Comics

For the entertainers known as "comics", see comedian.

Comics Portal

Comics (or, less common, 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. Originally used to illustrate caricatures and to entertain through the use of amusing and trivial stories, it has by now evolved into a literary medium with many subgenres.

The most common forms of printed comics are comic strips (most commonly four panels long) in newspapers and magazines, and longer comic stories in comic books, graphic novels and comic albums. In the first two forms the comics are secondary material usually confined to the entertainment sections, while the latter consist either entirely or primarily of comics.

Depending on the definition of the term, the origin of comics can be traced back to 15th century Europe or even as far as to Egyptian hieroglyphs. However, today's form of comics (with panels, and using text within the image in speech balloons, etc.), as well as the term comics itself, originated in the late 19th century.

Little Sammy Sneeze by Winsor McCay

Controversy regarding the terminology

Note: Although it takes the form of a plural noun, the common usage when referring to comics as a medium is to treat it as singular.

Scholars disagree on the definition of comics; some claim its printed format is crucial, some emphasize the interdependence of image and text, and others its sequential nature. The term as reference to the medium has also been disputed.

In 1985, Will Eisner published Comics and Sequential Art. However, in this work Eisner chose not to define comics beyond utilising it as a term to refer to the comic strip and comic book formats collectively. He differentiated between the medium of comics and the language employed within, which he preferred to name sequential art, defining it as "...the arrangement of pictures or images and words to narrate a story or dramatize an idea."³ In 1996, he published Graphic Storytelling, in which he finally defined comics as "the printed arrangement of art and balloons in sequence, particularly in comic books."⁴

In Understanding Comics (1993) Scott McCloud took Eisner's term sequential art, equated it with the medium of comics, and defined both thus: "juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence, intended to convey information and/or to produce an aesthetic response in the viewer"⁵; this definition excludes single-panel illustrations such as The Far Side, The Family Circus, and most political cartoons from the category, instead classifying those as cartoons. By contrast, The Comics Journal's "100 Best Comics of the 20th Century"⁶, included the works of several single panel cartoonists and a caricaturist.

R.C. Harvey, in his essay Comedy At The Juncture Of Word And Image, offered a competing definition in reference to McCloud's: "...comics consist of 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."⁷

However, Eddie Campbell has rejected the expansion of the term comics to define the art form, defining as "humorous art...but with the proviso that in our own times it has come to embrace not only cartoons but comic strips and comic books which are not necessarily humorous due to their own evolutionary patterns, but they remain under this rubric as they evolved from it."

Campbell offered instead that "graphic storytelling is the art of using pictures in sequence and its attendant language of forms and techniques, refined over many centuries."⁸

Most agree that animation, which creates the optical illusion of movement within a static physical frame, is a separate form. With comics, readers connect a series of static images at their own individual pace, usually with each in its own frame. Some digital-media works combine the techniques of comics and animation as a hybrid form.

History

When and where comics originated is another matter of debate, largely dependent on its definition. Many authors and sources, Scott McCloud being the most recent, observe precedents in Egyptian hieroglyphics, Japanese emaki, European stained glass windows, pre-Columbian Central American manuscripts, and the Bayeux Tapestry.⁹, ¹⁰

However, Roger Sabin has argued that this view is an attempt to co-opt a history with which to somehow justify comics as an art form.¹¹

15th–18th centuries

Last image in William Hogarth's The Rake's Progress

Sabin prefers to cite the invention of the printing press as the moment when the form began to crystalise, arguing that the medium of comics has been intrinsically linked with printing, and thus whilst variations existed before, they are antecedents and can not be viewed as within the same tradition. ¹²

An early surviving work which is recognisable as being in the form of comics is Francis Barlow's A True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish Plot(c.1682)¹³. The Punishments of Lemuel Gulliver by William Hogarth, (1726), is another early work that bears similarities of form, although Eddie Campbell has argued¹⁴ that these may be more a collection of cartoons rather than actual comics. Other notable artists producing work in this period are Thomas Rowlandson, Jan Vandergucht, James Gillray and George Cruikshank. Rowlandson and Gillray are credited with having codified the speech balloon in its present form¹⁵, from the previous convention of having speech represented by banners.

