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An American comic book is a thin periodical containing primarily comics content.

While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publication of Action Comics, which included the debut of the superhero Superman. This was followed by a superhero boom that lasted until the end of World War II. After the war, while superheroes were marginalized, the comic book industry rapidly expanded, and genres such as funny animals, westerns, romance and humor became popular. The 1950s saw a gradual decline, due especially to new censorship laws and the spread of television. The 1960s saw a superhero revival, and superheroes continue to be the dominant genre today, although other genres have continued to find audiences.

Since the later 20th century, comic books have gained note as collectable items. Comic shops cater to fans, and particularly valuable issues have fetched in excess of a million dollars. Systems of grading comic books have emerged, and plastic bags and backing boards are available to maintain the comic books' condition.

History[link]

Proto-comic books and the Platinum Age[link]

The development of the modern American comic book happened in stages. Publishers had collected comic strips in hardcover book form as early as 1833, with The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, which appeared in New York in 1842, as the first example published in English.^[1]

The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats (1897). The Yellow Kid did not speak; messages in a pidgin vernacular appeared on his nightshirt. This message reads: "Dis book is de story of me sweet young life".

The G. W. Dillingham Company published the first known proto-comic-book magazine in the U.S., The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats, in 1897. It reprinted material – primarily the October 18, 1896 to January 10, 1897 sequence titled "McFadden's Row of Flats" – from cartoonist Richard F. Outcault's newspaper comic strip Hogan's Alley, starring the Yellow Kid, the lead character. The 196-page, square-bound, black-and-white publication, which also includes introductory text by E. W. Townsend, measured 5x7 inches and sold for 50 cents. The neologism "comic book" appears on the back cover. Despite the publication of a series of related Hearst comics soon afterward (including the first known full-color comic, The Blackberries, in 1901) the first monthly comic book, Comics Monthly, did not appear until 1922 and only lasted a year. Produced in an 8½-by-9-inch format, it reprinted newspaper comic strips.^[1]

[edit] The Funnies and Funnies on Parade

In 1929 Dell Publishing (founded by George T. Delacorte Jr.) published The Funnies, described by the Library of Congress as "a short-lived newspaper tabloid insert".^[2] (not to be confused with Dell's later comic book of the same name, which began publication in 1936.) Historian Ron Goulart describes the 16-page, four-color periodical as "more a Sunday comic section without the rest of the newspaper than a true comic book. But it did offer all original material and was sold on newsstands".^[3] The Funnies ran for 36 issues, published Saturdays through October 16, 1930.

In 1933, salesperson Maxwell Gaines, sales manager Harry I. Wildenberg, and owner George Janosik of the Waterbury, Connecticut company Eastern Color Printing – which (among other things) printed Sunday-paper comic-strip sections – produced Funnies on Parade as a way to keep their presses running. Like The Funnies, but only eight pages long,^[4] this appeared as a newsprint magazine. Rather than using original material, however, it reprinted in color several comic strips licensed from the McNaught Syndicate and the McClure Syndicate. These included such popular strips as cartoonist Al Smith's Mutt and Jeff, Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka, and Percy Crosby's Skippy. Eastern Color neither sold this periodical nor made it available on newsstands, but rather sent it out free as a promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Procter & Gamble soap and toiletries products. The company printed ten-thousand copies.^[4] The promotion proved a success, and Eastern Color that year produced similar periodicals for Canada Dry soft drinks, Kinney Shoes, Wheatena cereal and others, with print runs of from 100,000 to 250,000.^[3]

[edit] Famous Funnies and New Fun

Also in 1933 Gaines and Wildenberg collaborated with Dell to publish the 36-page Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics, which historians consider the first true American comic book; Goulart, for example, calls it "the cornerstone for one of the most lucrative branches of magazine publishing".^[3] Distribution took place through the Woolworth's department-store chain, though it remains unclear whether it was sold or given away; the cover displays no price, but Goulart refers, either metaphorically or literally, to "sticking a ten-cent pricetag [sic] on the comic books".^[3]

When Delacorte declined to continue with Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics, Eastern Color on its own published Famous Funnies #1 (cover-dated July 1934), a 68-page giant selling for 10¢. Distributed to newsstands by the mammoth American News Company, it proved a hit with readers during the cash-strapped Great Depression, selling 90 percent of its 200,000 print — though putting Eastern Color more than $4,000 in the red.^[3] That quickly changed, with the book turning a $30,000 profit each issue starting with #12.^[3] Famous Funnies would eventually run 218 issues, inspire imitators, and largely launch a new mass medium.

When the supply of available existing comic strips began to dwindle, early comic books began to include a small amount of new, original material in comic-strip format. Inevitably, a comic book of all-original material, with no comic-strip reprints, debuted. Fledgling publisher Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson founded National Allied Publications – which would evolve into DC Comics – to release New Fun #1 (Feb. 1935). This came out as a tabloid-sized, 10-inch by 15-inch, 36-page magazine with a card-stock, non-glossy cover. An anthology, it mixed humor features such as the funny animal comic "Pelion and Ossa" and the college-set "Jigger and Ginger" with such dramatic fare as the Western strip "Jack Woods" and the "yellow-peril" adventure "Barry O'Neill", featuring a Fu Manchu-styled villain, Fang Gow. Issue #6 (Oct. 1935) brought the comic-book debut of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the future creators of Superman, who began their careers with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval" (doing the first two installments before turning it over to others) and, under the pseudonyms "Leger and Reuths", the supernatural-crimefighter adventure Doctor Occult.^{[citation needed]}

Superheroes and the Golden Age[link]

In 1938, after Wheeler-Nicholson's partner Harry Donenfeld had ousted him, National Allied editor Vin Sullivan pulled a Siegel/Shuster creation from the slush pile and used it as the cover feature (but only as a backup story)^[5] in Action Comics #1 (June 1938). The duo's alien hero, Superman, dressed in colorful tights and a cape evoking costumed circus daredevil performers, became the archetype of the "superheroes" that would follow. Action would become the American comic book with the second-largest number of issues, next to Dell Comics' Four Color, with over 860 issues published as of 2008^[update].^{[citation needed]}

Siegel and Shuster's Superman, influenced by the pulp fiction stories and by the legend of the Golem of Prague,^{[citation needed]} had superhuman strength, speed and other abilities, and lived day-to-day in his secret identity as a mild-mannered reporter named Clark Kent. Within two years, most comic-book companies had started publishing large lines of superhero titles, and Superman has gone on to become one of the world's most recognizable characters.^{[citation needed]}

Aficionados know the period from the late 1930s through roughly the end of the 1940s as the Golden Age of comic books. It featured extremely large print-runs, with Action and Captain Marvel selling over half a million copies a month each;^[6] comics provided very popular cheap entertainment during World War II especially among soldiers, but erratic quality in stories, art, and in printing. Unusually, the comics industry provided jobs to an ethnic cross-section of Americans (particularly Jews), albeit often at low wages and in sweatshop working-conditions.^{[citation needed]}

Following the end of War World II, the popularity of superheroes greatly diminished,^[7] while the comic book industry itself expanded.^{[citation needed]} A few standard characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman continued to sell, but superheroes as a genre became relegated to the status of a subgenre of adventure comics, a genre which itself was not amongst the popular genres at the time. Between 1950 and 1952 all attempts at publishing new superhero comic books were in vain.^[7]

Dell's comic books accounted for a third of all North American sales in the early 1950s. Its 90 titles averaged a circulation of 800,000 copies each issue, with Walt Disney's Comics and Stories peaking with a circulation of three million in 1953. Eleven of the top 25 best-selling comic books at the time were Dell titles.^[8] Out of forty publishers active in 1954, Dell, Atlas (Marvel), DC and Archie were the major players sales-wise. By this time, former big-time players Fawcett and Fiction house had ceased publishing.^[9]

Circulation peaked out in 1952, when 3161 issues of various comics were published with total circulation at about one billion.^{[note 1]} After 1952, the number of indivual releases dropped every year for the rest of the decade, with the biggest losses coming in 1955–56.^[10] These rapid losses followed the introduction of laws that curbed the sales of comic books that were seen as being harmful to children, as well as a crackdown on press wholesalers by the U.S. Senate, which freed retailers from tie-ins.^[11] While there was only a 9% drop in the number of releases between 1952 and 1953, circulation plummeted by an estimated 30–40%.^[12] The cause of the decrease is not entirely certain. Television had come to provide competition with comic books, or the rise of conservative values that came with the election of Dwight Eisenhower. The Comics Code Authority, a self-censoring body founded to curb juvenile delinquency believed to be influenced by crime and horror comics, has been targeted as the culprit, though sales had begun to drop the year before it was founded.^[13] The major publishers were largely unaffected by the drop, but smaller publishers like EC (the prime target of the CCA) were wiped out.^[14] By the 1960s, output stabilized at about 1500 releases per year.^[10]

The dominant comic book genres of the post-CCA 1950s were funny animals, humor, romance, television properties and Westerns. Detective, fantasy, teen and war comics were also popular, while adventure, science fiction, superheroes and comic strip reprints were in decline,^[14] with Famous Funnies seeing its last issue in 1955.^[15]

The Comics Code[link]

In the late 1940s and early 1950s horror and true-crime comics flourished, many containing violence and gore. EC ("Educational Comics", later renamed "Entertaining Comics") owned by Max Gaines' son, William M. Gaines, became the most successful and artistically creative of all the publishers. The careers of many famous artists such as Al Feldstein, Wallace Wood, Reed Crandall, Jack Davis, Will Elder and others began in the offices of EC. However, in spite of the quality of the work, psychiatrist Fredric Wertham singled out Gaines as the most infamous of the comic moguls.^{[citation needed]}

Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent (1954), concerned with what he perceived as sadistic and homosexual undertones in horror comics and in superhero comics respectively, raised public anxiety about comics. Soon moral crusaders blamed comic books as a cause of poor grades, juvenile delinquency, drug use, and ultimately, "crime" itself.^{[note 2]} This led the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency to take an interest in comic books (April–June, 1954). Schools and parent groups held public comic-book burnings, and some cities banned comic books. Industry circulation declined drastically.^{[citation needed]}

In the wake of these events, many comics publishers, most notably National and Archie, founded the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the Comics Code, intended as "the most stringent code in existence for any communications media".^[16] A Comic Code Seal of Approval soon appeared on virtually every comic book carried on newsstands. EC, after experimenting with less controversial comic books, dropped its comics line to focus on the satiric Mad — a comic book that changed to magazine format in order to circumvent the Code.^{[citation needed]}

Silver Age of Comic Books[link]

DC started a revival in superhero comics in 1956 with the October 1956 revival of The Flash in Showcase #4. Many comics historians peg this as the beginning of the Silver Age of American comic books, although Marvel had started reviving some of its old superheroes as early as 1954.^[7] The new Flash is taken symbolically as the beginning of a new era, although his success was not immediate. It took two years for the Flash to receive his own title, and Showcase itself was only a bimonthly title, though one that was to introduce a large number of enduring characters. By 1959, the slowly building superhero revival had become clear to DC's competitors. Archie jumped on board that year, and Charlton joined the bandwagon in 1960.^[17]

