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PDF generated at: Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:01:54 UTC Contents Articles Definitions and Basics 1 Comics 1 Cartoon 16 Trade paperback (comics) 20 Graphic novel 22 Webcomic 29 Motion comic 35 Comics Code Authority 37 Awards and Recognition 43 Harvey Award 43 Ignatz Awards 44 Eisner Award 63 Inkpot Award 65 Doug Wright Award 79 Literary Theory 84 Index of literary terms 84 Monomyth 105 Postmodernism 116 Historicity (philosophy) 129 New Journalism 130 Memoir 142 Visual Theory 144 Scott McCloud 144 Understanding Comics 148 Reinventing Comics 150 Infinite canvas 151 Will Eisner 152 Comics and Sequential Art 161 Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative 164 Fredric Wertham 165 Seduction of the Innocent 169 Classic Super Heroes 172 Action Comics 172 Action Comics 1 178 Superman 183 Detective Comics 205 Batman 211 Stan Lee 233 Spider-Man 249 Fantastic Four 265 Postmodern Heroes 286 Frank Miller (comics) 286 David Mazzucchelli 298 Batman: Year One 303 Classic Innovations and Early Comics 308 Richard F. Outcault 308 The Yellow Kid 310 Frank King (cartoonist) 314 Gasoline Alley 318 Winsor McCay 325 Little Nemo 330 Gertie the Dinosaur 336 George Herriman 339 Krazy Kat 344 Postmodern Innovations 357 Chris Ware 357 Acme Novelty Library 363 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth 366 Here (comic) 368 Kramers Ergot 369 Paper Rad 371 Historicity, documentary, and memoir 374 Seth (cartoonist) 374 Josh Neufeld 377 A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge 382 Jessica Abel 387 La Perdida 390 More North American texts and writers for student’s choice assignment 391 Daniel Clowes 391 Ghost World 397 Astro City 402 Charles Burns (cartoonist) 408 Art Spiegelman 410 Maus 415 James Sturm 419 Fun Home 422 Dash Shaw 433 Ben Katchor 435 Chester Brown 437 Joe Matt 445 Pascal Blanchet 447 Adrian Tomine 447 Steve Mumford 451 Joe Sacco 452 Harvey Pekar 456 UK authors and texts worth noting 462 Punch (magazine) 462 Grant Morrison 468 The Invisibles 478 Warren Ellis 485 Transmetropolitan 490 Alan Moore 494 V for Vendetta 512 Watchmen 523 Promethea 540 Neil Gaiman 547 The Sandman (Vertigo) 561 Jack Kirby 571 Bob Kane 585 Jerry Siegel 590 Joe Shuster 595 References Article Sources and Contributors 600 Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 616 Article Licenses License 621 1 Definitions and Basics Comics Comics (from the Greek , k mikos "of or pertaining to comedy" from - k mos "revel, komos",[1] via the Latin c micus) denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual (non-verbal) and verbal side in interaction. Although some comics are picture-only, pantomime strips, such as The Little King, the verbal side usually expand upon the pictures, but sometimes act in counterpoint.[2] The term derives from the mostly humorous early work in the medium, and came to apply to that form of the medium including those far from comic. The sequential nature of the pictures, and the predominance of pictures over words, distinguishes comics from picture books, although some in comics studies disagree and claim that in fact what differentiates comics from other forms on the continuum from word-only narratives, on one hand, to picture-only [3] narratives, on the other, is social context. William M. Conselman and Charles Plumb’s Ella Cinders and Chris Crusty (January 24, 1932). Syndicated cartoonists during 1930s and 1940s were given entire pages in the sunday comics section and thus had space to create Social context secondary strips known as toppers. Comics as a real mass medium started to emerge in the United States in the early 20th century with the newspaper comic strip, where its form began to be standardized (image-driven, speech balloons, etc.), first in Sunday strips and later in daily strips. The combination of words and pictures proved popular and quickly spread throughout the world. Comic strips were soon gathered into cheap booklets and reprint comic books. Original comic books soon followed. Today, comics are found in newspapers, magazines, comic books, graphic novels and on the web. Historically, the form dealt with humorous subject matter, but its scope has expanded to encompass the full range of literary genres. Also see: Comic strip and cartoon. In some circles, comics are still seen as low art,[4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] though there are exceptions, such as Krazy Kat[10] and Barnaby. However, such an elitist "low art/high art" distinction doesn’t exist in the French-speaking world (and, to some extent, continental Europe), where the bandes dessin es medium as a whole is commonly accepted as "the Ninth Art", is usually dedicated a non-negligible space in bookshops and libraries, and is regularly celebrated in international events such as the Angoul me International Comics Festival. Such distinctions also do not exist in the Japanese manga, the world’s largest comics culture. Comics 2 In the late 20th and early 21st century there has been a movement to rehabilitate the medium. Critical discussions of the form appeared as early as the 1920s,[10] [11] but serious studies were rare until the late 20th century.