An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States containing a narrative in the comics form. Standard size is 6 5/8" x 10 1/8." The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. ...

Since the invention of the comic book format in the 1930s, the United States has been the leading producer with only the British comic (during the inter-war period and up until the 1970s) and Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity. A comic book is a magazine or book containing the art form of comics. ... Cover to 27 December 1884 edition of Ally Slopers Half Holiday A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom which contains comic strips. ... 2nd English edition of InuYasha Vol. ...

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. As well, the 1960s 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. Categories: Stub | Books ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Naturalism refers to a number of different topics: Philosophical naturalism: the view that nothing exists but the world either methodologically or ontologically — that there are no supernatural entities or at least no observations that show them to exist. ... Stan Lee at the 1973 San Diego comic con Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922, New York, New York) is an American writer, editor, Chairman Emeritus of Marvel Comics, and memoirist, who — with several artist co-creators, especially Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko — introduced complex, naturalistic... Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Entertainment, Inc. ... Mr. ... 2nd English edition of InuYasha Vol. ... Literary criticism is the study, discussion, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. ... An art gallery or art museum is a space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art, and usually primarily paintings and sculpture. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... A tradition is a story or a custom that is memorized and passed down from generation to generation, originally without the need for a writing system. ... Generally, convention means coming together. ...

[edit] History

[edit] Creation

Eastern Color Press' Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics (Eastern Color Printing, 1933)

The creation of the modern American comic book came in stages. Comic strips had been collected in hardcover book form as early as 1930 in Europe, when the Belgian comic strip Tintin was first collected in an "album" titled "Tintin in the Land of the Soviets". A year earlier, however, George T. Delacorte Jr., who'd founded Dell Publishing in 1921, published The Funnies, described by the Library of Congress as "a short-lived newspaper tabloid insert".^[1] (This is not to be confused with Dell's later same-name comic book, which began publication in 1936.) Image File history File links FamousFunnies1933. ... Image File history File links FamousFunnies1933. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) book is bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth or heavy paper) and a stitched spine. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Tintin and Snowy (Tintin et Milou) are world travellers and inseparable friends in The Adventures of Tintin. ... English-language edition Tintin in the Land of the Soviets (originally known as Les Aventures de Tintin, reporter du Petit Vingtième, au pays des Soviets) is one of a series of classic comic-strip albums written and illustrated by Belgian writer and illustrator Hergé. The series features young reporter... George T. Delacorte, Jr. ... Dell Publishing was an American publisher of books, magazines, and comic books. ... The Great Hall interior. ...

Popular-press and website accounts of the early history of comic books are often wildly contradictory. Seen as throwaway ephemera by the majority of their publishers and the public, they were not the subject of academic or historical scrutiny decades later. This page as shown in the AOL 9. ... Ephemera are documents published with a short intended lifetime. ...

In 1933, Harry Wildenberg, Maxwell Gaines, and owner George Janosik of the Waterbury, Connecticut company Eastern Color Printing — which among other thing printed comic strip sections for newspapers — produced Funnies on Parade, an eight-page^[2] newsprint magazine featuring full-color reprints of comic strips licenced from the McNaught and McClure Syndicate. These included such highly popular strips as cartoonist Al Smith's Mutt and Jeff, Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka, and Percy Crosby's Skippy. This periodical, however, was neither sold nor available on newsstands, but rather sent free as a promotional item to consumers who mailed in coupons clipped from Proctor & Gamble soap and toiletries products. Ten-thousand copies were made.^[2] Max Gaines (born Maxwell Charles Gaines in the 1890s; died August 20, 1947) was a pioneering figure in the creation of the modern comic book. ... Nickname: The Brass City Location in Connecticut Coordinates: Counties New Haven County Mayor Michael J. Jarjura Area    - City 28. ... This article is about the comic strip, the sequential art form as published in newspapers and on the Internet. ... Newsprint is low-cost, low-quality, non-archival paper. ... Al Smith waves to crowds, 1928 Alfred Emanuel Al Smith (December 30, 1873 – October 4, 1944) was Governor of New York, and Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928. ... Ham Fisher is an American comic strip writer. ... The comic-strip heavyweight boxing champion Joe Palooka, drawn by Ham Fisher changed his appearance to fit the reigning real-life champ -- until the coming of African-American Joe Louis in the 1930s, after which Palooka remained a cowlicked blond. ... Cover illustration for Skippy novel Skippy was a comic strip drawn by Percy Crosby, considered one of the classics of the American newspaper strip. ... A newsstand, known as a newsagents in countries using British English, is a small business that sells newspapers, magazines, snacks and often items of local interest such as postcards and clothing emblazoned with sports team mascots. ... Procter & Gamble Co. ...

