a
medium
Medium may refer to:
Science and technology
Aviation
*Medium bomber, a class of war plane
*Tecma Medium, a French hang glider design
Communication
* Media (communication), tools used to store and deliver information or data
* Medium of ...
used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of
panels of images. Textual devices such as
speech balloons,
captions, and
onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...
can indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. There is no consensus amongst theorists and historians on a definition of comics; some emphasize the combination of images and text, some sequentiality or other image relations, and others historical aspects such as mass reproduction or the use of recurring characters.
Cartooning
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...
and other forms of
illustration are the most common image-making means in comics; ''
fumetti'' is a form that uses photographic images. Common forms include
comic strips,
editorial and
gag cartoon
A gag cartoon (also panel cartoon, single-panel cartoon, or gag panel) is most often a single-panel cartoon, usually including a caption beneath the drawing. A pantomime cartoon carries no caption. In some cases, dialogue may appear in speech bal ...
s, and
comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s. Since the late 20th century, bound volumes such as
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
s,
comic albums
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
, and ' have become increasingly common, while online
webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be c ...
s have proliferated in the 21st century.
The
history of comics
The history of comics has followed different paths in different parts of the world. It can be traced back to early precursors such as Trajan's Column, in Rome, Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Bayeux Tapestry.
Early narratives in art
Examples o ...
has followed different paths in different cultures. Scholars have posited a pre-history as far back as the
Lascaux
Lascaux ( , ; french: Grotte de Lascaux , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, in the department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 parietal wall paintings cover the interior walls and ceilings of ...
cave paintings. By the mid-20th century, comics flourished, particularly in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, western Europe (especially
France and Belgium), and
Japan. The history of
European comics
European comics are comics produced in Europe. The '' comic album'' is a very common printed medium. The typical ''album'' is printed in large format, generally with high quality paper and colouring, commonly 24x32 cm (9.4x12.6 in), has around 48 ...
is often traced to
Rodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe Töpffer ( , ; 31 January 1799 – 8 June 1846) was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist. He is best known for his illustrated books (''littérature en estampes'', "graphic literature"), which are possibly ...
's cartoon strips of the 1830s, and became popular following the success in the 1930s of strips and books such as ''
The Adventures of Tintin
''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comi ...
''.
American comics American comics may refer to:
* History of American comics
*American comic book
An American comic book is a thin periodical originating in the United States, on average 32 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American co ...
emerged as a
mass medium
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit information ...
in the early 20th century with the advent of newspaper comic strips; magazine-style
comic books followed in the 1930s, in which the
superhero genre became prominent after
Superman appeared in 1938.
Histories of Japanese comics and cartooning (') propose origins as early as the 12th century. Modern comic strips emerged in Japan in the early 20th century, and the output of comics magazines and books rapidly expanded in the post-World War II era (1945–) with the popularity of cartoonists such as
Osamu Tezuka. had a
lowbrow reputation for much of its history, but towards the end of the 20th century began to find greater acceptance with the public and academics.
The English term ''comics'' is used as a
singular noun when it refers to the medium itself (e.g. "''Comics is'' a visual art form."), but becomes plural when referring to works collectively (e.g. "''Comics are'' popular reading material.").
Origins and traditions
Manga Hokusai.jpg, '' Manga''
Hokusai, early 19th century
Toepffer Cryptogame 13.png, '
Rodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe Töpffer ( , ; 31 January 1799 – 8 June 1846) was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist. He is best known for his illustrated books (''littérature en estampes'', "graphic literature"), which are possibly ...
, 1830
AllySloper.jpg, Ally Sloper
Alexander "Ally" Sloper is the eponymous fictional character of the British comic strip ''Ally Sloper''. First appearing in 1867, he is considered one of the earliest comic strip characters and he is regarded as the first recurring character in c ...
in ''Some of the Mysteries of Loan and Discount''
Charles Henry Ross
Charles Henry Ross (1835 – 12 October 1897) was an English writer and cartoonist.
Biography
Ross created the fictional character Ally Sloper for the British magazine '' Judy'' in 1867, the popular character was spun off into his own comic, '' ...
, 1867
Yellow Kid 1898-01-09.jpg, ''The Yellow Kid
The Yellow Kid (Mickey Dugan) is an American comic strip character that appeared from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'', and later William Randolph Hearst's ''New York Journal''. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in t ...
''
R. F. Outcault, 1898
The European, American, and Japanese comics traditions have followed different paths. Europeans have seen their tradition as beginning with the Swiss
Rodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe Töpffer ( , ; 31 January 1799 – 8 June 1846) was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist. He is best known for his illustrated books (''littérature en estampes'', "graphic literature"), which are possibly ...
from as early as 1827 and Americans have seen the origin of theirs in
Richard F. Outcault's 1890s newspaper strip ''
The Yellow Kid
The Yellow Kid (Mickey Dugan) is an American comic strip character that appeared from 1895 to 1898 in Joseph Pulitzer's ''New York World'', and later William Randolph Hearst's ''New York Journal''. Created and drawn by Richard F. Outcault in t ...
