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Post by jason on Sept 25, 2022 14:33:23 GMT -5
I mean, obviously stuff like the floppies, as well as Graphic Novels and TPBs,but what about collections of comic strips? What about magazines that are mostly text but have a dedicated comics section as well (I'm thinking stuff like Disney Adventures and Nickelodeon magazine)? How far do you go before something isnt really a comic?
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 25, 2022 15:39:17 GMT -5
Seems like a fair question. I think a comic is different from a TPB, Treasury size ,Omnibus or even a digest . A comic is approximately 6.875” x 10.438” in dimensions. The size matters to me in defining it as a comic.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2022 16:16:47 GMT -5
A comic to me is anything that looks like a comic.
So a standard comic is a comic. A Treasury is a big comic. A magazine with comic interior is a comic. A Hardcover / Omnibus / TPB is a collection of comics. A digest is a little comic.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2022 16:45:27 GMT -5
Seems like a fair question. I think a comic is different from a TPB, Treasury size ,Omnibus or even a digest . A comic is approximately 6.875” x 10.438” in dimensions. The size matters to me in defining it as a comic.
Silver Age and Golden Age books were wider than 6.875. I wish they kept those dimensions actually.
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Post by tarkintino on Sept 25, 2022 17:35:33 GMT -5
I mean, obviously stuff like the floppies, as well as Graphic Novels and TPBs,but what about collections of comic strips? What about magazines that are mostly text but have a dedicated comics section as well (I'm thinking stuff like Disney Adventures and Nickelodeon magazine)? How far do you go before something isnt really a comic? I would not consider older magazines with comic sections such as Pizazz, Valiant / TV-21, or Hammer's House of Horror, etc., comics in the most recognized definition of the term (primarily due to each also containing everything from interviews to reviews, etc.). Moreover, comic strips are their own category / format distinct from monthly / bi-monthly titles, so a collection would not be classified as a "comic book", but exactly what it is: a collection.
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 25, 2022 18:00:44 GMT -5
Seems like a fair question. I think a comic is different from a TPB, Treasury size ,Omnibus or even a digest . A comic is approximately 6.875” x 10.438” in dimensions. The size matters to me in defining it as a comic.
Silver Age and Golden Age books were wider than 6.875. I wish they kept those dimensions actually.
Anything not the size that I listed , is usually dog eared and roughed up. I rarely care for them in the same way. You would cry if you saw the shape the treasury Superman / Ali book was in.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 25, 2022 18:59:55 GMT -5
To me, a comic is a series of cartoons that tells a story. After that, we are talking publishing and marketing. The story can be serialized in installments (strips or issues), told in one format (single issue, graphic novel), or multiple stories collected in a volume (trade paperback, omnibus, etc). Size doesn't enter into it, for me, format doesn't matter; just the story content, even if the story is just a joke, told over a single or multiple panels. A Calvin & Hobbes book, to me, is a comic collection the same as a Superman TPB or a Best of DC digest. In Italy, Diabolik was published in digest size magazine; in Japan, manga in small, thick books, in Europe, in magazines and trade size albums. The US seems to be the only place that gets wrapped up in format.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2022 20:43:25 GMT -5
To me, a comic is a story using words and pictures arranged in panels and/or pages. That the medium. The format used to bring it to market is irrelevant. It's a medium, not a product. It is sold as a product in several formats, and also delivered to readers (without commercial considerations) in multiple formats from print to online. It's still all comics as long as its words and pictures arranged in panels and/or panels used to tell some kind of narrative.
-M
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,269
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Post by shaxper on Sept 25, 2022 21:25:24 GMT -5
"Sequential art" has always been a more fitting label for me than "comic" (which implies comedy and nothing else). Is it artistic and not just practical? Is it sequential and, therefore, advancing a story of some kind through its arrangement of panels/installments? That's what I'm a fan of!
I'm even totally comfortable calling (some) animation a form of comic, for example. Really, the only difference is that the panels are being advanced for you and any narration/dialogue must be heard instead of read. Of course, a cartoon done without any trace of artistic expression would therefore not be "sequential art". The original Transformers cartoon is not "sequential art," but Transformers: The Movie sure is.
Heck, I don't think it's a coincidence that so many classic comic fans here are also classic film buffs. In the truly high quality films, the frame is no different than a comic book panel, meticulously and purposefully arranged to elicit an emotion and tell a story. So maybe film can qualify as "sequential art" too.
But whatever the hell Kool-Aid Man #1 is, it isn't what I read and collect. It may be considered a "comic," but it isn't "Sequential Art" anymore than airline safety instructions are, regardless of its outer packaging.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 25, 2022 22:53:42 GMT -5
"Sequential art" has always been a more fitting label for me than "comic" (which implies comedy and nothing else). Is it artistic and not just practical? Is it sequential and, therefore, advancing a story of some kind through its arrangement of panels/installments? That's what I'm a fan of! I'm even totally comfortable calling (some) animation a form of comic, for example. Really, the only difference is that the panels are being advanced for you and any narration/dialogue must be heard instead of read. Of course, a cartoon done without any trace of artistic expression would therefore not be "sequential art". The original Transformers cartoon is not "sequential art," but Transformers: The Movie sure is. Heck, I don't think it's a coincidence that so many classic comic fans here are also classic film buffs. In the truly high quality films, the frame is no different than a comic book panel, meticulously and purposefully arranged to elicit an emotion and tell a story. So maybe film can qualify as "sequential art" too. But whatever the hell Kool-Aid Man #1 is, it isn't what I read and collect. It may be considered a "comic," but it isn't "Sequential Art" anymore than airline safety instructions are, regardless of its outer packaging. I've known at least 3 people in my life for whom Kool Aid Man #1 was their favorite comic of all time and each owned multiple copies of it to give away to people to share their fascination for that book. -M edit to PS-each was separated by time and geography, so I doubt they had ever met each other, so it wasn't a group shared experience or private joke thing. Two were from pre-internet days as well, so it wasn't a cultural shared meme thing either.
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Post by commond on Sept 26, 2022 0:37:17 GMT -5
It bugs me that single panels aren't considered comics.
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Post by Dizzy D on Sept 26, 2022 3:27:35 GMT -5
I'm going with "I know it when I see it", because by various definitions things that I consider a comic would not be one.
For example Howard the Duck #16 and G.I. Joe #21 both fall out of various definitions for comic books for different reasons, but I find it hard to point at a single issue in a series and go "that one was not a comic, the rest were".
Size, page count, country of origin all don't matter to me.
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Post by Rob Allen on Sept 26, 2022 11:19:29 GMT -5
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Sept 27, 2022 13:03:23 GMT -5
This is how I break it down personally...and I am not saying this is gospel, just how I do it
Comic = single issue floppy comic TPB = collection of reprinted comics in softcover format, usually from a run or series Graphic novel = an original comic text not in comic format Comic mag = a magazine that is a comic book Collected edition = a collection of comic strips in one place (ie Bloom County collected editions)
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Post by tonebone on Sept 27, 2022 14:14:18 GMT -5
To me, a comic is a story using words and pictures arranged in panels and/or pages. That the medium. The format used to bring it to market is irrelevant. It's a medium, not a product. It is sold as a product in several formats, and also delivered to readers (without commercial considerations) in multiple formats from print to online. It's still all comics as long as its words and pictures arranged in panels and/or panels used to tell some kind of narrative. -M I feel like where it breaks from this paradigm is books like "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" which is largely prose peppered with cartoon drawings with word balloons. I don't consider this a comic, any more than an art book with occasional panels of comics. However, DOAWK is considered a "graphic novel" by bookstores, book lists, etc.
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