Micro-post #95: An article about the weirdness of 1990s superhero comics

"The ‘90s Were the Most Complicated Decade of Comics" by David Hart (Comicbook.com)

I was an avid reader of Wizard Magazine despite not being a big fan of superheros, so I know a lot of this by first-hand experience. While I don't think this is the best written article I've seen, it does captute the mood pretty well. If you have any memories of that time and can type "IYKYK" in response to this article, you have my deepest sympathies. (I'm also adding a couple of issues of Wizard, courtesy of Internet Archive, for additional context and visual cues.)

Photo by Eric Mclean (Unsplash)

"The ’90s took the war between style and substance to the next level. While there was a good balance of style and substance in the previous decades, with the ’80s being an exemplary mixture of both, the ’90s set these two different ideas against each other, and the comic industry almost imploded. When most people think of the excesses of the ’90s, they think of Marvel and Image books, the gimmick covers, and over ordered first issues. What they don’t think about is how good that the comics of the decade be. Every trip to the comic store in the ’90s (and the sainted spinner racks of yore) was exciting. You could pick up an issue of Youngblood and not see a single foot or background and then pick up an issue of From Hell. You could get Uncanny X-Men, the poster child for ’90s Marvel, and an issue of Preacher. It was a wild dichotomy." - David Hart

Bonus: Wizard #1(1993) and Wizard #75 (1997) [the first issue I ever read...]

Reminder: I'm currently taking a blogging sabbatical and this was a pre-planned scheduled post. If there's typos or mishaps, I'll take care of them once I'm back. Thanks for understanding! - AB