90s comic books or "dark ages".

[PretenderNX01]

The 90s have the issue of the market imploding and Marvel's bankruptcy. I think that colors things a bit.

Plus the weirdly tiny women with giant boobs became a popular style

[GOLGO 13]

Yeah, but no.

Sandman, Enigma, Alan Davis' Excalibur, Warren Ellis' Excalibur, Busiek's Avengers, Marvels, Sin City, Preacher, Hellblazer, Morrison's JLA, The Invisibles, From Hell, Savage Dragon, a ton of awesome manga translations, etc, isn't cherrypicking, it's that there was a lot of great comics in the 90s and "the stench" is generally a handful of books that just weren't to someone's/your particular tastes.

I too think those are some fantastic books you mentioned.

Respectfully however, I'd say you have things in reverse. There are literally MILLIONS of horrible books (X-Men accounting for a couple of millions alone) that were vomited out in sealed, multi-cover rainbow-hologram orgy of excess. The likes that were never seen in the history of this hobby. A unknown but to God number of FCBS & entire comic lines were audaciously launched & shamefully shut down throughout the 90's plague. Some of it thankfully so.

"The stench" lingers still & we should never let them forget their sins against us.

We already live in the 90's 2.0.

I have no super-powers. Just "rage issues" & crazy old-man strength powered by a ghastly amount of English pipe tobacco & Kentucky whiskey. But you just might be able to predict the future...grim & dark.

"Grim & Dark" just like my beloved WH40K.

[The Lonely Man]

There were some fantastic comics in the 90s and there was some dross, very much like today and pretty much every decade since comics began.
For me personally it was 1992 I first discovered comics so it will always hold a special place in my heart.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I loved the '90s but that's when I started collecting. You know what I miss the most? The hype and the hunt. The internet ruined the fun innocence of the '90s, with spoilers on forums and articles; and finding nearly anything you want online. Don't get me wrong, it's nice that you can find the books you're looking for online but it was so much fun going to a new comic shop or to a con and finding that 'hot' book you've been searching for.

[shooshoomanjoe]

We already live in the 90's 2.0.

This too lol. It seems like comics have gone back to the 90s formula of bad art/writing, multiple covers, throwing everything at the wall and see what sticks, etc.

[CliffHanger2]

This too lol. It seems like comics have gone back to the 90s formula of bad art/writing, multiple covers, throwing everything at the wall and see what sticks, etc.

What bad art and writing are you speaking of? Have you read Bendis Avengers of the early 2000s? How bout that Ultimates series where the Blob eats the Wasp's intestines or something? I don't even know who wrote that, can't forget when Spidey made a deal with the devil. I haven't seen anything as bad as that garbage in the 90s or the last few years.

[Xiroteus]

It seems that variants covers are just as bad as back then. Even five editions of the same cover in different stages. Many just appear to be more expensive right from the start. Glad I stopped that back in the late nineties, early 2000's.

I loved the '90s but that's when I started collecting. You know what I miss the most? The hype and the hunt. The internet ruined the fun innocence of the '90s, with spoilers on forums and articles; and finding nearly anything you want online. Don't get me wrong, it's nice that you can find the books you're looking for online but it was so much fun going to a new comic shop or to a con and finding that 'hot' book you've been searching for.

I do prefer today vs back then when if I missed something I had to find some way to track it down. The days of finding Uncanny 266 for ten dollars (when the internet was just getting going Rogue auction figure (back when it was HARD to find), Age Of Apocalypse Alpha by luck from someone in the area. (Was a teenager)

[DanArt]

There was not one thing wrong with comic books of the 1990's. It was just that consumers was changing and comic book companies like Valiant was not. Akira won an award for it's coloring alone. So OP if you could compare and contrast, or anybody. I wouldn't mind arguing at all.
1980's and 1990's was the first time in history were Race was not a big deal. The first time where you could laugh at the President, because he was a guy like you. While there was ( and still ) racism, the 1990's was solid gold.

You compare and contrast imagery from the 1990's with other comics of today. There is no way you could make that argument.

Most of my collection is 1990's material, while I do Have some stuff from the 1950's as well as 2000.

[Speed Force League Unlimited]

I read a good amount of good comics from the nineties.

[mathew101281]

I could say that about any decade, including this one.

There's always a lot of stuff that's not going to interest one person. And, a lot that was hot at the time, but looks silly to us now.

But, the 90s gave us Busiek and Perez on Avengers, Jim Lee's Fantastic Four, Morrison's JLA, Alan Moore and Chris Claremont's WildCATs, The Invisibles, Sandman, The Enigma, TMNT Adventures, Slapstick, Savage Dragon, Marvels, Gunsmith Cats, Baker Street, Mark Waid's Flash, two amazing Doom Patrol runs, Ghost in the Shell, Johnny the Homicidal Maniac, Hokum and Hex, X/1999, Ellis' Stormwatch and Doom 2099, and so many other fantastic comics.

