Draft of my Report

How do Graphic Novels Relate to Digital Games?

Contents

· Introduction.

· Definition of a Graphic Novel.

· What are differences and similarities between graphic novels, comics and manga?

· Brief History of the Graphic Novel.

· Western Comics.

· Eastern Graphic Novels.

· Layout of a Graphic Novel/Manga.

· Graphic Novels that have been transformed into games.

· What process do the creators do to transform graphic novels to digital games?

· What difficulties when changing occur?

· Conclusion/Summary

· Appendices?

· Bibliography

Introduction

My report will be reportage on graphic novels and their transmission to digital games. The report will explain where graphic novels come from, why & how they were created, who created them and what they are? Furthering this I will report on what difficulties the creators may have had produce the novel. Also I will explore why a graphic novel is laid out the way it is. Most importantly however I will report on the differences between graphic novels and games. Such as what & how are characters chosen to be in the game or novel? Why are new characters introduced to the games when they aren’t in the novel? What part of the novel will become the games storyline?

Definition of a Graphic Novel

My Answer

A graphic novel is a series of artwork that creates a story; ‘an image is worth a thousand words’. And thus therefore the graphic novel can tell a story without having to describe a scene or a character’s looks because the reader can see it.

Also according to About.com “There are differing viewpoints as to how broadly “graphic novel” should be defined.

According to Scholastic, “The term graphic novel is now generally used to describe any book in a comic format that resembles a novel in length and narrative development.”

According to an article by Keir Graff in the American Library Association’s Booklist/February 1, 2003, “A graphic novel, like a regular novel, is a stand-alone story that is published as a book. It’s easy to get confused, though, because some people will still use comics for the whole genre or graphic novel for any comic-style work that’s handsomely published, even if it’s just a collection of superhero stories.”

In The Complete Idiot’s Guide® to Creating a Graphic Novel, authors Nat Gerther and Steve Lieber give a broader definition: “A graphic novel is a comic’s project of substantial length that is designed to be understood as a single work. Fiction, nonfiction – even a comic’s format cookbook – would count as a graphic novel.” (Page 13, 2004 edition. ISBN: 9781592572335)

The broadest definition comes from the No Flying, No Tights Teen Graphic Novel site, run by Robin Brenner, Teen Librarian at the Brookline (MA) Public Library and others: "The shortest definition of a graphic novel is this: a book-length comic."”

What are differences and similarities between graphic novels, comics and manga?

My View Point

The first most obvious similarity is that all use sequential artwork to present a story, According to Savannah College of Art and Design, which offers a degree in sequential art, “The field of sequential art encompasses graphic novels, comic books, comic strips, children’s books and storyboards for animation and film. Sequential artists combine words and pictures to form entertaining and effective narratives.” Also most often the story will be present the dialog in the form of speech/thought bubbles with boxed captions for the narrator.

For the differences however according to About.com “However, comic-style books are generally hardbound or soft bound like picture books. They are longer than comic books but not as long as novels. Graphic novels are also available in hardbound or soft bound editions but are substantially longer than comic books or comic-style books. To further confuse matters, some librarians, educators, and authors use the term “comic(s)” to refer to all three: comic books, comic-style books, and graphic novels.”

My view is that a comic i.e. The Beano, Dandy and The Simpsons etc… are short stories that are generally resolved within the same comic and/or have more than one story within it. A graphic novel however I think is a story that it the length of a regular novel that then can have a sequel of novels following it i.e. X-men, Batman and Avengers. Finally Manga my thoughts are that manga tells a long story over a number of books but the story can be split into Arcs i.e. Bleach, Naruto and Rurouni Kenshin.

Brief history of the Graphic Novel

The graphic novel began its life as comic strips in newspapers, long before the 1930s such as Max und Mortiz in Fliegende Blatter (German Newspaper) being one of the first to appear in newspapers from as early as 1859, Abie the Agent in The New York Journal in 1914 and Barney Google and Snuffy Smith appearing in 900 newspapers in 21 countries from its debut in 1919.

The first graphic novel ever is considered to be The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck by Rudolphe Topffer of Switzerland. It was first published in 1837 and again in the US in English in 1842. It had only 40 pages, formatted with several picture panels with text underneath.

According to Scott McCloud an American cartoonist and theorist on comics as a distinct literary and artistic medium, in the 1993 non-fiction comic book that he had drawn and written titled Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art he says “Topffer’s work is in many ways the father of the modern comic”

Merge the History in to Western Comics

(to be further researched Frans Masereel, Lynd Ward, Milt Gross, Max Ernst, Virginia Lee Burton and Classics Illustated as well as other ideas between the 1920s to 1960s)

A massive change in comics began in America with Superman Debut in 1932 and since then in America comic books have been dominated by superheroes of various sorts.

The UK had the Beano and Dandy debuting in 1938 & 1937.

Other early Comics:

Adventure Comics

The Boy's Own Paper

Film Fun

The Gem

The Magnet

Why I have chosen to do a Reportage report?

I have chosen to write in this style because I think it’s most appropriate seeing as I have reported what other people have written about my subject as well as giving my views and ideas. Also I can visualize it appearing in a magazine or journal. Furthermore my report will include a vast bibliography of my ideas, research and references so that the reader of the magazine/journal could explore their own ways of perhaps making a Graphic Novel.

What I’ve done and where this Report is going?

