SOURCE: "More Than Mere Fantasy: Political Themes in Contemporary Comic Books," in Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 17, No. 1, Summer, 1983, pp. 83-92.

In the following essay, Skidmore and Skidmore identify a new political consciousness instilled in comic books by the Marvel group and other mainstream publishers.

To most of us who were in or approaching our teens in the 1940s, comic books were central to our entertainment. Because the pressures of school, parents and economics generally relegated movies to weekends, the only real competition to the comics were radio shows. The contrast with today is striking. Such is the variety of stimulation available now to young persons that many children in this age of television probably never turn to comic books; some in fact may even be unaware of them. As a result, the comics that once were the center of a storm of controversy now occasion relatively little...