Famous Funnies #1 (July 1934). Cover art by Jon Mayes.

With its success, Gaines that same year spearheaded Eastern Color's collaboration with Dell's Delacorte, who published the 36-page Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics.^[3] This was distributed through department stores, though it is unclear whether it was sold or given away; the cover (see above) displays no price. Image File history File links FamousFunnies_n1(1934). ... Image File history File links FamousFunnies_n1(1934). ... The interior of a typical Macys department store. ...

When Delacorte declined to continue with Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics, Eastern Color on its own published Famous Funnies #1 (cover-dated July 1934), a 68-page giant selling for 10¢. A commercial hit during the cash-strapped Great Depression, it would eventually run 218 issues, inspire imitators, and largely launch a new mass medium. The Great Depression was an economic downturn which started in 1929 (although its effects were not fully felt until late 1930) and lasted through most of the 1930s. ... For other uses of the word Media see media (disambiguation). ...

When the supply of available existing comic strips began to dwindle, early comic books began to include a small amount of new, original material in comic-strip format. Inevitably, a comic book of all-original material, with no comic-strip reprints, debuted. Fledgling publisher Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson's founded National Allied Publications — which would evolve into DC Comics — to release Fun: The Big Comic Magazine #1 (Feb. 1935). Colloquially called New Fun (the name it would adopt with issue #2; the first has "New" on the cover only as a bannered blurb), this was a tabloid-sized, 10-inch by 15-inch, 36-page magazine with a card-stock, non-glossy cover. An anthology, it mixed humor features such as the funny animal comic "Pelion and Ossa" and the college-set "Jigger and Ginger" with such dramatic fare as the Western strip "Jack Woods" and the "yellow peril" adventure "Barry O'Neill", featuring a Fu Manchu-styled villain, Fang Gow. Issue #6 (Oct. 1935) brought the comic-book debut of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the future creators of Superman, who began their careers with the musketeer swashbuckler "Henri Duval" (doing the first two installments before turning it over to others) and, under the pseudonyms "Leger and Reuths", the supernatural-crimefighter adventure "Dr. Occult" Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, a pulp magazine writer and entrepreneur, pioneered the American comic book, publishing the first such periodical consisting of all-original material rather than reprints of newspaper comic strips. ... DC Comics is one of the largest American companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... This first issue was published in February 1935 and was the first DC Comic. ... Newspaper sizes in August 2005. ... ANThology is the first major label album by Alien Ant Farm. ... Look up Humour in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Charlottes Web (1973) DVD cover Funny Animal is a cartooning term for the genre of comics and animated cartoons in which the main characters are humanoid or talking animals. ... Western fiction is a genre of literature that is typically set in any of the American states west of the Mississippi River and between the years of approximately 1860 and 1900. ... Yellow peril is also a humourous British term for a traffic warden. ... This article is about the fictional literature character. ... Jerome (Jerry) Siegel (October 17, 1914 - January 28, 1996) was the co-creator of Superman, the first of the great comic book heroes and one of the most recognizable fictional characters from the 20th century. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Superman is a fictional character and one of the most famous and popular comic book superheroes of all time. ... A pseudonym (Greek: false name) is a fictitious name used by an individual as an alternative to his or her legal name. ... Look up Supernatural in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Doctor Occult is a fictional magic user in the DC Comics universe. ...

In 1938, after Wheeler-Nicholson had been ousted by partner Harry Donenfeld, National ALlied editor Vin Sullivan pulled a Siegel & Shuster creation from the slush pile and used it as the cover feature of Action Comics #1 (March 1938). The duo's alien hero, Superman, dressed in colorful tights and a cape, evoking costumed circus daredevil performers, became the archetype of the "superheroes" that would follow. Action Comics would become the second-longest-running American comic book, next to Dell Comics' Four Color, with over 850 issues published as of 2006. Vincent Vin Sullivan (died on February 3, 1999) is an early comic book editor, artist, and publisher. ... In publishing, the slush pile is the pile of manuscripts sent in unsolicited by the publisher, or not sent through an agent known to the publisher. ... Cover of Action Comics #1, which featured the debut of Superman. ... The Big Top of Billy Smarts Circus Cambridge 2004. ... Superheroes are fictional heroes who possess abilities beyond those of normal human beings. ... Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publications, which got its start in pulp magazines. ... One of the earlier issues of Four Color, featuring Walt Disneys Donald Duck. ...

