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 +[[Image:Little Nemo.JPG|thumb|right|200px|This page '''{{PAGENAME}}''' is part of the [[comics]] series.<br>
 +<small>Illustration: [[Little Nemo]] sitting upright in [[bed]]</small>]]
{{Template}} {{Template}}
-:''[[Horror comics in the United States, 1947–1954]], [[paraliterature]]'' 
-:''[[European comics]] and [[adult comics]] since the [[1960s]] are the main focus of this encyclopedia.'' 
A '''comic book''' is a [[magazine]] or [[book]] containing [[sequential art]] in the form of a [[narrative]]. Comic books are often called '''[[comics]]''' for short. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous, and in fact its dramatic seriousness varies widely. [[American comic book]]s have become closely associated with the [[superhero]] tradition. A '''comic book''' is a [[magazine]] or [[book]] containing [[sequential art]] in the form of a [[narrative]]. Comic books are often called '''[[comics]]''' for short. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous, and in fact its dramatic seriousness varies widely. [[American comic book]]s have become closely associated with the [[superhero]] tradition.
 +[[European comics]] and [[adult comics]] since the [[1960s]] are the main focus of this encyclopedia.
== Canonized == == Canonized ==
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, greater acceptance of the comics form among the general reading public coincided with a greater usage of the term [[graphic novel]], often meant to differentiate a book of comics with a spine from its saddle-stitched form, but the difference between the terms is ambiguous, as comics have become increasingly available in libraries and mainstream book stores. In the last quarter of the twentieth century, greater acceptance of the comics form among the general reading public coincided with a greater usage of the term [[graphic novel]], often meant to differentiate a book of comics with a spine from its saddle-stitched form, but the difference between the terms is ambiguous, as comics have become increasingly available in libraries and mainstream book stores.
 +==History==
 +:''[[History of comics]]''
 +An example of an early precursor to print comics is [[Trajan's Column]]. Rome's [[Trajan's Column]], dedicated in 113 AD, is an early surviving example of a narrative told through sequential pictures, while [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]], [[Greeks|Greek]] [[friezes]], medieval tapestries such as the [[Bayeux Tapestry]] and illustrated [[manuscript]]s also combine sequential images and words to tell a story. [[Biblia pauperum|Versions of the Bible relying primarily on images]] rather than text were widely distributed in Europe in order to bring the teachings of [[Christianity]] to the illiterate. In medieval paintings, many sequential scenes of the same story (usually a Biblical one) appear simultaneously in the same painting.
 +
 +The invention of the [[printing press]], allowing [[movable type]], established a separation between images and words, the two requiring different methods in order to be reproduced. Early printed material concentrated on [[religion|religious subjects]], but through the 17th and 18th centuries, they began to tackle aspects of [[politics|political]] and [[society|social life]], and also started to [[satire|satirize]] and [[caricature]]. It was also during this period that the [[speech bubble]] was developed as a means of attributing dialogue.
 +
 +The [[speech balloon]] also evolved during this period, from the medieval origins of the ''phylacter'', a label, usually in the form of a scroll, which identified a character either through naming them or using a short text to explain their purpose. Artists such as [[George Cruikshank]] helped codify such ''phylacters'' as ''balloons'' rather than ''scrolls'', though at this time they were still called ''labels''. They now represented narrative, but for identification purposes rather than dialogue within the work, and artists soon discarded them in favour of running dialogue underneath the panels. Speech balloons weren't reintroduced to the form until [[Richard F. Outcault]] used them for dialogue.
 +
 +[[Rodolphe Töpffer]], a Francophone Swiss artist, was a key figure in the early part of the 19th century. Though speech balloons fell from favour during the middle 19th century, Töpffer's sequentially illustrated stories, with text compartmentalized below images, were reprinted throughout Europe and the United States. The lack of [[Copyright|copyright laws]] at the time meant that [[Copyright infringement|pirated editions]] proliferated, and translated versions created a market on both continents for similar works.
 +
 +In the United States, [[Richard F. Outcault|R.F. Outcault's]] work in combining speech balloons and images on ''[[The Yellow Kid|Hogan's Alley]]'' and [[The Yellow Kid]] has been credited as establishing the form and conventions of the comic strip, though academics have uncovered earlier works that combine speech bubbles and a multi image narrative. However, the popularity of Outcalt's work and the position of the strip in a newspaper retains credit as a driving force of the form.
 +
