21st Century Literature

Lecture Topic: Comic Book

 Comic book – refers to any format that uses a combination of frames, words, and
pictures to convey meaning and tell a story.
o Comic book is a visual text, its language of storytelling is unique.
o Apart from words, it uses static images, sectioned into panels, to convey
meanings.
o In some cases, there are no words at all; the images alone communicate
meaning (McCloud, 1993).
o Collections of comic strips of one title, generally printed in color on newsprint
in magazine form
 History
o have been popular since the early 20th century
o One of the first comic books was a collection of the Mutt and
Jeff comic strips reprinted from the Chicago American in 1911.
o The first comic book published independently of any newspaper, containing
material specially prepared for it, was The Funnies , a four-color book with
pages the size of a tabloid newspaper, which ran for 13 issues in 1929.
o The first comic book to sell on newsstands was Famous Funnies , which first
appeared in 1934.
o In 1938, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster introduced Superman, one of the most
popular characters in the history of comic books.
o Artist Jack Kirby and writer Stan Lee created four superheroes called the
Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics in 1961.
o In 1962, Marvel introduced the Amazing Spider-Man in a story by Lee and
artist Steve Ditko.
o

 PARTS of a Comic Book

o Publisher – the company responsible for publishing the book
o Main title – the title of the comic denoting the series it belongs to.
o Credits – lists the contributions to the book. Usually the writer first, followed
by the artist and the inker.
o Subtitle – title of the individual issue
o Cover image – meant to the reader’s attention, usually depicts a scene from
the book.
o Caption – refers to a speech box that contains narration; that is, speech not
thought or spoken by one of the characters.
o Panel – a single image is contained within a panel. Panels are not always
used, and when used they are not as restrictive as they once were.
o Gutter – the space between panels. Traditional comics confine action to the
panels. Modern comics are not restricted.
o Thought bubble- contain thoughts of the indicated character. These words
represent dialogue internal to that character.
o Dialogue balloons – contain words spoken by indicated character.