Siegel & Shuster's creation, influenced by the pulp fiction stories and by the legend of the Golem of Prague, Superman had superhuman strength, speed and other abilities, and lived day-to-day in his secret identity as a mild-mannered reporter, Clark Kent. Within two years, most comic-book companies were publishing large lines of superhero titles, and Superman has gone on to become one of the world's most recognizable characters. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... In Jewish folklore, a golem (גולם, sometimes, as in Yiddish, pronounced goilem) is an animated being created entirely from inanimate matter. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A superhuman is an entity with intelligence or abilities exceeding normal human standards. ... For other uses of this term, please see Secret identity (disambiguation). ... A reporter is a type of journalist who researches and presents information in certain types of mass media. ...

The period from 1930 through roughly the end of the 1940s is known as the Golden Age of comic books. It is characterized by extremely large print runs (comic books being very popular as cheap entertainment during World War II); erratic quality of stories, art and print quality; and by being a rare industry that provided jobs to an ethnic cross-section of Americans, albeit often at low wages and in sweatshop working conditions. However, since comic books were primarily aimed at children, many adults remember the era fondly and uncritically, a hallmark of a golden age. Superman, catalyst of the Golden Age: Superman #14 (Feb. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... A sweatshop is a factory or place of harsh labor. ...

Following the war, new genres were added and old ones expanded upon. Teen humor (epitomized by Archie Comics), funny animal comics (such as those published featuring Walt Disney's characters), science fiction, western, romance, and satiric humor comics all found comfortable niches. Except for three enduring originals, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, superheroes were all but wiped out by 1952. A separate article is about the punk band called The Adolescents. ... Archie Comics is an American comic book publisher known for its many series featuring the fictional teenagers Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Veronica Lodge, Reggie Mantle and Forsythe Jughead Jones characters created by Bob Montana. ... Charlottes Web (1973) DVD cover Funny Animal is a cartooning term for the genre of comics and animated cartoons in which the main characters are humanoid or talking animals. ... Walter Elias Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966), was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, visionary, and philanthropist. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... The Western is an American genre in literature and film. ... A romance novel is a novel from the genre currently known as romance. ... The World According To Ronald Reagan, a satirical map by Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist David Horsey Satire is a technique used in drama and the performing arts, fiction, journalism, and occasionally in poetry and the graphic arts. ... Wonder Woman is a fictional DC Comics superheroine co-created by William Moulton Marston and wife Elizabeth Holloway Marston. ...

[edit] The Comics Code

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, horror and true crime comics flourished, with EC Comics the most successful, artistically creative, and infamous publisher of such comics, many containing violence and gore. Targeting these and other comics, politicians and moral crusaders (without any basis of evidence) blamed comic books as a cause of crime, juvenile delinquency, drug use, and poor grades. The psychiatrist Frederic Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent, obsessed with sadistic and homosexual undertones in superhero comics, raised anxieties about comics. This led the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency to take an interest in comic books. As a result of these concerns, schools and parent groups held public comic-book burnings, and some cities banned comic books. Industry circulation declined drastically. Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the reader. ... True crime is a non-fiction genre in which the author uses an actual crime and real people as a point of departure. ... Entertaining Comics was headed by William Gaines but is better known by its publishing name of EC Comics. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Juvenile delinquency refers to criminal acts performed by juveniles. ... Dr. Fredric Wertham (March 20, 1895–November 29, 1981) was a German-American psychiatrist and crusading author who protested the purportedly harmful effects of mass media—comic books in particular—on the development of children. ... First U.S. printing, 1954 First U.K. printing, 1954 Seduction of the Innocent was a book by Dr. Fredric Wertham published in 1954, that warned that comic books were a bad form of popular literature and a serious cause of juvenile delinquency. ... The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency was convened during the early 1950s to investigate the influence on youth by violence and sex in mass media and, in particular, comic books. ... A ban is, generally, any decree that prohibits something. ...

In the wake of these events, many comics publishers, most notably National and Archie, founded the Comics Code Authority in 1954 and drafted the Comics Code, intended as "the most stringent code in existence for any communications media." A Comic Code Seal of Approval soon appeared on virtually every comic book carried on newsstands. EC, after experimenting with less controversial comic books, dropped its comics line to focus on the satiric Mad — a comic book it changed to magazine format in order to circumvent the Code. The seal of the Comics Code Authority, which appears on the covers of approved comic books. ... The Comics Code Authority (CCA) is an organization founded in 1954 to act as a de facto censor for American comic books. ... Harvey Kurtzmans cover for the first issue of the comic book Mad Mad is an American humor magazine founded by publisher William Gaines and editor Harvey Kurtzman in 1952. ...

