The Dark Age of Comic Books (TV Tropes)

The Dark Age of Comic Books
from 'TV Tropes'

A very readable and entertaining essay about how the release of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen in 1986 ignited a trend towards darker, more violent stories in comic books from multiple U.S. publishers. 

(I can't find an author for the TV Tropes essay, nor a date of publication.)

An argument could be made that in the U.K., 2000 AD comics already had staked out its turf on the 'Dark Age', and that the U.S. comics industry simply was catching up. But maybe that's for another essay, at another time..................