austex, now that I look back again at all the comments in this thread, I've realized that it's not your or anyone's feedback that's lacking, it's actually my original question. This whole topic came about when I was talking with an aspiring comic artist. I had mentioned that I was reading some Golden Age, pre-code comics, and in our conversation, he mentioned that his style doesn't match the style from that era.

That may be true, but it confused me a little based on my limited knowledge. So I looked closer at the dates of the comics I've read, and as it turns out, I got my dates mixed up with the comics I had in my mind. While I'm talking about 30s and 40s, the books I have in my head are actually from the late 40s and early 50s. So it sounds like the earlier books were created with more crude art, while the books I'm learning to enjoy came later when the medium was hitting its stride a little better and the art and story were combining into something a bit more magical.

When I read some of the collected editions (I'm currently reading the Fantagraphics 50 Girls 50 by Al Williamson), I'm seeing some great things. Sure, the storytelling is much more...innocent by today's standards, and much of the story is gimmicky and hinge on that final panel's twist, but based on what I see in the art in this and in other books (like the Atlas Era collections by Marvel), the art itself could certainly still work in a modern comic. Sure, not everyone drew as well as Williamson and the other greats, but there's great stuff here. 

That's not to say I haven't read older comics, but until now, I just assumed that they were all from roughly the same period and that some publishers simply got better artists. With that said, this thread has me interested in trying comics further back in time to see more of the styles everyone's been talking about. And of course, to start paying more attention to the dates of the books I'm reading so I can see the evolution of the storytelling. 

Last Edited By: Bishop2Knight May 6 13 9:04 AM. Edited 2 times.