[edit] The Silver Age

Cover of The Avengers #4, dated 1964

In the mid-1950s, following the popularity of TV series The Adventures of Superman, publishers experimented with the superhero once more. Showcase #4 (National, 1956) introduced the rebooted hero The Flash, which began a second wave of superhero popularity known as the Silver Age of comic books. National expanded its line of superheroes over the next six years, introducing new versions of Green Lantern, The Atom, Hawkman and others. Showcase #4 (Oct. ... Cover of Avengers #4 This image is a book cover. ... Cover of Avengers #4 This image is a book cover. ... Showcase #4 (September-October 1956, the first appearance of the Silver Age Flash. ... Reboot, in series fiction, means to discard all previous continuity in the series and start anew. ... The Flash. ... A silver age is a name often given to a particular period within a history, typically as a lesser and later successor to a golden age, the metal silver generally being less valuable than gold. ... Cover to Green Lantern: Rebirth #6, art by Ethan Van Sciver. ... The Atom is a superhero created in 1941 for All-American Comics, and recreated in 1962 in a self-named title, a part of DC Comics Silver Age of Comic Books. ... Cover to Hawkman v4 # 1. ...

In 1961 writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics. In a landmark that changed the industry, The Fantastic Four #1 initiated a naturalistic style of superheroes with human failings, fears, and inner demons, who squabbled and worried about the likes of rent money. In contrast to the super heroic do-gooder archetypes of established superheroes at the time, this ushered a revolution. With dynamic artwork by Kirby, Steve Ditko, Don Heck and others complementing Lee's colorful, catchy prose, the new style found an audience among children (who loved the superheroes) and college students (who were entertained by the deeper themes). Marvel was initially restricted in the number of titles it could produce in that its books were distributed by rival National, a situation not alleviated until the late 1960s. This inhibited the introduction of a Lee/Ditko character, first to surpass Superman in sales since writer Bill Parker and artist Clarence "C.C." Beck's original Captain Marvel, Spider-Man. Stan Lee at the 1973 San Diego comic con Stan Lee (born Stanley Martin Lieber on December 28, 1922, New York, New York) is an American writer, editor, Chairman Emeritus of Marvel Comics, and memoirist, who — with several artist co-creators, especially Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko — introduced complex, naturalistic... Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books. ... The Fantastic Four is Marvel Comics flagship comic book superhero team, created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and debuting in The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. ... Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Entertainment, Inc. ... Naturalism is a movement in theater, film, and literature that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. ... The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1 (1964): Cover art by Ditko. ... Don Heck (January 2, 1929-1995) was a comic book artist best known for co-creating the character Iron Man, and for his long run penciling The Avengers in the 1960s. ... Spider-Man swinging around his hometown, New York City. ...

National (colloquially called DC Comics by this time), Marvel, and Archie were the major players in the 1960s. Other notable companies included the American Comics Group (ACG), the low-budget Charlton, where many professionals such as Dick Giordano got their start; Dell; Gold Key; Harvey Comics, home of the Harvey cartoon characters (Casper the Friendly Ghost) and non-animated others (Richie Rich); and Tower, best-known for T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. DC Comics is one of the largest American companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... American Comics Group (ACG) was a small publisher during the Golden and Silver Age of comic books that published several well-remembered characters and titles. ... Big C logo, used from Sept. ... Richard Joseph Dick Giordano (July 20, 1932 - ) is a United States comic book artist and editor. ... Dell Comics was the comic book publishing arm of Dell Publications, which got its start in pulp magazines. ... Gold Key Comics was an imprint of Western Publishing cteated for comic books distributed to newstands. ... Casper the Friendly Ghost in Theres Good Boos To-Night (1948). ... Early Casper in Theres Good Boos To-Night (1947). ... For other uses, see Richie Rich (disambiguation). ... Tower Comics was an American comic book publishing company best known for The T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents by Wally Wood. ... Wally Woods cover for the first issue T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents is a team of comic book superheroes originally published by Tower Comics in the 1960s. ...

[edit] Underground comics

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, a surge of underground comics occurred. These comics were published independently of the established comic book publishers and most reflected the youth counterculture and drug culture of the time. Many were notable for their uninhibited, irreverent style, which hadn't been seen in comics before. The movement is often considered to have been started by Canadian R. Crumb (Robert Crumb)'s publication of Zap Comix #1 in 1968. Crumb created Fritz the Cat and published The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Mr. ... Mr. ... In sociology, counterculture is a term used to describe a cultural group whose values and norms run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition or swimming against the tide. ... Drug subcultures are examples of countercultures, primarily defined by recreational drug use. ... Robert Crumb (born August 30, 1943 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an artist and illustrator who signs his work R. Crumb. Crumb was a founder of the underground comics movement, and is often regarded as the most prominant figure in that movement. ... Zap Comix is among the best-known of the underground comics that emerged as part of the youth counterculture of the late 1960s. ... Robert Crumbs Fritz the Cat Fritz the Cat is a comic book fictional character created by Robert Crumb. ... The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers is a series of underground comics originally created in 1968 by the U.S. artist Gilbert Shelton. ...

