Comics have been in existence since the end of the 19th century, but it was after the depression that the popularity of newspaper cartoons expanded into a major industry. The precise era of the Golden Age is disputed, though most agree that it was born with the launch of Superman in 1938.

What year comics begin?

The first modern comic book, Famous Funnies, was released in the US in 1933 and was a reprinting of earlier newspaper humor comic strips, which had established many of the story-telling devices used in comics.

When did comics become popular?

The period from 1938 through the mid-1940s represents the peak of comic book popularity. Whereas current monthly sales of popular comic book titles hover around 100,000 copies, in the early 1940s Superman, Batman and Captain Marvel titles each regularly sold in the range of 1.5 million copies per month.