Western Comics Genres

For a long time there has been a lack of diversity in genre within western comics. If you were to go to a store back in the day, you would most likely find a plethora of action and adventure comics in the form of Marvel and DC's superhero books. Outside of that there hasn't been a lot of diversity in western media. Some of this could possibly be attributed to the Comics Code authority, which banned many more 'adult' themes and imagery during the late 50s to early 80s. EC comics, which at the time of the arrival of the Comics Code, specialised in Horror Comics, took a hit from this as most of their content up until this point was not "up to code'. Because of the Code, a lot of comics became simple adventure stories featuring your favourite heroes, and more mature stories with more adult themes became few and far between. It wasn't until the 80s that comics started to tackle more mature themes and turn towards different styles of storytelling, and thus different genres.

The founding of Image in 1992 was a big turning point for western comics. Although at first the company was producing their own branded superheroes and teams, they eventually began to branch out and as more talented creators began to produce work under the Image icon, new genres were explored and audiences were able to experience new types of stories that were a far cry from the old Superhero tales. Independent comic companies began to create more diverse comics for mainstream audiences, and although it wasn't a varied as in the East, slowly but surely Western comics began to branch away from action and adventure and become more varied in genre. Like Manga had been doing for years.