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Comics. The very first comics

So, cinema almost from the very beginning of its existence could not do without sound. The "Great Mute" acted to a musical accompaniment, and in the plots tied to complex human relationships, he simply could not avoid text inserts, which subsequently, with the development of technology, inevitably transformed into the sound of lively speech. The comic, I am convinced, also cannot fully exist without a sound component, and in the course of its development I developed quite adequate methods for transmitting sound on paper. This, of course, is the ubiquitous text balloons (here is another term that we should talk about) and the sound effects so disliked by Russian comics. It is the latter, in my opinion, when used correctly, that allow a comic to maximize its potential as an independent art form (another topic for a separate column!). We urgently read manga and learn from the Japanese (they, the non-Christians, are really lucky with hieroglyphic writing, more adapted to these needs)! Therefore, despite the words of McCloud, comics without a text component, in my opinion, are an exception to the rule.

Thus, I believe that to the two main features that define comics as a form of art, one more should also be added, BASIC as well: the comic is characterized by an organic alloy of image and text (as a graphic way of transmitting sound).

Sequential art and “drawn history” no longer cover this part of the definition, because they are too concrete, so “comics” here have their own advantage - for me this word turned into an abstract term long ago, associated with its “comic” source only with a semi-random harmony .

Therefore, finally, without pretending, but without belittling:

COMICS is a hand-drawn story, characterized by an organic fusion of image and text, as a graphic way of transmitting sound.

But, in addition to the main features, the comic has a bunch of secondary, depending on the dominance of each of them in any particular work, it can be attributed to any specific subspecies or genre of the comic.

Comic book story

Stories in Pictures

Drawings by Rodolf Töpfer

The tradition of stories in pictures dates back to the 16th and 17th centuries, when in Valencia and Barcelona they began to sell pictures for the people, most often on religious subjects. This is a retelling of the life of the saints in a series of small prints printed on pieces of colored paper (“hallelujah”). Drawings on secular subjects called themselves "(Spanish. aucas) ”(From Spanish jeu de l’oie).

"Hallelujah" in the XVI and XVII centuries were widespread in Flanders, France and Germany.

In the 19th century, Epinal established factory production of stories in pictures. So, 600 stories were published at the Pellerin factory, consisting of 16 square pictures with captions (the classic Spanish “hallelujah” consisted of 48 pictures).

In 1830-1846, the Swiss Rodolf Töpfer released a series of albums in Geneva about the adventures of Herr Jabot and Herr Crepin.

Romantic artist Valentin published picture albums based on Perrault's tales.

After 1870, the illustrated weeklies in Europe began to use one of the forms of popular prints “Epinal Pictures”. Louis Lumiere borrowed the plot of The Waterer from such picture albums.

Comics come to the USA

Little Sammy Sneezes (1904-06). Artist Winsor Mackay

The first American comic strip Teddy Bears and Tiger was published in 1892 in The San Francisco Examiner (edited by William Randolph Hearst). Hearst’s print trust made extensive use of illustration, with the advent of comics, they become the favorite weapon of the Hurst press, however, like the press of his rival Joseph Pulitzer.

“In 1894, the World printing house installed the first machine, which printed in four colors, and the prints received no longer resembled eggs and tomatoes. On November 18, World released the first truly successful comic book in Sunday issue. Richard F. Outkolt, draftsman of the Electric World newspaper, supplied her with comics in which the main characters were a clown and a shepherd. So the first comic series appeared in the Sunday newspaper. ”

Winkler, historian William Hurst

Later Outkolt (fr. Richard F. Outcault) released the Hogan Alley series. A minor character in it was a little boy in a yellow suit, who was very fond of the residents of New York. Outkolt makes him the main character.

Hurst began to fill in the comics with the Sunday edition of his Morning Journal. The Yellow Boy in World was painted and painted by George B. Lux. In the fall of 1899, Hurst changed the printing press, which printed 4 pages of color drawings, to 16 pages printing machine. Sunday newspaper produces comics first on 8 pages, and then on 16.

