What Makes a Good All-Ages Comic?

There once was a time, before Watchmen and long before The Walking Dead, when comic books were primarily targeted at children. Simple, fantastic stories with vibrant, if generic, artwork were published at a breakneck pace, giving ravenous young readers a steady stream of stories in genres ranging from superhero tales to Westerns to romance. Since the mid-’80s, though, the content in mainstream comic books has become increasingly adult. The ’90s placed an emphasis on sex and violence that reached caricature levels by the end of the decade, and the current economic climate has made collecting comic books a hobby that requires a regular paycheck, not a weekly allowance. As creators work to distance themselves from the four-colored frivolity of the past, comics have become more mature, which has allowed them to feature more adult content and in some cases be accepted as serious art.