The Golden Age of American comics is often referred to as the period from the 1930s to the 1950s, during which the popularity of the art form surged dramatically. Beneath the mainstream of beloved superhero and humour comics, darker currents flowed, steering the history of comics into new directions.
In the lecture Blood and Shivers, comics critic Onni Mustonen explains how horror comics became a recognised genre around the 1940s and 1950s, and why the genre gained such popularity. He also discusses how the reception of horror comics fundamentally transformed the American comic industry for decades.