An example of Rowlandson's work from 1782, satirising the politics of the day, shows it to be an early variation of the strip cartoon. His work popularised the strip form as a pictorial narrative¹⁶.

The 19th century

Rodolphe Töpffer, a Francophone Swiss artist, is the key figure of the early part of the 19th century. His work is reprinted throughout Europe and in the U.S., creating a market on both continents for similar works¹⁷.

In 1845 Töpffer formalised his thoughts on the picture story in his Essay on Physiognomics: "To construct a picture-story does not mean you must set yourself up as a master craftsman, to draw out every potential from your material —often down to the dregs! It does not mean you just devise caricatures with a pencil naturally frivolous. Nor is it simply to dramatize a proverb or illustrate a pun. You must actually invent some kind of play, where the parts are arranged by plan and form a satisfactory whole. You do not merely pen a joke or put a refrain in couplets. You make a book: good or bad, sober or silly, crazy or sound in sense."¹⁸

Sir Ernst Gombrich certainly felt Töpffer to have evolved a new pictorial language, that of an abbreviated art style, which worked by allowing the audience to fill in gaps with their own imagination¹⁹.

Satirical drawings in newspapers were popular through much of the 19th century. In Britain, in 1841, Punch, a magazine containing such drawings launched.²⁰ In 1843 Punch referred to its 'humourous pencilings' as cartoons in satirical reference to Parliament, who were organising an exhibition of cartoons at the time. This usage became common parlance and has lasted into the present day²¹. Similar magazines containing cartoons in continental Europe included Fliegende Blätter and Charivari, whilst in the U.S. Judge and Puck were popular²².

In Germany in 1865 Max and Moritz by Wilhelm Busch was published within a newspaper. This strip is thought to be a significant fore-runner of the comic strip.²³

It is around this time that Manhua, the Chinese form of comics, started to formalise, a process that lasted up until 1927.²⁴

Ally Sloper's Half Holiday, (1884), is published, and is reputed to be the first comic strip magazine to feature a recurring character. In 1890 two more comic magazines debuted to the British public, Comic Cuts and Illustrated Chips. These magazines also republished American material, previously published in newspapers in the U.S.. They established the tradition of the British comic as being a periodical containing comic strips.²⁵

Depending on the criteria used, the first successful comics series featuring regular characters was either R.F. Outcault's single-panel cartoon series Hogan's Alley (1895) or Rudolph Dirks' multi-panel strip The Katzenjammer Kids (1897)²⁶. The Yellow Kid, the star of Hogan's Alley, became so popular as to drive newspaper sales, and in doing so prompted the creation of other strips. This boom marks the beginning of comics as an ongoing popular art form²⁷.

The 20th century

The term comics in the U.S. came to define early newspaper strips, which initially featured humorous narratives , hence the adjective comic²⁸. In 1929, strips started to broaden their content, with Buck Rogers and Tarzan launching the action genre. More strips followed, with the term "comic" quickly adopting through popular usage to refer to the form rather than the content²⁹, ³⁰.

1929 also saw the first appearance of Tintin published as a black and white strip in a supplement to Le Vingtième Siècle, a Belgian newspaper. The strip was collected as Tintin in the Land of the Soviets in 1930, being published in the European comic album format.³¹

Another notable publication of 1929 was The Funnies, a reprint collection of newspaper strips. Reputed to be the first four-color comic newsstand publication in the United States, it was published in tabloid size, a size which left it easily confused with the Sunday supplements of the time and so harmed sales to the extent that publication ceased after 36 issues.

The first publication to use a format recognisable today as a comic book was Funnies on Parade which took the tabloid size used for the Sunday supplements and folded it in half. Published in 1933 by two workers for the Eastern Color Printing Company of New York, Harry L. Wildenberg and Max. C. Gaines as an advertising giveaway, its success led to similar giveaways being published. On a hunch, Gaines distributed extra copies to newstands, with a ten cent cover price, returning to find them all sold. This led to Eastern publishing Famous Funnies in May 1934 for sale through the newsstands.³²

By 1935 comic books were commissioning original material, mostly influenced by the pulp magazines of the day, whilst also repackaging foreign material³³. Will Eisner was one who supplied foreign material, and in his retooling of the material to fit the comic book format Eisner is credited with inventing the grammar of the comic book. Techniques devised by Eisner whilst adapting the material for this new format include the "jump cut".³⁴

In 1938 Action Comics #1 was published, featuring the first appearance of Superman and ushering in what is now referred to as the Golden Age of Comic Books³⁵. Also in 1938, Spirou first appeared in Belgium, starting the typical custom of weekly magazines featuring mostly Franco-Belgian comics.

