Sunday, January 30, 2011

Gorillas in Comics

Please laugh.
What the Heck I am Talking About?
Due to the popularity of gorillas in forms of media such as King Kong, comic books had a large amount of stories featuring gorillas. Later, there was backlash against the "silly" plot device.
History
Oddly, in the Silver Age, gorillas were used as gimmicks to get people to buy comics. However, due to gag covers, rarely did the comic actually have more than few panels involving the gorilla story. There were a lot of brain-transplants and King Kong knock-offs. Several rumors emerged about the wide use of gorillas:
  1. Publishers thought that by simply putting a gorilla on the cover, it would increase sales.
  2. To not abuse the winning formula, DC Comics would only have 1 gorilla comic per month (except for "gorilla month")
Due to comics becoming a more respectable art form, there was backlash against this gimmick. However, these comics have gained collector value. In the Modern Age of Comics, mainly to due Silver Age nostalgia, comic book creators have referenced this gimmick.
References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gorillas_in_Comics
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/14/JimmyOlsen98.png

No comments:

Post a Comment