A few years back, I posted three galleries of old photos of newsstands (you know, those things that sell lottery tickets and bagged snacks? They used to sell periodicals!) with montages of some of the comic books on display (click on the hey kids comics label at the bottom of this post to see them all). It was so much fun to put together, doing the detective work, assembling the images, that I wanted to keep going (honestly, one of these days I'm going to go back and add more comics to those original posts, some of the montages were a bit sparse). Sadly, I seem to have mostly tapped the well of usable newsstand pictures (insert sad face emoticon here), but here's a related sequel.
What follows is a gallery of 54 photos of people (mostly kids) reading comic books from the 1930s thru the 1980s with some of the covers of the books being devoured. The dates captioning the pictures are based on the release of the comic books, so some might be a year or few off, but they are most certainly within close range. The soldier in 1942 is reading a comic featuring the racist imagery prevalent in WWII era books that served as anti-Axis propaganda at home and abroad. Note the horrified looks of those poor, traumatized youngsters being turned into juvenile delinquents by the horror and crime comics of the mid-50s (that's sarcasm, folks). Also, that Superman fella sure seems popular.
Two of these are cheating: The 1970 photo shows kids shopping, not reading (although that was sure to come) and the final shot depicts a kid seemingly drawing his own comics, although the mountain of Bronze Age Comics on his bed certainly indicates a regular partaking of that divine diversion.
Thanks to The Grand Comics Database, the most invaluable comic book historical research site online; Richard Beland's Jungle Frolics blog; Robert Smentek; and Bart Bush of the Facebook group, Old Guys Who Like Old Comics.
Coming later this year: A sequel to this piece of comics being perused by celebrities (both in real life and in film and television).
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| 1938 |
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| 1939 |
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| 1940 |
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| 1940 |
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| 1941 |
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| 1942 |
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| 1942 |
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| 1942 |
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| 1944 |
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| 1944 |
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| 1944 |
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| 1946 |
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| 1946 |
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| 1947 |
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| 1947 |
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| 1947 |
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| 1947 |
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| 1947 |
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| 1947 |
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| 1947 |
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| 1948 |
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| 1948 |
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| 1949 |
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| 1949 |
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| 1949 |
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| 1950 |
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| 1950 |
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| 1950 |
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| 1951 |
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| 1951 |
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| 1952 from The Adventures of Superman TV episode, "The Birthday Letter" (comic from 1951) |
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| 1952 |
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| 1953 |
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| 1953 |
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| 1954 |
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| 1954 |
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| 1954 |
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| 1954 |
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| 1956 |
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| 1957 |
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| 1958 |
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| 1959 |
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| 1963 |
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| 1970 |
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| 1972 |
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| 1972 |
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| 1975 |
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| 1976 |
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| 1978 |
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| Marvel artist Billy Graham reads the 1978 Silver Surfer graphic novel (Marvel's first), surrounded by various Silver and Bronze Age Marvel Comics first issues. |
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| 1978. By now comic book stores had begun to supplant newsstands as the place where fanboys got their fix. |
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| 1979. Some say reading comics is bad for you. |
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| 1982 |
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| Bonus Photo! Aspiring artist surrounded by Bronze Age goodness. |
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