After World War II the form in Japan, known as manga started to modernise. The lifting of a ban on non-propaganda publications, allowed Osamu Tezuka to re-energise both the content of manga and the style of its presentation Tezuka's first book work was an updating of Treasure Island, appropriately titled New Treasure Island (1947)³⁶.

During the latter half of the 20th century comics have become a very popular item for collectors and from the 1970s comics publishers have actively encouraged collecting and shifted a large portion of comics publishing and production to appeal directly to the collector's community. The collecting of comics is today known by a separate term known as panelology.

The modern double usage of the term comic, as an adjective describing a genre, and a noun designating an entire medium, has been criticised as confusing and misleading. In the 1960s and 1970s, underground cartoonists used the spelling comix to distinguish their work from mainstream newspaper strips and juvenile comic books; ironically, although their work was written for an adult audience, it was usually comedic in nature as well, so the "comic" label was still appropriate³⁷. The term graphic novel was popularised in the late 1970s, having been coined at least two decades previous, to distance the material from this confusion³⁸.

In the 1980s comics scholarship started to blossom in the U.S.³⁹, and a resurgance in the popularity of comics was seen, with Alan Moore and Frank Miller producing notable superhero works and Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes being syndicated.

In 2005 Robert Crumb's work was exhibited in galleries both sides of the Atlantic, and The Guardian newspaper devoted its tabloid supplement to a week long exploration of his work and idioms⁴⁰.

Artistic medium

An artist sketching out a comics page

Comics artists will generally sketch a drawing in pencil before going over the drawing again in ink, using either a pen or a brush. Artists will also make use of a lightbox when creating the final image in ink. Some artists, Brian Bolland being a notable example⁴¹, are now using digital means to create artwork, with the published work being the first physical appearance of the artwork.

By many definitions (including McCloud's, above) the definition of comics extends to digital media such as webcomics.

Fumetti, (sometimes called fotonovelas), are comics using photographs instead of illustrations, with speech balloons added⁴².

Art styles

Whilst almost all comics art is in some sense abbreviated, and also whilst every artist who has produced comics work brings their own individual approach to bear, some broader art styles have been identified.

The basic styles have been identified as realistic and cartoony, with a huge middle ground for which R. Fiore has coined the phrase liberal. Fiore has also expressed distaste with the terms realistic and cartoony, preferring the terms literal and freestyle, repectively.⁴³

Scott McCloud has created The Big Triangle⁴⁴ as a tool for thinking about comics art. He places the realistic representation in the bottom left corner, with iconic representation, or cartoony art, in the bottom right, and a third identifier, abstraction of image, at the apex of the triangle. This allows the placement and grouping of artists by triangulation.

• The cartoony style is one which utilises comic effects and a variation of line widths as a means of expression. Noted exponents of this style are Carl Barks, Will Eisner and Jeff Smith⁴⁵.

• The realistic style, also referred to as the adventure style is the one developed for use within the adventure strips of the 1930s. They required a less cartoony look, and used the illustrations found in pulp magazines as a basis⁴⁶. This style became the basis of the superhero comic book style, since Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel originally worked Superman up for publication as an adventure strip⁴⁷.

The language

As noted above, two distinct definitions have been used to define comics as an art form: the combination of both word and image; and the placement of images in sequential order. However, it is worth noting that both definitions are lacking, in that the first excludes any sequence of wordless images; and the second excludes single panel cartoons such as editorial cartoons. The purpose of comics is certainly that of narration, and so that must be an important factor in defining the art form.

Comics, as sequential art, emphasise the pictorial representation of a narrative. This means comics are not an illustrated version of standard literature, and whilst some critics argue that they are a hybrid form of art and literature, others contend comics are a new and separate art; an integrated whole, of words and images both, where the pictures do not just depict the story, but are part of the telling. In comics, creators transmit expression through arrangement and juxtaposition of either pictures alone, or word(s) and picture(s), to build a narrative.

