The Precise Moment the Silver Age Ended

From a letter by M.K. Tomashevsky of Rochester NY in Jimmy Olsen #133 (Oct. 1970):
When people ask me when the Silver Age ended, I usually tell them Jimmy Olsen #133, when Jack Kirby jumped the rails (Marvel's and the usual metaphor's) and started on his Fourth World series. So is this reader completely missing the point of the Silver Age with his question, or were readers simply ahead by a few months?

In other words, did the Silver Age end... on demand?

Comments

De said…
The cynic in me wants to say that the Silver Age ended when guys like Roy Thomas started getting writing gigs at Marvel.
Siskoid said…
Ironic in that he was a big Golden Age nut.
Austin Gorton said…
I dunno, it can be taken cynically, but at the same time, there's something to be said for the argument that the Silver Age ended when people who had actually been fans of comics from that era started writing them.

I've been reading a bunch of old Silver Age X-Men issues lately, complete with the letter pages, and I love these kind of random "wait a minute..." letters that, even back then, pointed out some of the Silver Age's ridiculousness.
Austin Gorton said…
Awesome ridiculousness, mind you...