[edit] The Bronze Age

The term Bronze Age is commonly used for the period of American mainstream comics history that begins with a period of concentrated changes to comic books that happened around 1970, particularly in reference to DC and Marvel. Unlike the Golden/Silver Age transition, the Silver/Bronze transition involved many continually published books, making the transition less sharp; not every book can be said to have entered the Bronze Age at the same time. Wolverine, a member of the X-Men, a popular franchise in the Modern Age, and an example of an anti-hero, a popular character type of the Modern Age The Modern Age of Comic Books is an informal name for the period of American comic books generally considered to last...

Changes commonly considered to mark the transition between Silver and Bronze Age include:

• A reshuffling of popular creators, including the retirement of Mort Weisinger, editor of the Superman books, and the movement of Jack Kirby to DC, where he created the Fourth World.
• A boom in non-superhero and borderline superhero comics such as Conan, Kamandi, Jonah Hex, Swamp Thing, Ghost Rider, and the revived Doctor Strange.
• "Relevant" comics which attempted to address serious social issues, such as the Spider-Man drug abuse issues and the Green Lantern/Green Arrow series.
• A loosening in the Comics Code Authority rules which happened in 1971.
• Revamping of several popular characters, including a "darker" Batman closer to the original version, several changes to Superman such as making him a TV reporter and getting rid of Kryptonite, and a temporary non-powered era for Wonder Woman. The New X-Men revamp a few years later may be considered part of this trend.
• The death of major characters such as Spider-Man's girlfriend Gwen Stacy, the Doom Patrol, and several members of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Mortimer Weisinger (1915-1978) was an American magazine and comic book editor. ... Jack Kirby (August 28, 1917 – February 6, 1994) was one of the most influential, recognizable, and prolific artists in American comic books. ... Cover to New Gods #1 (1971). ... Conan is a fictional character created by Robert E. Howard in the 1930s. ... A legion of intelligent tigers force Kamandi to fight an intelligent gorilla. ... Jonah Hex is a comic book western hero created by John Albano and Tony DeZuniga and published by DC Comics. ... The Swamp Thing is a fictional character created by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson for DC Comics, and featured in a long-running horror-fantasy comic book series of the same name. ... Ghost Rider is the name of several comic book series published by Marvel Comics, and of several fictional characters in the Marvel Universe. ... Doctor Strange is a fictional comic book sorcerer and superhero in the Marvel Comics Marvel universe. ... The seal of the Comics Code Authority, which appears on the covers of approved comic books. ... The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ... Gwendolyne Gwen Stacy[1] was a supporting character in Marvel Comics’ Spider-Man series. ... The Doom Patrol is an idiosyncratic DC Comics superhero team that has been through several incarnations. ... This is about the DC Comics superhero team. ...

[edit] The Modern Age

The development of a non-returnable "direct market" distribution system in the 1970s coincided with the appearance of comic book specialty stores across North America. These specialty stores were a haven for more distinct voices and stories, but they also marginalized comics in the public eye. Serialized comic stories became longer and more complex, requiring readers to buy more issues to finish a story. Between 1970 and 1990, comic book prices rose sharply because of a combination of factors: a nationwide paper shortage, increasing production values, and the minimal profit incentive for stores to stock comic books (due to the small unit price of an individual comic book relative to a magazine). These factors are often pointed to when considering the decline in comic book popularity in America. Direct market in the comic book industry is the dominant distribution and retail network in North America and elsewhere in the market for English-language comics. ... World map showing North America A satellite composite image of North America. ...

