Portal:Comics

Introduction

Comics is 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, and comic albums, 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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The Kampung Boy, also known as Lat, the Kampung Boy or simply Kampung Boy, is a graphic novel by Lat about a young boy's experience growing up in rural Perak in the 1950s. The book is an autobiographical account of the artist's life, telling of his adventures in the jungles and tin mines, his circumcision, family, and school life. It is also the basis for the eponymous animated series broadcast in 1999. First published in 1979 by Berita Publishing, The Kampung Boy was a commercial and critical success; its first printing (of at least 60,000 copies) was sold out within four months of its release. Narrated in English with a smattering of Malay, the work has been translated into other languages, such as Japanese and French, and sold abroad. The book made Lat an international figure and a highly regarded cartoonist in Malaysia. It won several awards when released as Kampung Boy in the United States, such as Outstanding International Book for 2007 and the Children's Book Council and Booklist Editor's Choice for 2006. The Kampung Boy became a franchise, with the characters of The Kampung Boy decorating calendars, stamps, and aeroplanes. A Malaysian theme park is scheduled to open in 2012 with the fictional characters as part of its attractions. The Kampung Boy is very popular in Southeast Asia and has gone through 16 reprints. A sequel, Town Boy, which followed the protagonist in his teenage years in the city, was published in 1981 and a spin-off, Kampung Boy: Yesterday and Today, in 1993. The latter reused the setting of The Kampung Boy to compare and contrast the differences between Malaysian childhood experiences in the 1950s and 1980s.

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Anniversaries for June 25

1917: birth of William Woolfolk, American writer of comic books, novels, and television screenwriting
1928: birth of Peyo, Belgian comic author and artist, creator of The Smurfs
1928: birth of Alex Toth, influential American comic book artist
1953: birth of Jerry Bingham, American artist of comic books, commercial illustration, and design
1973: publication of the last part of Ayako, a manga trilogy by Osamu Tezuka
1973: last appearance of Mafalda, comic strip by Argentine creator Quino which ran since 1964
1979: debut of Latigo, American comic strip by Stan Lynde
1983: last publication of Wow!, a British comic which ran for just over a year
1983: first publication of Cliff Hanger, a British comic strip by Jack Edward Oliver in Buster
1986: birth of Rebecca Taylor, American comic book editor
1990: final issue of Akira, successful manga by Katsuhiro Otomo
1999: debut of Alice!, American webcomic by Michael McKay-Fleming

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General images

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

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

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

... that Pinky & Pepper Forever is a graphic novel that follows two anthropomorphic dog girlfriends through hell?
... that a teacher of medieval literature and comic books writes the blog Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle?
... that Maystorm, a character from Ultimate X-Men, was initially created for a variant cover for the comic X-Men?
... that The Steranko History of Comics has been described as the first piece of cultural analysis on American comic books?
... that Tina Leung dressed as her comic book alter ego when accepting an award for the House of Slay?
... that Fabrizio Dori wants his comic book Il dio vagabondo to bring attention to an ancient Greek view of death?
... that the comic book Nietzsche, se créer liberté tries to express Friedrich Nietzsche's personality visually?
... 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?

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Credit: Winsor McCay

A panel is an individual frame, or single drawing, in the multiple-panel sequence of a comic strip or comic book. A panel consists of a single drawing depicting a frozen moment. Newspaper daily strips typically consist of either four panels (Doonesbury, For Better or For Worse) or three panels (Garfield, Dilbert), all of the same size. The horizontal newspaper strip can also employ only a single panel, as sometimes seen in Wiley Miller's Non Sequitur.

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More did you know...

...that the film Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds has been in development since the 1990s and once included a comedic incarnation with Jack Black set to star?

...that Leland Myrick wrote the autobiographical graphic novel Missouri Boy, even though he considers himself "a very private person"?

...that Chilean cartoonist and plastic artist Fernando Krahn had to leave his country in order to escape from the 1973 coup d'état?

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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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