reputation as one of the worst decades in the history of modern comics. This is a patently false idea. There are some brilliant ’90s comics. There are also some abysmal ones. Looking back, there were two warring approaches in the ’90s comic industry — style and substance. Honestly, the history of ’90s comics is almost about two different industries and it was one of the most complicated decades in comics.
The ’90s Changed Comics Forever
The ’80s are, in my opinion, the best decade of comics. While the ’60s were the most creative decade, the ’80s were when comics finally started to grow up, thanks to the work of creators like Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Chris Claremont, and many more. Comics became literature in the ’80s and we got some of the best comics of all time. Towards the end of the decade, readers were treated to the rise of the superstar artist, as pencilers like Marc Silvestri, Todd McFarlane, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, and Jim Lee became legitimate forces in the industry. When the ’90s dawned, the industry was changing and that change led to the defining story of ’90s comics, one that would change everything — the rise of Image Comics. McFarlane, Liefeld, Lee, Silvestri, Larsen, Whilce Potracio, and Jim Valentino left Marvel over money and formed their own company. This defection would change the industry in two ways. The first was it would make the indie market hotter than ever. Comics were big business in the ’90s, and Image helped make the independent side of the comic industry flourish. Image was all about style, and this approach would become prevalent in the “Bad Girls” comics of the day — comics starring scantily clad women. Image sold on the back of its artwork, and Marvel decided to chase them in this regard, which is the second major change. The ’80s had some of the best written Marvel comics ever. The ’90s had Force Works, Fantastic Force, and Nomad. Even after the Image founders left the publisher, Marvel concentrated on creating all new superstars artists to replace them, while depending on the same creators writers who had been around since the ’80s. Marvel put out some great looking comics, but for the most part, the writing just wasn’t up to snuff. There were still some great ’90s Marvel comics, but the lack of good writing almost doomed the company.
The rise of artists in comics led to the collector bubble. When the first issues of the ’60s started to sell for large amounts, collectors started buying multiple number ones and event comics, in the hopes that they would be worth millions one day. However, the collector’s market didn’t want to wait and when X-Men (Vol. 2) #1 or Spawn #1 didn’t sell for a million a year later, the collectors abandoned comics. However, Marvel, and to a lesser extent DC, had grown fat and happy on the collector’s market money, and when the collectors left, the company almost folded. Multiple indie powerhouses, like Valiant, also suffered during this time.
However, DC and Dark Horse were able to survive relatively fine for one reason — they embraced substance over style. DC and Dark Horse had all of the great writers of the ’90s, and were putting brilliant comics. Sin City, Hellboy, Martha Washington, Concrete, Dark Horse Presents, The Sandman, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Animal Man, Swamp Thing, JLA, The Flash, Doom Patrol, The Invisibles, Preacher, Hellblazer, Shade the Changing Man, and many more were put out by creators that were able to tell amazing stories. They might not have been selling as well as Marvel, but they were competitive, with big sellers like the Superman and Batman books (which each had four ongoings) buoying DC. DC had some amazing comics in the ’90s, and while most people think Vertigo was the only place making good DC comics, the company’s entire line was full of great comics — Legion of Superheroes, Legionnaires, JLA, The Flash, Chase, Hourman, JSA, Green Lantern (and more I’m forgetting) — giving readers amazing superhero stories. Alan Moore was out and about in the ’90s as well, mostly working for Image Comics, as well as writing the masterpiece known as From Hell. Moore’s work on books like WildC.A.T.s (Moore’s run on WildC.A.T.s is way better than it had any right to be and he wrote a Mister Majestic one-shot that is amazing) and Supreme (as well as other Rob Liefeld owned characters) showed that there were no bad characters, only bad writers. It’s easy to find a lot of terrible ’90s comics but there are way more amazing comics than anyone could imagine from the ’90s.
A Tale of Two Comic Industries
The ’90s took the war between style and substance to the next level. While there was a good balance of style and substance in the previous decades, with the ’80s being an exemplary mixture of both, the ’90s set these two different ideas against each other, and the comic industry almost imploded. When most people think of the excesses of the ’90s, they think of Marvel and Image books, the gimmick covers, and over ordered first issues. What they don’t think about is how good that the comics of the decade be. Every trip to the comic store in the ’90s (and the sainted spinner racks of yore) was exciting. You could pick up an issue of Youngblood and not see a single foot or background and then pick up an issue of From Hell. You could get Uncanny X-Men, the poster child for ’90s Marvel, and an issue of Preacher. It was a wild dichotomy.
Really, there were two different comic industries in the ’90s — Marvel and Image and the rest of the industry. Marvel and Image were all about style for the vast majority of the decade, with the late ’90s seeing the publisher try to push good writing at a time when it was too little, too late. DC, Dark Horse, and the various smaller indies were the other industry, giving readers some of the best stories imaginable. The ’90s were more than just holographic covers and pretty pictures and the sooner people understand that, the sooner we can learn from its mistakes and move forward.
What do you think about comics in the ’90s? Sound off in the comments below.
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