Cover of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1, dated 1985

In the mid-to-late 1980s, two comic book series published by DC Comics (Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen) had a profound impact upon the American comic book industry. The phenomenal popularity of these series led both of the major publishers (DC and Marvel) to change the content of their titles to a more realistic, "darker" tone, often derisively termed "grim-and-gritty". This change was underscored by the growing popularity of anti-heroes such as the Punisher, Wolverine, and Spawn, as well as the darker tone of some independent publishers such as First Comics and Dark Horse Comics. For a period of several years the pages of mainstream comics were filled with brooding mutants and "dark avengers". This tendency towards darkness and nihilism was also manifested in DC's production of heavily promoted comic book stories such as "A Death in the Family" in the Batman series (in which Batman's sidekick Robin was brutally murdered by The Joker), while at Marvel, the continuing popularity of the various X-Men books led to storylines such as "Mutant Massacre" and "Acts of Vengeance." JPG version of BMP bookcover, originally from fansite, apparently. ... JPG version of BMP bookcover, originally from fansite, apparently. ... DC Comics is one of the largest American companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... The premiere issue of the series Spoiler warning: The Dark Knight Returns (known as DKR by fans) is a superhero comic book story published by DC Comics between 1985 and 1986, starring Batman. ... Watchmen is a twelve-issue comic book written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Dave Gibbons. ... In literature and film, an anti-hero is a central or supporting character that has some of the personality flaws and ultimate fortune traditionally assigned to villains but nonetheless also have enough heroic qualities or intentions to gain the sympathy of readers or viewers. ... The Punisher (Frank Castle) is a Marvel Comics anti-hero. ... Wolverine, born James Howlett but more commonly known as Logan, is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero and a member of several teams, including the X-Men and the New Avengers. ... Spawn (real name Al Simmons) is a fictional character in Image Comics comic book of the same name. ... First Comics was an American publisher of comic books. ... Dark Horse Comics logo Dark Horse Comics is one of the largest independent comic book publishers in the United States, behind dominant publishers Marvel Comics and DC Comics. ... Batman: A Death in the Family is a Batman comic book story arc first published in the late 1980s which gave fans the ability to influence the story through voting with a 900 number. ... Batman (originally referred to as the Bat-Man and still sometimes as the Batman) is a DC Comics fictional superhero who first appeared in Detective Comics #27 in May 1939. ... It has been suggested that Just Imagine Stan Lees Robin be merged into this article or section. ... The Joker is a fictional character, a DC Comics supervillain widely considered to be Batmans archenemy. ... The X-Men are a group of comic book superheroes featured in Marvel Comics. ... The Mutant Massacre The Mutant Massacre or the Morlock Massacre was a major Marvel Comics crossover, which took place during the summer of 1987. ...

Though a speculator boom in the early 1990s temporarily increased specialty store sales—collectors "invested" in multiple copies of a single comic to sell at a profit later—these booms ended in a collectibles glut, and comic sales declined sharply in the mid-1990s, leading to the demise of many hundreds of stores. (See comic book collecting for a more detailed look at the speculator boom.) Today fewer comics sell in North America than at any time in their publishing history. Though the large superhero-oriented publishers like Marvel and DC are still often referred to as the "mainstream" of comics, they are no longer a mass medium in the same sense as in previous decades. Comic book collecting is the collecting of comic books in the interest of appreciation, nostalgia, financial profit, and completion of the collection. ...

[edit] Prestige format

Prestige format comic books are typically longer than standard comic books, typically being of between 48 and 72 pages, and printed on glossy paper with a spine and card stock cover. The format was first used by DC on Frank Miller's Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. The success of this work led to the establishment of the format, and it is now used generally to showcase works by big name creators or to spotlight significant storylines. Frank Miller in an interview about the Batman character. ...

These storylines can be serialised over a limited number of issues, or can be standalone. Standalone works published in the form, such as Batman: The Killing Joke, are sometimes referred to either as graphic novels or novellas. Cover to Batman: The Killing Joke. ... Graphic novel (sometimes abbreviated GN) is a term for a kind of book, usually telling an extended story with sequential art ( comics). ...

[edit] Independent and alternative comics

Art Spiegelman's Maus

Comic specialty stores did help encourage several waves of independent-produced comics, beginning in the late 1970s. The first of these was generally referred to as "independent" or "alternative comics"; some of these continued somewhat in the tradition of underground comics, while others resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned ventures or by a single artist, and a few (notably RAW) were experimental attempts to bring comics closer to the world of fine art. cover of Maus graphic novel This image is a book cover. ... Maus: A Survivors Tale is a memoir presented as a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman. ... The term alternative comics is one of several labels applied to a range of comics that have appeared since about 1980, in the wake of the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 70s. ... Cover to RAW volume 1, number 1 (July 1980). ... The Cornfield is an oil on canvas painting by John Constable in 1826 Fine art refers to arts that are concerned with beauty or which appealed to taste (SOED 1991). ...

The "small press" scene continued to grow and diversify, with a number of small publishers in the 1990s changing the format and distribution of their books to more closely resemble non-comics publishing. The "minicomics" form, an extremely informal version of self-publishing, arose in the 1980s and became increasingly popular among artists in the 1990s, despite reaching an even more limited audience than the small press. "Art comics" has sometimes been used as a general term for alternative, small-press, or minicomic artists working outside of mainstream traditions. Publishers and artists working in all of these forms stated a desire to refine comics further as an art form. A minicomic is a small, creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. ... Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. ...