In 1961 writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics. With an innovation that changed the comic-book industry, The Fantastic Four #1 initiated a naturalistic style of superheroes with human failings, fears, and inner demons - heroes who squabbled and worried about the likes of rent-money. In contrast to the super-heroic do-gooder archetypes of established superheroes at the time, this ushered in a revolution. With dynamic artwork by Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, and others complementing Lee's colorful, catchy prose, the new style was known to be very popular among college students who could identify with the angsty and irreverent nature of the characters such as the likes of Spider-Man,X-Men and the Fantastic Four during a time period of massive social upheaval which birthed a new generation of hipper and more countercultural young men and women who found a voice in these books. Marvel was initially restricted in the number of titles it could produce in that its books were distributed by rival National, a situation not alleviated until the late 1960s.^{[citation needed]}

While the creators of comics had been given credit in comic books' early days, this had all but vanished throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Comic books were produced by comic book companies rather than individual creators (EC being a notable exception, a company that not only credited its creative teams, but also featured creators' biographies). Even comic books by revered and collectable artists like Carl Barks were not known by their creators' names—Disney comics like Barks' were signed "Walt Disney". In the 1960s, DC, and then Marvel, began including writer and artist credits on the comics they published.^[18]

Other notable companies included the American Comics Group (ACG), the low-budget Charlton, where many professionals such as Dick Giordano got their start; Dell; Gold Key; Harvey Comics, home of the Harvey cartoon-characters (Casper the Friendly Ghost) and non-animated others (Richie Rich); and Tower, best-known for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents.^{[citation needed]}

Underground comix[link]

Sex, drugs and rock 'n roll were featured as the anti-authoritarian underground comix saw made waves in 1968 following the publication of Robert Crumb's irregularly-published Zap Comix. Frank Stack had published The Adventures of Jesus as far back as 1962, and there had been a trickle of such publications until Crumb's success.^[19] What had started as a self-publishing scene soon grew into a minor industry, with Print Mint, Kitchen Sink, Last Gasp and Apex Novelties among the more well-known publishers. These comix were often extremely graphic, and largely distributed in head shops that flourished in the countercultural era.^[20]

Legal issues and paper shortages led to a decline in underground comix output from its 1972 peak. The death knell was sounded in 1974, when the passage of anti-paraphernalia laws led to the closing of most head shops, which throttled underground comix' distribution. Its readership also dried up as the hippie movement itself petered out around the mid-1970s.^[21] Some underground cartoonists stayed in comics, however—Robert Crumb and Art Spiegelman would become two of the leading lights of the alternative comics era, and Bill Griffiths would take to comic strips.^{[citation needed]}

Bronze Age of Comic Books[link]

Wizard originally used the phrase "Bronze Age" in 1995 to denote the Modern Horror age. But as of 2009^[update] historians and fans use "Bronze Age" to describe the period of American mainstream comics history that begins with a period of concentrated changes to comic books circa 1970. Unlike the Golden/Silver Age transition, the Silver/Bronze transition involved many continually published books, making the transition less sharp; not every book entered the Bronze Age at the same time.^{[citation needed]}

Changes commonly considered^{[citation needed]} to mark the transition between Silver and Bronze ages include:

• A reshuffling of popular creators, including the retirement of Mort Weisinger, editor of the Superman books, and the movement of Jack Kirby to DC.
• A boom in non-superhero and borderline superhero comics such as Conan the Barbarian, Tomb of Dracula, Kamandi, Swamp Thing, Man-Thing, Ghost Rider, and the revived Doctor Strange and Phantom Stranger.
• "Relevant" comics which attempted to address serious social issues, such as the drug-abuse issues of The Amazing Spider-Man and Green Lantern/Green Arrow.
• The Comics Code Authority's first update, in 1971 — prompted by Stan Lee's defiance of the code for a story on narcotics at the behest of the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare.
• Revamping of several popular characters, including a "darker" Batman closer to the original 1930s conception, several changes to Superman such as the disappearance of Kryptonite, and a temporary non-powered era for Wonder Woman.
• The death of major characters such as Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, the Doom Patrol, and several members of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

The Modern Age[link]

The development of a non-returnable "direct market" distribution system in the 1970s coincided with the appearance of comic-book specialty stores across North America. These specialty stores were a haven for more distinct voices and stories, but they also marginalized comics in the public eye. Serialized comic stories became longer and more complex, requiring readers to buy more issues to finish a story. Between 1970 and 1990, comic-book prices rose sharply because of a combination of factors: a nationwide paper shortage, increasing production values, and the minimal profit incentive for stores to stock comic books (due to the small unit price of an individual comic book relative to a magazine).^{[citation needed]}

In the mid-to-late 1980s, two series published by DC Comics, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen, had a profound impact upon the American comic-book industry. Their popularity, along with mainstream media attention and critical acclaim, combined with changing social tastes, led to^{[citation needed]} a considerably darker tone in comic books during the 1990s nicknamed by fans as the "grim-and-gritty" era.^{[citation needed]} The growing popularity of antiheroes such as the Punisher and Wolverine underscored this change, as did the darker tone of some independent publishers such as First Comics, Dark Horse Comics, and (founded in the 1990s) Image Comics. This tendency towards darkness and nihilism was manifested in DC's production of heavily promoted comic book stories such as "A Death in the Family" in the Batman series (in which The Joker brutally murdered Batman's sidekick Robin), while at Marvel the continuing popularity of the various X-Men books led to storylines involving the genocide of superpowered "mutants" in allegorical stories about religious and ethnic persecution.^{[citation needed]}

Though a speculator boom in the early 1990s temporarily increased specialty store sales — collectors "invested" in multiple copies of a single comic to sell at a profit later — these booms ended in a collectibles glut, and comic sales declined sharply in the mid-1990s, leading to the demise of many hundreds of stores. In the 2000s, fewer comics sell in North America than at any time in their publishing history.^{[citation needed]} The large superhero-oriented publishers like Marvel and DC are still often referred to as the "mainstream" of comics and are still considered a mass medium like in previous decades.^{[citation needed]}

While the actual publications are no longer as widespread, however, licensing and merchandising have made many comic-book characters, aside from such perennials as Superman and Batman, more widely known to the general public than ever^{[citation needed]}. In particular, several movies and videogames based on comic-book characters have been released, and such heavily promoted events as Spider-Man's wedding, the death of Superman, and the death of Captain America received widespread media coverage.^{[citation needed]}

Prestige format[link]

Prestige format comic books are typically longer than standard comic books, typically being of between 48 and 72 pages, and printed on glossy paper with a spine and card stock cover. The format was first used by DC on Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The success of this work led to the establishment of the format, and it is now used generally to showcase works by big name creators or to spotlight significant storylines.^{[citation needed]}

These storylines can be serialized over a limited number of issues, or can be stand-alone. Stand-alone works published in the form, such as Batman: The Killing Joke, are sometimes referred to^{[by whom?]} either as graphic novels or novellas.^{[citation needed]}

Independent and alternative comics[link]

Comic specialty stores did help encourage several waves of independent-produced comics, beginning in the mid-1970s. The first of these was generally referred to as "independent" or "alternative" comics; some of these, such as Big Apple Comix, continued somewhat in the tradition of underground comics, while others, such as Star Reach, resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned ventures or by a single artist; a few (notably RAW) represented experimental attempts to bring comics closer to the world of fine art.^{[citation needed]}

The "small press" scene continued to grow and diversify, with a number of small publishers in the 1990s changing the format and distribution of their books to more closely resemble non-comics publishing. The "minicomics" form, an extremely informal version of self-publishing, arose in the 1980s and became increasingly popular among artists in the 1990s, despite reaching an even more limited audience than the small press. "Art comics" has sometimes been used^{[by whom?]} as a general term for alternative, small-press, or minicomic artists working outside of mainstream traditions. Publishers and artists working in all of these forms stated a desire to refine comics further as an art form.^{[citation needed]}

See also[link]

	United States portal
	Comics portal

• List of films based on English-language comics
• List of years in comics
• List of comic book publishing companies

References[link]

Notes[link]

Works cited[link]

External links[link]

• CBW Comic History: The Early Years...1896 to 1937, Part II
• The Greatest Comics: New Fun #1
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Dell Comics
• Quattro, Ken (2004). "The New Ages: Rethinking Comic Book History". Comicartville.com. Archived from the original on June 28, 2011. http://web.archive.org/web/20110628190440/http://www.comicartville.com/newages.htm. 
• The Comics Buyer's Guide's "Comic Book Sales Charts and Sales Analysis Pages"
• The pictures that horrified America CNN
• A History of the Comic Book (American comic book history only)

References[link]

• All in Color for a Dime by Dick Lupoff & Don Thompson ISBN 0-87341-498-5
• The Comic Book Makers by Joe Simon with Jim Simon ISBN 1-887591-35-4
• DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes by Les Daniels ISBN 0-8212-2076-4
• The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer ISBN 1-56097-501-6
• Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics by Les Daniels ISBN 0-8109-3821-9
• Masters of Imagination: The Comic Book Artists Hall of Fame by Mike Benton ISBN 0-87833-859-4
• The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide by Robert Overstreet—Edition #35 ISBN 0-375-72107-X
• The Steranko History of Comics, Vol. 1 & 2, by James Steranko—Vol. 1 ISBN 0-517-50188-0

Further reading[link]

• Garrett, Greg, Holy Superheroes! Exploring the Sacred in Comics, Graphic Novels, and Film, Lousville (Kentucky): Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. (Translated into Spanish: La fe de los superhéroes. Descubrir lo religioso en los «comics» y en las películas, Sal Terrae, Santander 2009.)

It has been suggested that American comic book be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) Proposed since April 2012.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2007)

The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (August 2010)

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A comic book or comicbook,^[1] also called comic paper or comic magazine (often shortened to simply comic or comics) is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog (usually in word balloons, emblematic of the comic book art form) as well as including brief descriptive prose. The first comic book appeared in the United States in 1933, reprinting the earlier newspaper comic strips, which established many of the story-telling devices used in comics. The term "comic book" arose because the first comic books reprinted humor comic strips. Despite their name, comic books are not necessarily humorous in tone; modern comic books tell stories in a variety of genres.

American comic books[link]

Rulah, Jungle Goddess No. 24 (March 1949): An example of a non-superhero jungle-girl character. Cover artist(s) unknown.

Adventures into Darkness: Horror stories

Since the introduction of the comic book format in 1933 with the publication of Famous Funnies, the United States has produced the most titles, with only the British comic and Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity of titles, though manga has many more followers and dwarfs American comics in readership.^{[citation needed]}

Cultural historians divide the career of the comic book in the U.S. into several ages or historical eras:

• Proto-comic books and the Platinum Age
• Golden Age
• Silver Age
• Bronze Age
• Modern Age

Comic book historians continue to debate the exact boundaries of these eras, but they have come to an agreement, the terms for which originated in the fan press. Comics as a print medium have existed in America since the printing of The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck in 1842 in hardcover—making it the first known American prototype comic book. The introduction of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Superman in 1938 turned comic books into a major industry,^[2] and is the start of the Golden Age of comics. Historians have proposed several names for the Age before Superman, most commonly dubbing it the Platinum Age.^[3]

While the Platinum Age saw the first use of the term "comic book" (The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats (1897)), the first known full-color comic (The Blackberries (1901)), and the first monthly comic book (Comics Monthly (1922)), it was not until the Golden Age that the archetype of the superhero would originate.

