This section of Shanghalla seeks to present a timeline of the American comic book industry. Although the list cannot detail every minute development, the intent is to be as comprehensive as possible.
Below is an outline of the comic book ages. Within each age, where appropriate, are links to individual years within the timeline.
Corrections are welcome in the comments section or by emailing duke@shanghalla.com.
— THE STONE AGE —
**43,900 BCE — 3,200 BCE**
~Timespan: 40,700 years~
The art of storytelling via the use of semi-permanent, figurative pictorial depiction begins, starting with THE EXCEPTIONAL BRAVERY AND SKILL OF PIG-HUNTING PALU, a pantomime comic strip found in caves of the Maros-Pangkep karst on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, and running through SUPER-EPIC SPEAR MAN, an expansive graphic novel found in the Lascaux caves of Southwestern France. Sadly, comics are not yet in this period a true co-mix of words and pictures, owing largely to words having not yet been invented.
— THE LIMESTONE AGE —
**3,500 BCE — 700 BCE**
~Timespan: 2,800 years~
Although words themselves are still not yet a thing, pictures have begun transmogrifying into a kind of photo-word, thanks to the invention of hieroglyphics. The most popular comic strip in this new form is CHEOPS AND SPHINXY, about a young pharaoh and the stuffed chimeric lion only he sees as a real live partner in play. Later on, hieroglyphics will be adapted into the Phoenician and Aramaic abjads that became the basis of the first actual letters and words, although counting is initially more important than writing, as seen in the multi-part cuneiform graphic novel, SUPER-ACCOUNTING SUMERIAN.
— THE CLAY AGE —
**700 BCE — 1450 CE**
~Timespan: 2,150 years~
The Greek inclusion of vowels into the Phoenician adjad writing system forms the basis of the first true alphabets, leading to a long age that flips the script, moving the focus of communication from pictures to words. Although this does lead to the development of actual literature, almost all stories of this era are almost preternaturally obsessed with great floods and sky kings.
— THE ANTIMONY AGE —
**1450 CE — August 1842**
~Timespan: 392 years, 8 months~
The invention of movable type by Johannes Gutenberg (using an alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, for which this age is named) ushers in a revolution in publishing, bringing words to the masses. Sadly, pictures remain for the most part separate and distinct from words, even when sharing a page, as in the handmade illuminated manuscripts that typified the latter part of the previous age. Even so, the creation of actual comics is not far off.
— THE LEAD AGE —
**September 1842 — December 1921**
~Timespan: 79 years, 3 months~
The era kicks off with America’s first narrative in sequential pictures, THE ADVENTURES OF MR. OBADIAH OLDBUCK, and continues through an explosion of humorous illustration, from the editorial cartoons of Thomas Nast, to the first true comic strip (albeit a single panel), HOGAN’S ALLEY, with its waifish protagonist, Mickey Dugan, whose first collected adventures would lead to adaptation of the word “comic book” — originally meant to describe any humorous publication — to his own particular brand of literature.
1842-1859 | 1860-1869 | 1870-1879 | 1880-1889 | 1890-1899 | 1900-1909 | 1910-1919 | 1920-1921
— THE IRON AGE —
**January 1922 — March 1933**
~Timespan: 11 years, 3 months~
While the previous era overflowed with publication of newspaper comic strips in collected form, the development that launches this new age is issuance by Dell Publishing of COMIC MONTHLY, marking the first attempt to sell a comics periodical to the public on its own merit. Although a short-lived failure, efforts to market comics would continue, soon leading to the first product to actually resemble the modern comic book as we know it.
1922-1924 | 1925-1929 | 1930-1933