Which Comics Do You Read?

What do you like to read? A question you may have been asked before. How did you answer it? Novels, technical manuals, catalogs, auto biographies, magazines, newspapers or maybe comics? Comics, its a term we hear tossed around a lot to describe more than one thing. What do you think about when someone replies to that question? Depending on how old you are or where you live you might be thinking about something different than the person who asked the question.
The word comic often implies something funny. It can also be a short hand term for 'comic books'. You know those four color magazines that used to fit in a spinner rack in the local drug store. The ones that featured all of your favorite cartoon characters. You know, the funny ones, like Popeye, Archie, Heckle & Jeckle or Richie Rich? When these titles were popular they often went by the colloquialism, 'funny books'.
When someone tells you that they are reading a comic, it may not be a funny book or even a book at all. This great American art form like Jazz and Rock n Roll has great variety and depth. Not only do comics have funny characters like we mentioned earlier, there are also superheroes like Superman, Spider-man, Batman, Captain America, The Flash, Flagman and so many more that it would take hours just to read the names. As you can begin to delve into the word 'comics', you will find that it is a broad word that encompasses many different forms. All of these forms fall into many categories and from there they easily fit into many sub-categories The sub-categories can branch into many different areas genre, creators, characters, age range of the reader even abstract concepts like the periodical release of new content. But that leads us down a very broad path with many directions. We want to back up to a point before the sub-categories begin and see which areas they fall into themselves.
So what are these categories? We have already discussed books and even the use of the word 'comics' in front of the word 'books'. The result obviously is 'comic books'. The term 'funny books' was a term that often referred to comic books as it described stories about funny characters in these little pulp masterpieces. The term was also used derogatorily to sneer or make fun of the artistic medium known as 'comic books'. But there is more to the use of the word 'comics' than those. Readers of the newspaper often find similar material printed in the daily and Sunday editions of their publications. Only in this case the term 'comics' no longer refers to books. Instead it can refer to items that fall into two other categories for usage.
In this case the word comics is the shortened form of the term, 'comic strips'. Here we have the word, 'comic' referring to content that is very similar to material found in comic books. The word 'strips' refers to one of the difference we are noting. That difference is comic strips are published in a strip of panels laid out in a sequential fashion on the page. The second category that is quiet similar to these strips are 'comic panels'. These are comics that contain the whole story in one panel illustration. Before the comic strip, comic panels were quiet common. One of the oldest comics used in reference to this category is a panel that appeared in late nineteenth century papers called, “The Yellow Kid”. A feature that was so popular in its time that it attracted many imitators and allowed the medium known as comics to grow. It also resulted in the coining of the term, 'yellow journalism'. Buster Brown now famous for shoes was originally a competitor for page space in the early days of newspaper comics. Modern times have changed the use of the comic panel. Some magazines still use single panel comics like the New Yorker and Playboy. The popularity of the panel has dropped over the decades and the it was soon replaced in popularity by the strip. Though a few successful panels have appeared in modern times like “The Far Side” by Gary Larson.
The strips soon dominated the medium after they started appearing in newspapers. With the early popularity of the strip, it soon followed in the early twentieth century that someone saw the opportunity to collect these comics into book form. These early reprinted strips in book form gave birth to the modern comic book. When talking about comic books though, the books themselves fall into a few different categories under the heading of 'Comics' as well. There are many categories, 'Underground Comics', 'Ground Level Comics', 'News Stand' comics, 'Direct Distribution' comics, 'Independent Comics', Fanzines, Fumetti, Manga (not to be confused with Anime), Graphic Novels (also known as Graphic Narratives), 'Online Comics' and '24 Hour Comics'. Looking at this variety of items that fit under the umbrella known as comics you will find a variety of material created for different markets.