One of Hurst's most prominent draftsmen was at that time Windsor Mack Kay, who was considered to be an expert in political cartoons rather than comics. He collaborated in the New York newspaper Hearst's New York American and, in his spare time, painted the cartoon “Jerty Dinosaur”.

“Thanks to these color series, the newspapers Hearst and Pulitzer began to be called the yellow press.”

Georges Sadulia

Golden age

Comic book cover Plastic man # 1, 1943. Plastic was one of the most popular characters of the golden age.

In the 20th century, comics became one of the popular genres of mass culture. By this time, the comics basically lost the comic that they got the name for. The main genre of comics became adventure: action movies, detectives, horrors, science fiction, stories about superheroes.

The Golden Age of Comics (eng. Golden Age of Comic Books) is the name of the period in the history of American comics that lasted (according to various estimates) from the late 1930s to the mid 1950s. The first serious steps in the development of the art of graphic novels were taken at the beginning of the 20th century, in search of new ways of graphic and visual communication and self-expression. At first, the comics were purely humorous in nature. This is largely due to the etymology of the English word that defined their name. This situation fundamentally changed in June 1938, when Superman appeared in the United States. Superman) The beginning of the Golden Age is considered the first appearance of Superman in the comic book. Action Comics # 1released in 1938 and published by DC Comics. Superman was very popular, and soon superheroes literally flooded the pages of comic books. Other characters that have been popular for a long time are Plastic. (eng.Plastic man ) , published by Quality Comics, as well as Detective Spirit, authored by cartoonist Will Eisner, which originally came out as an add-on combined with the Sunday edition of the newspaper. In total, over 400 superheroes were created during this period. Most of them were very reminiscent of Superman and did not survive to this day, however, it was then that heroes such as Batman and Captain America were born. World War II had a serious impact on the content of superhero comics - now the heroes fought with the Axis countries, and the covers depicted superheroes fighting the leader of the Nazi movement Adolf Hitler. After the victory over fascism, superheroes with nuclear abilities began to appear, for example Atomic Thunderer and Atomic Man. Historians of the time believe that children's characters helped ease the fear of young readers about the prospects of nuclear war. In addition, the heroes began to fight with the Communists, and some were involved in the Korean War. However, after the end of World War II, the popularity of superheroes declined. In general, it was during the Golden Age that a new and to this day the main direction in comics appeared - superheroes and new worlds.

Date: June 16, 2015 /

Plunging into the world of hand-drawn stories, sometimes you wonder how many stories and styles exist today. At the beginning of your journey, you combine all these hand-drawn stories with the simple word “Comics”, then after gaining close experience in communicating with the work of the network, the differences between some stories and others begin to emerge for you.

In the courtyard of the 21st century, the Internet is in almost every home and human creativity begins to gain momentum due to easy access and the ability to quickly find like-minded people.

The blog "site" is dedicated specifically to the "web" or as they are sometimes called "online" comics. However, what is their difference from other drawn stories? This article will be a small guide to the types of comics, and you can also read about web comic formats.

For each type of comic book I give a few links to works that have personally inspired me very much. There are many links to Ozone, although you can always download it from trackers, but the pleasure of reading the same “Guardians” in the print edition does not compare with burning your eyes with a monitor :)

Comics

What is a comic book? I think this patient, for the Internet user, least of all needs to be introduced. As I said for a novice reader, any picture that tells a story is a comic.

If we analyze the morphology of the word, then the drawn stories initially had an entertaining purpose ( from the word comic - funny) and the first was a comic book of American origin, Bears and Tiger, published in The San Francisco Examiner in 1892. The illustrations were very successful and the rest of the publishing houses immediately picked up the idea. Since then, the comic book has been leading its official history.

Traditional comics

For myself, I highlight such a subspecies as traditional or Americanized comics. These are those glossy magazines and books about superheroes that everyone has long been accustomed to.

The idea is based on the fight against evil, the main character with super abilities, well, or just some kind of “genius”, as well as more and more villains trying to rob / destroy / enslave humanity.