The Silver Age of comic books is generally considered to date from the first successful revival of the dormant superhero form—the debut of Robert Kanigher and Carmine Infantino's Flash in Showcase No. 4 (September/October 1956).^[4][5] The Silver Age lasted through the late 1960s or early 1970s, during which time Marvel Comics revolutionized the medium with such naturalistic superheroes as Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four and Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's Spider-Man.

The precise beginnings of the Bronze and Copper Ages remain less well-defined. Suggested starting points for the Bronze Age of comics include Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith's Conan No. 1 (October 1970), Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams' Green Lantern/Green Arrow No. 76 (April 1970), or Stan Lee and Gil Kane's The Amazing Spider-Man No. 96 (May 1971; the non-Comics Code issue). The start of the Copper Age (apprx. 1984-2000) has even more potential starting points, but is generally agreed to be the publication of Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen by DC Comics in 1986, as well as the publication of DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths, written by Marv Wolfman with pencils by George Pérez. Another possible starting point is Marvel Super-Heroes Secret Wars, published in 1984.^{[citation needed]}

The Modern Age is generally accepted^{[by whom?]} as being from 2000 to the Present.^{[citation needed]}

A notable event in the history of the American comic book came with the psychiatrist Fredric Wertham's criticisms of the medium in his book Seduction of the Innocent (1954), which prompted the American Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency to investigate comic books. In response to attention from the government and from the media, the U.S. comic book industry set up the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the "Comics Code" in the same year.

Underground comic books[link]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s a surge of creativity emerged in what became known as underground comics. Published and distributed independently of the established comics industry, most of such comics reflected the youth counterculture and drug culture of the time. Many had an uninhibited, often irreverent style; their frank depictions of nudity, sex, profanity, and politics had no parallel outside their precursors, the pornographic and even more obscure "Tijuana bibles". Underground comics were almost never sold at news stands, but rather in such youth-oriented outlets as head shops and record stores, as well as by mail order.

Frank Stack's The Adventures of Jesus, published under the name Foolbert Sturgeon,^[6][7] has been credited as the first underground comic.^[6][7]

Alternative comics[link]

The rise of comic book specialty stores in the late 1970s created/paralleled a dedicated market for "independent" or "alternative comics" in the U.S. The first such comics included the anthology series Star Reach, published by comic book writer Mike Friedrich from 1974 to 1979, and Harvey Pekar's American Splendor, which continued sporadic publication into the 21st century and which Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini adapted into a 2003 film. Some independent comics continued in the tradition of underground comics, though their content was generally less explicit, and others resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned companies or by single artists. A few (notably RAW) were experimental attempts to bring comics closer to the status of fine art.

During the 1970s the "small press" culture grew and diversified. By the 1980s, several independent publishers, such as Pacific, Eclipse, First, Comico, and Fantagraphics had started releasing a wide range of styles and formats—from color superhero, detective, and science fiction comic books to black-and-white magazine-format stories of Latin American magical realism.

A number of small publishers in the 1990s changed the format and distribution of their comics to more closely resemble non-comics publishing. The "minicomics" form, an extremely informal version of self-publishing, arose in the 1980s and became increasingly popular among artists in the 1990s, despite reaching an even more limited audience than the small press.

As of 2009^[update] small publishers regularly releasing titles include Avatar Comics, Hyperwerks, Raytoons, and Terminal Press, buoyed by such advances in printing technology as digital print-on-demand.

Graphic novels[link]

In 1964, Richard Kyle coined the term "graphic novel" to distinguish newly translated European works from genre-driven subject matter common in American comics. Precursors of the form existed by the 1920s, which saw a revival of the medieval woodcut tradition by Belgian Frans Masereel,^[8] American Lynd Ward and others. In 1950, St. John Publications produced the digest-sized, adult-oriented "picture novel" It Rhymes with Lust, a 128-page digest by pseudonymous writer "Drake Waller" (Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller), penciler Matt Baker and inker Ray Osrin, touted as "an original full-length novel" on its cover. In 1971, writer-artist Gil Kane and collaborators devised the paperback "comics novel" Blackmark. Will Eisner popularized the term "graphic novel" when he used it on the cover of the paperback edition of his work A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories in 1978.

Digital graphic novels[link]

Comic book collecting[link]

This section requires expansion.

The rarest^{[citation needed]} comic books include copies of the unreleased Motion Picture Funnies Weekly No. 1 from 1939. Eight copies, plus one without a cover, emerged in the estate of the deceased publisher in 1974. The "Pay Copy" of this book sold for $43,125 in a 2005 Heritage auction.^[9]

The most valuable American comics have combined rarity and quality with the first appearances of popular and enduring characters. Four comic books to have sold for over $1 million USD as of December 2010, including two examples of Action Comics No. 1, the first appearance of Superman,^[10][11] both sold privately through online dealer ComicConnect.com in 2010, and Detective Comics No. 27, the first appearance of Batman, via public auction.

Misprints, promotional comic-dealer incentive printings, and similar issues with extremely low distribution also generally have scarcity value. The rarest modern comic books include the original press run of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen No. 5, which DC executive Paul Levitz recalled and pulped due to the appearance of a vintage Victorian era advertisement for "Marvel Douche", which the publisher considered offensive;^[12] only 100 copies exist, most of which have been CGC graded. (See Recalled comics for more pulped, recalled, and erroneous comics.)

In 2000, a company named CGC began to "slab" comics, encasing them in a thick plastic and giving them a numeric grade.

European comics[link]

Franco-Belgian comics[link]

France and Belgium have a long tradition in comics and comic books, called BDs (an abbreviation of bande dessinées) in French and strips in Dutch. Belgian comic books originally written in Dutch show the influence of the Francophone "Franco-Belgian" comics, but have their own distinct style.

The name la bande dessinée derives from the original description of the art form as drawn strips (the phrase literally translates as "the drawn strip"), analogous to the sequence of images in a film strip. As in its English equivalent, the word "bande" can be applied to both film and comics. Significantly, the French-language term contains no indication of subject-matter, unlike the American terms "comics" and "funnies", which imply an art form not to be taken seriously. The distinction of comics as le neuvième art (literally, "the ninth art") is prevalent in French scholarship on the form, as is the concept of comics criticism and scholarship itself. Relative to the respective size of their populations, the innumerable authors in France and Belgium publish a high volume of comic books. In North America, the more serious Franco-Belgian comics are often seen as equivalent to graphic novels, but whether they are long or short, bound or in magazine format, in Europe there is no need for a more sophisticated term, as the art's name does not itself imply something frivolous.

In France, authors control the publication of most comics. The author works within a self-appointed time-frame, and it is common for readers to wait six months or as long as two years between installments. Most books first appear in print as a hardcover book, typically with 48, 56, or 64 pages.

British comics[link]

Originally the same size as a usual comic book in the U.S. (although lacking the glossy cover), the British comic has adopted a magazine size, with The Beano and The Dandy the last to adopt this size (in the 1980s). Although the British generally speak of "a comic" or of "a comic magazine", and they also historically spoke of "a comic paper". Some comics, such as Judge Dredd and other 2000 AD titles, have been published in a tabloid form.

Although Ally Sloper's Half Holiday (1884), the first comic published in Britain, was aimed at an adult market, publishers quickly targeted a younger market, which has led to most publications being for children and created an association in the public's mind of comics as somewhat juvenile.

Popular titles within the UK have included The Beano, The Dandy, The Eagle, 2000 AD, and Viz. Underground comics and "small press" titles have also been published within the UK, notably Oz and Escape Magazine.

The content of Action, another title aimed at children and launched in the mid-1970s, became the subject of discussion in the House of Commons. Although on a smaller scale than similar investigations in the U.S., such concerns led to a moderation of content published within British comics. Such moderation never became formalized to the extent of promulgating a code, nor did it last long.

The UK has also established a healthy market in the reprinting and repackaging of material, notably material originating in the U.S. The lack of reliable supplies of American comic books led to a variety of black-and-white reprints, including Marvel's monster comics of the 1950s, Fawcett's Captain Marvel, and other characters such as Sheena, Mandrake the Magician, and the Phantom. Several reprint companies were involved in repackaging American material for the British market, notably the importer and distributor Thorpe & Porter.

Marvel Comics established a UK office in 1972. DC Comics and Dark Horse Comics also opened offices in the 1990s. The repackaging of European material has occurred less frequently, although the Tintin and Asterix serials have been successfully translated and repackaged in softcover books.

At Christmas time, publishers repackage and commission material for comic annuals, printed and bound as hardcover A4-size books; Rupert supplies a famous example of the British comic annual. DC Thomson also repackages The Broons and Oor Wullie strips in softcover A4-size books for the holiday season.

On 19 March 2012, the British postal service, the Royal Mail, released a set of stamps depicting British comic-book characters and series.^[13] The collection featured The Beano, The Dandy, Eagle, The Topper, Roy of the Rovers, Bunty, Buster, Valiant, Twinkle and 2000 AD.

Italian comics[link]

In Italy, comics (known in Italian as fumetti) made their debut as humor strips at the end of the 19th century, and later evolved into adventure stories inspired by those coming from the U.S.^{[citation needed]} After World War II, however, artists like Hugo Pratt and Guido Crepax exposed Italian comics to an international audience. "Author" comics^{[clarification needed]} contain often strong erotic contents. Popular comic books such as Diabolik or the Bonelli line—namely Tex Willer or Dylan Dog—remain best-sellers.

Mainstream comics are usually published on a monthly basis, in a black-and-white digest size format, with approximately 100 to 132 pages. Collections of classic material for the most famous characters, usually with more than 200 pages, are also common. Author comics are published in the French BD format, with an example being Pratt's Corto Maltese.

Italian cartoonists show the influence of comics from other countries, including France, Belgium, Spain, and Argentina. Italy is also famous for being one of the foremost producers of Walt Disney comic stories outside the U.S. Donald Duck's superhero alter ego, Paperinik, known in English as Superduck, was created in Italy.

Japanese comics[link]

This article may not properly summarize the main article. Specific concerns can be found on the Talk page. Please improve this article if you can.

The first comic books in Japan appeared during the 18th century in the form of woodblock-printed booklets containing short stories drawn from folk tales, legends, and historical accounts, told in a simple visual-verbal idiom. Known as "red books" (赤本, akahon^?), "black books" (黒本, kurobon^?), and "blue books" (青本, aohon^?), these were written primarily for less literate readers. However, with the publication in 1775 of Koikawa Harumachi's comic book Master Flashgold's Splendiferous Dream (金々先生栄花の夢, Kinkin sensei eiga no yume^?), an adult form of comic book originated, which required greater literacy and cultural sophistication. This was known as the kibyōshi (黄表紙^?, lit. yellow cover). Published in thousands (possibly^{[original research?]} tens of thousands) of copies, the kibyōshi may have been the earliest fully realized comic book for adults in world literary history. Approximately 2,000 titles remain extant.

Modern comic books in Japan developed from a mixture of these earlier comic books and of woodblock prints ukiyo-e (浮世絵^?) with Western styles of drawing. They took their current^[update] form shortly after World War II. They are usually published in black-and-white, except for the covers, which are usually printed in four colors, although occasionally, the first few pages may also be printed in full color. The term manga means "random (or whimsical) pictures", and first came into common usage in the late 18th century with the publication of such works as Santō Kyōden's picturebook Shiji no yukikai (四時交加^?) (1798) and Aikawa Minwa's Comic Sketches of a Hundred Women (1798).

