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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Self-portrait, 1922

George Joseph Herriman III (August 22, 1880 – April 25, 1944) was an American cartoonist best known for the comic strip Krazy Kat (1913–1944). More influential than popular, Krazy Kat had an appreciative audience among those in the arts. Gilbert Seldes' article "The Krazy Kat Who Walks by Himself" was the earliest example of a critic from the high arts giving serious attention to a comic strip. The Comics Journal placed the strip first on its list of the greatest comics of the 20th century. Herriman's work has been a primary influence on cartoonists such as Elzie C. Segar, Will Eisner, Charles M. Schulz, Robert Crumb, Art Spiegelman, Bill Watterson, and Chris Ware.

Herriman was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, to mixed-race Creole parents, and grew up in Los Angeles. After he graduated from high school in 1897, he worked in the newspaper industry as an illustrator and engraver. He moved on to cartooning and comic strips—a medium then in its infancy—and drew a variety of strips until he introduced his most famous character, Krazy Kat, in his strip The Dingbat Family in 1910. A Krazy Kat daily strip began in 1913, and from 1916 the strip also appeared on Sundays. It was noted for its poetic, dialect-heavy dialogue; its fantastic, shifting backgrounds; and its bold, experimental page layouts.

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Anniversaries for June 14

1912: birth of Ami Hauhio, Finnish artist, best known for co-creating the science fiction comic Maan mies Marsissa
1912: first appearance of The Teenie Weenies, American comic strip by William Donahey which ran until 1969
1912: birth of Bob Wood, American illustrator during the Golden Age of Comics, co-creator of the series Crime Does Not Pay
1917: birth of Joe Letterese, American comic book letterer
1930: birth of Sam Grainger, American comic book artist best known as a Marvel Comics inker during the Silver Age
1932: death of John "Dok" Hager, American cartoonist, creator of the comic strip Dok's Dippy Duck
1944: birth of Jordi Bernet, Spanish comic book artist known for Torpedo and Clara del Noche
1955: birth of Paul Kupperberg, American writer and comics editor
1959: birth of Mark Heike, American comic book creator and editor, mainly known for his work for AC Comics
1962: birth of Denis Beauvais, Canadian artist whose work has appeared in comic books and role-playing games.
1970: birth of David Lapham, American comic book writer, artist, and cartoonist, best known for his work on the independent comic book Stray Bullets..
1975: first issue of Monster Fun, British comic marking the first appearance of X-Ray Specs, comic strip by Mike Lacey
1997: debut of Crazy for Daisy, British comic strip by Nick Brennan in The Beano
1999: launch of Elf Life, American webcomic by Carson Fire
2002: start of Pixel, American webcomic by Chris Dlugosz
2006: death of Jean Roba, Belgian comics artist best known for Boule et Bill

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General images

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

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

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

... that Piecemeal, who appeared in The Incredible Hulk: The Pantheon Saga, was considered one of the strangest characters to appear in a Marvel video game?
... 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 although Blizzard's franchise Overwatch is centered around video games, its lore is mainly told through animated shorts, comics, and novels?
... that otomechikku, a subgenre of Japanese girls' comics focusing on stories about ordinary teenaged protagonists, has been compared to monogatari and the genre of Bildungsroman?
... 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 comic book Nietzsche, se créer liberté tries to express Friedrich Nietzsche's personality visually?
... that The Steranko History of Comics has been described as the first piece of cultural analysis on American comic books?
... that the 1992 comic book storyline "Man and Wolf", in which Captain America is transformed into a werewolf, has been described as "one of the most bizarre moments of the core Marvel Universe"?

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Credit: Jennifer Graylock

The Batmobile is the automobile of DC Comics superhero Batman. The car has evolved along with the character from comic books to television and films. Kept in the Batcave, which it accesses through a hidden entrance, the Batmobile is a gadget-laden vehicle used by Batman in his crime-fighting activities.

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More did you know...

...that Jeff Hawke, a science fiction comic strip, almost perfectly predicted the date of the first human moon landing more than ten years before?

...that Thrud the Barbarian, a comic character parodying Arnold Schwarzenegger's depiction of Conan the Barbarian, (pictured) has the intelligence of a garden snail?

...that E. Normus Johnson is a fictional advertising mascot depicted in comic art on Big Johnson T-shirts that use double entendres?

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Selected quote

The comics medium is a very specialized area of the Arts, home to many rare and talented blooms and flowering imaginations and it breaks my heart to see so many of our best and brightest bowing down to the same market pressures which drive lowest-common-denominator blockbuster movies and television cop shows. Let's see if we can call time on this trend by demanding and creating big, wild comics which stretch our imaginations. Let's make living breathing, sprawling adventures filled with mind-blowing images of things unseen on Earth. Let's make artefacts that are not faux-games or movies but something other, something so rare and strange it might as well be a window into another universe because that's what it is.

— Grant Morrison

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