Such comics are usually very popular, colorful, glossy, have ... how to say it ... about realistic anatomy, not comic. In other types of graphic stories ( excluding photo comics), characters can be infinitely deformed in the direction of increasing or decreasing their characteristics, their facial features, body, arms, legs sizes can be infinitely varied. While the type of comics in question is striving for the right proportions and similarities with the real world.

A large number of these magazines are issued on the basis of profit from the comics themselves and the sold stuff and sometimes, at the peak of the hero’s popularity, a very mediocre product may appear that the fans will meet with hostility.

Graphic Novels

Another subspecies of the comics, very similar to the traditional ones, but intended for a more serious ( adult) audience. A graphic novel exists at the junction of a unique graphic style and a quality storyline. Why am I saying that? Because otherwise there is no profit.

A vivid representative of graphic novels can be called the works of "Keepers" of Alan Murr, and, perhaps, the "City of Sins" by Frank Miller.

If you read these novels, then you know that it’s not children’s themes that are raised in them, but violence and cruelty become key characters in the story, leading their own game in the head of every person.

I advocate for more stories, like "Guardians", much more ... not all my life to laugh.

Web comics

Actually, the subject of this blog. I want to talk so much about web comics that I don’t know where to start. By the way, you can read about “8 Reasons Why You Should Draw Your Web Comic”.

Ahem, as the name "web comic" implies, this type of comic book is targeted at distribution through the global web and can be described as fans for fans.

It all started with copyright stories about universes of your favorite games / films / books and other works, a little later, independent stories began to appear, opening up previously unknown worlds and, like the ending, huge communities began to form around a new format and it started ...

The author of the comic strip acts simultaneously as a screenwriter, and artist, and as a marketer, and who just does not appear, right up to the programmer;
Stories are usually published by the authors themselves on their website, or on some site dedicated to web comics;
The basis of most web comics is the idea ( successful or not, this is a separate conversation), and the goal is to please as many readers as possible ( instead of selling as many copies as possible for traditional comics);
And of course, an arbitrary presentation format, because the network is for that and the network in order to give freedom for creativity;
Web comics can also be divided into both color and black and white.

In the West, the entertainment industry is quite well developed in this regard, and even web comics can make money on their work online, in Russia, the majority of authors are young people who publish their stories as hobbies.

Manga and manhui

So, for those who already know how these types of comics differ from everything else, please do not be angry with me for combining them into one category, and I have not included the manhwa here.

So, manga is hand-drawn stories from the Japanese, and manhui from the Chinese. They have many differences in style and content ( due to the different mentality of the two countries), but in many ways they are still similar.

Unlike the previous types, they are read from right to left, are almost always black and white, and color pages are perceived as manna from heaven. It is worth noting that manga and manhui are drawn mainly on paper and very rarely on a computer, then scanned and replicated, hence comic artists are paid twice as much for color pages.

In Japan, everyone knows from small to large manga, and this is a whole article in the state budget. In China, things are more modest, but the state also promotes its values \u200b\u200bthrough drawn stories, the quality of which sometimes leaves much to be desired.

At the heart of the manga can be anything, either a well-developed plot, or manga style, from twisted plot twists, to a pointless fight from chapter to chapter, fortunately, the last rarity. Oriental comics have a huge division into types and subspecies, from children's stories, to 21+.

Among fans it is not customary to call manga or manhui a comic book, so as not to attribute the shortcomings of the latter to the dignity of the former.

Manhwa

Manhwa is like manga or manhui, but of Korean origin. I singled it out as a separate paragraph for a number of reasons: firstly, the manhwa is read from left to right, secondly, in his country the manhwa does not have such support as the manga with manhua, and thirdly, most of the manhwa is found on the global network.

Despite the lack of support, comics and readers are trying their best to do their work at the level of neighbors from the east. I am familiar with a small number of Korean comics, but those that I know left an indelible impression on me ( and purely positive): The Breaker, Sun Ken rock, etc.

Photo comics / photonovels

If I was guided by my interests, I would not include this type of graphic art here, but the immense popularity in countries such as Spain, France and Latin America made photonovels quite profitable. Plots for photocomics are often taken from popular jokes, invent adventures of toys or popular characters.

In RuNet, memes and collages of screenshots from popular films with unusual, mostly funny, captions are very popular. For this reason, users are not familiar with the types I have listed. hand-drawn stories put photocomics on a par with web comics.

One of the subspecies of photocomics is photo-toad - a kind of montage known to a certain group of people for an image, and giving it a comical look, often radically different from the original. If it is a scientific language, but ... which of us does not know what a photo-toad is? So everything is clear with us: D

In my search for "types of comics," I came across a couple of very interesting types of drawn stories.

Lubok

A kind of graphics, characterized by simplicity of style and a detailed narrative of what is happening. I would not pay much attention to him if Wikipedia did not say that “Lubok” is an ancient Russian comic book. This amused me of course.

I advise you to click on the image and try to read what is written there, with little effort it is quite possible.

Zombie strip

Comics whose authors have passed away, and the story is continued either by relatives, or fans, or people specially hired by the publisher. Zombie comics are often scolded by fans, and for good reason. As a rule, the quality of such comics drops markedly compared to the level of the original.

This happens for several reasons: the first - the author of the original was trite better, the follower does not have that “spark” in the work, whether it be a style or a plot; the second - the publisher wants to make a banal money on the glory of the late creator of the comic strip, which in my opinion is generally extremely disgusting.

That's all the types and subspecies of the comics that I highlight at the moment. Gradually, the boundaries between them blur, like for example photocomics and web comics, and perhaps in the coming years we will see new variations in the presentation of history. But no matter how important it is, that the comics continue to bring us pleasure, and readers in this case will accept any format.

More than one generation of teenagers grew up on graphic novels about Superman, Batman, Hulk, Iron Man. Comics have been and remain a cult subject, although explaining why superheroes so excite the minds of young and adult is not an easy task.

The history of comics, no matter how surprising it sounds, has very ancient roots that date back to the times when people lived in caves and hunted mammoths. It was then that the first examples of cave art appeared, in which, along with scenes from real life, the first superheroes appeared, embodied in the images of the ancient gods.

Hopi rock carvings in Arizona, USA

The chronology of the development of such a genre as comics is very long and long, replete with numerous dates, therefore, listing the main milestones of the development of comics, we restrict ourselves to traveling through the 19th and 20th centuries, since it was during this period that a quantum leap in the development of the genre took place and the known heroes.

The history of comics is rooted in primitive times

Speaking of comics, one should start with the personality of Rodolf Töpfer, a French-speaking Swiss artist who has become a key figure in the history of the development of modern comics. At the beginning of the XIX century, he began to sequentially illustrate stories, placing the text under the images. These comics were reprinted throughout Europe and the United States. Due to the lack of copyright laws, pirated issues of “hand-drawn stories” began to be translated and published everywhere in the world.

Drawings by Rodolf Töpfer

In 1843, satirical drawings, which regularly appeared in newspapers and magazines, got their name - cartoons.

A key figure in the history of the development of comics was Rodolf Töpfer

The invention of photo engraving in 1873 made newspapers relatively inexpensive and allowed them to be published with a large number of illustrations. Such a change in technology was the impetus for the development of comics and their mass production. Particularly developed the art of comics in America. In 1893, Joseph Pulitzer published his first full-page color comic in the New York World, and in the same year other newspapers began to print color comics.

The Yellow Kid, 1898

As an instrument of popular culture, involving the use of both artistic and literary skills, the comic strip successfully reflected the social problems of its time. By the beginning of the 20th century, regular pages appeared in newspapers in major US cities.

The 1920s and 1930s were a period of active development of the comic book industry around the world: in 1929, comics were released, the main character of which was the sailor Popeye. A feature of this character was an increase in strength after eaten spinach. On June 1, 1938, comics saw the light of day, with Superman becoming the protagonist, and in 1939, Batman and the first Human Torch appeared on the pages of comics.

Wonderworld Comics, 1939

Comics are a popular collectible in the second half of the 20th century.

During the second half of the 20th century, comics became a very popular collectible, and American comics of the 1970s became the basis for creating comic book collections.

