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 means of image-making 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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Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic is a 2006 graphic memoir by the American cartoonist Alison Bechdel, author of the comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For. It chronicles the author's childhood and youth in rural Pennsylvania, United States, focusing on her complex relationship with her father. The book addresses themes of sexual orientation, gender roles, suicide, emotional abuse, dysfunctional family life, and the role of literature in understanding oneself and one's family.

Writing and illustrating Fun Home took seven years, in part because of Bechdel's laborious artistic process, which includes photographing herself in poses for each human figure. Fun Home has been the subject of numerous academic publications in areas such as biography studies and cultural studies as part of a larger turn towards serious academic investment in the study of comics/sequential art.

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Anniversaries for February 11

1911: birth of Harvey Eisenberg, American animator and comic book artist, best known for his work for Hanna-Barbera Productions
1912: birth of German Butze, Mexican cartoonist known as the creator of the comic The Supersabios
1915: birth of Zeke Zekley, American comics artist known for Bringing Up Father
1950: birth of Mauri Kunnas, Finnish comics artist best known for Nyrok City
1957: birth of David M. Singer, American publisher of Deluxe and Lodestone Comics
1962: birth of Shon Howell, American anime/furry artist and editor at Antarctic Press
1963: birth of Peter Snejbjerg, Danish comic book artist
1977: death of Ben Batsford, American cartoonist, creator of the strip Billy's Uncle
1992: birth of Jamal Campbell, American comic book artist
2017: death of Jiro Taniguchi, Japanese manga writer/artist, known for his work in the gekiga, or "dramatic pictures", genre of manga

More February anniversaries / All Anniversaries...

General images

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

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

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

... that although Blizzard's franchise Overwatch is centered around video games, its lore is mainly told through animated shorts, comics, and novels?
... that Steve Englehart wrote the Captain America comic book storyline "Secret Empire" as an allegory for the Watergate scandal?
... that the 2003 graphic novel The Life Eaters, presenting an occult-driven, hypothetical Axis victory in World War II, has been discussed in the context of its portrayal of The Holocaust?
... that while Marvel Comics originally designated the main reality depicted in the MCU multiverse as Earth-199999, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness established it as Earth-616?
... that Arnie Roth debuted as a gay Marvel Comics character at a time when the publisher maintained a "No Gays in the Marvel Universe" policy?
... 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"?
... that a teacher of medieval literature and comic books writes the blog Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle?
... that the writer of the 2022 comic book miniseries Poison Ivy, starring the eponymous Batman villain, described it as a "love story" that features "plant-based body horror"?

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San Diego Comic-Con International, also known as Comic-Con International: San Diego (as given on its website), and commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con or "SDCC", was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by a group of San Diegans, which included Shel Dorf, Richard Alf, Ken Krueger and Mike Towry. It is traditionally a four-day event (Thursday through Sunday — though a three-hour preview night on Wednesday is open to professionals, exhibitors, and some guests pre-registered for all four days) held during the summer in San Diego, California, United States, at the San Diego Convention Center.

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More did you know...

...that 24-hour comics have become so popular that there's now a holiday for it on April 24?

...that Uri-On, created by Michael Netzer (pictured) in 1987, was the first Israeli superhero to be published in color?

...that T.H.E. Fox, drawn on a C64 KoalaPad and published on CompuServe, Q-Link and GEnie, is among the earliest online comics?

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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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Featured content

This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Comics}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.