 +The 1920s and 1930s saw further booms within the industry. The market for comic anthologies in Britain turned to targeting children through juvenile humor, with ''[[The Dandy]]'' and ''[[The Beano]]''. In Belgium, [[Hergé]] created the ''[[The Adventures of Tintin]]'' newspaper strip for [[Le Petit Vingtième|a comic supplement]]; this was successfully collected in a bound album and created a market for further such works. The same period in the United States had seen newspaper strips expand their subject matter beyond humour, with action, adventure and mystery strips launched. The collection of such material also began, with ''[[The Funnies]]'', a reprint collection of newspaper strips, published in tabloid size in 1929.
 +
 +During the latter half of the 20th century comics have become a very popular [[Comic book collecting|item for collectors]] and from the 1970s American comics publishers have actively encouraged collecting and shifted a large portion of comics publishing and production to appeal directly to the collector's community.
 +
 +In the 1980s, comics scholarship started to blossom in the U.S., and a resurgence in the popularity of comics was seen, with [[Alan Moore]] and [[Frank Miller (comics)|Frank Miller]] producing notable superhero works.
==American comics== ==American comics==
Line 26: Line 44:
===British comics=== ===British comics===
:''[[British comics]]'' :''[[British comics]]''
-Originally the same size as a usual comic book in the United States (although lacking the glossy cover) the British comic has adopted a magazine size, with ''[[The Beano]]'' and ''[[The Dandy]]'' the last to adopt this size in the 1980s. Although generally referred to as a comic, it can also be referred to as a comic magazine, and has also been known historically as a comic paper. Some comics, such as ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' and other ''[[2000 AD (comic)|2000 AD]]'' titles, have been published in a [[tabloid]] form.+A '''British comic''' is a periodical published in the [[United Kingdom]] that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a '''comic''' or a '''comic magazine''', and historically as a '''comic paper'''.
-Although ''[[Ally Sloper's Half Holiday]]'' (1884), the first comic published in Britain, aimed at an adult market, publishers quickly targeted a younger market, which has led to most publications being for children and created an association in the public's mind of comics as somewhat juvenile. +British comics are usually [[Comics anthology|comics anthologies]] which are typically aimed at children, and are published weekly, although some are also published on a fortnightly or monthly schedule. The top three longest-running comics in the world, ''[[The Dandy]]'', ''[[The Beano]]'' and ''[[Comic Cuts]]'' are all British, although in modern times British comics have been largely superseded by [[American comic book]]s and Japanese [[manga]].
- +
-Popular titles within the UK have included ''[[The Beano]]'', ''[[The Dandy]]'', ''[[Eagle (comic)|The Eagle]]'', ''[[2000 AD (comic)|2000 AD]]'' and ''[[Viz (comics)|Viz]]''. Underground comics and "[[British small press comics|small press]]" titles have also been published within the United Kingdom, notably ''[[Oz (magazine)|Oz]]'' and ''[[Escape Magazine]]''.+
- +
-The content of ''[[Action (comic)|Action]]'', another title aimed at children and launched in the mid 1970s, became the subject of discussion in the [[British House of Commons|House of Commons]]. Although on a smaller scale than similar investigations in the [[United States]], such concerns led to a moderation of content published within British comics. Such moderation was never formalized to the extent of a creation of any code, and nor was it particularly lasting.+
- +
-The UK has also established a healthy market in the reprinting and repackaging of material, notably material originated within the [[United States]]. The lack of reliable supplies of [[American comic books]] led to a variety of black-and-white reprints, including Marvel's monster comics of the 1950s, Fawcett's [[Captain Marvel (DC Comics)|Captain Marvel]], and other characters such as [[Sheena, Queen of the Jungle|Sheena]], [[Mandrake the Magician]], and [[the Phantom]]. Several reprint companies were involved in repackaging American material for the British market, notably the importer and distributor Thorpe & Porter.+
- +
-Marvel Comics established a UK office in 1972. [[DC Comics]] and [[Dark Horse Comics]] also opened offices in the 1990s. The repackaging of European material has occurred less frequently, although the [[The Adventures of Tintin|Tintin]] and [[Asterix]] serials have been successfully translated and repackaged in soft cover books.+
- +
-At [[Christmas]] time, publishers repackage and commission material for comic [[Annual publication|annuals]], printed and bound as hardcover [[ISO 216|A4]]-size books: [[Rupert Bear|Rupert]] supplies a famous example of the British comic annual. [[DC Thomson]] also repackage [[The Broons]] and [[Oor Wullie]] strips in softcover [[ISO 216|A4]]-size books for the holiday season.+
===Italian comics=== ===Italian comics===
Line 63: Line 71:
*[[Cartoon]] *[[Cartoon]]
*[[Comics vocabulary]] *[[Comics vocabulary]]
 +*[[Comics and pop art]]
 +*[[Paraliterature]]
*[[Underground comics]] *[[Underground comics]]
-*[[Webcomic]]+*''[[Horror comics in the United States, 1947–1954]]
- +*''[[Our Gods Wear Spandex]] '' (2007) by Christopher Knowles
{{GFDL}} {{GFDL}}