Development of this form occurred as a result of Japan's attempts to modernize itself^{[citation needed]}, a desire awakened by trade with the U.S.^{[citation needed]} Western artists were brought over to teach their students such concepts as line, form, and color; things which had not been regarded as conceptually important in ukiyo-e, as the idea behind the picture was of paramount importance. Manga at this time was referred to as Ponchi-e (Punch-picture) and, like its British counterpart Punch magazine, mainly depicted humor and political satire in short one- or four-picture format.

Dr. Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989), widely acknowledged^{[by whom?]} as the father of narrative manga, further developed this form. Seeing an animated war propaganda film titled Momotaro's Divine Sea Warriors (桃太郎 海の神兵, Momotarō Umi no Shinpei^?) inspired Tezuka to become a comic artist. He introduced episodic storytelling and character development in comic format, in which each story is part of larger story arc. The only text in Tezuka's comics was the characters' dialogue and this further lent his comics a cinematic quality. Inspired by the work of Walt Disney, Tezuka also adopted a style of drawing facial features in which a character's eyes, nose, and mouth are drawn in an extremely exaggerated manner. This style created immediately recognizable expressions using very few lines, and the simplicity of this style allowed Tezuka to be prolific. Tezuka's work generated new interest in the ukiyo-e tradition, in which the image is a representation of an idea, rather than a depiction of reality.

Though a close equivalent to the American comic book, manga has historically held a more important place in Japanese culture than comics have in American culture. Japanese society shows a wide respect for manga, both as an art form and as a form of popular literature. Many manga become television shows or short films. As with its American counterpart, some manga has been criticized for its sexuality and violence, although in the absence of official or even industry restrictions on content, artists have freely created manga for every age group and for every topic.

Manga magazines—also known as "anthologies", or colloquially, "phone books"^{[citation needed]}—often run several series concurrently, with approximately 20 to 40 pages allocated to each series per issue. These magazines are usually printed^{[by whom?]} on low-quality newsprint and range from 200 to more than 850 pages each. Manga magazines also contain one-shot comics and a variety of four-panel yonkoma (equivalent to comic strips). Manga series may continue for many years if they are successful, with stories often collected and reprinted in book-sized volumes called tankōbon (単行本^?, lit. stand-alone book), the equivalent of the American trade paperbacks. These volumes use higher-quality paper and are useful to readers who want to be brought up to date with a series, or to readers who find the cost of the weekly or monthly publications to be prohibitive. Deluxe versions are printed as commemorative or collectible editions. Conversely, old manga titles are also reprinted using lower-quality paper and sold for 120 ¥ (approximately $1 USD) each.

Doujinshi[link]

Doujinshi (同人誌^?, lit. fan magazine), fan-made Japanese comics operate in a far larger market in Japan than the American "underground comics" market; the largest doujinshi fair, Comic Market, attracts 500,000 visitors twice a year.

See also[link]

Comics portal

• Cartoon
• Comics Studies
• Comics vocabulary
• Webcomic
• Digital comics

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Kern, Adam L. (18 December 2006). Manga from the Floating World: Comic book Culture and the Kibyôshi of Edo Japan. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Asia Center. ISBN 978-0-674-02266-9. 
• Inge, M. Thomas (1979). "Comics as Culture". Journal of Popular Culture 12 (631). 
• Martin, Tim (2 April 2009). "How Comic Books Became Part of the Literary Establishment". Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/5094231/How-Comic-Books-became-part-of-the-literary-establishment.html. 

External links[link]

• Grand Comics Database
• The Comic Book Database
• Comic book Reference Bibliographic Datafile
• Sequart Research & Literacy Organization
• Comic Book Resources
• The Comics Ninja
• Comic Art Collection at the University of Missouri
• The Comics Journal
• The Comics Reporter

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Devin Clark

Clark at the Redskins 2008 training camp
No. --     Philadelphia Soul
Offensive tackle
Personal information
Date of birth: (1986-05-22) May 22, 1986 (age 26)
Place of birth: Austin, Texas
Height: 6 ft 4 in (1.93 m) Weight: 317 lb (144 kg)
Career information
College: New Mexico
Undrafted in 2008
Debuted in 2008 for the Washington Redskins
Career history
Washington Redskins (2008) New York Sentinels (2009)* Spokane Shock (2010)* Arizona Rattlers (2010-2011) Philadelphia Soul (2012)*
Roster status: Injured Reserve
Career highlights and awards
First-team All-MWC (2007)
Career NFL statistics as of 2008
Games played 2 Games started 0 Fumble recoveries 0 Stats at NFL.com

Devin Lane Clark (born May 22, 1986 in Austin, Texas) is an American football offensive tackle who is currently a member of the Philadelphia Soul. He was signed by the Washington Redskins as an undrafted free agent in 2008. He played college football at New Mexico.

Clark has also been a member of the New York Sentinels.

On December 16, 2009 it was reported by OSC that Devin Clark was added to the 2010 Spokane Shock roster. With head coach Rob Keefe stating "When you look at Devin Clark's film from the Redskins, you immediately notice his size and his strength." "At New Mexico, he was a major part of their offensive success and he really excelled in pass protection. With his size and his NFL experience he will be a real asset to our offensive line."

External links[link]

• New Mexico Lobos bio
• Washington Redskins bio
• Spokane Shock News

Taiwanese Americans

Jerry Yang Lucy Liu Steve Chen Goodwin Liu Jeremy Lin Yuan T. Lee Tony Hsieh Michael Te-Pei Chang Kai-Fu Lee
Total population
230,382-919,000 0.07-0.29 percent of the U.S. population (2010)[1][2]
Regions with significant populations
New Jersey • New York City • Atlanta • Baltimore-Washington • Boston • Chicago • Dallas • Houston • Los Angeles • Philadelphia • San Francisco Bay Area
Languages
American English • Mandarin Chinese • Taiwanese • Hakka • Japanese
Religion
Buddhism • Taoism • Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Chinese American • Hong Kong Americans Overseas Taiwanese

Taiwanese Americans (Traditional Chinese: 台灣裔美國人) are American citizens of Taiwanese descent.

Americans born in Taiwan whose ancestors immigrated to Taiwan are called Taiwanese Americans. Whether Taiwanese Americans should be considered Chinese Americans is a subject of some controversy.^[3] The majority of Taiwanese and supporters of Taiwan independence often object to classification of Taiwanese Americans as Chinese Americans and overseas Chinese, while advocates of Chinese reunification often object if Taiwanese Americans are not included in these groups.^{[dubious – discuss]} The controversy over the inclusion or exclusion of Taiwanese Americans as Chinese has extended to the name of the government bureau of Taiwan handling Taiwanese Americans affairs which was controversially changed in 2006 from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission to the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission.

Demographic research tends to include immigrants from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan as well as overseas Chinese who have immigrated from South East Asia into the broadly-defined Chinese American category as both the governments of the Republic of China and the United States account for Taiwanese Americans as a subgroup of Chinese Americans ^[4][5][6]

Immigration history[link]

Prior to the 1950s emigration from Taiwan was negligible. During Taiwan's early history, the island was populated by Austronesian aboriginals and in the 17th and 18th centuries it served as a destination point for migrating Chinese, primarily Hoklos and Hakka. In 1895, Japan took over control of Taiwan following Japan's victory over China in the First Sino-Japanese war. Japanese control severely curtailed any movement off the island in the interest of containing dissent against the Japanese Empire.

On the other side of the Pacific Ocean, opportunities for immigration from Taiwan to the United States were virtually nonexistent before the 1950s. Previously, in the 1840s when American companies began recruiting cheap, accessible labor from Asia to develop Hawaii and the frontier West, Taiwan was too small to be a target for recruiters.

In 1949, the Chinese Communist Party took control of mainland China, and the remnant armies of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to Taiwan. Because of the Cold War, the United States continued to recognize the Kuomintang-led Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of all of China from 1949 until 1979. As a result, immigration from Taiwan was counted under within the same quota for both mainland China and Taiwan. However, because the Communists banned emigration to the United States until 1977, this quota for immigrants from China was almost exclusively filled by immigrants from Taiwan. After the national origins system was relaxed and repealed by Immigration Acts in 1952 and 1965, many Taiwanese people came to the United States, forming the first wave of Taiwanese immigration. Their entry into the United States was facilitated by the immigration act of 1965, which created a system in which persons with professional skills and family ties in the United States were given preferential status, regardless of the nation of origin.

In 1979, the United States broke diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, while the Taiwan Relations Act gave Taiwan a separate immigration quota from that of mainland China.

Before the late 1960s, Taiwanese immigrants to the United States tended to be waishengren (mainlanders) who were people that immigrated to Taiwan with the Kuomintang after the fall of mainland China to the Communists. Later immigrants tended to increasingly be benshengren, whose ancestors had lived on Taiwan before 1949. With improving economic and political conditions in Taiwan, Taiwanese immigration to the United States began to subside in the early-1980s.

Socioeconomics[link]

Education[link]

Taiwanese culture places a high value on education, as many Taiwanese Americans are very highly educated and hold advanced degrees from numerous prestigious universities around the United States. They often hold high end occupations as doctors, engineers, professors and scientists. Taiwanese Americans also hold positions in America within the aerospace, defense, research, academic and the health care sectors. Several distinguished academics, including Nobel Prize winners, are Taiwanese Americans. Among Taiwanese Americans, medicine is regarded as particularly high status for historical reasons. During the Japanese occupation of Taiwan before 1945, Taiwanese were barred from politics and administration but were encouraged to become doctors and nurses, leading to this profession being regarded as a high status means of social advancement.^[7][8][9]

Taiwanese Americans from all social backgrounds have achieved significant advances in their educational levels, income, life expectancy and other social indicators as the financial and socioeconomic opportunities offered by the United States have lift many Taiwanese Americans out of poverty joining the ranks of the America's educated and upper middle class. Estimates indicate that a disproportionate percentage of Taiwanese students attend elite universities despite constituting less than 0.5% of the U.S. population. Taiwanese Americans have the highest education attainment level in the United States, surpassing every other ethnic group in the country, according to U.S Bureau Census data released in 2010. According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau of Labor Statistics, 73.6% of all Taiwanese Americans have attained a bachelor's or high degree (compared to just 28.2% nationally and 49.9% for all Asian American groups). 80.0% of Taiwanese American men attained a bachelors degree and 68.3% of Taiwanese American women attained a bachelors degree. 39.1% of all Taiwanese in the United States possess a master’s, doctorate or other professional degree, which is nearly four times the national average.^[10][11]

Employment[link]

Many Taiwanese Americans work as white collar professionals, many of whom are highly educated, salaried professionals whose work is largely self-directed in management, professional, and related occupations such as engineering, medicine, investment banking, law, and academia. 66.2% of Taiwanese Americans work in many white collar professions compared 35.9% for the general American population and 48.1% for Asian Americans. 71.3% of Taiwanese men and 60.4% of Taiwanese women are in working in management, professional, and related occupations. They also hold some of the lowest unemployment rates in nation with a figure of 4.3% compared to a national rate of 6.9%.^[11]

Economics[link]

According to the 2009 U.S. Census, Taiwanese American men had one of "the highest year-round, full-time median earnings" with a figure of $76,587, and Taiwanese American women had a median income of $51,307. They also have one of the highest median incomes among any ethnic minority in United States with a figure of $68,809, which is roughly 37% percent above the national average. They have one of the lowest poverty rates in nation with a figure of 9.5% compared to 11.3% for the general American population but the figure was slightly higher than for all Asian Americans which stood at 9.1%.^[11]

Citizenship status[link]

In the 1960s, many Taiwanese Americans chose to make America their permanent home and had children in the U.S. Many sought refuge from the numerous arrests and executions of the White Terror (Taiwan) of the Kuomingtang. By the late 1970s, improving economic conditions in Taiwan slowed the rate of immigration. During the 1990s, political liberalization in Taiwan encouraged many who had left Taiwan for political reasons to return.

