Golden and Silver Age Comic Book Style vs Pop Art

黄金期・銀の時代のアメコミ / ポップアート

Golden and Silver Age Comic Book Style comes from Illustration Styles and Pop Art from Pop. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

Golden and Silver Age Comic Book Style

Golden and Silver Age Comic Book Style — 黄金期コミックの表紙 1948 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainGolden and Silver Age Comic Book Style — 『ブレンダ・スター』表紙 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainGolden and Silver Age Comic Book Style — ダン・バリー『Crime Does Not Pay』第55号 扉ページ 1947 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

A grammar of exaggeration that came out of four colour printing on cheap newsprint. Heavy black outlines fence in every form, areas are filled by overprinted primaries and dot screens, and both motion and sound are drawn as shapes in their own right.

Pop Art

Pop Art — Andy Warhol《キャンベル・スープ缶》MoMA 展示 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 2.0Pop Art — Roy Lichtenstein《Brushstrokes》ポートランド美術館 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0Pop Art — Roy Lichtenstein《バルセロナの頭》1992 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0 ES

Amplifies the vocabulary of ads and comics until mass culture itself becomes the picture.

Golden and Silver Age Comic Book StylePop Art
Era1938–19701950s–1960s
FamilyIllustration StylesPop
KindStyleStyle
CuesHeavy black outlines of even weight fencing in figures and backgrounds alike / Areas filled by overprinted primaries and a dot screen coarse enough to see / Sound effects hand lettered in capitals inside an outlined burst / Figures stepping out over the panel border, with speed lines drawn along the direction of motionHalftone dots / Bold outlines / Primary colors / Repetition
Best used forShort story advertising drawn to survive printing on cheap paper · Explainers and promotions that must show one instant of motionMaking products and campaigns pop instantly · Boldly reinterpreting familiar subjects
TypeEffects held in outlined bursts, dialogue set tight in capsComic-style extra-bold lettering
CompositionPanels sized unevenly, figures breaking slightly past the bordersBlow up the subject; panels and repetition
MaterialHeavy black contours filled by four-color overprints and dot screensRed, yellow, blue, black outlines, halftones
CautionLaying on dots and primaries while thinning the contours means the drawing stops reading the instant the inks shift on press.Overusing comic marks trivializes the content. Decide what you treat as mass culture.

Put these two together

Illustration Styles ／ Pop

IndexStyle