Portal:Comics

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Introduction

Comics are 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 image-making means 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, comic albums, and tankōbon have become increasingly common, along with webcomics as well as scientific/medical comics.

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."). (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 May 21

1915: birth of Don Trachte, American comics artist best known for the Sunday pages of Henry
1917: birth of Frank Bellamy, British comics artist best known for his work in Eagle and on Dan Dare
1920: birth of Lee Elias, American comics artist best known for Beyond Mars
1932: death of Raoul Barré, Canadian pioneering comics artist
1943: birth of Jean-Claude Fournier, French comics artist and writer best known for Spirou et Fantasio
1956: birth of Gary Reed, American comic book writer, and the publisher of Caliber Comics
1971: birth of Joe Benitez, American comic book artist best known as cocreator of Weapon Zero
1972: first publication of Berusaiyu no Bara, Japanese shōjo manga by Riyoko Ikeda
1977: debut of Gnasher's Tale, British comic strip created by David Sutherland in The Beano

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General images

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

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

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

... that circulation numbers for early comic books featuring Captain America remained close to a million copies per month, outstripping news magazines such as Time?
... that the Franco-Belgian comic book Hans had its title changed in Poland due to lingering ill-feeling toward Germany?
... that John Romita Sr. has been credited with introducing romance comic themes to Spider-Man comic books?
... that Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany wore comic-book-accurate Scarlet Witch and Vision Halloween costumes in the WandaVision episode "All-New Halloween Spooktacular!"?
... that Pinky & Pepper Forever is a graphic novel that follows two anthropomorphic dog girlfriends through hell?
... that the original release of Jason Shiga's comic Demon included a four-page issue, a sixty-page issue, and an issue in which all the panels were black?
... that the comic book Nietzsche, se créer liberté tries to express Friedrich Nietzsche's personality visually?
... that until the 1970s, most shōjo manga (Japanese girls' comics) were written by men?

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Credit: J-E Nyström

Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was an American Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck (1947), Gladstone Gander (1948), the Beagle Boys (1951), The Junior Woodchucks (1951), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Cornelius Coot (1952), Flintheart Glomgold (1956), John D. Rockerduck (1961) and Magica De Spell (1961). The quality of his scripts and drawings earned him the nicknames The Duck Man and The Good Duck Artist. Writer-artist Will Eisner called him "the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books."

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More did you know...

...that Irving Phillips's comic strip The Strange World of Mr. Mum is cited as paving the way for later titles like The Far Side and Bizarro?

...that Jason Little was nominated for a Harvey Award and an Ignatz Award for his creation of the comic book Jack's Luck Runs Out?

...that Czechoslovak communist censors banned publishing of the comic album Muriel a andělé?

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In the early days, I was writing scripts for virtually all the books, and it was very hard to keep all the artists busy; poor little frail me, doing story after story. So I'd be writing a story for Kirby, and Steve Ditko would walk in and say, 'Hey, I need some work now.' And I'd say, 'I can't give it to you now, Steve, I'm finishing Kirby's.' But we couldn't afford to keep Steve waiting, because time is money, so I'd have to say, 'Look Steve, I can't write a script for you now, but here's the plot for the next Spider-Man. Go home and draw anything you want, as long as it's something like this, and I'll put the copy in later.' So I was able to finish Jack's story. Steve in the meantime was drawing another story.....Okay, it started out as a lazy's man's device...but we realized this was absolutely the best way to do a comic.....Don't have the writer say, 'Panel one will be a long shot of Spider-Man walking down the street.' The artist may see it differently; maybe he feels it should be a shot of Spider-Man swinging on his web, or climbing upside-down on the ceiling or something.

— Stan Lee, 1975

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