It may be hard to fathom in an age when adults literally get
violently angry about reading bad reviews of the latest big-screen superhero
explosion fest, but there was a time when comic books were lighthearted, fun,
and almost exclusively intended for children. They could thrill to Superman’s
escapades and laugh at Casper’s antics without the requisite shovelful of
“darkness” and “grit.” The Dark Knight might hawk Hostess snack cakes in
full-page ads and Spider-Man might team up with SNL’s Not Ready for Prime Time
Players. Comics could also be just as complex and artfully illustrated as they
are today, but they were still generally aimed at kids.
George Khoury— and his guest writers, such as Mary Skrenes
and Roger Stern— celebrate and eulogize the era in which comics transitioned
from child to adult-child fare in his new book Comic Book Fever, presenting a series of topical articles focused
on the decade between 1976 and 1986. It begins with Captain America’s goofy
bicentennial patriotism, the last gasp of Harvey comics and Archie’s wholesome frolics,
moves through a more thoughtful period in which Marvel and the Hernandez
Brothers (Love and Rockets) introduced
progressive ideals into superhero adventures, and ends with the inevitable “maturing”
of the form with Alan Moore on the left and Frank Miller on the right and
buckets of blood and aimless cynicism splattered everywhere in between.
Khoury only really criticizes the dark turn comics took in
his final pages, but his writing about the industry’s more carefree,
youth-oriented days is so celebratory that he makes his preference clear
throughout Comic Book Fever. There
are certainly few “serious” studies of comics that would make room to laud such
wacky side roads as Jack Davis’s “Streetball” ads for Spalding, Rock & Roll
comics, toy-based comics (Masters of the
Universe, Rom, GI Joe, Strawberry Shortcake...), Colorforms, and Dynamite Magazine. Those of us who don’t take comic reading so
deathly serious will relish binging on this nostalgia feast. There’s also
fascinating drama in many of these stories, such as the troubled creations of
the iconic Superman vs. Muhammad Ali comic and Marvel’s KISS series.
Khoury also emphasizes the fun side of the medium in his
presentation. Every page of Comic Book
Fever overflows with images of comics pages and covers, advertisements, and
memorabilia: toys, place mats, pencil cases, lunchboxes, records, greeting
cards, and so on. I remember being a kid ogling all this stuff at my local
Heroes World, a comics shop chain that Khoury lovingly profiles in his book. I
have much fonder memories of thumbing through issues of Star Wars there than I do of seeing Batgirl getting shot through
the spine in The Killing Joke. There
are innumerable online forums for those who prefer the latter. Comic Book Fever, however, is for kids
like me.
