Comics Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
This article is about comics the art form. For an article about comics the performers, see comedians.
Comics (sometimes spelled comix) is an art form using a series of static images in fixed sequence, usually to tell a story or to provide information in an entertaining manner. Text is usually incorporated into the images. The most common formats published are newspaper stripss, magazine-format comic books, and larger volumes called graphic novels.
Comics is called manga in Japanese, and Bande Dessinée or "B.D." in French.
In the UK, comics most often refers to domestic comic books, whilst comic books implies comic books from the U.S.
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2 History 3 Media 4 Related articles
4.1 Comic Formats
5 External links4.2 Regional categories 4.3 Comic Genres 4.4 Comic book awards 4.5 Miscellaneous 4.6 Lists |
Note: Although it takes the form of a plural noun, the common usage when referring to comics as a medium is to treat it as singular.
Scholars disagree on the definition of comics; some claim its printed format is crucial, some emphasize the interdependence of image and text, and others its sequential nature. Will Eisner called comics "sequential art" in his book on the craft and techniques of the medium. In Understanding Comics Scott McCloud defined comics as "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer", rejecting single-panel illustrations such as The Far Side, The Family Circus, and political cartoons, instead classifying those as cartoons. By contrast, the Comics Journal's "100 Best Comics of the 20th Century" included the works of several single panel cartoonists and even one caricaturist.
Some include film storyboards in their definition of comics.
Fumetti, (sometimes called fotonovelas), are comics using photographs instead of illustrations, with speech balloons added. Comics also extends to digital media such as web comics and sprite comics.
Most agree that animation, which creates the optical illusion of movement in fixed time, is not a form of comics. Comics relies on the readers to connect, at their own individual pace, a series of static images. Some digital-media works combine the techniques of comics and animation, as a hybrid form.
When and where comics originated is another matter of debate, largely dependent on its definition. McCloud observes precedents in Egyptian hieroglyphics, European stained glass windows, and the Bayeux Tapestry. Others say modern comics began in the 1820s with Rodolphe Töpffer.
Satirical cartoons in newspapers were popular in much of the 19th century. R.F. Outcault's Hogan's Alley, (1895), is widely recognized as the first newspaper strip to feature regular characters. Its success in promoting newspaper sales prompted the creation of other strips, and marks the beginning of comics as an ongoing popular art form as it is still known in the 21st century.
The term "comics" itself derives from early newspaper strips, which featured a variety of genres, but were largely gag humor, hence the adjective comic. Collections of strips in the 1930s led to the name comic book. Alternatively, newspaper strips were called "funnies" and the collections "funny books", though the latter term has faded from use. The modern double usage of the term comic, as an adjective describing a genre, and a noun designating an entire medium, has been criticised as confusing and misleading. In the 1960s and 1970s, underground cartoonists used the spelling comix to distinguish their work from mainstream newspaper strips and juvenile comic books; ironically, although their work was written for an adult audience, it was usually comedic in nature as well, so the "comic" label still fit. The term graphic novel was also intended to distance the material from this confusion.
While the medium is not intrinsically limited to any particular subject or style, some genres have predominated. For older readers there are journalistic, historical, educational, erotic, autobiographical, non-narrative, and propagandistic comics. But most comics have been marketed to the young, who prefer anthropomorphic funny animals, humor, science fiction, horror, crime, romance, and superheroes. Since the 1960s, humor comic strips and superhero comic books have been the most popular genres.
Underground comics have gradually developed into an artistically ambitious international movement. Usually published outside the "mainstream" comic book industry, these have been dubbed "independent" or "alternative" comics.
Most images in printed comics are produced using graphite and/or non-photo blue pencil, then inked using either a pen or brush. Colors or shades of gray are sometimes added, usually using digital tools. Lettering is often done digitally, but some still use pen and ink. However, the use of other illustrative media is not uncommon, including paint (either by itself or as a coloring technique), pencil alone, digital drawing tools, digitally-rendered images, and photographss. In theory, any non-sculptural visual arts medium could be used.
This is an Article on Comics. Page Contains Information, Facts Details or Explanation Guide About Comics Definition
History
Media
Related articles
Comic Formats
Regional categories
Comic Genres
Comic book awards
Miscellaneous
Lists
External links