A Change In The Order

Inspired by Jon M Wilson’s recent Facebook discussion on his reading order, I’ve decided to change mine.  Historically, I’ve tried to read a few from each list, bouncing back and forth, while continuing to stay current on Modern DC/Marvel.  I get dissatisfied with this easily as I’m torn between how much attention each list gets.  Some of this is down to size.  A Golden Age book, if you read all of the features is about twice the size of a Silver Age book and three times the size of a Modern book.  This has been a problem because I’ve wanted to read the Silver Age work of DC somewhat in alignment with Marvel Silver Age, but wanted to do the work to get there.  Therefore, I’m putting the new reading order in place:

1.       Current DC/Marvel – 5 books

2.        DC Silver Age – 4 books

3.       DC Golden Age – 3 books

4.       Marvel Silver Age – 2 books 

5.    Fawcett Golden Age - 1-2 books

Not strictly binary like Jon’s, but my plan is to go 1-2, 1-2-3, 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4-5, etc.  I started it this weekend and it resulted in me getting through 15 modern books, 10 DC Silver Age, and 3 DC Golden Age. 

I’ve also added DC Silver Age to the rotation.  I’ve wanted to do it for a long time, but really struggled.  For one thing, I’ve wanted to read straight thru, but I know how long that will take.  Too many people are discussing too many things I want to dive in on, so I broke down and decided to do something about it.  But where to start?  That was the other thing.  Unlike Marvel which has a clear delineation, the DC Silver Age is harder to pin down.  There is the popular choice, Showcase #4.  But Martian Manhunter is a Silver Age character, and he appeared before that.  Captain Comet pre-dates Martian Manhunter.  However if I go back to the first issue of Strange Adventures, All-Star comics still has the JSA.  It made my head-spin.  I decided to invent my own Silver Age.  If I view the character as a Silver Age character, they are in.  If I don’t then they languish in the Golden Age until we hit their Silver Age start.  If it is an anthology title, I only read the feature that falls within the reading list.  As a guidepost, I’m looking to the Showcase Presents trades as a guide.  It works something like this: 

-          Most of the Funny Animal strips had a long run into the 60’s.  I treat them as Silver Age.

-          The Western titles, to me, are Silver Age books, especially since two of them replaced long-standing Golden Age titles.

-          The licensed books (Adventures of Alan Ladd, Bob Hope, etc.) I consider Silver Age

-          Tomahawk, to me, is a Silver Age character, so his strips from Star-Spangled Comics and World’s Finest are included.

-          Special consideration will be given to Superman and Batman since they have multiple Silver Age starts.  Since their first team-up in Superman #76 is considered a Silver Age tale, that month is when all of their strips (Detective, Action, Adventure, Superboy, Superman, Batman, World’s Finest) will get included.

 Coming Up: Expect something on funny animals, Funny Stuff in particular.  I have a soft spot for the funny animal genre because of how and when I was introduced to comics, and the Funny Stuff book has been some great reading.