[edit] Artist recognition

Some comic books have gained recognition and earned their creators awards from outside the genre, such as Art Spiegelman's Maus (which won the Pulitzer Prize) and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman (an issue of which won the World Fantasy Award for "Best Short Story"). Though not a comic book itself, Michael Chabon's comic-book themed The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Art Spiegelman (born February 15, 1948) is an American comics artist, editor and advocate for the medium of comics, best known for his Pulitzer Prize winning comic memoir, Maus. ... Maus: A Survivors Tale is a memoir presented as a graphic novel by Art Spiegelman. ... The gold medal awarded for Public Service in Journalism The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical compositions. ... Neil Richard Gaiman () (born November 10, 1960, Portchester, Hampshire) is a British author of numerous science fiction and fantasy works, including many graphic novels. ... The Sandman was a comic book series written by Neil Gaiman and published by DC Comics for 75 issues from 1988 until 1996. ... First awarded in 1975, the World Fantasy Awards are handed out annually at the World Fantasy Convention (WFC) to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy. ... Michael Chabon (born May 24, 1963) is an American author best known for his novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. ... The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a 2000 novel by Michael Chabon. ... The gold medal awarded for Public Service in Journalism The Pulitzer Prize is an American award regarded as the highest honor in print journalism, literary achievements, and musical compositions. ... The Three Graces, here in a painting by Sandro Botticelli, were the goddesses of charm, beauty, nature, human creativity and fertility in Greek mythology. ...

Popular interest in superheroes increased with the success of feature films such as X-Men (2000) and Spider-Man (2002). To capitalize on this interest, comics publishers launched concerted promotional efforts such as Free Comic Book Day (first held on May 5, 2002). In addition, the filmed adaptation of non-superhero comic books like Ghost World, Road to Perdition, and American Splendor raised hopes that the medium's image can be changed for the better. Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... X-Men is an action movie, first released in Australia on 13 July 2000. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Free Comic Book Day is an annual promotional effort by the North American comic book industry to help bring new readers into independent comic book stores. ... May 5 is the 125th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (126th in leap years). ... For album titles with the same name, see 2002 (album). ... Book cover Ghost World is a set of comics stories by Daniel Clowes, usually presented as a graphic novel. ... Road to Perdition is a graphic novel by Max Allan Collins that was made into a motion picture of the same name in 2002. ... American Splendor film poster American Splendor is a series of autobiographical comic books and graphic novels written by Harvey Pekar. ...

[edit] Production

Comic books are a colaborative medium Generally, some kind of writer/scripter/plotter will outline the whole story and is a core of the story telling process. The penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form and may require several steps of feedback with the writer. These artists are concerned with layout (positions and vantages on scenes) to showcase steps in the plot. In earlier generations it was more common for artists to use a loose pencilling approach, in which the penciller does not take much care to reduce the vagaries of the pencil art, leaving it to the inker to interpret the penciller's intent and render the art in a more finished state. Today many pencillers prefer to create very meticulously detailed pages, where every nuance that they expect to see in the inked art is indicated in pencil. This is known as tight pencilling. Because the inking and the pencilling are so closely aligned there are strong cross influences - inked lines emphasize aspects of the scene, but is this particular emphasis the intention of the penciller or is the penciller's preference off-base compared to the point of the story? Then the colorist comes into the picture and is responsible for adding color to the black and white (possibly shaded) line art. Almost all comic books are rendered in color and have been for much of the history of comic books. Sometimes color is not added for specific effect or when production resources don't allow for a colorist. A colorist also can add to or shift the emphasis of a page of comic art - the penciller layed out the basic scene - the inker emphasizes the depth and drama of the edges of things and their weight on the page, and the colorist can futher emphasize what draws the eye and adds or subtracts to the realism of the scene. Finally the letterer renders what needs to be said on a page of art for the story - which could be dialogue or the content of signs or print if shown. This may seem like an easy job, but the right use of fonts, letter size, and layout of the words inside the balloon all contribute to the impact of the art. A good letterer is a good calligrapher, and a great letterer has as much to do with the quality of the comic as the writer, penciler, inker, or colorist. In the collaborative method of producing a comic book used to create the majority of the comics published by major US publishers, the penciller (or penciler) is the artist who interprets the story created by the writer as comics pages drawn in pencil. ... The inker is one of the two line artists in a traditional comic book, or graphic novel. ... A colorist is an artist who colors comic art reading it for production as a comic book. ... In comic books, the letterer is the person who draws the letters in the word balloons, draws in sound effects and usually designs a books logo. ...

Aside from differences in regional styles of comics books the disciplines of writer, penciler, inker, colorist and letterer are under pressures of production efficiencies as well - and computers are mixing things up too. Different parts of the creative process are generally being done by fewer people but which mixing of responsabilies happens varies. But there are few that do all the steps in comic production.

