Comics Books

A comic book -- or comic for short -- is a magazine or book containing sequential art in the form of a narrative. Although the term implies otherwise, the subject matter in comic books is not necessarily humorous; in fact, it is often serious and action-oriented. more...

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The term \"comics\" in this context does not refer to comic strips (such as Peanuts or Dilbert). In the last quarter of the twentieth century, greater acceptance of the comics form among the general reading populace coincided with a greater usage of the term graphic novel, often meant to differentiate a book of comics with a spine from its saddle-stitched form, but the difference between the terms is ambiguous, as comics have become increasingly available in libraries and mainstream book stores. It also sometimes differentiates between an issue in a serial story and a self-contained story or one-shot although this term was used primarily in the 80s and 90s.

Some of the earliest comic books were simply collections of comic strips that had originally been printed in newspapers, and the commercial success of these collections led to work being created specifically for the comic book form, which fostered specific conventions such as splash pages. Long-form comic books, generally with hardcover or trade-paper binding came to be known as graphic novels, but as noted above, the term's definition is vague. Like jazz music (and a handful of other cultural artifacts), comic books are a rare example of an indigenous American art form, though prototypical examples of the form exist.

American comic books have become closely associated with the superhero tradition. In the United Kingdom, the term comic book is used to refer to American comic books by their readers and collectors, while the general populace would likely consider a comic book a hardcover book collecting comics stories. The analogous term in the UK is a comic, short for comic paper or comic magazine.

American comics

Since the introduction of the modern comic book format in the 1930s with Famous Funnies, the United States has been the leading producer, with only the British comic and Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity of titles (although Japan far outweighs America in overall sales). The majority of all comic books in the U.S. are marketed to young adult readers, though they also produce titles for young children as well as adult audiences.

The history of the comic book in the U.S. is divided into several ages or historical eras: The Platinum Age, The Golden Age, The Silver Age, The Bronze Age, and The Modern Age. The exact boundaries of these eras, the terms for which originated in fandom press, is a debatable point among comic book historians.

Read more at Wikipedia.org