Among the more notable events besides my birth was the introduction of play-doh but that was hardly the most memorable. Elvis Presley blasted into the national consciousness with "Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog, and Love Me Tender". Even bigger than those hits was Elvis' first appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show and changed the course of popular music forever.
It was also, and as it happens the topic of this post, the dawn of the Silver Age of Comics. The Superman TV show was going strong but comic book super-heroes had all but disappeared. The mainstays of Superman and Batman sold well but were pretty much in a formulaic rut. Comics were more commonly referred to as "Funny Books". Then Showcase #4 nonchalantly appeared on the news stands and racks. Some character in a bright red suit was on the cover and he was called "The Flash". That particular comic reinvented and re-defined the super-heroes from the 40's that faded away.
If you grew up in that period it's doubtless that your images of Superman, Flash, Green Lantern, and today's popular films of superheroes; i.e, Batman, Spider-Man, The Hulk, Iron Man, The X-Men, and the Fantastic Four were forever defined.
Comics were 10 cents then 12 cents, and you could get annuals of reprints for a mere 25 cents. It was hours of cheap, colorful, and imaginative entertainment. There was no color TV not to mention cable and satellite with hundreds of stations, video games, or DVD's. It was a black and white world. Kids could only live their fantasies in a 4 color medium through Walt Disney who was systematically releasing all of his classic films once a year. Far more accessible were comic books which screamed "look at me" "buy me" with their fantastical characters and vivid eye catching colors from the covers.
You will find jillions of sites on comic books but the best one that I have found is devoted to this period and frequently posts engaging synposes of full comics, and loads of information on the creators, editors, artists, writers and publishers. It's mostly DC and Marvel stuff natch, but reminds us that there were other companies out there like Harvey, Charlton, and Dell putting out entertaining books.
Silver Age Comics is updated three or four times a week with new posts and I hardly ever miss visiting it at least once or twice a week. Here is an image from a comic reviewed on this site. Check it out.
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