[edit] The superhero

The superhero genre has dominated American comic books for half a century. Before the 1960s, there were popular comics in many genres, including funny animal comics, westerns, romance, horror, war stories, and crime, with dozens of publishers small and large. This diversity disappeared rapidly in the 1950s, due to two factors. Western fiction is a genre of literature that is typically set in any of the American states west of the Mississippi River and between the years of approximately 1860 and 1900. ... A romance novel is a novel from the genre currently known as romance. ... Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the reader. ... The United States detonated an atomic bomb over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. ...

The first was a series of highly publicized campaigns against "unwholesome" children's comics, leading to the establishment of the highly restrictive Comics Code Authority. Although the Code severely constrained superhero comics, it completely banned the grittier genres. This wiped out many small publishers, but left the large superhero companies intact. The seal of the Comics Code Authority, which appears on the covers of approved comic books. ...

Secondly, television drew away much of the audience for light entertainment in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By the time publishers moved away from the Comics Code and produced something other than light entertainment, television and movies were far more profitable. However, comics were still able to depict outlandish action-oriented adventures such as superhero tales without expensive special effects and in a higher volume than the movie industry. Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ... The quality of this article or section may be compromised by peacock terms. You can help Wikipedia by removing peacock terms. ...

[edit] Pricing

Typical prices of a new, standard size, mainstream (DC/Marvel) comic book: Timing varies slightly by publisher as not all publishers changed prices at the same time (data samples taken from X-Men, Action Comics and Avengers cover price listings in ComicBase 10 Archive Edition)

• Prior to 1962 $ .10
• 1962 - 1969 $ .12
• 1969 - 1971 $ .15
• 1971 - 1974 $ .20
• 1974 - 1976 $ .25
• 1976 - 1977 $ .30
• 1977 - 1979 $ .35
• 1979 - 1980 $ .40
• 1980 - 1981 $ .50
• 1982 - 1985 $ .60
• 1985 - 1986 $ .65
• 1986 - 1988 $ .75
• 1988 - 1991 $ 1.00
• 1992 - 1995 $ 1.25
• 1995 - 1996 $ 1.50
• 1996 - 1997 $ 1.95
• 1997 - 2000 $ 1.99
• 2000 - 2005 $ 2.25
• 2005 - 2006 $ 2.50
• 2006 - Present $ 2.99

[edit] See also

• List of films based on American comic books
• List of years in comics
• List of comic book publishing companies

It has been suggested that List of graphic novels adapted into television or film be merged into this article or section. ... This page indexes the individual year in comics pages. ... Active companies AC Comics Adhouse Books AiT/PlanetLar Alias Enterprises Alternative Comics Antarctic Press Ape Entertainment Arcana Studios Archie Comics (formerly MLJ) Mighty Comics (Defunct, also known as Radio Comics) Red Circle Comics (Defunct) Aardvark-Vanaheim (Cerebus the Aardvark reprint collections only) Aspen MLT Avatar Press Beckett Comics Bongo Comics...

[edit] Footnotes

[edit] References

• All in Color for a Dime by Dick Lupoff & Don Thompson ISBN 0-87341-498-5
• The Comic Book Makers by Joe Simon with Jim Simon ISBN 1-887591-35-4
• DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes by Les Daniels ISBN 0-8212-2076-4
• The Great Comic Book Heroes by Jules Feiffer ISBN 1-56097-501-6
• Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics by Les Daniels ISBN 0-8109-3821-9
• Masters of Imagination: The Comic Book Artists Hall of Fame by Mike Benton ISBN 0-87833-859-4
• The Official Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide by Robert Overstreet — Edition #35 ISBN 0-375-72107-X
• The Steranko History of Comics, Vol. 1 & 2, by James Steranko — Vol. 1 ISBN 0-517-50188-0
• CBW Comic History: The Early Years...1896 to 1937, Part II
• The ComicBooks.com: The History of Comic Books
• The Greatest Comics: New Fun #1

Richard Allen Lupoff was born on February 21, 1935. ... Don Thompson (Jan 18, 1940 - ) is a Canadian jazz pianist and bass player with Rob McConnells Boss Brass. ... Joe Simon (born 1915) was a comic book author and cartoonist who created or co-created many memorable characters in the Golden Age. ... Jules Feiffer (born January 26, 1929) is a syndicated comic-strip cartoonist and author. ... Captain America #111 (March 1969): Sterankos signature surrealism. ...

[edit] External links

The Comics Buyer's Guide's "Comic Book Sales Charts and Sales Analysis Pages" Comics Buyers Guide (CBG) is the longest-running periodical reporting on the comic book industry. ...