'', though many Americans have come to recognize Töpffer's precedence. Japan has a long history of satirical cartoons and comics leading up to the World War II era. The
ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk t ...
artist
Hokusai popularized the Japanese term for comics and cartooning, ', in the early 19th century. In the 1930s
started a comics studio, which eventually at its height employed 40 artists working for 50 different publishers who helped make the comics medium flourish in "the Golden Age of Comics" after World War II. In the post-war era modern Japanese comics began to flourish when
Osamu Tezuka produced a prolific body of work. Towards the close of the 20th century, these three traditions converged in a trend towards book-length comics: the
comic album
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
in Europe, the in Japan, and the
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
in the English-speaking countries.
Outside of these genealogies, comics theorists and historians have seen precedents for comics in the
Lascaux cave paintings in France (some of which appear to be chronological sequences of images),
Egyptian hieroglyphs
Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1, ...
,
Trajan's Column
Trajan's Column ( it, Colonna Traiana, la, Columna Traiani) is a Roman triumphal column in Rome, Italy, that commemorates Roman emperor Trajan's victory in the Dacian Wars. It was probably constructed under the supervision of the architect Ap ...
in Rome, the 11th-century Norman
Bayeux Tapestry, the 1370 ' woodcut, the 15th-century ' and
block book
Block books or blockbooks, also called xylographica, are short books of up to 50 leaves, block printed in Europe in the second half of the 15th century as woodcuts with blocks carved to include both text (usually) and illustrations. The content ...
s, Michelangelo's ''
The Last Judgment'' in the Sistine Chapel, and
William Hogarth
William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraver, pictorial satirist, social critic, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like ...
's 18th-century sequential engravings, amongst others.
English-language comics
Illustrated humour periodicals were popular in 19th-century Britain, the earliest of which was the short-lived ''
The Glasgow Looking Glass
''The Glasgow Looking Glass'' was the first mass-produced publication to tell stories using illustrations, and as such is regarded as the earliest comics magazine. The final issue was published on 3 April 1826.
Publishing history
The title was ...
'' in 1825.
The most popular was ''
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
'', which popularized the term ''cartoon'' for its humorous caricatures. On occasion the cartoons in these magazines appeared in sequences; the character
Ally Sloper
Alexander "Ally" Sloper is the eponymous fictional character of the British comic strip ''Ally Sloper''. First appearing in 1867, he is considered one of the earliest comic strip characters and he is regarded as the first recurring character in c ...
featured in the earliest serialized comic strip when the character began to feature in its own weekly magazine in 1884.
American comics developed out of such magazines as ''
Puck'', ''
Judge'', and ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for Cell growth, growth, reaction to Stimu ...
''. The success of illustrated humour supplements in the ''
New York World
The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...
'' and later the ''
New York American
:''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal''
The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...
'', particularly Outcault's ''The Yellow Kid'', led to the development of newspaper comic strips. Early
Sunday strips
The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies.
The first US newspap ...
were full-page and often in colour. Between 1896 and 1901 cartoonists experimented with sequentiality, movement, and speech balloons. An example is
Gustave Verbeek, who wrote his comic series "The UpsideDowns of Old Man Muffaroo and Little Lady Lovekins" between 1903 and 1905. These comics were made in such a way that one could read the 6-panel comic, flip the book and keep reading. He made 64 such comics in total. In 2012 a remake of a selection of the comics was made by Marcus Ivarsson in the book 'In Uppåner med Lilla Lisen & Gamle Muppen'. ()
Shorter, black-and-white daily strips began to appear early in the 20th century, and became established in newspapers after the success in 1907 of
Bud Fisher
Harry Conway "Bud" Fisher (April 3, 1885 – September 7, 1954) was an American cartoonist who created ''Mutt and Jeff'', the first successful daily comic strip in the United States.
Early life
Born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of a merchant, ...
's ''
Mutt and Jeff
''Mutt and Jeff'' was a long-running and widely popular American newspaper comic strip created by cartoonist Bud Fisher in 1907 about "two mismatched tinhorns". It is commonly regarded as the first daily comic strip. The concept of a newspape ...
''. In Britain, the
Amalgamated Press
The Amalgamated Press (AP) was a British newspaper and magazine publishing company founded by journalist and entrepreneur Alfred Harmsworth (1865–1922) in 1901, gathering his many publishing ventures together under one banner. At one point the ...
established a popular style of a sequence of images with text beneath them, including ''
Illustrated Chips
''Illustrated Chips'' was a British comic magazine published between 26 July 1890 and 12 September 1953. Its publisher was the Amalgamated Press, run by Alfred Harmsworth. Priced at a half-penny, ''Illustrated Chips'' was among a number of Harm ...