Every era had its share of shovel ware but do to the spectator boom the 90s had more then most. That being said it had its gems to.

[Kees_L]

The '90s was when creator owned imprints started. Out of that we got Image, as it was then, but as it is now, Hellboy, Sin City at Dark Horse.

It's a better, stronger industry now because of the '90s.

I think I see what you mean.
But even with living the 90s, or as having been into comics since the 80s, I don't perceive anything as definable only one way.
I don't perceive one definable industry or any comics as seeming but alike as per timeperiod or publisher at all.

I feel I'm just cherrypicking based on my own presumptions with anything as proving potentially or likely different for other individuals.

I've never seen typical DC comics as opposed to Marvel comics or any such. Indie comics don't exist and neither do mainstream ones. Any genres or definitions are in people their heads.

I don't think Marvel or DC or Warner Brothers vs Disney are at all concerned or remotely responsible for the art of comics or the quality to entertainment. At all. They aren't creators and they aren't corporate investors neither. But instead they may hope to exist because of those. Both as because of supposed popularity, with popularity as meaning basically nothing in itself.

That's not industry but pure happenstance. Which is okay with me. But as such I don't feel invested in brands or publishers so much as just the creators and creations I'd like in the first place.
Regardless of timeframes or anything else. I did this in the 90s and I do it now. I take Frank Miller or Jack Kirby as how I do, not as how others think I should. I don't mistake movies for comics or sales figures for the quality to them. In the 90s print was big and nowadays print isn't big. Says nothing about quality however. And since the 90s are over I hope they never come back or something would have to be wrong with me .

[simbob4000]

The 90s were atrocious for mainstream comics...

Death of Superman, Knightfall, the end of JLI and Perez's Wonder Woman...
The increase of T&A shots (Elektra, Psylocke, Catwoman and Wonder Woman suddenly all became more endowed, their clothing shrunk or got tighter and they learned to pose in ways that would look silly in real life - usually in ways that displayed their breasts and their butts facing the same direction)...
Along with Zero Hour's convenient "ending of the universe" with empty white panels to mark their demise and Marvel's Heroes Reborn...
Mainstream comics came to a screeching halt for most fans in the 90s.

However, indie comics boomed.
Mainly because with the demise of newstands, readers were now forced into caveman mode and had to hunt for their comics... and when they found them at secluded comic shops, they discovered other people made comics, too.
Madman, Hellboy... even DC's Vertigo (which somehow avoided the wave of 'extreme' that was washing over their core books), these gave readers something to run to when DC and Marvel's skies started falling.

There was a increase in T&A? Really? And Wonder Woman? Have you seen original bondage Wonder Woman? You know what there was an increase of in the '90s? Naked guys. The '90s are like naked Wolverine butt shot years. The '90s is when Marvel did like swimsuit special with their male characters. Then again superheroes mainly just look like naked people with painted on suits anyways when in costume, or at mostly did.

[jeanvaljean]

I don't think Death of Superman was all bad. Sure, the Doomsday Story was dumb, but Funeral For A Friend was awesome, and I still can't decide if I liked Kesel's Superboy or Simonson's and Bogdanove's Steel better.

[DanArt]

The '90s are like naked Wolverine butt shot years. The '90s is when Marvel did like swimsuit special with their male characters. Then again superheroes mainly just look like naked people with painted on suits anyways when in costume, or at mostly did.

And it was beautiful. I love when characters ( including older adult characters ) was drawn half naked running up and down. Wolverine was pretty much an animals and seeing him half naked animated or in comics was something that just had to be done.

Back the 1970's, there were many naked characters, but mostly women. The 1990's was the golden years of the 1970's crowd. Not thinking about the 2001 war and illegal anti-privacy, laws right now should be a golden era for people who grew up then. However it is just wishful thinking.

Why all covered up; when your that beautiful?

[batnbreakfast]

And it was beautiful. I love when characters ( including older adult characters ) was drawn half naked running up and down. Wolverine was pretty much an animals and seeing him half naked animated or in comics was something that just had to be done.

Back the 1970's, there were many naked characters, but mostly women. The 1990's was the golden years of the 1970's crowd. Not thinking about the 2001 war and illegal anti-privacy, laws right now should be a golden era for people who grew up then. However it is just wishful thinking.

Why all covered up; when your that beautiful?

Aside from THOR (a god not giving a damn) who would make sense running around naked? Errr... forgot about Thor being a female