Although the oath of naturalization for the United States contains a statement renouncing other citizenship, the Republic of China does not recognize this renunciation as sufficient to end ROC citizenship, and requires that a person who wishes to renounce ROC citizenship make another oath before an ROC consular officer and get approval from the Ministry of the Interior,^[13] subject to denial for certain reasons.^[14] Without the formal renunciation, the ROC government considers Taiwanese immigrants with American citizenship to continue to be citizens of the Republic of China. Acquiring US citizenship does not cancel the holder's status as a resident of Taiwan, which makes Taiwanese Americans eligible to vote in the ROC elections, provided that they physically travel to their place of residency. Children of full Taiwanese citizens are not entitled to Taiwanese citizenship, and ID card automatically. Taiwan makes a distinction between nationality and citizenship. While all Chinese people are entitled to ROC nationality, they are not entitled to citizenship, and they can't get the ID card.^{[citation needed]} The ROC also issues separate passports for overseas citizens and local residents who have ID cards and are considered full citizens.

Politics[link]

Politically, Taiwanese Americans play a fairly active role in the politics and culture of the Republic of China which is aided in large part by recognition of dual citizenship. The identity politics of Taiwan also influences at least first generation Taiwanese Americans. Many future Kuomintang officials including Lee Tenghui, James Soong and Ma Ying-Jeou received graduate degrees in the United States. On the other hand, the United States was a major destination where anti-Kuomintang figures such as Peng Ming-min and Shih Ming-teh were effectively exiled. Still others including Nobel Prize laureate Lee Yuantze were educated in the United States.

The close connections between Taiwan and the United States has led to some interesting political dynamics. From time to time, the issue of loyalty to Taiwan is raised. For example, the fact that the President of the Republic of China Ma Ying-Jeou has sisters and a daughter who are American citizens was raised during the 2008 election campaign. James Soong has been criticized for having extensive property holdings in the United States and for the fact that his children are American citizens. Several legislators and government officials from KMT have been controversially alleged to be having U.S. permanency residency status or U.S. citizenship without renouncements while serving in public office. Similarly, this has been raised as an issue in the feud between Li Ao and Lee Yuantze, whose children are also American citizens. This issue is partly one of socio-economic status as people with extensive connections with the United States are considered richer and more privileged than the average Taiwanese.

However, this issue has not become a large part of Taiwanese political discourse largely because links with the United States are so extensive on both sides of the political spectrum, that no one can use this issue to their political advantage. Both the pan-Blue coalition and pan-Green coalition rely on Taiwanese Americans for votes. In the 2004 ROC Presidential Election an estimated 10,000 Taiwanese Americans traveled to Taiwan to vote in an election in which the margin of victory was 30,000, and both groups campaigned extensively in the United States and held campaign rallies on Taiwan to welcome their voters.

While dual citizens are banned from high political office,^[15] there has not been a significant movement within Taiwan to ban dual citizenship in general. The Supreme Court has ruled that all citizens, dual or singular, are entitled to the same rights. US natural born citizens were emphasized in the decision.^{[citation needed]}

Immigrants vs. native-born[link]

First generation immigrants from Taiwan usually share a common language, Mandarin, although many also speak Taiwanese and to a lesser extent, the Hakka language, depending on heritage and whether the individuals are exposed to Mandarin through Mandarin Chinese schools. There are many first generation immigrants who were educated before 1945 speaks Japanese as their second native language. As with most immigrants to the United States, linguistic fluency in the heritage language quickly disappears in the second generation. Many second generation Taiwanese Americans are exposed to Taiwanese, but their level of proficiency varies. Many second generation immigrants speak Taiwanese as their heritage language and know little Mandarin, while others, especially whose families are from the Taipei Metropolitan Area, speak Mandarin as their heritage language and know little Taiwanese. Second generation Taiwanese of Hakka descent tend to speak better Mandarin as their heritage language. There are many first generation Taiwanese of full Hakka heritage who may speak all three languages. Taiwanese Americans of mixed Hoklo and Hakka Heritage may speak only Mandarin as their heritage language. Second Generation Taiwanese who are of mixed Hoklo Taiwanese and waishengren (mainlander) heritage or full mainlander heritage may only know Mandarin at most and not a word of Taiwanese.

Settlement[link]

Owing to their relative wealth and education attainment, many Taiwanese immigrants have not settled in the old Cantonese-speaking Chinatowns. Instead, they have generally immigrated directly to American suburbia and in effect, they started new Taiwanese communities. For example, beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s at the height of Taiwanese immigration, the Taiwanese emigrants were instrumental in the development of Monterey Park, California in Los Angeles - thus causing it to earn the moniker of "Little Taipei" and derisively as "Mandarin Park" - and vicinity and in Flushing, New York, which generally reflected new investments and capital flowing from Taiwan into newer Taiwanese enclaves instead of the well-established and mostly dilapidated Chinatowns.

While Monterey Park is no longer the major Taiwanese community in Los Angeles today, Flushing remains the main vibrant Taiwanese cultural, commercial, and political center in New York City. In Los Angeles County, California, newer communities such as Rowland Heights, Hacienda Heights, Arcadia, San Marino, Diamond Bar, Walnut, San Gabriel, Temple City, give the ambience of "Little Taipei" . However, many annual Taiwanese cultural events (especially during Taiwanese Heritage Week) are still held in Monterey Park. As an attempt to duplicate the Taiwanese success of Monterey Park in Houston, Texas, Taiwanese immigrant entrepreneurs pioneered in the mid 1980s what is now widely considered as Houston's new Chinatown on Bellaire Boulevard (although many Vietnamese-born Chinese immigrants have increasingly settled and set up shop in the area as well). A number of Taiwanese American businesses and organizations still operate and flourish in this part of Houston.

The prestige and performance of particular school districts, as well as access to careers in high-tech firms, have in general played significant parts in influencing the settlement patterns of Taiwanese Americans. Areas with high concentrations of Taiwanese immigrants include the San Gabriel Valley (Greater Los Angeles), Santa Clara Valley (Cupertino, San Jose), East Bay (El Cerrito, Oakland), Los Angeles/Orange County border communities (Cerritos/Artesia), and Irvine in Central Orange County. Outside of California, there are also major Taiwanese concentrations in Flushing, New York, Rockville, Maryland (northwest of Washington, D.C.), Sugar Land, Texas (near Houston), Richardson, Texas (near Dallas), Bellevue, Washington (and adjacent areas) (part of the Greater Seattle Area's "Eastside" communities), and Chandler, Arizona. Additionally, the northeastern suburbs of the Atlanta, Georgia area has also received a significant influx of Taiwanese immigrant residents. The Taiwanese population was formerly dominant in Monterey Park, California. The San Gabriel Valley has a larger population of "49er" Taiwanese (also known as Waishengren), essentially outnumbering native Taiwanese. Since the middle 1980s through the 1990s, however, large numbers of more affluent Taiwanese Americans began moving out to more upscale neighborhoods like San Marino, Arcadia, South Pasadena, and Temple City in Western San Gabriel Valley; Hacienda Heights, Rowland Heights, Walnut, and Diamond Bar in Eastern San Gabriel Valley; with immigrants from the People's Republic of China and Cantonese and Teochew (mostly from Vietnam) taking their place in Monterey Park, as well as Alhambra.

Similarly, for the past 10 years, Benshengren have been immigrating to upscale neighborhoods in Los Angeles and Orange County such as Cerritos and Irvine respectively. The city of Cerritos is located in Los Angeles County but borders Orange County and has a large diversity of Asian immigrants. The city of Irvine has a very large Benshengren population, though now more and more Waishengren and Mainland Chinese immigrants have flocked to the city. The Irvine Chinese School, which serves mostly the American-born children of Taiwanese immigrants, is one of the largest Chinese Schools in the Orange County area. These immigrants belong to branches from some of the most politically and economically powerful Taiwanese families (with the surnames Chiang, Chen, Cheng, Kung, Tsai, and Wu).

Convenient Taiwanese-oriented strip malls and shopping complexes are typically complete with supermarkets and restaurants, thus Taiwanese American suburbanites have very little need to visit the older Chinatowns. In addition, shops offering imported Taiwanese goods allow for young Taiwanese expatriates in the United States to keep up with the current trends and popular culture of Taiwan. Taiwanese Americans have also brought with them Taiwanese cuisine to the communities they have settled, which, possibly excluding bubble tea, is not generally well-known or served outside these aforementioned Taiwanese immigrant enclaves.

Organizations[link]

Organizations geared towards Taiwanese Americans include the Formosan Association for Public Affairs(FAPA), Taiwanese American Citizens League (TACL), Taiwanese American Professionals (TAP) and the Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association (ITASA). In addition, most cities with concentrations of Taiwanese Americans have a Taiwan association or Taiwan Center.

The first Taiwanese church established in North America is Winfield Reformed Church in 1969 in Woodside, New York.

American media[link]

The Taiwanese also run several of North America's major Chinese-language newspapers, such as the World Journal and the Chicago Chinese News. However, these influential and highly-circulated newspapers are not geared solely to the Taiwanese, but rather serve the Chinese-speaking immigrant readership. Pacific Journal is weekly Taiwanese-run newspaper that is geared more exclusively toward Taiwanese readers.

Due to the significant Taiwanese American community, Taiwan media dominates the Chinese-language airwaves in the United States. Cable and satellite television of Taiwan-based media keeps Taiwanese Americans abreast of news developments and programming in Taiwan. For example, satellite stations ETTV America and CTI cater to Mandarin-speaking Taiwanese immigrants.

