Portal:Comics

Introduction

Comics is a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically takes the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. There is no consensus among 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 and other forms of illustration are the most common means of image-making in comics. Photo comics is a form that uses photographic images. Common forms include comic strips, editorial and gag cartoons, and comic books. Since the late 20th century, bound volumes such as graphic novels, and comic albums, have become increasingly common, along with webcomics.

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 as a plural when referring to works collectively (e.g. "Comics are popular reading material."). (Full article...)

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Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. Originally published by DC Comics as a monthly limited series from 1986 to 1987, it was later republished as a trade paperback. It was one of the first superhero comics to present itself as serious literature, and it also popularized the "graphic novel" format. Watchmen is the only graphic novel (besides Frank Miller's 300)to win a Hugo Award, and is also the only graphic novel to appear on Time magazine's 2005 list of "the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present." Watchmen is set in 1985, in an alternative history United States where costumed adventurers are real and the country is edging closer to a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. It tells the story of a group of past and present superheroes and the events surrounding the mysterious murder of one of their own. In Watchmen, superheroes are depicted as real people who must confront ethical and personal issues, who have neuroses and failings, and who are largely lacking in superpowers. Watchmen's deconstruction of the conventional superhero archetype, combined with its innovative adaptation of cinematic techniques and heavy use of symbolism and multi-layered dialogue, has changed both comics and film.

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Anniversaries for August 30

1909: birth of Barry Appleby, British comic strip author best known for The Gambols
1943: birth of Robert Crumb, American comic artist and author, most prominent member of the underground comics movement
1946: birth of Jacques Tardi, French comic artist and author known for his Adèle Blanc-Sec series and work depicting World War I
1947: birth of Jack C. Harris, American comic book writer and editor known mainly for his work at DC Comics
1952: birth of Ken Bruzenak, American comic book letterer, primarily known for his work on Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg!
1992: death of Jeanne Hovine, Belgian actress and comics artist, co-creator of the comic strip Nic et Nac
1999: death of Raymond Poïvet, French comics artist best known for Les Pionniers de l'Espérance
2002: start of Emma, Japanese seinen manga created by Kaoru Mori
2006: death of Bob LeRose, American comic book colorist for DC Comics
2017: death of Roger Subirachs i Burgaya, Spanish comics artist best known for stories and illustrations featuring his characters 'Vaselín y Loto'

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General images

The following are images from various comics-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1BD artist Mœbius (2008), who achieved international renown through Métal Hurlant (from Bande dessinée)
Image 2The French comic Les Pieds Nickelés (1954 book cover): an early 20th-century forerunner of the modern Franco-Belgian comic (from Bande dessinée)
Image 3A page by Rodolphe Töpffer, whose work is considered influential in shaping the comics form. (from History of comics)
Image 4During panels at comic book conventions, the audience is sometimes invited to line up and ask questions using a dedicated microphone. (from Comic book convention)
Image 5Comic Con crowds in 2011 as seen from a helicopter (from San Diego Comic-Con)
Image 6Convention crowd outside of Golden Hall in 1982 (from San Diego Comic-Con)
Image 7The San Diego Convention Center during Comic-Con in 2013 (from San Diego Comic-Con)
Image 8Chōjū-giga (12th century), traditionally attributed to a monk-artist Kakuyū (Toba Sōjo) (from History of manga)
Image 9Japanese wood block illustration from 19th century (from History of manga)
Image 10Image of bathers from the Hokusai manga (from History of manga)
Image 11A Fallout Cosplayer photographed at a Comic Con in a Fallout Themed area (from Comic book convention)
Image 12Cover of Illustrated Chips in 1896 featuring the first appearance of the long-running comic strip of the tramps Weary Willie and Tired Tim. (from British comics)
Image 13Phoenix Fan Fusion's 2017 convention in Phoenix, Arizona (from Comic book convention)
Image 14Sequential depictions on Trajan's Column in Rome, Italy (from History of comics)
Image 15Comic-Con crowd inside the second floor of the convention center in 2011 waiting for the exhibition hall to open (from San Diego Comic-Con)
Image 16Cover to 27 December 1884 edition of Ally Sloper's Half Holiday. (from British comics)
Image 17Hokusai Manga (early 19th century) (from History of manga)
Image 18Close Hergé collaborator and magazine contributor Bob de Moor (from Bande dessinée)

Did you know (auto-generated) - load new batch

... that Pinky & Pepper Forever is a graphic novel that follows two anthropomorphic dog girlfriends through hell?
... that the author of the comic book Timeless Voyage was the leader of a UFO religion?
... that Tina Leung dressed as her comic book alter ego when accepting an award for the House of Slay?
... that comic book artist Barry Windsor-Smith wrote, drew, inked, and lettered every page of his graphic novel Monsters by himself?
... that The Steranko History of Comics has been described as the first piece of cultural analysis on American comic books?
... that the USC Trojans team that won the 2022 NCAA Beach Volleyball Championship had been compared to the Marvel Comics' Avengers?
... that a 1948 U.S. Supreme Court decision helped to protect comic books from government regulation and censorship?
... that although Blizzard's franchise Overwatch is centered around video games, its lore is mainly told through animated shorts, comics, and novels?

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Credit: Winsor McCay

A panel is an individual frame, or single drawing, in the multiple-panel sequence of a comic strip or comic book. A panel consists of a single drawing depicting a frozen moment. Newspaper daily strips typically consist of either four panels (Doonesbury, For Better or For Worse) or three panels (Garfield, Dilbert), all of the same size. The horizontal newspaper strip can also employ only a single panel, as sometimes seen in Wiley Miller's Non Sequitur.

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More did you know...

...that the Marvel Studios film, Captain America: The First Avenger set for release in 2011 has been in development since 1997?

...that writer Neil Gaiman invented the fiction that Shakespeare wrote A Midsummer Night's Dream to ensure that humans never forgot Faerie?

...that Banya: The Explosive Delivery Man is a Korean action comic that combines the styles of Mad Max, Dune and The Lord of the Rings?

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Bob Kane had an idea for a character called "Batman", and he'd like me to see the drawings. I went over to Kane's, and he had drawn a character who looked very much like Superman with kind of ... reddish tights, I believe, with boots ... no gloves, no gauntlets ... with a small domino mask, swinging on a rope. He had two stiff wings that were sticking out, looking like bat wings. And under it was a big sign ... BATMAN.

— Bill Finger

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