Cover of the comic strip Plastic Man, 1943

During this period, comic book heroes appear:
1961 - the first issue of the Fantastic Four comes out - comics about a team of superheroes with various supernatural abilities;
1962 - the time of the birth of Spider-Man and the Hulk;
1963 - comics about Iron Man, Doctor Strange and X-Men saw the light of day;
1966 - the appearance of the Black Panther;
1970 - a series of comics about Conan the Barbarian;
1977 - the advent of the Star Wars comics;
1984 - the "birth" of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The ancestor of the comic book genre in Russia is lubok

Despite the fact that comics are considered typical representatives of the "Western" culture, they have a rather long history in our country. The first Russian comics, with a slight stretch, include popular books, which became widespread at the beginning of the 17th century.

Such a book was a small scroll, which depicted pictures describing the most relevant event at the moment of social and political life. That is why the name of such books sounded like "funny pieces."

"The strong and brave hero Ilya Muromets." Lubok 1868

The next stage in the development of Russian comics is associated with the name of Vladimir Dahl. His work “The Adventures of Christian Khristianovich Violdamur and his Arshet” was in many ways reminiscent of modern comics, since the plot, or rather the narrative, was based on the story in pictures. Such a peculiar form of presentation of the material was not appreciated by Dahl's contemporaries; therefore, “stories in pictures” did not receive further development.

In August 1914, the “Today Lubok” association appeared in Moscow, whose participants were such representatives of the domestic cultural elite as Kazimir Malevich, Aristarkh Lentulov, David Burliuk, Vladimir Mayakovsky. The society issued campaign leaflets on military subjects, which contained both pictures and textual information.

In the USSR, the comic book was not widely distributed

In Soviet Russia, the comic book did not get wide distribution: domestic ideological services did their best to prevent the appearance in our country of any elements of a “Western” culture, including comics. However, this did not prevent creating their own alternative to comics, which was manifested in the release of the collections of “History in Pictures”, an illustrated story by “The Adventures of Makar the Ferocious” by Boris Antonovsky, published on the pages of the Leningrad magazine “Hedgehog”, by Bronislav Malakhovsky’s comic book “Smart Masha”.

“The story of bagels and a woman who does not recognize the republic” - a poster from the series “WINDOWS OF GROWTH”. August 1920 The artist is Mikhail Cheremnykh. Text writer - Vladimir Mayakovsky

The proliferation of comic books led to the fact that in the 1930s the authorities officially banned it, calling the comics "a bourgeois-American way of fooling young people." The children's magazine “Murzilka” continued to be the only source for the emergence of new short stories and illustrations. Only in 1956, the Komsomol Central Committee began to publish a new magazine, Funny Pictures, which actively began to use the genre of comics as the main content.

Later, comics about Oktyabrina, a series of comic books “Hare Pts and his imaginary friends: UH, F, a heating pad and a pork chop with peas” and a comic book collection “Cat” appeared in the USSR and Russia.

Scientists at the University of Waterloo have found that children are much better at perceiving and remembering information obtained from an image, rather than from plain text. So, you know what happened to you at that moment when you first began to read with interest the book without pictures? - You have become adults. However, those who believe that books without pictures are a pain have found a way to return to their “second youth” and forever got rid of the suffering caused by a monochrome stream of black lines on a white background. They chose comics - and they did the right thing!

What is a comic book?
Comics are a successful combination of literature and visual art. This is a story in pictures that are arranged in a clear chronological order. Comics impress with their conciseness and at the same time logical and rich plot. Comics can be called differently depending on the volume of the story: if the story is long enough, it can be described as a graphic novel, if it is short, it is called a strip.
There is a Franco-Belgian tradition of comics, it is called BD (an abbreviated version of the French "bande dessinée" - "drawn tape"), Japanese comics are manga, Italian are fumetti, Spanish are tebeo. All of them are significantly different from traditional American comics, although, perhaps, for beginners in this matter, the difference will not be obvious.