'' and ''
Comic Cuts
''Comic Cuts'' was a British comic magazine. It was published from 1890 to 1953, lasting for 3006 issues. It was created by the reporter Alfred Harmsworth through his company Amalgamated Press (AP). In its early days, it inspired other publishe ...
''. Humour strips predominated at first, and in the 1920s and 1930s strips with continuing stories in genres such as adventure and drama also became popular.
Thin periodicals called
comic books appeared in the 1930s, at first reprinting newspaper comic strips; by the end of the decade, original content began to dominate. The success in 1938 of ''
Action Comics
''Action Comics'' is an American comic book/ magazine series that introduced Superman, one of the first major superhero characters. The publisher was originally known as National Allied Publications, and later as National Comics Publications ...
'' and its lead hero
Superman marked the beginning of the
Golden Age of Comic Books, in which the
superhero genre was prominent. In the UK and the
Commonwealth, the
DC Thomson
DC Thomson is a media company based in Dundee, Scotland. Founded by David Couper Thomson in 1905, it is best known for publishing ''The Dundee Courier'', '' The Evening Telegraph'' and '' The Sunday Post'' newspapers, and the comics ''Oor W ...
-created ''
Dandy
A dandy is a man who places particular importance upon physical appearance, refined language, and leisurely hobbies, pursued with the appearance of nonchalance. A dandy could be a self-made man who strove to imitate an aristocratic lifestyle des ...
'' (1937) and ''
Beano'' (1938) became successful humor-based titles, with a combined circulation of over 2 million copies by the 1950s. Their characters, including "
Dennis the Menace", "
Desperate Dan
Desperate Dan is a wild west character in the now-defunct Scottish comic magazine ''The Dandy'', and became its mascot. He made his appearance in the first issue which was dated 4 December 1937. He is apparently the world's strongest man, ...
" and "
The Bash Street Kids
''The Bash Street Kids'' is a comic strip in the British comic magazine '' The Beano''. It also appeared briefly in The Wizard as series of prose stories in 1955. The strip, created by Leo Baxendale as ''When the Bell Rings'', first appea ...
" have been read by generations of British children. The comics originally experimented with superheroes and action stories before settling on humorous strips featuring a mix of the Amalgamated Press and US comic book styles.
![WonderworldComics3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/WonderworldComics3.jpg)
The popularity of superhero comic books declined following World War II, while comic book sales continued to increase as other genres proliferated, such as
romance
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
,
westerns
The Western is a genre set in the American frontier and commonly associated with folk tales of the Western United States, particularly the Southwestern United States, as well as Northern Mexico and Western Canada. It is commonly referred ...
,
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Ca ...
,
horror, and humour. Following a sales peak in the early 1950s, the content of comic books (particularly crime and horror) was subjected to scrutiny from parent groups and government agencies, which culminated in
Senate hearings that led to the establishment of the
Comics Code Authority
The Comics Code Authority (CCA) was formed in 1954 by the Comics Magazine Association of America as an alternative to government regulation. The CCA allowed the comic publishers to self-regulate the content of comic books in the United States. ...
self-censoring body. The Code has been blamed for stunting the growth of American comics and maintaining its low status in American society for much of the remainder of the century. Superheroes re-established themselves as the most prominent comic book genre by the early 1960s.
Underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
challenged the Code and readers with adult, countercultural content in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The underground gave birth to the
alternative comics
Alternative comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which ...
movement in the 1980s and its mature, often experimental content in non-superhero genres.
Comics in the US has had a
lowbrow reputation stemming from its roots in
mass culture; cultural elites sometimes saw popular culture as threatening culture and society. In the latter half of the 20th century, popular culture won greater acceptance, and the lines between high and low culture began to blur. Comics nevertheless continued to be stigmatized, as the medium was seen as entertainment for children and illiterates.
The
graphic novel
A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...
—book-length comics—began to gain attention after
Will Eisner
William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series '' The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...
popularized the term with his book ''
A Contract with God'' (1978). The term became widely known with the public after the commercial success of ''
Maus'', ''
Watchmen
''Watchmen'' is an American comic book maxiseries by the British creative team of writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins. It was published monthly by DC Comics in 1986 and 1987 before being collected in a single-vo ...
'', and ''
The Dark Knight Returns
''The Dark Knight Returns'' (alternatively titled ''Batman: The Dark Knight Returns'') is a 1986 four-issue comic book miniseries starring Batman, written by Frank Miller, illustrated by Miller and Klaus Janson, with color by Lynn Varley, and p ...
'' in the mid-1980s. In the 21st century graphic novels became established in mainstream bookstores and libraries and webcomics became common.
Franco-Belgian and European comics
The francophone Swiss
Rodolphe Töpffer
Rodolphe Töpffer ( , ; 31 January 1799 – 8 June 1846) was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist. He is best known for his illustrated books (''littérature en estampes'', "graphic literature"), which are possibly ...
produced comic strips beginning in 1827, and published theories behind the form. Cartoons appeared widely in newspapers and magazines from the 19th century. The success of ''
Zig et Puce
''Zig et Puce'' is a Franco-Belgian comics series created by Alain Saint-Ogan in 1925 that became popular and influential over a long period. After ending production, it was revived by Greg (comics), Greg for a second successful publication run. ...
'' in 1925 popularized the use of speech balloons in European comics, after which Franco-Belgian comics began to dominate. ''
The Adventures of Tintin
''The Adventures of Tintin'' (french: Les Aventures de Tintin ) is a series of 24 ''bande dessinée'' albums created by Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi, who wrote under the pen name Hergé. The series was one of the most popular European comi ...
'', with its signature
clear line style, was first serialized in newspaper comics supplements beginning in 1929, and became an icon of Franco-Belgian comics.
Following the success of (est. 1934), dedicated comics magazines like ''
Spirou'' (est. 1938) and ''
Tintin
Tintin or Tin Tin may refer to:
''The Adventures of Tintin''
* ''The Adventures of Tintin'', a comics series by Belgian cartoonist Hergé
** Tintin (character), a fictional character in the series
** ''The Adventures of Tintin'' (film), 2011, ...
'' (1946-1993), and full-colour comic albums became the primary outlet for comics in the mid-20th century. As in the US, at the time comics were seen as infantile and a threat to culture and literacy; commentators stated that "none bear up to the slightest serious analysis", – Jacqueline & Raoul Dubois in (Midol, 1957) and that comics were "the sabotage of all art and all literature". – Jean de Trignon in (
Hachette Hachette may refer to:
* Hachette (surname)
* Hachette (publisher), a French publisher, the imprint of Lagardère Publishing
** Hachette Book Group, the American subsidiary
** Hachette Distribution Services, the distribution arm
See also
* Hachett ...
, 1950)
In the 1960s, the term ' ("drawn strips") came into wide use in French to denote the medium. Cartoonists began creating comics for mature audiences, and the term "Ninth Art" was coined, as comics began to attract public and academic attention as an artform. A group including
René Goscinny
René Goscinny (, ; 14 August 1926 – 5 November 1977) was a French comic editor and writer, who created the ''Astérix'' comic book series with illustrator Albert Uderzo. Raised largely in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he attended French schoo ...
and
Albert Uderzo
Alberto Aleandro Uderzo (; ; 25 April 1927 – 24 March 2020), better known as Albert Uderzo, was a French comic book artist and scriptwriter. He is best known as the co-creator and illustrator of the '' Astérix'' series in collaboration with ...
founded the magazine ''
Pilote
Cover of the first ''Pilote'' issue #0
''Pilote'' () was a French comic magazine published from 1959 to 1989. Showcasing most of the major French or Belgian comics talents of its day the magazine introduced major series such as ''Astérix'', '' ...
'' in 1959 to give artists greater freedom over their work. Goscinny and Uderzo's ''
The Adventures of Asterix
''Asterix'' or ''The Adventures of Asterix'' (french: Astérix or , "Asterix the Gauls, Gaul") is a ''bande dessinée'' comic book book series, series about a village of indomitable Gaulish warriors who adventure around the world and fight th ...
'' appeared in it and went on to become the best-selling French-language comics series. From 1960, the satirical and taboo-breaking ''
Hara-Kiri
, sometimes referred to as hara-kiri (, , a native Japanese kun reading), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai in their code of honour but was also practised by other Japanese people ...
'' defied censorship laws in the countercultural spirit that led to the
May 1968 events
Beginning in May 1968, a period of civil unrest occurred throughout France, lasting some seven weeks and punctuated by demonstrations, general strikes, as well as the occupation of universities and factories. At the height of events, which h ...
.
Frustration with censorship and editorial interference led to a group of ''Pilote'' cartoonists to found the adults-only ''
L'Écho des savanes
''L’Écho des Savanes'' is a Franco-Belgian comics magazine founded in May 1972 by Claire Bretécher, Marcel Gotlib and Nikita Mandryka. It featured the work of French and international authors and graphic artists in mature-oriented comics ov ...
'' in 1972. Adult-oriented and experimental comics flourished in the 1970s, such as in the experimental science fiction of
Mœbius and others in ''
Métal hurlant'', even mainstream publishers took to publishing prestige-format
adult comics.
From the 1980s, mainstream sensibilities were reasserted and serialization became less common as the number of comics magazines decreased and many comics began to be published directly as albums. Smaller publishers such as
L'Association
L'Association is a French publishing house located in Paris which publishes comic books. It was founded in May 1990 by Jean-Christophe Menu, Lewis Trondheim, David B., Mattt Konture, Patrice Killoffer, Stanislas, and Mokeït.
L'Association ...
that published longer works in non-traditional formats by ''
auteur
An auteur (; , 'author') is an artist with a distinctive approach, usually a film director whose filmmaking control is so unbounded but personal that the director is likened to the "author" of the film, which thus manifests the director's unique ...
''-istic creators also became common. Since the 1990s, mergers resulted in fewer large publishers, while smaller publishers proliferated. Sales overall continued to grow despite the trend towards a shrinking print market.
Japanese comics
![Tagosaku to Mokube no Tokyo Kenbutsu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Tagosaku_to_Mokube_no_Tokyo_Kenbutsu.jpg)
Japanese comics and cartooning ('), have a history that has been seen as far back as the anthropomorphic characters in the 12th-to-13th-century ', 17th-century ' and ' picture books, and
woodblock prints
Woodblock printing or block printing is a technique for printing text, images or patterns used widely throughout East Asia and originating in China in antiquity as a method of printing on textiles and later paper. Each page or image is crea ...
such as
ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk t ...
which were popular between the 17th and 20th centuries. The ' contained examples of sequential images, movement lines, and sound effects.
Illustrated magazines for Western expatriates introduced Western-style satirical cartoons to Japan in the late 19th century. New publications in both the Western and Japanese styles became popular, and at the end of the 1890s, American-style newspaper comics supplements began to appear in Japan, as well as some American comic strips. 1900 saw the debut of the ''Jiji Manga'' in the ''Jiji Shinpō'' newspaper—the first use of the word "manga" in its modern sense, and where, in 1902,
Rakuten Kitazawa
, better known by the pen name , was a Japanese manga artist and ''nihonga'' artist. He drew many editorial cartoons and comic strips during the years from the late Meiji era through the early Shōwa era. He is considered by many historians to b ...
began the first modern Japanese comic strip. By the 1930s, comic strips were serialized in large-circulation monthly girls' and boys' magazine and collected into hardback volumes.
The modern era of comics in Japan began after World War II, propelled by the success of the serialized comics of the prolific
Osamu Tezuka and the comic strip ''
Sazae-san
is a Japanese yonkoma manga series written and illustrated by Machiko Hasegawa. It was first published in Hasegawa's local paper, the , on April 22, 1946. When the ''Asahi Shimbun'' wished to have Hasegawa draw the four-panel comic for the ...
''. Genres and audiences diversified over the following decades. Stories are usually first serialized in magazines which are often hundreds of pages thick and may contain over a dozen stories; they are later compiled in '-format books. At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, nearly a quarter of all printed material in Japan was comics. Translations became extremely popular in foreign markets—in some cases equaling or surpassing the sales of domestic comics.
Forms and formats
Comic strips are generally short, multipanel comics that traditionally most commonly appeared in newspapers. In the US, daily strips have normally occupied a single tier, while
Sunday strips
The Sunday comics or Sunday strip is the comic strip section carried in most western newspapers, almost always in color. Many newspaper readers called this section the Sunday funnies, the funny papers or simply the funnies.
The first US newspap ...
have been given multiple tiers. In the early 20th century, daily strips were typically in black-and-white and Sundays were usually in colour and often occupied a full page.
Specialized comics periodicals formats vary greatly in different cultures.
Comic book
A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are of ...
s, primarily an American format, are thin periodicals usually published in colour. European and Japanese comics are frequently serialized in magazines—monthly or weekly in Europe, and usually black-and-white and weekly in Japan. Japanese comics magazine typically run to hundreds of pages.
Book-length comics take different forms in different cultures. European
comic albums
a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...
are most commonly printed in
A4-size colour volumes. In English-speaking countries, the
trade paperback format originating from collected comic books have also been chosen for original material. Otherwise, bound volumes of comics are called graphic novels and are available in various formats. Despite incorporating the term "novel"—a term normally associated with fiction—"graphic novel" also refers to non-fiction and collections of short works. Japanese comics are collected in volumes called ''
tankōbon
is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or ...
'' following magazine serialization.
Gag
A gag is usually an item or device designed to prevent speech, often as a restraint device to stop the subject from calling for help and keep its wearer silent. This is usually done by blocking the mouth, partially or completely, or attemptin ...
and
editorial cartoon
A political cartoon, a form of editorial cartoon, is a cartoon graphic with caricatures of public figures, expressing the artist's opinion. An artist who writes and draws such images is known as an editorial cartoonist. They typically combine a ...
s usually consist of a single panel, often incorporating a caption or speech balloon. Definitions of comics which emphasize sequence usually exclude gag, editorial, and other single-panel cartoons; they can be included in definitions that emphasize the combination of word and image. Gag cartoons first began to proliferate in
broadsheets published in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the term "cartoon" was first used to describe them in 1843 in the British humour magazine ''
Punch
Punch commonly refers to:
* Punch (combat), a strike made using the hand closed into a fist
* Punch (drink), a wide assortment of drinks, non-alcoholic or alcoholic, generally containing fruit or fruit juice
Punch may also refer to:
Places
* Pun ...
''.
Webcomic
Webcomics (also known as online comics or Internet comics) are comics published on a website or mobile app. While many are published exclusively on the web, others are also published in magazines, newspapers, or comic books.
Webcomics can be c ...
s are comics that are available on the internet. They are able to reach large audiences, and new readers usually can access archived installments. Webcomics can make use of an
infinite canvas
The infinite canvas refers to the potentially limitless space that is available to webcomics presented on the World Wide Web. The term was introduced by Scott McCloud in his 2000 book '' Reinventing Comics'', in which he suggested that webcomic cre ...
—meaning they are not constrained by size or dimensions of a page.
Some consider
storyboards and
wordless novel
The wordless novel is a narrative genre that uses sequences of captionless pictures to tell a story. As artists have often made such books using woodcut and other relief printing techniques, the terms woodcut novel or novel in woodcuts are ...
s to be comics. Film studios, especially in animation, often use sequences of images as guides for film sequences. These storyboards are not intended as an end product and are rarely seen by the public. Wordless novels are books which use sequences of captionless images to deliver a narrative.
Comics studies
Similar to the problems of defining literature and film, no consensus has been reached on a definition of the comics medium, and attempted definitions and descriptions have fallen prey to numerous exceptions. Theorists such as Töpffer,
R.C. Harvey,
Will Eisner
William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series '' The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was no ...
, David Carrier, Alain Rey, and Lawrence Grove emphasize the combination of text and images, though there are prominent examples of pantomime comics throughout its history. Other critics, such as Thierry Groensteen and Scott McCloud, have emphasized the primacy of sequences of images. Towards the close of the 20th century, different cultures' discoveries of each other's comics traditions, the rediscovery of forgotten early comics forms, and the rise of new forms made defining comics a more complicated task.
European comics studies began with Töpffer's theories of his own work in the 1840s, which emphasized panel transitions and the visual–verbal combination. No further progress was made until the 1970s. Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle then took a
semiotics
Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...
approach to the study of comics, analyzing text–image relations, page-level image relations, and image discontinuities, or what Scott McCloud later dubbed "closure". In 1987, Henri Vanlier introduced the term ', or "multiframe", to refer to the comics page as a semantic unit. By the 1990s, theorists such as
Benoît Peeters
Benoît Peeters (; born 1956) is a French comics writer, novelist, and comics studies scholar.
Biography
After a degree in Philosophy at Université de Paris I, Peeters prepared his Master's at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales ...
and
Thierry Groensteen
Thierry Groensteen (; born 18 April 1957, Uccle, Brussels) is one of the leading French-speaking comics researchers and theorists, whose work has found influence beyond that field.
Career
In 1984, Groensteen became the editor-in-chief of the ...
turned attention to artists'
poïetic creative choices.
Thierry Smolderen
Thierry Smolderen (born 25 November 1954) is an essay writer, and a scenario writer of Belgian comic strips, for example of '' Gipsy''.
He is a teacher at École des Beaux-Arts of Angoulême
Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme'' ...
and Harry Morgan have held relativistic views of the definition of comics, a medium that has taken various, equally valid forms over its history. Morgan sees comics as a subset of "'" (or "drawn literatures"). French theory has come to give special attention to the page, in distinction from American theories such as McCloud's which focus on panel-to-panel transitions. In the mid-2000s,
Neil Cohn
Neil Cohn (; born 1980) is an American cognitive scientist and comics theorist. His research offers the first serious scientific study of the cognition of understanding comics, and uses an interdisciplinary approach combining aspects of theoretic ...
began analyzing how comics are understood using tools from cognitive science, extending beyond theory by using actual psychological and neuroscience experiments. This work has argued that sequential images and page layouts both use separate rule-bound "grammars" to be understood that extend beyond panel-to-panel transitions and categorical distinctions of types of layouts, and that the brain's comprehension of comics is similar to comprehending other domains, such as language and music.
Historical narratives of ''manga'' tend to focus either on its recent, post-WWII history, or on attempts to demonstrate deep roots in the past, such as to the ' picture scroll of the 12th and 13th centuries, or the early 19th-century ''Hokusai Manga''. The first historical overview of Japanese comics was Seiki Hosokibara's in 1924. Early post-war Japanese criticism was mostly of a left-wing political nature until the 1986 publication of Tomofusa Kure's ''Modern Manga: The Complete Picture'', which de-emphasized politics in favour of formal aspects, such as structure and a "grammar" of comics. The field of studies increased rapidly, with numerous books on the subject appearing in the 1990s. Formal theories of ' have focused on developing a "manga expression theory", with emphasis on spatial relationships in the structure of images on the page, distinguishing the medium from film or literature, in which the flow of time is the basic organizing element. Comics studies courses have proliferated at Japanese universities, and Japan Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics was established in 2001 to promote comics scholarship. The publication of
Frederik L. Schodt's ''
Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics
''Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics'' is a 1983 book by Frederik L. Schodt. Published by the Japanese publisher Kodansha, it was the first substantial English-language work on Japanese comics, or ''manga'', as an artistic, literary, com ...
'' in 1983 led to the spread of use of the word ''manga'' outside Japan to mean "Japanese comics" or "Japanese-style comics".
Coulton Waugh
Frederick Coulton Waugh (; 10 March 1896 – 23 May 1973) was a cartoonist, painter, teacher and author, best known for his illustration work on the comic strip ''Dickie Dare'' and his book ''The Comics'' (1947), the first major study of the ...
attempted the first comprehensive history of American comics with ''The Comics'' (1947). Will Eisner's ''
Comics and Sequential Art'' (1985) and
Scott McCloud
Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), '' Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and '' Making Comics'' (20 ...
's ''
Understanding Comics
''Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art'' is a 1993 non-fiction work of comics by American cartoonist Scott McCloud. It explores formal aspects of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in ...
'' (1993) were early attempts in English to formalize the study of comics. David Carrier's ''The Aesthetics of Comics'' (2000) was the first full-length treatment of comics from a philosophical perspective. Prominent American attempts at definitions of comics include Eisner's, McCloud's, and Harvey's. Eisner described what he called "
sequential art In comics studies, sequential art is a term proposed by comics artist Will EisnerWill Eisner, ''Comics and Sequential Art'', Poorhouse Press, 1990 (1st ed.: 1985), p. 5. to describe art forms that use images deployed in a specific order for the pur ...
" as "the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatize an idea"; 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", a strictly formal definition which detached comics from its historical and cultural trappings. R.C. Harvey defined comics as "pictorial narratives or expositions in which words (often lettered into the picture area within speech balloons) usually contribute to the meaning of the pictures and vice versa". Each definition has had its detractors. Harvey saw McCloud's definition as excluding single-panel cartoons, and objected to McCloud's de-emphasizing verbal elements, insisting "the essential characteristic of comics is the incorporation of verbal content". Aaron Meskin saw McCloud's theories as an artificial attempt to legitimize the place of comics in art history.
Cross-cultural study of comics is complicated by the great difference in meaning and scope of the words for "comics" in different languages. The French term for comics, ' ("drawn strip") emphasizes the juxtaposition of drawn images as a defining factor, which can imply the exclusion of even photographic comics. The term ' is used in Japanese to indicate all forms of comics, cartooning, and caricature.
Terminology
The term ''comics'' refers to the comics medium when used as an
uncountable noun
In linguistics, a mass noun, uncountable noun, non-count noun, uncount noun, or just uncountable, is a noun with the syntactic property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete eleme ...
and thus takes the singular: "comics ''is'' a medium" rather than "comics ''are'' a medium". When ''comic'' appears as a countable noun it refers to instances of the medium, such as individual comic strips or comic books: "Tom's comics ''are'' in the basement."
Panels are individual images containing a segment of action, often surrounded by a border. Prime moments in a narrative are broken down into panels via a process called encapsulation. The reader puts the pieces together via the process of closure by using background knowledge and an understanding of panel relations to combine panels mentally into events. The size, shape, and arrangement of panels each affect the timing and pacing of the narrative. The contents of a panel may be asynchronous, with events depicted in the same image not necessarily occurring at the same time.
![PunchandJudyComicsV01-0145-panel3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/PunchandJudyComicsV01-0145-panel3.jpg)
Text is frequently incorporated into comics via
speech balloons, captions, and sound effects. Speech balloons indicate dialogue (or thought, in the case of
thought balloon
Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons, or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing a char ...
s), with tails pointing at their respective speakers. Captions can give voice to a narrator, convey characters' dialogue or thoughts, or indicate place or time. Speech balloons themselves are strongly associated with comics, such that the addition of one to an image is sufficient to turn the image into comics. Sound effects mimic non-vocal sounds textually using
onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', '' ...
sound-words.
Cartooning
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and g ...
is most frequently used in making comics, traditionally using ink (especially
India ink) with
dip pen
A dip pen or nib pen or pen nib usually consists of a metal nib with capillary channels like those of fountain pen nibs, mounted in a handle or holder, often made of wood. Other materials can be used for the holder, including bone, metal and pla ...
s or ink brushes; mixed media and digital technology have become common. Cartooning techniques such as
motion lines
In comics, motion lines (also known as movement lines, action lines, speed lines, or zip ribbons) are the abstract lines that appear behind a moving object or person, parallel to its direction of movement, to make it appear as if it is moving qui ...
and abstract symbols are often employed.
While comics are often the work of a single creator, the labour of making them is frequently divided between a number of specialists. There may be separate
writers and
artists
An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the ...
, and artists may specialize in parts of the artwork such as characters or backgrounds, as is common in Japan. Particularly in American superhero comic books, the art may be divided between a
penciller
A penciller (or penciler) is an artist who works on the creation of comic books, graphic novels, and similar visual art forms, with a focus on the initial pencil illustrations, usually in collaboration with other artists, who provide inks, colors ...
, who lays out the artwork in pencil; an
inker, who finishes the artwork in ink; a
colourist; and a
letterer
A letterer is a member of a team of comic book creators responsible for drawing the comic book's text. The letterer's use of typefaces, calligraphy, letter size, and layout all contribute to the impact of the comic. The letterer crafts the comi ...
, who adds the captions and speech balloons.
Etymology
The English-language term ''comics'' derives from the humorous (or "
comic") work which predominated in early American newspaper comic strips, but usage of the term has become standard for non-humorous works as well. The alternate spelling ''comix'' – coined by the
underground comix
Underground comix are small press or self-published comic books that are often socially relevant or satirical in nature. They differ from mainstream comics in depicting content forbidden to mainstream publications by the Comics Code Authority, ...
movement – is sometimes used to address this ambiguities. The term "comic book" has a similarly confusing history since they are most often not humorous and are periodicals, not regular books. It is common in English to refer to the comics of different cultures by the terms used in their languages, such as ' for Japanese comics, or ' for French-language
Franco-Belgian comics.
Many cultures have taken their word for comics from English, including Russian (, ') and German ('). Similarly, the Chinese term ' and the Korean ' derive from the
Chinese character
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanj ...
s with which the Japanese term ' is written.
See also
*
Animation
*
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is a research library of American cartoons and comic art affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as the Cartoon Research Library and the Cartoon Library ...
*
Picture book
A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...
See also lists
*
List of best-selling comic series
*
List of best-selling manga
*
List of comic books
This is a list of comic books, by country.
Argentina (''historieta'')
*'' Alack Sinner'' by Carlos Sampayo (author) and José Antonio Muñoz (artist)
*'' Bárbara'' by Ricardo Barreiro (author) and Juan Zanotto (artist)
*'' El Eternauta'' by ...
*
List of comics by country
*
List of comics creators
*
List of comics publishing companies
*
List of comic strip syndicates This is a list of comic strip syndicates. Over the years, many syndicates have been acquired and otherwise absorbed by competitors; this list attempts to illustrate that.
Comic strip syndicates
* Andrews McMeel Syndication (est. 2009) — formed by ...
*
List of Franco-Belgian comics series
Franco-Belgian comics, together with American and British comic books and Japanese manga, are one of the three main markets. The term is broad, and can be applied to all comics made by French and Belgian comics authors, all comics originally publ ...
*
List of newspaper comic strips
The following is a list of comic strips. Dates after names indicate the time frames when the strips appeared. There is usually a fair degree of accuracy about a start date, but because of rights being transferred or the very gradual loss of appea ...
*
Lists of manga
are comics created in Japan, or by Japanese people, Japanese creators in the Japanese language, conforming to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century., The term is also now used for a variety of other works in the style of or influen ...
*
List of manga artists
This is a list of notable manga artists. Romanized names are written in Western order (given names before family names), whereas kanji names are written in Japanese order (family names before given names). Many of them are pen names.
Individua ...
*
List of manga magazines
*
List of manga publishers
{{Anime and manga
This article lists publishers of manga in various markets worldwide.
Chinese
Traditional Chinese
* Daran Comics (or Daran Culture Enterprise) (defunct) (Taiwan)
* Kadokawa Comics Taiwan (Taiwan)
* Tong Li Comics (Taiwan)
* ...
*
List of years in comics
This page indexes the individual year in comics pages. Each year is annotated with significant events as reference points.
__NOTOC__
2010s - 2000s - 1990s - 1980s - 1970s - 1960s - 1950s - 1940s - 1930s -
Pre-1930s
Pre-1930s
* Before 1900s in ...
Notes
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External links
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Academic journals
''The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship''''ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies''''Image_[&/nowiki>_Narrative''.html" ;"title="">''Image
[&
/nowiki> Narrative''">">''Image [&
/nowiki> Narrative''
International ''Journal of Comic Art''
''Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics''
Archives
Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
Michigan State University Comic Art Collection
at the University of Missouri
Cartoon Art Museum of San Francisco
''Time'' Archives' Collection of Comics
*
Databases
Grand Comics Database
{{Authority control
Narrative forms