The Origins of Comic Books: A Recycling Project

Comic books as we know them owe their existence to a practical problem: what to do with old newspaper comic strips. In 1933, an enterprising salesman named Max Gaines (considered one of the “fathers of the comic book”) realized he could reprint old strips, fold them into pamphlets, and sell them as stand-alone publications.

The first example of this format was Funnies on Parade, a thin booklet distributed as a promotional item. It wasn’t sold in stores, but its success proved there was a market for such collections. Publishers quickly jumped on the idea, and before long, original content was being created specifically for these “comic books,” giving rise to legendary characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman.