The History Of Science Fiction Comic Book Authors

By Marissa Velazquez


The first science fiction comic strip was My Skygack from Mars, which was created by AD Condo. It was a comedy strip that appear in 1907 in the newspapers of the time. Buck Rodgers was the first serious sci-fi comic strip that made it's debut in 1928. This was followed by Flash Gordon and Dan Dare, which was created in the UK. Sci-fi comics are now extremely popular all over the world and the many science fiction comic book authors continue to produce highly imaginative plots and concepts.

A high proportion of the first comics contained elements of sci-fi. Planet comic's "Superman" series brought in the super hero sci-fi sub-genre. EC Comics published sci-fi comics to great success in the 1950s and the storylines and concepts became more and more sophisticated. US sci-fi comics continued into the 1960s with comics aimed at both children and adolescents. Young adults became interested in the genre in the late 1960s with the wave of hippy underground comics.

Japanese Manga appeared in the 1950s amd Osamu Tezuka's Astro Boy is considered to be the first major sci-fi Manga comic. In the following decades many other creators of Japanese sci-fi comics would appear, including Leiji Matsumoto with Galaxy Express 999, Katsuhiro Otomo with Akira and Masamune Shirow with Ghost in the Shell.

The first sci-fi graphic novels appeared in the 1960s. A graphic novel is essentially a story that uses pictures instead of words, this is very useful in the sci-fi genre as pictures can portray aspects of a storyline that would be difficult in words. Most sci-fi graphic novels include, robots, virtual reality, mecha and time travel. Graphic novels have become more and more sophisticated in artistry and storyline, and many are aimed more towards adolescents and adults as they contain complex themes and ideas.

The most sci-fi comics in the USA are of the superhero sub-genre, and are incredibly popular all over the globe. DC comics and Marvel have produced some of the best known superheroes, including The Incredible Hulk, Spiderman, Thor and the Avengers. Many movies have been created from these superheroes. Superhero comics are considered sci-fi although they are usually set on earth in the present day.

The sci-fi Manga comics from Japan are usually set in the future or in some alternative reality. For example Akira, which provided inspiration for The Matrix films, and Ghost in the Shell, which is set in the future. Not all manga is of the sci-fi genre, but the most popular Manga comics outside of japan tend to be the sci-fi ones.

The most successful and popular sci-fi comic books tend to reflect the technological zeitgeist of the time they were written. The older comics were hand drawn and coloured by the artist, but modern sci-fi comics and graphic novels now employ computer generated images with the help of corel, photoshop, illustrator and paintbucket.

Science fiction is a broad term and many of the best science fiction comic book authors have played around with the genre to create new concepts. Warren Ellis can be credited for creating the cyberpunk concept with his Transmetropolitan series. Alan Moore used the genre to create social commentary with his V for Vendetta, which is set in a Dystopia.




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