A comic is a type of literature that involves mainly pictures and many options regarding the text along with it, or even no text at all. We mainly see comic strips, which are a series of cartoon drawings that tell a story or part of a story. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/comic%20strip).
History:
The comic strip, as we usually see now, was originally created in order to draw consumers to the Sunday paper. The first creators were Richard Outcault, William Randolph Hearst, Joseph Pulitzer, James Swinnerton and Rudolph Dirks. Outcault was an illustrator for "The World" in 1895 when he created a one panel cartoon called "Down Hogan's Alley" (http://www.comic-art.com/history/history1.htm). Experimentation with color inks led to the first comic strip in history, “Yellow Kid”. Wiliam Randolph Hearst’s “Journal American” then featured a comic panel called the “Little Bears”, which was created by James Swinnerton. Swinnerton eventually changed his comic to a very popular “Mr. Jack”. Rudolph Dirk was the first person to introduce in-panel dialogue and more than one panel for a comic. His comic, “Katzenjammer Kids” had both of these new ideas, designing the format for the modern comic strip.
The progression of printed paper led to colored print in black, red, yellow, and blue. Newspapers started looking for comic artists. Artists got to work, and by the early 1900’s there were over 150 comic strips in circulation.
Comics were mainly formed around humor. However, Winsor McCay made several comics, called “Little Nemo in Slumberland” and “In the Land of Wonderful Dreams” which focused on dreamt adventures of a young boy and his friends. These comics extended for weeks. In April 1924, Roy Crane created “Washington Tubbs II”, which kept readers on the edge with cliff hangers every week. In 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote a science fiction novel called “Under the Moons of Mars”, which was later published as the Princess of Mars, and inspired many other stories, also spurring the production of a magazine called “Amazing Stories”. This magazine was very successful. One story in this magazine, “Armageddon 2419 A.D.” by Phillip Nowlan struck the comic artist Richard Calkins so much he decided to make it into a comic.
The comic made by Richard Calkins was renamed Buck Rogers in the 25th Century A.D. and this was an immediate hit. Tarzan, illustrated by Harold Foster also became very popular in the world of comic strips. A comic character named “Dick Tracy”, a trench-coated, square jaw police detective, became immensely popular. The comics were very helpful during the depression, to help Americans escape from their daily lives.
Examples:
One example of a comic would be Dilbert which features funny jokes about office politics. Another would be Garfield which details the adventures of a cat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wash_Tubbs#mediaviewer/File:Washtubbscolor.jpg
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amazing_Stories_1927_08.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_(comics)
Comics can also provide insights on history in a light and educational way. Take for example, the Maus series. Maus is about the experience of Art Spiegelman’s father as a Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor. With mice as a representation of Jews, cats as Germans, and pigs as non-Jewish Poles, it can be said that comedy was used but the overall seriousness was not lost in the comic depiction of the Holocaust.
Further Reading:
1. McCloud, Scott. "Understanding comics: The invisible art." Northampton, Mass (1993).
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