POST-APOCALYPTIC NARRATIVES 477
devastation or destruction, plague, alien invasion, war, nuclear destruction or radiation,
and genetic contamination.
Post-apocalyptic narratives are often confused with dystopian narratives but are
distinctly diff erent. Post-apocalyptic stories focus on the rebuilding or dealing with the
destruction of organized civilization, whereas dystopian narratives deal with problem-
atic ongoing societies that are often highly structured. Th ere is also occasion to lump
post-apocalyptic narratives with invasion or conquest narratives which again, do not
necessarily fi t together thematically. Th erefore, stories from the classic comic strips and
pulp fi ction of Buck Rogers (1929) and Flash Gordon (1934) are not classifi ed as post-
apocalyptic, because civilizations are still intact.
Several authors contributed to the development of the post-apocalyptic genre and
therefore, infl uenced comics’ own developments of genre conventions. Mary Shelley’s
Th e Last Man (1826) is marked as the fi rst modern post-apocalyptic narrative,
though it was never as popular as later stories. Richard Jeff eries’s After London (1885)
was similarly popular at the time but did not necessarily have long-lasting infl uence.
By contrast, H. G. Wells’s Th e Time Machine (1895), War of the Worlds (1898) and
many more of his writings were popular throughout the 20th century and infl uenced
plotlines for comics, fi lms, and sequel novels by other authors. However, the early
20th century had a good share of popular post-apocalyptic narratives including M. P.
Shiel’s Th e Purple Cloud (1901), William Hope Hodgson’s Th e Night Land (1912), Jack
London’s Th e Scarlet Plague (1912), Karel Capek’s play, R.U.R. (1921), and Edgar Rice
Burroughs’s Th e Moon Men series (1926).
One could argue that the earliest comic to deal with a post-apocalyptic event was
the Superman narrative, given that it takes place in the aftermath of the destruction of
the planet Krypton. Meanwhile, Superman, like many superheroes after him, continu-
ally fought the apocalyptic destruction of society. On occasion, superhero stories will
venture into post-apocalyptic settings, but usually as an alternative-universe or time-
traveling accidents such as the story “Superman Under the Red Sun!” in Action Comics
#300, where Superman is sent to the future by his enemies. Some one-million years in
the future, Superman fi nds a decayed world where humans are virtually nonexistent
and Earth’s sun had become red.
From the rise of comic books through the early 1950s, few comics featured post-
apocalyptic stories. Featured in Hit Comics #1 (1940), the “Blaze Barton” feature was
essentially the fi rst post-apocalyptic narrative in comics, though its direction and themes
only marginally resemble how the genre is understood today. Initially the story revolved
around Blaze Barton, his boss Professor Solis and Solis’s daughter Avis, who have cre-
ated a fortifi ed city to protect against the increasing heat as Earth tilts extremely close to
the sun. When they emerge from the city, they fi nd that much of humanity is dead and
Earth’s vegetation and animals have mutated. Early plots had them rebuilding Earth
while also encountering new monstrous or humanoid creatures. However, by Hit Com-
ics #5, Earth had prospered enough that Blaze was sent on to explore the galaxy. Blaze
Barton continued in Hit Comics until issue #13 when the series abruptly stopped.