Revision as of 09:16, 25 September 2016

This page Comic book is part of the comics series. Illustration: Little Nemo sitting upright in bed
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This page Comic book is part of the comics series.
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A comic book is a magazine or book containing sequential art in the form of a narrative. Comic books are often called comics for short. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous, and in fact its dramatic seriousness varies widely. American comic books have become closely associated with the superhero tradition.

European comics and adult comics since the 1960s are the main focus of this encyclopedia.

Contents

Canonized

In the last quarter of the twentieth century, greater acceptance of the comics form among the general reading public coincided with a greater usage of the term graphic novel, often meant to differentiate a book of comics with a spine from its saddle-stitched form, but the difference between the terms is ambiguous, as comics have become increasingly available in libraries and mainstream book stores.

History

History of comics

An example of an early precursor to print comics is Trajan's Column. Rome's Trajan's Column, dedicated in 113 AD, is an early surviving example of a narrative told through sequential pictures, while Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek friezes, medieval tapestries such as the Bayeux Tapestry and illustrated manuscripts also combine sequential images and words to tell a story. Versions of the Bible relying primarily on images rather than text were widely distributed in Europe in order to bring the teachings of Christianity to the illiterate. In medieval paintings, many sequential scenes of the same story (usually a Biblical one) appear simultaneously in the same painting.

The invention of the printing press, allowing movable type, established a separation between images and words, the two requiring different methods in order to be reproduced. Early printed material concentrated on religious subjects, but through the 17th and 18th centuries, they began to tackle aspects of political and social life, and also started to satirize and caricature. It was also during this period that the speech bubble was developed as a means of attributing dialogue.

The speech balloon also evolved during this period, from the medieval origins of the phylacter, a label, usually in the form of a scroll, which identified a character either through naming them or using a short text to explain their purpose. Artists such as George Cruikshank helped codify such phylacters as balloons rather than scrolls, though at this time they were still called labels. They now represented narrative, but for identification purposes rather than dialogue within the work, and artists soon discarded them in favour of running dialogue underneath the panels. Speech balloons weren't reintroduced to the form until Richard F. Outcault used them for dialogue.

Rodolphe Töpffer, a Francophone Swiss artist, was a key figure in the early part of the 19th century. Though speech balloons fell from favour during the middle 19th century, Töpffer's sequentially illustrated stories, with text compartmentalized below images, were reprinted throughout Europe and the United States. The lack of copyright laws at the time meant that pirated editions proliferated, and translated versions created a market on both continents for similar works.

In the United States, R.F. Outcault's work in combining speech balloons and images on Hogan's Alley and The Yellow Kid has been credited as establishing the form and conventions of the comic strip, though academics have uncovered earlier works that combine speech bubbles and a multi image narrative. However, the popularity of Outcalt's work and the position of the strip in a newspaper retains credit as a driving force of the form.

The 1920s and 1930s saw further booms within the industry. The market for comic anthologies in Britain turned to targeting children through juvenile humor, with The Dandy and The Beano. In Belgium, Hergé created the The Adventures of Tintin newspaper strip for a comic supplement; this was successfully collected in a bound album and created a market for further such works. The same period in the United States had seen newspaper strips expand their subject matter beyond humour, with action, adventure and mystery strips launched. The collection of such material also began, with The Funnies, a reprint collection of newspaper strips, published in tabloid size in 1929.

During the latter half of the 20th century comics have become a very popular item for collectors and from the 1970s American comics publishers have actively encouraged collecting and shifted a large portion of comics publishing and production to appeal directly to the collector's community.

In the 1980s, comics scholarship started to blossom in the U.S., and a resurgence in the popularity of comics was seen, with Alan Moore and Frank Miller producing notable superhero works.

American comics

American comics

An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States containing a narrative in the comics form. The standard dimensions are 6 ⅝" × 10 ¼".

Since the invention of the comic book format in the 1930s, the United States has been the leading producer with only the British comic books (during the inter-war period and up until the 1970s) and the Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity.

