Comics of the 1930s

Wow, where to start on the start of the comic book age.  I read here and there through the Marvel, EC comics and some of the old DC and Carl Barks. What struck me was how little experimentation there was because of the factorial process. The panels were basic, some of the comics felt like a dead fish when reading it. Except for some, I would say of course the ones with Jack Kirby felt more dynamic and felt as though the had movement, like the artist was connected with the story.  The EC comics were very well illustrated, with a few static bumps here and there. DC comics picked up in the later years as well. I think it was the comics more close to the 30s that felt stiff and awkward at times. It felt as though the teams working on the pages just hadn’t found their rhythm quite yet.   

In the later years 40s and 50s I could see that there was a comfort a rhythm that was followed. But still not the full investment in story, the still felt more like radio shows. The use of dialogue and narration was just the same as it was in radio. Very musical and exaggerated, at times I heard it was Orson Welles giving narration to Batman or The Black Panther. Which made me feel a bit detached. But when reading Carl Barks’ comics of Donald Duck and his nephews. I felt more comfortable, more like I was in a story.  It might be that there was no over the top narration and that the dialogue was natural. But for the most part, it was because he didn’t play down to the audience. He told the story, that was it, no artist ego in the way. This is what a comic was and should feel. And a lot of artist and writer’s I believe have evolved from that motive to tell just a story. But to often and even still today, they worry that the reader just won’t get or that they have to have their glory page to awe the reader in image. Not awe the reader in story.