My Little Golden Age

People spend a lot of time naming eras and speculating on their values. The Golden Age is a term that naturally evokes nostalgia—for a time that probably wasn't so great at the time, but in hindsight seems pretty peachy.

The golden age of comics has been debated for years and not everyone can agree. The quote that comes up now is that the golden age of comics is when you're nine. My little golden age was when I was 10 to 16. From 1962 to 1968 my exposure to pictorial art was astounding. No matter where I looked, or what I spent, golden material was everywhere. Old stuff was still cheap—reaching back to the 19th century. New stuff was coming out weekly that made my eyes pop and my heart flutter. This was the time Frazetta was in his prime and his illustrated books were 35 cents or 50 cents new on the newstand, and his slightly older ones were easily discovered in expeditions through dusty old bookshops. 

Magazines still hired illustrators, Norman Rockwell in Look and SatEvePost, Bob McCall in Boy's Life, Bob Peak in Time, so many others in Time, and Playboy and on and on. The comic books were still smack in the middle of the Silver Age with beautiful work by Kubert and Curt Swan and Mort Drucker and Neal Adams and so many others.

I didn't realize at the time, of course, how golden it was. By the end of the decade times changed, I changed, and the material became scarcer, more expensive, not so creative and beautiful. But collections can last a long time and looking through the collection, I remember where I bought this item or what I was doing when I read that one. Memories are embedded in the contents of my bookshelves and morgue. 

I was innocent but maturing. The spectrum of my interests was huge. I enjoyed artwork from Peter Pan at the same time as enjoying artwork from Little Annie Fanny.

Ah but I'm waxing nostalgiac. Today is another golden age with the internet. So many people are posting so many treasures that it's impossible to encompass it all. It's free and it's far-ranging, it's golden. Thank you all for sharing.

The original golden age as seen by Ingres.

Looking at this Disney Golden Book again recently, I was astounded by its Disneyish beauty. A large hardback for $1!

Frazetta covers stirred the depths of my imagination and inspired me to read deeply.

Some covers stirred my imagination more deeply than others.

And Frazetta was even recognizable in other mediums and formats. I was delighted to discover his renderings of Annie.