Comic book sales declined with the spread of television and mass market paperback books after World War II, but regained popularity in the late 1950s and the 1960s as comic books' audience expanded to include college students who favored the naturalistic, "superheroes in the real world" trend initiated by Stan Lee at Marvel Comics. The 1960s also saw the advent of the underground comics. Later, the influence of Japanese manga and the recognition of the comic medium among academics, literary critics and art museums helped solidify comics as a serious artform with established traditions, stylistic conventions, and artistic evolution. American comic books have become closely associated with the superhero tradition.

European comics

European comics

France and Belgium have a long tradition in comics and comic books, where they are called BDs (an abbreviation of Bande Dessinée) in French and strips in Dutch. Belgian comic books originally written in Dutch are influenced by the Francophone "Franco-Belgian" comics, but have their own distinct style.

The name la bande dessinée derives from the original description of the art form as drawn strips (the phrase is literally translated as the drawn strip), analogous to the sequence of images in a film strip. As in its English equivalent, the word "bande" can be applied to both film and comics. It is not insignificant that the French term contains no indication of subject matter, unlike the American terms "comics" and "funnies", which imply an art form not to be taken seriously. The distinction of comics as le neuvième art (literally, "the ninth art") is prevalent in French scholarship on the form, as is the concept of comics criticism and scholarship itself. Relative to the respective size of their populations, the innumerable authors in France and Belgium publish a high volume of comic books. In North America, the more serious Franco-Belgian comics are often seen as equivalent to graphic novels, but whether they are long or short, bound or in magazine format, in Europe there is no need for a more sophisticated term, as the art's name does not itself imply something frivolous.

In France, authors control the publication of most comics. The author works within a self-appointed time-frame, and it is common for readers to wait six months or as long as two years between installments. Most books are first published as a hard cover book, typically with 48, 56 or 64 pages.

British comics

British comics

A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper.

British comics are usually comics anthologies which are typically aimed at children, and are published weekly, although some are also published on a fortnightly or monthly schedule. The top three longest-running comics in the world, The Dandy, The Beano and Comic Cuts are all British, although in modern times British comics have been largely superseded by American comic books and Japanese manga.

Italian comics

Italian comics

In Italy, comics (known in Italian as fumetti) made their debut as humorous strips at the end of the nineteenth century, and later evolved into adventure stories inspired by those coming from the US. After World War II, however, artists like Hugo Pratt and Guido Crepax exposed Italian comics to an international audience. "Author" comics contain often strong erotic contents. Best sellers remain popular comic books Diabolik or the Bonelli line, namely Tex Willer or Dylan Dog.

Mainstream comics are usually published on a monthly basis, in a black-and-white digest size format, with approximately 100 to 132 pages. Collections of classic material for the most famous characters, usually with more than 200 pages, are also common. Author comics are published in the French BD format, with an example being Pratt's Corto Maltese.

Italian cartoonists show the influence of comics from other countries, including France, Belgium, Spain, and Argentina. Italy is also famous for being one of the foremost producers of Walt Disney comic stories outside the US. Donald Duck's superhero alter ego, Paperinik, known in English as Superduck, was created in Italy.

Other European comics

Although Switzerland has made relatively few contributions to European comics, many scholars point to a Francophone Swiss, Rodolphe Töpffer, as the true father of comics. However, this assertion is still controversial, with critics noting that Töpffer's work is not necessarily connected to the creation of the artform as it is now known in the region.

Japanese comics

Japanese comics

The first comic books in Japan appeared during the 18th century in the form of woodblock- printed booklets containing short stories drawn from folk tales, legends, and historical accounts, told in a simple visual-verbal idiom. Known as "red books", "black books", and "blue books", these were written primarily for less literate readers. However, with the publication in 1775 of Koikawa Harumachi's comic book Master Flashgold's Splendiferous Dream, an adult form of comic book originated, which required greater literacy and cultural sophistication. This was known as the yellow cover. Published in thousands (possibly tens of thousands) of copies, the kibyōshi may have been the earliest fully realized comic book for adults in world literary history. Approximately 2000 titles remain extant.

Modern comic books in Japan developed from a mixture of these earlier comic books and woodblock prints ukiyo-e with Western styles of drawing. They took their form shortly after World War II. They are usually published in black and white, except for the covers, which are usually printed in four colors, although occasionally, the first few pages may also be printed in full color. The term manga means "random (or whimsical) pictures", and first came into common usage in the late eighteenth century with the publication of such works as Santō Kyōden's picturebook 'Shiji no yukikai (1798) and Aikawa Minwa's Comic Sketches of a Hundred Women (1798).

See also




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Comic book" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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