comic strip, series of adjacent drawn images, usually arranged horizontally, that are designed to be read as a narrative or a chronological sequence. The story is usually original in this form. Words may be introduced within or near each image, or they may be dispensed with altogether. If words functionally dominate the image, it then becomes merely illustration to a text. The comic strip is essentially a mass medium, printed in a magazine, a newspaper, or a book. The definition of comic strip as essentially containing text inscribed within “balloons” inside the picture frame aspires to a certain orthodoxy in the United States, but it is unworkable and would exclude most strips created before about 1900 and many since. The term graphic novel is now established for the longer and more novel-like coherent story, and the term sequential art is also in use.
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King, Frank: Gasoline Alley
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Key People: Art Spiegelman Jack Kirby Stan Lee Winsor McCay Frank Miller
Related Topics: superhero supervillain animation cartoon manga
A definition of terms
A comic book is a bound collection of strips, each of which typically tells a single story or a gag (joke) in a few panels or else a segment of a continuous story. Most of the more popular newspaper comic strips eventually are collected over a varying period of time and published in book form.
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comic strip, series of adjacent drawn images, usually arranged horizontally, that are designed to be read as a narrative or a chronological sequence. The story is usually original in this form. Words may be introduced within or near each image, or they may be dispensed with altogether. If words functionally dominate the image, it then becomes merely illustration to a text. The comic strip is essentially a mass medium, printed in a magazine, a newspaper, or a book. The definition of comic strip as essentially containing text inscribed within “balloons” inside the picture frame aspires to a certain orthodoxy in the United States, but it is unworkable and would exclude most strips created before about 1900 and many since. The term graphic novel is now established for the longer and more novel-like coherent story, and the term sequential art is also in use.
FAST FACTS
2-Min Summary Related Content
King, Frank: Gasoline Alley
King, Frank: Gasoline Alley
See all media
Key People: Art Spiegelman Jack Kirby Stan Lee Winsor McCay Frank Miller
Related Topics: superhero supervillain animation cartoon manga
A definition of terms
A comic book is a bound collection of strips, each of which typically tells a single story or a gag (joke) in a few panels or else a segment of a continuous story. Most of the more popular newspaper comic strips eventually are collected over a varying period of time and published in book form.