Notable individuals[link]

See also[link]

	Taiwan portal
	United States portal

• Taiwanese people
• Asian American
• Demographics of the United States
• Diaspora politics in the United States
• Hyphenated American
• Nationality Law of the Republic of China: American Taiwanese, opposite of Taiwanese American
• Chinese American

References[link]

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (September 2009)

External links[link]

• Taiwan543.net
• Formosan Association for Public Affairs
• ITASA - Intercollegiate Taiwanese American Students Association
• Taiwanese American Citizens League
• Taiwanese American Foundation
• TaiwaneseAmerican.org
• Taiwan Center of America
• Taiwanese American Professionals
• U.S. Census 2000 - People Born in Taiwan

v t e Asian Americans East Asian Chinese (Tibetan1) Japanese Korean Mongolian Taiwanese South Asian2 Bangladeshi Indian Indo-Caribbean Nepalese Pakistani Sri Lankan Tamil Southeast Asian Burmese Cambodian Filipino Hmong Indonesian Laotian Mien Singaporean Thai Vietnamese Other Afro-Asian Amerasian Asian Hispanic and Latino Americans Eurasian Multiracial American Punjabi Mexican History General Immigration Military Topics Arts and Entertainment Demographics Politics Stereotypes 1 The US Census Bureau reclassifies anyone identifying as "Tibetan American" as "Chinese American".[1] 2 The US Census Bureau considers Afghanistan a South Asian country, but does not classify Afghan Americans as Asian.[2]

Captain America is a fictional character, a superhero who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (cover-dated March 1941), from Marvel Comics' 1940s predecessor, Timely Comics,^[1] and was created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. As of 2007, an estimated 210 million copies of "Captain America" comic books had been sold in 75 countries.^[2] For nearly all of the character's publication history, Captain America was the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a frail young man who was enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum in order to aid the United States war effort. Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, and is armed with an indestructible shield that can be thrown as a weapon.^[3]

An intentionally patriotic creation who was often depicted fighting the Axis powers of World War II, Captain America was Timely Comics' most popular character during the wartime period. After the war ended, the character's popularity waned and he disappeared by the 1950s aside from an ill-fated revival in 1953. Captain America was reintroduced during the Silver Age of comics when he was revived from suspended animation by the superhero team the Avengers in The Avengers #4 (March 1964). Since then, Captain America has often led the team, as well as starring in his own series.

Steve Rogers was purportedly assassinated in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (March 2007), although he was later revealed to be alive. The comic-book series Captain America continued to be published,^[4] with Rogers' former sidekick, James "Bucky" Barnes, having taken up the mantle, and keeping it at the insistence of Rogers, who upon his return began operating as an intelligence agent in the Secret Avengers title, and in the limited series Steve Rogers: Super Soldier, before resuming the identity after Bucky was killed in the line of duty.

Captain America was the first Marvel Comics character adapted into another medium with the release of the 1944 movie serial Captain America. Since then, the character has been featured in several other films and television series, including Chris Evans' portrayal in Captain America: The First Avenger, released on July 22, 2011, and The Avengers, released on May 4, 2012. Captain America was ranked sixth on IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Heroes in 2011.

Publication history[link]

In 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume.^[5] "I wrote the name 'Super American' at the bottom of the page," Simon said in his autobiography. "No, it didn't work. There were too many 'Supers' around. 'Captain America' had a good sound to it. There weren't a lot of captains in comics. It was as easy as that. The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team."^[6]

Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead and directed that a Captain America solo comic book series be published as soon as possible. Needing to fill a full comic with primarily one character's stories, Simon did not believe that his regular creative partner, artist Jack Kirby, could handle the workload alone:

I didn't have a lot of objections to putting a crew on the first issue.... There were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were quite successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from [that of] Kirby's. If they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were eager to join in on the new Captain America book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset. 'You're still number one, Jack,' I assured him. 'It's just a matter of a quick deadline for the first issue.'

'I'll make the deadline,' Jack promised. 'I'll pencil it [all] myself and make the deadline.' I hadn't expected this kind of reaction ... but I acceded to Kirby's wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby.

I wrote the first Captain America book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas and pepping up the action as only he could. Then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures.^[6]

Al Liederman would ink that first issue, which was lettered by Simon and Kirby's regular letterer, Howard Ferguson.^[7]

Simon said Captain America was a consciously political creation; he and Kirby were morally repulsed by the actions of Nazi Germany in the years leading up to the United States' involvement in World War II and felt war was inevitable: "The opponents to the war were all quite well organized. We wanted to have our say too."^[8]

Captain America Comics #1 — cover-dated March 1941 and on sale in December 1940, a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but a full year into World War II — showed the protagonist punching Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in the jaw; it sold nearly one million copies.^[9] While most readers responded favorably to the comic, some took objection. Simon noted, "When the first issue came out we got a lot of... threatening letters and hate mail. Some people really opposed what Cap stood for."^[8] The threats, which included menacing groups of people loitering out on the street outside of the offices, proved so serious that police protection was posted with Mayor Fiorello La Guardia personally contacting Simon and Kirby to give his support.^[10]

Though preceded as a "patriotically themed superhero" by MLJ's The Shield, Captain America immediately became the most prominent and enduring of that wave of superheroes introduced in American comic books prior to and during World War II,^{[citation needed]} as evidenced by the unusual move at the time of premiering the character in his own title instead of an anthology title first. This popularity drew the attention and a complaint from MLJ that the character's triangular shield too closely resembled the chest symbol of their Shield character. In response, Goodman had Simon and Kirby create a distinctive round shield for issue 2, which went on to become an iconic element of the character.^[11] With his sidekick Bucky, Captain America faced Nazis, Japanese, and other threats to wartime America and the Allies. Stanley Lieber, now better known by his pen name Stan Lee, contributed to the character in issue #3 in the filler text story "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge," which introduced the character's use of his shield as a returning throwing weapon.^[12] Captain America soon became Timely's most popular character and even had a fan-club called the "Sentinels of Liberty."^[8]

Circulation figures remained close to a million copies per month after the debut issue, which outstripped even the circulation of news magazines like Time during the period.^[13] After the Simon and Kirby team moved to DC in late 1941, having produced Captain America Comics through issue #10 (January 1942), Al Avison and Syd Shores became regular pencillers of the celebrated title, with one generally inking over the other. The character was also featured in All Winners Comics #1-19 (Summer 1941 – Fall 1946), Marvel Mystery Comics #80-84 and #86-92, USA Comics #6-17 (Dec. 1942 – Fall 1945), and All Select Comics #1-10 (Fall 1943 – Summer 1946).

In the post-war era, with the popularity of superheroes fading, Captain America led Timely's first superhero team, the All-Winners Squad, in its two published adventures, in All Winners Comics #19 and #21 (Fall–Winter 1946; there was no issue #20). After Bucky was shot and wounded in a 1948 Captain America story, he was succeeded by Captain America's girlfriend, Betsy Ross, who became the superheroine Golden Girl. Captain America Comics ended with issue #75 (Feb. 1950), by which time the series had been titled Captain America's Weird Tales for two issues, with the finale being a horror/suspense anthology issue with no superheroes.

Atlas Comics attempted to revive its superhero titles when it reintroduced Captain America, along with the original Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner, in Young Men #24 (Dec. 1953). Billed as "Captain America, Commie Smasher!" Captain America appeared during the next year in Young Men #24-28 and Men's Adventures #27-28, as well as in issues #76-78 of an eponymous title. Atlas' attempted superhero revival was a commercial failure,^[14] and the character's title was canceled with Captain America #78 (Sept. 1954).

Silver Age revival[link]

In the Human Torch story titled "Captain America" in Marvel Comics' Strange Tales #114 (Nov. 1963),^[15] writer-editor Stan Lee and artist and co-plotter Jack Kirby depicted the brash young Fantastic Four member Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, in an exhibition performance with Captain America, described as a legendary World War II and 1950s superhero who has returned after many years of apparent retirement. The 18-page story ends with this Captain America revealed as an impostor: it was actually the villain the Acrobat, a former circus performer the Torch had defeated in Strange Tales #106, who broke two thieves out of jail, hoping to draw the police away while trying to rob the local bank. Afterward, Storm digs out an old comic book in which Captain America is shown to be Steve Rogers. A caption in the final panel says this story was a test to see if readers would like Captain America to return.

Captain America was then formally reintroduced in The Avengers #4 (March 1964), which explained that in the final days of WWII, he had fallen from an experimental drone plane into the North Atlantic Ocean and spent decades frozen in a block of ice in a state of suspended animation. The hero found a new generation of readers as leader of that superhero team. Following the success of other Marvel characters introduced during the 1960s, Captain America was recast as a hero "haunted by past memories, and trying to adapt to 1960s society."^[16]

After then guest-starring in the feature "Iron Man" in Tales of Suspense #58 (Oct. 1964), Captain America gained his own solo feature in that "split book," beginning the following issue. Issue #63 (March 1965), which retold Captain America's origin, through issue #71 (Nov. 1965) was a period feature set during World War II and co-starred Captain America's Golden Age sidekick, Bucky. Kirby drew all but two of the stories in Tales of Suspense, which became Captain America with #100 (April 1968); Gil Kane and John Romita, Sr., each filled in once. Several stories were finished by penciller-inker George Tuska over Kirby layouts, with one finished by Romita Sr. and another by penciller Dick Ayers and inker John Tartaglione. Kirby's regular inkers on the series were Frank Giacoia (as "Frank Ray") and Joe Sinnott, though Don Heck and Golden Age Captain America artist Syd Shores inked one story each. The new title Captain America continued to feature artwork by Kirby, as well as a short run by Jim Steranko, and work by many of the industry's top artists and writers. It was called Captain America and the Falcon from #134-222 (although the Falcon's name was not on the cover for issues #193, 200, and 216).

This series — considered Captain America volume one by comics researchers and historians,^[17] following the 1940s Captain America Comics and its 1950s numbering continuation — ended with #454 (Aug. 1996).

After the Silver Age[link]

This series was almost immediately followed by the 13-issue Captain America vol. 2 (Nov. 1996 – Nov. 1997, part of the "Heroes Reborn" crossover),^[18] the 50-issue Captain America vol. 3 (Jan. 1998 – Feb. 2002),^[19] the 32-issue Captain America vol. 4 (June 2002 – Dec. 2004),^[20] and Captain America vol. 5 (Jan. 2005 – July 2009).^[21] Beginning with the 600th overall issue counting these series, Captain America resumed its original numbering, as if the series numbering had continued uninterrupted after #454.

As part of the aftermath of Marvel Comics' company-crossover storyline "Civil War", Steve Rogers was ostensibly killed in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (March 2007). Series writer Ed Brubaker remarked, "What I found is that all the really hard-core left-wing fans want Cap to be standing out on and giving speeches on the street corner against the George W. Bush administration, and all the really right-wing fans all want him to be over in the streets of Baghdad, punching out Saddam Hussein."^[22] The character's co-creator, Joe Simon, remarked, "It's a hell of a time for him to go. We really need him now."^[22] Artist Alex Ross designed a slightly revised Captain America costume that former sidekick Bucky Barnes began to wear as the new Captain America in vol. 5, #34 (March 2008)^[23]

The storyline of Rogers' return began in issue #600.^[24][25] Rogers, who was not dead but caroming through time, returned to the present day in the six-issue miniseries Captain America: Reborn (Sept. 2009 – March 2010).^[26]

After Rogers' return, Barnes, at Rogers' insistence, continued as Captain America, beginning in the one-shot comic Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield? (Feb. 2010). While Bucky Barnes continued adventuring in the pages of Captain America, Steve Rogers received his own miniseries (Steve Rogers: Super-Soldier) as well as taking on the leadership position in a new Secret Avengers ongoing series.