Earlier we discussed how comics known as comic strips led to the creation of comic books. As comic books grew in popularity, their content changed to meet the market demands. Original material was needed and the need grew quickly with the rise in popularity for this new type of reading material. Companies that produced these mass-market titles like DC Comics, Timely Comics, Archie, Nedor, Fox Features, etc. became known as 'news stand' comics. This was the most visible form the medium took and at its heights in the era of World War II, reached print runs in the millions for some titles. Another category appeared with the birth of underground comics in the 1960s with titles that focused on the counter-culture like, The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers, Nard and Pat, Zippy The Pinhead and Fritz The Cat. Titles like these were all produced for a new market centered on the adult related material not found in the Comics Code regulated material found in news stand comics. Some of these titles advocated breaking drug laws and bordered on pornography all in an attempt to stress the freedom of the press. A few years after these books started appearing in head shops and record stores another category of comics appeared. Ground level comics. A term that was coined by Mike Fredrich who founded Star Reach comics. These books fell into the cracks between news stand comics and underground comics. The use of drugs and depictions of a pornographic nature were marginalized in this new category but violence and profanity were still abundant. The notion of ground level comics eventually became absorbed into a newer category that became known as Direct Distribution comics. Direct Distribution comics were comics printed to be sold not at news stands but instead directly to comic book stores. A new retail book store model that became wide spread in the late '80s. These direct distribution comics focused primarily on the super hero. The content of these titles was now free from the Comics Code Authority which had become archaic with its McCarthy like restrictions. This material was closely related to that found in Ground Level comics. Soon small companies appeared on the scene to produce comics for this market exclusively. Since they were not giant corporations like Marvel and DC comics they fell into a new category that came to be called 'Independent Comics'.
Even though they have been produced almost from the start of the medium, fans of comics also produced their own material for sale. In doing so they created a new category that became known as 'Fanzines'. A word that was created from the word 'fan' and combined with the last part of the word 'magazine'. A term that referred to a fan produced magazine. This term is now used for a lot of publications that fall outside of comics. But in that case you usually see the term being shortened further to 'Zines'.
Similar to these publications we find APA's (short for Amateur Press Association). Several creators would compile material make copies and send it into a central editor who would assemble the content into a publication and then distributes the printed work to all of the associated members.
Newer developments in comics have brought us the category, '24-hour' comics. These are comics in which the creator produces a whole book with-in the span of 24 hours without stopping creation till the whole book is complete.
Another recent category, 'Online Comics' are usually in the comic strip format or the panel format. They are located on the internet and only occasionally ever see printed form.
One category that has impacted book stores the most in terms of sales is the graphic novel. These comics are generally square bound collections of material or in the case of the books that contain one whole story, they are known as graphic novels. This form of comics has grown in popularity over the years and has helped to get comics back in front of people who would not ordinarily go into a comic book shop and see the large variety of material available there.
The category of comics that is the twin to graphic novels is the Japanese version of comics called Manga. Some of these books are as thick as a large city phone book and when published in Japan, read from the back to the front or right to left. Some American reprinter's have reproduced these for the U.S. Market and cut and pasted the material in a western tradition so they can be read left to right. This often creates a visual dilemma though as comic panels are placed in careful sequences with the artwork in the panels often indicating the direction to continue reading on the page. Rearranging these panels effects the artist's original story telling intent, often for the worse. Another note to remember is Manga are not Anime. Some people incorrectly refer to Manga as Anime but Anime is the Japanese form of animated cartoons. Anime are shown on film, Manga are printed on paper.
One last category I should mention is Fumetti. These comics are not hand drawn illustrations like most other comics. Instead this is a collection of photographs with the dialogue enclosed in comic style word balloons and the stories are formated like those found in comic books. Italy is the country that innovated this category and you will find the form most popular there.
The variety and styles of comics is vast. The categories sometimes overlap each other and often attract similar audiences. One can spend a lifetime exploring this form of entertainment and many people pursue that path. A lot of people have their favorites though. And no matter which one of the categories we have talked about that a person might prefer; everyone likes to refer to their favorite style of comics simply as comics.
So which comics do you like to read?