A History Lesson in Comic Books and Unrealistic Body Types

Photo by Dev on Unsplash

So, my husband has never been the comic collector in the family. But as a boy growing up in the 70s and 80s, he did in fact acquire comics.

Somehow, these comics survived some shoddy treatment in a readable form and are now in my possession. None of them are better than fair condition, most are poor or worse, but they are readable.

I’ve been reading them before I place them in more careful storage.

And I’ve seen something…interesting. And kind of sad.

Comics as an Advertising Platform

The modern readers who complain that the price of comics has exceeded inflation are right, but they have missed something.

These old comics contain ads.

So. Many. Ads.

I think I’d rather pay a little more for my comics and get more story and fewer ads.

The comics I have are, with a couple of exceptions, comics somebody would at that time have bought a boy. There’s quite a few Star Wars comics and some superheroes.

The pattern I saw is in those comics (not in the humor comics or the one comic that was clearly aimed at girls).