Spinoff series included Captain America Sentinel of Liberty (Sept. 1998 – Aug. 1999) and Captain America and the Falcon (May 2004 – June 2005). The 1940s Captain America appeared alongside the 1940s Human Torch and Sub-Mariner in the 12-issue miniseries Avengers/Invaders.^[27][28] The 2007 mini-series Captain America: The Chosen, written by David Morrell and penciled by Mitchell Breitweiser, depicts a dying Steve Rogers' final minutes, at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, as his spirit guides James Newman, a young American Marine fighting in Afghanistan. The Chosen is not part of the main Marvel Universe continuity.^[29][30]

Marvel stated in May 2011 that Rogers, following the public death of Bucky Barnes in the Fear Itself miniseries, would resume his Captain America identity in a sixth volume of Captain America, by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Steve McNiven.^[31]

Fictional character biography[link]

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (March 2011)

1940s[link]

Steve Rogers was born July 4, 1920, in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, to Irish immigrants Sarah and Joseph Rogers.^[32] Joseph Rogers died when Steve was only a child and his mother, Sarah, died of pneumonia while Steve was a teen. By early 1940, before America's entry into World War II, Rogers is a tall but scrawny fine arts student specializing in illustration, and a comic book writer and artist, a career he willingly set aside upon his transformation into Captain America. Despite some forays into graphics, Steve Rogers never created another character^[33]

Disturbed by the rise of the Third Reich, Rogers attempts to enlist, only to be rejected due to his physically frail body. His resolution however allows him to be noticed by U.S. Army General Chester Phillips and "Project: Rebirth." Rogers is used as a test subject for the Super-Soldier project, receiving a special serum made by "Dr. Josef Reinstein",^[34][35] later retroactively changed to a code name for the scientist Abraham Erskine.^[36]

The serum, coupled with the stabilizing "Vita-Rays," is a success, and transforms the frail Steve Rogers into a perfect specimen--a nearly perfect human being with peak strength, agility, stamina, and intelligence. The success of the program leaves Erskine wondering about replicating the experiment on other human beings.^[35] The process itself however has been inconsistently detailed: while in the original material Steve Rogers is shown receiving injections of the Super-Serum, when the origin was retold in the sixities, the Comic Code Authority had already put a veto over graphic description of drug intake and abuse, and thus the Super-Serum was retconned into an oral formula.^[37] Later accounts hints at a combination of oral and intravenous treatments, culminating in the Vita-Ray exposure and a strenuous training regimen.

Erskine refused to write down every crucial element of the treatment, leaving behind a flawed, imperfect knowledge of the needed steps. Thus, when the Nazi spy Heinz Kruger killed him, Erskine's method of creating new Super-Soldiers died as well. Captain America, in his first act after his tranfsormation, avenges Erskine. In the 1941 origin story and in Tales of Suspense #63, Kruger dies when running into machinery but is not killed by Rogers; in the Captain America #109 and #255 revision, however, Rogers causes the spy's death by punching him into machinery.^[35]

Unable to create new Super-Soldiers, and willing to hide the Project Rebirth fiasco, the U.S.A. Government casts the now-powerful Rogers as a patriotic superhero, able to counter the menace of the Red Skull as a counter-intelligence agent. As such, he's supplied with a patriotic uniform (designed by Rogers himself) ^[32]) a bulletproof shield, a personal side arm, and the codename Captain America, while Steve Rogers himself poses as a clumsy infantry private at Camp Lehigh in Virginia. He forms a friendship with the camp's teenage mascot, James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes.^[34]

Eventually Barnes learns of Rogers' dual identity and offers to keep the secret if he can become Captain America's sidekick, being trained himself to act as the perfect partner. During their adventures, Franklin D. Roosevelt presents Captain America with a new shield, forged from an alloy of steel and vibranium, fused by an unknown catalyst, so effective that it replaces his own firearm.^[36] Throughout World War II, Captain America and Bucky fight the Nazi menace both on their own and as members of the superhero team the Invaders (as seen in the 1970s comic of the same name).^[38] Captain America also battles a number of criminal menaces on American soil, including a wide variety of costumed villains: the Wax Man,^[39] the Hangman,^[40] the Fang,^[40] the Black Talon,^[41] and the White Death,^[41] among others.

In late April 1945, during the closing days of World War II, Captain America and Bucky try to stop the villainous Baron Zemo from destroying an experimental drone plane. Zemo launches the plane with an armed explosive on it, Rogers and Barnes in hot pursuit. The pair reach the plane just before take off. When Bucky tries to defuse the bomb, it explodes in mid-air. The young man is believed killed. Rogers is hurled into the freezing waters of the North Atlantic. Neither is found, and both are presumed dead. It is later revealed that neither character actually died.^[42]

Late 1940s to 1950s[link]

Captain America continued to appear in comics for the next few years changing from World War II-era hero fighting against the Nazis to trying to defeat the United States' newest enemy, Communism. The revival of the character in the mid-1950s is short-lived, and events during that time period are later retconned to show that multiple people operated using the code name in order to explain the changes in the character. These Post World War II successors are listed as William Naslund and Jeffrey Mace.

The last of these other official Captains, William Burnside,^[43] was a history graduate enamored with the Captain America's mythos, going so far to have his appearance surgically altered to resemble Rogers and legally change his name into "Steve Rogers", becoming the new "1950s Captain America".^[44] Furthermore, he self-administered to himself and his pupil James "Jack" Monroe a flawed, incomplete copy of the Super-Serum, which made no mention about the necessary Vita-Ray portion of the treatment. As a result, while Burnside (now known as Steve Rogers) and Monroe became the new Captain America and Bucky, they also became violently paranoid, often raving about innocent people being communist sympathizers during the height of the Red Scare of the 1950s. Their insanity forced the US Government to place both of them in indefinite cryogenic storage by the US Government until they could be cured of their mental illness.^[45] The 1950s Bucky would be cured ^[46] and go on to be the original Steve Rogers' Captain America partner for a time under the Nomad identity.

1960s to 1970s[link]

Years later,^[42] the superhero team the Avengers discovers Steve Rogers' body in the North Atlantic, the Captain's uniform under his soldier's fatigues and still carrying his shield. After he revives, they piece together that Rogers had been preserved in a block of ice since 1945, surviving in such a state only because of his enhancements from Operation: Rebirth. The block had begun to melt after the Sub-Mariner, enraged that an Arctic Inuit tribe is worshiping the frozen figure, throws it into the ocean. Rogers accepts membership in the Avengers, and although long out of his time, his considerable combat experience makes him a valuable asset to the team. He quickly assumes leadership,^[47] and has typically returned to that position throughout the team's history.

Captain America is plagued by guilt for having been unable to prevent Bucky's death—a feeling that does not ease for some time. Although he takes the young Rick Jones (who closely resembles Bucky) under his tutelage, he refuses for some time to allow Jones to take up the Bucky identity, not wishing to be responsible for another youth's death. Insisting that his hero finally move on from that loss, Jones eventually convinces Rogers to let him don the Bucky costume,^[48] but this partnership lasts only a short time; a disguised Red Skull, impersonating Rogers with the help of the Cosmic Cube, drives Jones away.

Rogers also reunites with his old war comrade Nick Fury, who is similarly well-preserved due to the "Infinity Formula." As a result, Rogers regularly undertakes missions for the security agency S.H.I.E.L.D. for which Fury is public director.^[49] Through Fury, Rogers befriends Sharon Carter, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent,^[50] with whom he eventually begins a romantic relationship.

Rogers later meets and trains Sam Wilson, who becomes the superhero the Falcon,^[51] the first African-American superhero in mainstream comic books.^[52] The characters established an enduring friendship and adventuring partnership, sharing the series title for some time as Captain America and the Falcon.^[53] The two later encounter the revived but still insane 1950s Captain America.^[54] Although Rogers and the Falcon defeat the faux Rogers and Jack Monroe, Rogers becomes deeply disturbed that he could have suffered his counterpart's fate.

The series also dealt with the Marvel Universe's version of the Watergate scandal, making Rogers so uncertain about his role that he abandons his Captain America identity in favor of one called Nomad, emphasizing the word's meaning as "man without a country". During this time, several men unsuccessfully assume the Captain America identity.^[55] Rogers eventually re-assumes it after coming to consider that the identity could be a symbol of American ideals and not its government; it's a personal conviction epitomized when he later confronted a corrupt Army officer attempting to manipulate him by appealing to his loyalty, "I'm loyal to nothing, General... except the [American] Dream." Jack Monroe, cured of his mental instability, later takes up the Nomad alias.^[56] During this period, Rogers also temporarily gains super strength.^[57] Immediately after witnessing Number One's suicide, he is summoned to the future to participate in the Destiny War between Kang the Conqueror and Immortus (it is revealed over the course of the story that Rogers was selected from this time frame as, had he been taken from any other time period, his strong personality- shaken at this point by the events he had just witnessed- would have dominated the team and deprived them of the flexibility required to succeed in their mission, although his presence alone still brought cohesion to the group).^[58] He also learns of the apparent death of Sharon Carter.^[59]

1980s to 1990s[link]

The early 1980s included runs from such creators as Roger Stern, John Byrne, and J. M. DeMatteis. Stern had Steve Rogers consider a run for President of the United States in Captain America #250 (June 1980), and introduced a new love interest, law student Bernie Rosenthal, in Captain America #248 (Aug. 1980). Stern also revisited and expanded Captain America's origin story.

DeMatteis revealed the true face and full origin of the Red Skull in Captain America #298-300, and had Captain America take on Jack Monroe, Nomad, as a partner for a time.^[56] It is also around this time that the heroes gathered by the Beyonder elect Rogers as leader during their stay on Battleworld in the 1984 miniseries Secret Wars

Also during the 1980s, Mark Gruenwald wrote 137 issues of the book for 10 consecutive years from 1985 to 1995, the most issues by any single author in the character's history. Gruenwald created several new foes, including Crossbones and the Serpent Society. Other Gruenwald characters included new love interest Diamondback.,^[60] Super Patriot (who would go on to become a replacement Captain America in a two-year story arc ^[61] and became USAgent at that arc's conclusion), and some short-lived new partners that included Demolition Man.^[62]

Gruenwald explores numerous political and social themes as well, such as extreme idealism when Captain America fights the anti-nationalist terrorist Flag-Smasher;^[63] and vigilantism when he hunts the murderous Scourge of the Underworld.^[64] Homophobia was also dealt with as Steve Rogers runs into a childhood friend named Arnold Roth who is gay.^[65][66]

Rogers receives a large back-pay reimbursement dating back to his disappearance at the end of World War II, and a government commission orders him to work directly for the U.S. government. Already troubled by the corruption he had encountered with the Nuke incident in New York City,^[67] Rogers chooses instead to resign his identity,^[68] and then takes the alias of "the Captain".^[69] A replacement Captain America, John Walker, struggles to emulate Rogers' ideals until pressure from hidden enemies helps to drive Walker insane. Rogers returns to the Captain America identity^[70] while a recovered Walker becomes the U.S. Agent.^[71]

Sometime afterward, Rogers avoids the explosion of a methamphetamine lab, but the drug triggers a chemical reaction in the Super-Soldier serum in his system. To combat the reaction, Rogers has the serum removed from his body, and trains constantly to maintain his physical condition.^[72]

A retcon later establishes that the serum was not a drug per se, which would have metabolized out of his system, but in fact a virus-like organism that effected a biochemical and genetic change. This additionally explained how arch-nemesis Red Skull, who at the time inhabited a body cloned from Rogers' cells, also has the formula in his body.