The narration of a comic is set out through the layout of the images, and whilst there may be many people who work on one work, like films, there is one vision of the narrative which guides the work. The layout of images on a page can be utilised by artists to convey the passage of time, to build suspense or to highlight action⁴⁸.

For a fuller exploration of the language, please see Comics vocabulary.

Forms within comics

Comics as an art form represents many different forms and publication formats, not all of which are physical.

Cartoon

Main article: Cartoon

The cartoon, originally an artist's prepartory drawings, is considered by some scholar's, notably R.C. Harvey, as a form of comics. Although a singular image, it has been argued that since the cartoon both combines words with image and constructs a narrative, it merits inclusion as a form of comics. Cartoons typically take one of three forms, that of the gag cartoon, the editorial cartoon or the political cartoon.

Comic strip

Main article: Comic strip

The comic strip, also known as a strip cartoon, is a sequence of images. The term has currently become most commonly used when referring to the shortened newspaper comic strip, but historically the term was designed to apply to any strip, there being no upper limit on the length of a strip, the minimum length being two. This usage is still fairly common in the United Kingdom. In the United States the term "comics" is sometimes used to describe the page of a newspaper upon which comic strips are found, and through this usage has also grown to be used as a definition for comic strips.

Newspaper comic strips come in two formats, daily strips and Sunday strips. Daily strips usually run Monday through Saturday, and historically have been presented in black and white, although color is used more often since the early nineties. Sunday strips are much larger and have always tended to be in color.

Comic book

Main article: Comic book

The comic book is predominately a United States term, with the term comic or comic magazine preferred in Europe. Comic books are often called comics for short. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous, and in fact its dramatic seriousness varies widely. The term "comics" in this context does not refer to comic strips (such as Peanuts or Dilbert).

Comic magazine

The primary format for first publication of Franco-Belgian comics, and also the format used in the United Kingdom, where it is commonly referred to as a "comic", plurally as "comics". The British comic dates back to 1884, a year which saw the publication of Ally Sloper's Half Holiday. Over the next century many different titles have been published, with The Dandy debuting in 1937 and the Beano in 1938. More recent established titles include 2000 AD and Viz

Graphic novel

Main article: Graphic novel

Graphic novel is a term for a kind of comic book, usually with long and fairly complex storylines and often aimed at more mature audiences. However, the term is not strictly delimited, and can be notoriously difficult to pin down. It is often used to imply subjective distinctions in artistic quality between graphic novels and other kinds of comics which can be quite controversial. Graphic novels often encompass several separate issues of comic books and can be published over a period of several months or years and then republished in larger volumes.

Comic annual

The comic annual is an annual publication predominately specific to the United Kingdom.

Comic album

In Europe, a comic album is the equivalent to a graphic novel, being of A4 size and hardcover, typically with 48 pages. They contain either new stories or collections of previously serialised strips.

In American terminology, a graphic album is an anthology-format comic book with multiple stories that is published and distributed as a book rather than a periodical as distinguished from a graphic novel which has similar format but tells a single story.

Webcomic

Main article: Webcomic

Webcomics, also known as online comics and web comics, are comics that are available on the Internet. Many webcomics are exclusively published online, while some are published in print but maintain a web archive for either commercial or artistic reasons. With the Internet's easy access to an audience, webcomics run the gamut from traditional comic strips to graphic novels and beyond.

Webcomics are similar to self-published print comics in that almost anyone can create their own webcomic and publish it on the Web. Currently, there are thousands of webcomics available online. The majority of the webcomics are amateur-level work of inconsistent quality and sporadically updated. However, some webcomics have gained popular, critical, or commercial success.

Instructional comics

The instructional comic is a strip designed for educative or informative purposes, notably the instructions upon an aeroplane's safety card.

Storyboard

Main article: Storyboard

Storyboards are like illustrations displayed in sequence for the purpose of previsualizing an animated or live-action film. A storyboard is essentially a large comic of the film or some section of the film produced beforehand to help the directors and cinematographers visualize the scenes and find potential problems before they occur. Often storyboards include arrows or instructions that indicate movement.

Minicomic

Main article: Minicomic

A minicomic is a small, creator-published comic book, often photocopied and stapled or with a handmade binding. These are a common inexpensive way for those who want to make their own comics on a very small budget, with mostly informal means of distribution. A number of cartoonists have started this way and gone on to more traditional types of publishing, while other more established artists continue to produce minicomics on the side. Minicomics are even less mainstream than alternative comics.