Most often in the comics there is a text that is written in the "verbal bubble" above the head of the hero (if this is his thought) or near his lips (if this is his speech). Author's comments are usually located at the bottom of the frame or above it. However, there are also “silent” comics with an obvious plot that is understandable without words.
Drawing styles for images and text can vary, there are even comics of classic literary works, however, adventure stories and comic cartoons are most common.
To simplify the reader’s perception and getting used to the character - the drawings are quite simple and drawn “in haste”, like.

Comics are tightly intertwined with cinema and animation. Scott McCloud, who became famous for the authors of The Essence of the Comic Book, said that films are comics, only extremely slow and detailed. We note this connection in the fact that the English word “cartoon” (caricature) is also used to refer to a cartoon or comic book. Or take Japanese comics - the “manga” often repeats the plots of a traditional anime.
The first comics date back to the 16-17th century (wow!). In Valencia and Barcelona, \u200b\u200bbrochures and pictures of religious content were actively distributed, which described the life of the saints, such comics were called "hallelujah."
The popularity of this format of narration began to grow rapidly throughout Europe.
Comics broke into America in 1892. The San Francisco Examiner magazine published a story in the pictures of Teddy Bears and Tigers.
Since then, comics have evolved rapidly, and the beginning of the twentieth century is considered the start of development The Golden Age of Comics. This is the period from 1930 to 1950, when the comics established themselves as a progressive and popular genre in popular culture. Now the stories in pictures have ceased to be exclusively comical in nature, comics-action films, fantasy, horrors and detective stories and, of course, stories about the adventures of superheroes began to appear. The first appeared Superman (1938), it was published by one of the most famous comic book publishers DC Comics. Following him came the famous Batman and Captain America. The World War II left a very serious imprint on the storylines and comic book images. The covers began to depict superheroes fighting the leader of the Nazi movement, and after the war ended, the superheroes had new nuclear superpowers (Atomic Thunderer and Atomic Man). It was during the "Golden Age" in the comics that a characteristic feature arose - the adventures of a superhero in fictional worlds.

The first European publications (1934): Le journal de Mickey, L’avventuroso, Secret Agent X-9

The next 20 years have passed under the auspices of The Silver Age of Comics. After 1956 and until 1970, comics continued to progress. All the same DC Comics publish the Showcase # 4 comic, and also new popular characters and stories about the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Hulk, Thor, X-Men, Iron Man, released by the new Marvel Comics publishing house, are “born”. Later, a number of the most popular publishers replenished with two more: Dark Horse and Image Comics.
Since the death of Gwen Stacy - the girl of Spider-Man (1973) - begins a new era in the development of comics - The Bronze Agewhich lasted about 15 years. During this period, comics acquired the features of ever-increasing realism, in their stories they began to cover pressing issues: drugs, alcohol, and the environment.

From the 80s, the Modern era of comics began, which continues to this day. Every year, comic book stories become more realistic, anti-heroes appear, and stories become darker.

Why is comics so easy to get hooked on?
We talked about this with the avid comics-lovers. Many of them argue that there are several reasons to get hooked on comics:

The plot itself may interest;
You may be interested in the style of a particular author;
Interest may be the style of a particular artist;

Many people are not particularly obsessed with reading all the issues of a particular comic book cycle in chronological order. The preparation of such a cycle is often done by several authors or artists who are responsible for a specific time period of the storyline. Thus, readers often choose an author that they like and purchase issues that he worked on.
Also the reason for such a demand for comics is the variety of genres in which everyone will find for himself what he likes, if he gets rid of the stereotype that "comics are something about superheroes."

However, comic book fans are increasingly complaining that today most of them have become very commercialized, and when they buy the next issue, the reader is faced with 40% page advertising (this is especially true for issues from the aforementioned most famous publishers). Fortunately, however, there are underground publishers that continue to delight fans with both a more soulful approach and a more attractive, psychedelic and non-trivial picture.

An unambiguous advantage of the modern era of comics is that authors become much closer to the reader thanks to social networks. They openly make contact with fans: you can always send a positive and motivating review to the author or donate some money.
Today, comics can be purchased both in specialized stores (if available in your city) and in online stores, for example: The Book Depository or Comixology.
If you, dear reader, know where else you can buy comics or you just have something to add, we are waiting for your comments!

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