Because of his altered biochemistry, Rogers' body begins to deteriorate, and for a time he must wear a powered exoskeleton and is eventually placed again in suspended animation. During this time, he is given a transfusion of blood from the Red Skull, which cures his condition and stabilizes the Super-Soldier virus in his system. Captain America returns both to crime fighting and the Avengers.^[73]

Following Gruenwald's departure on the book, Mark Waid took over and resurrected Sharon Carter as Cap's love interest. The book was then relaunched under Rob Liefeld as Cap became part of the Heroes Reborn universe for 13 issues before another relaunch restored Waid to the title in an arc that saw Cap lose his shield for a time using an energy based shield as a temporary replacement. Following Waid's run, Dan Jurgens took over and introduced new foe Protocide, a failed recipient of the Super Soldier serum prior to the experiment that successfully created Rogers.

2000s[link]

In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks, Rogers reveals his identity to the world and establishes a residence in the Red Hook neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, as seen in Captain America vol. 4, #1-7 (June 2002 – Feb. 2003). Following the disbandment of the Avengers in the "Avengers Disassembled" story arc, Rogers, now employed by S.H.I.E.L.D., discovers Bucky is alive, having been saved and deployed by the Soviets as the Winter Soldier. Rogers also resumes his on-again, off-again relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Sharon Carter.

In the 2006-2007 company-wide story arc "Civil War", and its anchoring, seven-issue miniseries, Civil War (July 2006 - Jan. 2007), Rogers opposes the new mandatory federal registration of super-powered beings, and leads the underground anti-registration movement. He adopts the alias "Brett Hendrick", a mall security guard. After significant rancor and danger to the public as the two sides clash, Captain America voluntarily surrenders and orders the Anti-Registration forces to stand down.

In the story arc "The Death of Captain America", Rogers is indicted on criminal charges for his anti-registration efforts, and in Captain America vol. 5, #25 (April 2007) is shot outside a federal courthouse; taken to a hospital, he is pronounced dead. The assassination, orchestrated by the Red Skull, involves Crossbones as a sniper and Dr. Faustus, who poses as a S.H.I.E.L.D. psychiatrist and gives Carter a hypnotic suggestion to surreptitiously shoot Rogers at close range during the chaos surrounding the sniper shot.

The miniseries Fallen Son: The Death of Captain America #1-5 (June–Aug. 2007) follows the stunned superhero community after the apparent assassination. Captain America is purportedly laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery, but Tony Stark (Iron Man) and others have actually returned Rogers' body to the Arctic where Rogers had been found years before.

In vol. 5, #30 (Sept. 2007), Stark receives a letter containing Rogers' request that Bucky become the next Captain America, which Bucky agrees to do four issues later. Adopting the original shield, he dons a new costume incorporating a pistol and a knife. The Norse god superhero Thor communicates with what appears to be Rogers' spirit on the first anniversary of Rogers' death, in Thor vol. 3, #11 (Oct. 2008).

Captain America: Reborn #1 (Aug. 2009) reveals that Rogers did not die, and that the gun Sharon Carter had been hypnotized to use had actually caused Rogers to phase in and out of space and time, appearing at events in his lifetime and fighting battles. The Skull returns Rogers to the present, where he takes control of Rogers' mind and body. Rogers eventually regains control, and with help from his allies, defeats the Skull in the fourth and final issues of this miniseries. In the subsequent one-shot comic Captain America: Who Will Wield the Shield?, Rogers formally grants Bucky his Captain America shield and asks his former sidekick to continue as Captain America. The American President grants Rogers a full pardon for his anti-registration actions.

2010s[link]

Following the company-wide "Dark Reign" and "Siege" story arcs, the Steve Rogers character became part of the "Heroic Age" arc.^[74] The U.S. president appoints Rogers, in his civilian identity, as head of the nation's security, replacing Norman Osborn. The Superhuman Registration Act is repealed and Rogers reestablishes the superhero team the Avengers. In the miniseries Steve Rogers: Super Soldier, he encounters Jacob Erskine, the grandson of Professor Abraham Erskine and the son of Tyler Paxton, one of Rogers' fellow volunteers in the Super-Soldier program. Shortly afterward, Rogers becomes leader of the Secret Avengers, a black-ops superhero team.

During the Fear Itself storyline, Steve Rogers is present when the threat of the Serpent is known.^[75] Following the apparent death of Bucky at the hands of Sin (in the form of Skadi), Steve Rogers ends up changing into his Captain America outfit.^[76] When the Avengers and the New Avengers are fighting Skadi, the Serpent ends up joining the battle and breaks Captain America's shield with his bare hands.^[77] Captain America and the Avengers teams end up forming a militia for a last stand against the forces of the Serpent.^[78] When it comes to the final battle, Captain America uses Thor's hammer to fight Skadi until Thor manages to kill the Serpent. In the aftermath of the battle, Iron Man presents Captain with his reforged shield now stronger for its uru-infused enhancements despite the scar it bears.^[79] It is then revealed that Captain America, Nick Fury, and Black Widow are the only ones who know that Bucky actually survived the fight with Skadi as Bucky resumes his identity as Winter Soldier.^[80]

Powers and abilities[link]

Captain America has no superhuman powers, although as a result of the Super-Soldier Serum and "Vita-Ray" treatment, he is transformed from a frail young man into a "perfect" specimen of human development and conditioning.^[81] Captain America's strength, endurance, agility, speed, reflexes, durability, and healing are at the zenith of natural human potential. Rogers' body regularly replenishes the super-soldier serum; it does not wear off.^[82]

The formula enhances all of his metabolic functions and prevents the build-up of fatigue poisons in his muscles, giving him endurance far in excess of an ordinary human being. This accounts for many of his extraordinary feats, including bench pressing 1200 pounds (545 kg) and running a mile (1.6 km) in 73 seconds (49 mph/78 kph).^[83] Furthermore, his enhancements are the reason why he was able to survive being frozen in suspended animation for decades. Rogers cannot become intoxicated by alcohol, drugs, or impurities in the air and is immune to terrestrial diseases.^{[citation needed]} He is also highly resistant to hypnosis or gases that could limit his focus.^[84] The secrets of creating a super-soldier were lost with the death of its creator, Dr. Abraham Erskine.^[85] However, in the ensuing decades there have been numerous secret attempts to recreate Erskine's treatment, only to have them end in failure. Even worse, the attempts have instead often created psychopathic supervillains of which Captain America's 1950s imitator and Nuke are the most notorious examples.

Rogers' battle experience and training make him an expert tactician and an excellent field commander, with his teammates frequently deferring to his orders in battle. Thor so highly regards Rogers' courage, leadership, and combat abilities that he has stated that Rogers is one of the very few humans he will take orders from and follow "through the gates of Hades".^[86] Rogers' reflexes and senses are also extraordinarily keen. He has blended judo, western boxing, kickboxing, and gymnastics into his own unique fighting style and is a master of multiple martial arts. Years of practice with his indestructible shield make him able to aim and throw it with almost unerring accuracy. His skill with his shield is such that he can attack multiple targets in succession with a single throw or even cause a boomerang-like return from a throw to attack an enemy from behind. In canon, he is regarded by other skilled fighters as one of the best hand-to-hand combatants in the Marvel Universe, limited only by his human physique.^[87][88] Although the super-soldier serum is an important part of his strength, Rogers has shown himself still sufficiently capable against stronger opponents, even when the serum has been deactivated reverting him to his pre-Captain America physique.^[89]

Rogers has vast U.S. military knowledge and is often shown to be familiar with ongoing, classified Defense Department operations. He is an expert in combat strategy, survival, acrobatics, military strategy, piloting, and demolitions. Despite his high profile as one of the world's most popular and recognizable superheroes, Rogers also has a broad understanding of the espionage community, largely through his ongoing relationship with S.H.I.E.L.D. He occasionally makes forays into relatively mundane career fields, including commercial arts, comic book artistry, education (high school history), and law enforcement.

Although he lacks superhuman strength, Captain America is one of the few mortal beings who has been deemed worthy enough to wield Thor's hammer.^[90]

Weapons and equipment[link]

Captain America uses several shields throughout his history, the most prevalent of which is a nigh-indestructible disc-shaped shield made from an experimental alloy of steel and the fictional vibranium.^[91] The shield was cast by American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain, who was contracted by the U.S. government, from orders of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, to create an impenetrable substance to use for tanks during World War II.^{[citation needed]} This alloy was created by accident and never duplicated, although efforts to reverse-engineer it resulted in the discovery of adamantium.^{[citation needed]}

Captain America often uses his shield as an offensive throwing weapon. The first instance of Captain America's trademark ricocheting shield-toss occurs in Stan Lee's first comics writing, the two-page text story "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America Comics #3 (May 1941).^[92]

The legacy of the shield among other comics characters includes the time-traveling mutant superhero Cable telling Captain America that his shield still exists in one of the possible futures; Cable carries it into battle and brandishes it as a symbol.^[93]

When without his trademark shield, Captain America sometimes uses other shields made from less durable metals such as steel,^{[volume & issue needed]} or even a photonic energy shield designed to mimic a vibranium matrix.^{[volume & issue needed]} Rogers, having relinquished his regular shield to Barnes, carried a variant of the energy shield which can be used with either arm, and used to either block attacks or as an improvised offensive weapon able to cut through metal with relative ease.^[94] Much like his vibranium shield, the energy shield can also be thrown, including ricocheting off multiple surfaces and returning to his hand.^[95]

Captain America's uniform is made of a fire-retardant material, and he wears a lightweight, bulletproof "duralumin" scale armor beneath his uniform for added protection.^[36] Originally, Rogers' mask was a separate piece of material, but an early engagement had it dislodged, thus almost exposing his identity. To prevent a recurrence of the situation, Rogers modified the mask with connecting material to his uniform, an added benefit of which was extending his armor to cover his previously exposed neck. As a member of the Avengers, Rogers has an Avengers priority card, which serves as a communications device.

Captain America has also used a custom specialized motorcycle, modified by the S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons laboratory, as well as a custom-built battle van, constructed by the Wakanda Design Group with the ability to change its color for disguise purposes (red, white and blue), and fitted to store and conceal the custom motorcycle in its rear section with a frame that allows Rogers to launch from the vehicle riding it.

Enemies[link]

Captain America has faced numerous foes in over 60 years of published adventures. Many of his recurring foes embody ideals contrary to the American values Captain America is shown to strive for and believe. Some examples of these opposing values are Nazism (Red Skull, Baron Zemo), Neo-Nazism (Crossbones, Doctor Faustus), technocratic fascism (AIM, Arnim Zola), Communism (Aleksander Lukin), anarchism (Flag Smasher and Viper), and international and domestic terrorism (HYDRA).

Other versions[link]

In other media[link]

Collected editions[link]

The contents of Captain America Comics #1-10 were previously published as Captain America: The Classic Years two hardcover slipcase set in 1990. These were later re-issued as trade paperbacks in the late 1990s once again under the title Captain America: The Classic Years featuring new cover art by Kevin Maguire re-creating classic covers. Previous editions of War and Remembrance, The Bloodstone Hunt, Operation Rebirth, Man Without a Country, and To Serve and Protect were released prior to new 2010 editions leading up to the Captain America: The First Avenger feature film.

References[link]