[12] Though practitioners may eschew formal traditions, they often use particular forms and conventions to convey narration and speech, or to evoke emotional or sensuous responses. Devices such as speech balloons and boxes are used to indicate dialogue and impart establishing information, while panels, layout, gutters and zip ribbons can help indicate the flow of the story. Comics use of text, ambiguity, symbolism, design, iconography, literary technique, mixed media and stylistic elements of art help build a subtext of meanings. Though comics are non-linear structures and can be hard to read sometimes, it is simply presented. However, it depends of the reader’s "frame of mind" to read and understand the comic.[13] Different conventions were developed around the globe, from the manga of Japan to the manhua of China and the manhwa of Korea, the comic books of the United States, and the larger hardcover albums in Europe. History Early narratives in art Comics as an art form established itself in the late 19th and early 20th century, alongside the similar forms of film and animation. The three forms share certain conventions, most noticeably the mixing of words and pictures, and all three owe parts of their conventions to the technological leaps made through the industrial revolution. Though newspapers and magazines first established and popularized comics in the late 1890s, narrative illustration has existed for many centuries. Early precursors of comic as they are known today include Trajan’s Column and the work of William Hogarth. Rome’s Trajan’s Column, dedicated in 113 AD, is an early surviving example of a narrative told through sequential pictures, while Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek friezes, medieval tapestries such as the Bayeux Tapestry and illustrated manuscripts also combine sequential Sequential depictions on Trajan’s images and words to tell a story. In medieval paintings, many sequential Column scenes of the same story (usually a Biblical one) appear simultaneously in the same painting (see illustration to left). However, these works did not travel to the reader; it took the invention of modern printing techniques to bring the form to a wide audience and become a mass medium.[14] [15] [16] Comics 3 In Lucas Cranach the Elder’s "Adam and Eve" different scenes of the Biblical story are shown in the same painting: on the front, God is admonishing the couple for their sin; in the background to the right are shown the earlier scenes of Eve’s creation from Adam’s rib and of their being tempted to eat the forbidden fruit; on the left is the later scene of their expulsion from Paradise. The 15th18th centuries and printing advances The invention of the printing press, allowing movable type, established a separation between images and words, the two requiring different methods in order to be reproduced. Early printed material concentrated on religious subjects, but through the 17th and 18th centuries they began to tackle aspects of political and social life, and also started to satirize and caricature. It was also during this period that the speech bubble was developed as a means of attributing dialogue. William Hogarth is often identified in histories of the comics form. His work, A Rake’s Progress, was composed of a number of canvases, each reproduced as a print, and the eight prints together Last image in William Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress created a narrative. As printing techniques developed, due to the technological advances of the industrial revolution, magazines and newspapers were established. These publications utilized illustrations as a means of commenting on political and social issues, such illustrations becoming known as cartoons in the 1840s. Soon, artists were experimenting with establishing a sequence of images to create a narrative. Comics 4 While surviving works of these periods such as Francis Barlow’s A True Narrative of the Horrid Hellish Popish Plot (c.1682) as well as The Punishments of Lemuel Gulliver and A Rake’s Progress by William Hogarth (1726), can be seen to establish a narrative over a number of images, it wasn’t until the 19th century that the elements of such works began to crystallise into the comic strip. The speech balloon also evolved during this period, from the medieval origins of the phylacter, a label, usually in the form of a scroll, which identified a character either through naming them or using a short text French Liberty.