Were golden age comics actually better written than 90s stuff? I'm seeing a shift

I was comparing some old Detective Comics from 1939 with a run of X-Men from 1991 and the difference in storytelling is wild. The older books focused way more on tight mystery plots in like 12 pages, while the 90s issues dragged everything into 6 issue arcs with crazy pouches and big guns. Did the switch to direct market distribution in the late 70s cause this change toward decompression, or was it just artists like Liefeld pushing style over substance? What side do you lean on?

3 comments

3 Comments

wade76726d ago

The thing about "tight mystery plots in like 12 pages" is exactly right. Those old comics knew how to tell a complete story in a single issue, no padding. The switch to the direct market really changed everything. Before that, comics were on newsstands and had to hook a new reader every month. Once stores started ordering based on pre-orders, writers could drag stuff out because readers were already locked in. Liefeld and his pouches were just a symptom of that bigger problem. We lost a lot of that crisp, fast-paced storytelling when the industry stopped worrying about casual readers.

abby_king2222d ago

That point about Liefeld being a symptom rather than the cause is interesting, but I wonder if the art style changes made it worse. When artists started drawing everything hyper-detailed with crazy anatomy and a hundred pouches, did that naturally lead to fewer panels per page? Because those old 12 page mysteries worked because you got like 8-10 panels a page with clear storytelling. Once everyone wanted their art to look like a pinup in every panel, you could only fit 3 or 4 panels on a page. So even if a writer had a tight plot, the art style made it impossible to tell that kind of story anymore.

wesley80126d ago

Wade767 is dead on about the direct market changing the pace of storytelling. The real shift nobody talks about is that newsstand comics had to compete with magazines for shelf space, so every issue had to feel like a full meal in one sitting. Once that pressure was gone, creators forgot how to write for the casual browser flipping through the rack.