The term was originally used in the United States and has a somewhat confusing history. Originally, it referred only to size: a digest comic measured 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall, while a minicomic was 5.5 inches by 4.25 inches. These sizes were convenient for artists using standard office supplies: a US letter page could be folded in half to make a digest, or in quarters for a minicomic. These comics were generally photocopied, although some that were produced in larger quantities used offset printing. An early and unusually popular example of this minicomic format was Matt Feazell's Cynicalman, which began in 1980. (The earliest and most popular comics in mini- and digest sizes—predating not only the term minicomic, but even the standard comic-book format—were the anonymous and pornographic Tijuana bibles of the 1920s.)

Currently, the term is used in a more general sense which emphasizes the handmade, informal aspect rather than the format. By this loose definition, a single photocopied page folded in quarters would still be a minicomic, but so would a thicker digest-sized comic, or even a large, elaborate, and relatively expensive photocopied booklet with a silkscreened cover. Even some professionally printed and bound booklets are referred to as minicomics, as long as they are published by the artist and marketed in minicomic venues, but this usage is controversial.

The creation of comics

The nature of the comics work being created determines the number of people who work upon its creation, with successful comic strips and comic books being produced through a studio system, in which an artist will assemble a team of assistants to help in the creation of the work. However, works from independent companies, self-publishers or those of a more personal nature can be produced by as little as one creator.

Comic book creation

Main article: Comic book creator

Within the comic book industry of the United States, the studio system has come to be the main method of creation. Through its use by the industry, the roles have become heavily codified, and the managing of the studio has become the company's responsibility, with an editor discharging the management duties. The editor will assemble a number of creators and oversee the work to publication.

Any number of people can assist in the creation of a comic book in this way, from a plotter, a breakdown artist, a penciller, an inker, a scripter, a letterer, and a colorist, with some roles being performed by the same person.

Comic strip creation

A comic strip tends to be the work of a sole creator, usually termed a cartoonist. However it is not unusual for a cartoonist to employ the studio method, particularly when a strip become successful. Mort Walker is one such creator who employed a studio, whilst Bill Watterson was one such cartoonist who eschewed the studio method, preferring to create the strip himself.

Cartoon creation

A cartoonist in this instance typically works alone, although again it is not unheard of for a cartoonist to use assistants.

Tools of the trade

An artist will use a variety of pencils, paper, typically Bristol board, and a waterproof ink. When inking, an artist may choose to use a variety of brushes, dip pens, a fountain pen or a variety of technical pens or markers. Mechanical tints can be employed to add gray tone to an image. An artist might also choose to create his work in paints; either acrylics; gouache; poster paints; or watercolours. Color can also be achieved through crayons, pastels or colored pencils.

Erasers, rulers, templates, set squares and a T-square assist in creating lines and shapes. A drawing board gives a good angled surface to work from, with lamps supplying necessary lighting. A light box allows an artist to trace his pencil work when inking, allowing for a looser finish. Knives and scalpels will fill a variety of tasks, including cutting board or scraping mistakes. A cutting mat will assist when cutting paper. Process white is a thick opaque white handy for covering mistakes, whilst adhesives and tapes are helpful in composition where an image may need to be assembled from different sources.

Comics awards

There are numerous awards given out within the comics industry, some taking their name from noted creators, others from famous characters or publications. Each country has its own indigenous awards.

United States

The Pulitzer Prizes have included an award for Editorial Cartooning since 1922. The first awards designed specifically for cartoonists in the United States were the Reubens, followed in 1946. They were named in homour of Rube Goldberg and are presented annually by the National Cartoonists Society of the United States.

The Academy of Comic Book Arts Awards, also known as Shazam's, were created in 1970, the first awards being given out in 1971. The awards had a very short life, and were no longer being presented by the late 1970s.

In 1984 the Kirby Awards, named for Jack Kirby, were launched, aimed specifically at the comic book industry. The awards were sponsored by Fantagraphics through their magazine Amazing Heroes. These awards ran until 1987 before a dispute over the ownership of the awards led to their ending. In 1988 two separate awards were launched, both aimed at the comic book industry