So far I have an introduction that’s needs editing, a basic/full understanding of the definition of what a graphic novel is. Also I have done splitting up the differences and similarities between Graphic novels, Comics and Manga; furthermore I have written a brief history on graphic novels, comics and manga. The destination of where this report is going is that I will be exploring the differences between Eastern and Western Graphic Novels/Comics/Manga as well as defining what classifies as east or west? This will then lead me on to what layout styles are used to display the storyboard.

Here there will be a break for I will then look into what graphic novels/comics/manga has been developed into Digital games. This will include the process of graphic novels to games and what the creator/artist/author has inputted towards the games development. Furthermore I will get an understanding of what difficulties occur in the process; finally I will produce a conclusion/summary of what I have discovered while exploring this report.

As part of the report but not in it, I will compile a bibliography of where I’ve gotten my research and what links I’ve used. I may also compile an appendices or glossary to explain words and terms I have used.

Q. history is a large area to cover. Do I or can I change the question/direction of this report

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_novel, 27/10/2011, Visual novel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphic_novel , 27/10/2011, Graphic novel

Tychinski Stan, http://bookshelf.diamondcomics.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=20&s=164&ai=64513&ssd, 27/10/2011, A Brief History of the Graphic Novel

http://bookshelf.diamondcomics.com/public/default.asp?t=2&m=1&c=20&s=161, 27/10/2011, what are Graphic Novels and Comics?

http://bookshelf.diamondcomics.com/public/default.asp?t=1&m=1&c=20&s=432&ai=0, 27/10/2011, What Is Manga?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga, 27/10/2011, Manga

http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/outreach/events/graphic-novels, 31/10/2011, Graphic Novels, the Middle East, and Muslim Communities.

http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/2521, 31/10/2011, Interview Archive: Independent and Grassroots Comic Artists in the Middle East Region

http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/2558, 31/10/2011, Talks and Lectures

Pearson Charles, http://www.ehow.com/how_4881381_write-graphic-novel-online.html, 31/10/2011, How to write a graphic novel online.

http://www.ehow.com/search.html?rs=1&s=Comic+Book , 31/10/2011, Comic book Graphic novel

http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Graphic_novel , 04/11/2011, Graphic novel - Definition

http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/graphicnovelscomics/f/graphic-novel.htm , 04/11/2011, What Exactly is a Graphic Novel?

http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/novels/history/graphicnov.htm , 04/11/2011, The Graphic Novel

http://www.comics-db.com/ , 04/11/2011, The Big Comic Book Database

http://www.grovel.org.uk/ , 04/11/2011, Grovel Graphic novel reviews

http://www.tcj.com/category/blog/ , 04/11/2011, The comics journal

http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/graphicnovelscomics/f/comics_faq.htm, 04/11/2011 , Question: What do Comic Books, Comic-style Books, and Graphic Novels Have in Common?

Brad J. Guigar, http://www.netplaces.com/cartooning/comic-books/graphic-novels.htm, 04/11/2011, Graphic Novels

Brad J. Guigar, http://www.netplaces.com/cartooning/comic-books/japanese-manga.htm, 04/11/2011, Japanese Manga

Meg Schneider and Barbara Doyen , http://www.netplaces.com/book-proposal/targeted-fiction/graphic-novels.htm, 04/11/2011, Graphic Novels

http://www.barnaclepress.com/list.php?directory=AbieTheAgent , 14/11/2011, Barnacle Press

http://www.encyclo.co.uk/define/Abie%20the%20Agent , 14/11/2011, Encyclo Online Encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Google_and_Snuffy_Smith ,14/11/2011, Barney Google

http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventions/a/comics.htm , 14/11/2011, The History of comic book

http://www.dnp.co.jp/museum/nmp/nmp_i/articles/manga/manga3.html ,25/11/11, History of Manga

History og Graphic novel from wikipedia

As the exact definition of graphic novel is debatable, the origins of the artform itself are open to interpretation. Cave paintings may have told stories, and artists and artisans beginning in the Middle Ages produced tapestries and illuminated manuscripts that told or helped to tell narratives.The first Western artist who interlocked lengthy writing with specific images was most likely William Blake (1757–1826).[citation needed] Blake created several books in which the pictures and the "storyline" are inseparable, such as Marriage of Heaven and Hell.[citation needed]The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, the 1837 English translation of the 1833 Swiss publication Histoire de M. Vieux Bois by Swiss caricaturist Rodolphe Töpffer, is the oldest recognized American example of comics used to this end.[7] The United States has also had a long tradition of collecting comic strips into book form. While these collections and longer-form comic books are not considered graphic novels even by modern standards, they are early steps in the development of the graphic novel.[citation needed][edit] 1920s to 1960sThe 1920s saw a revival of the medieval woodcut tradition, with Belgian Frans Masereel cited as "the undisputed king" of this revival.[8] Among Masereel's works were Passionate Journey (1926, reissued 1985 as Passionate Journey: A Novel in 165 Woodcuts ISBN 978-0-87286-174-9). American Lynd Ward also worked in this tradition, publishing the first wordless, woodcut-picture novel, Gods' Man, in 1929 and going on to publish more during the 1930s.[citation needed]Other prototypical examples from this period include American Milt Gross' He Done Her Wrong (1930), a wordless comic published as a hardcover book, and Une Semaine de Bonté (1934), a novel in sequential images composed of collage by the surrealist painter Max Ernst. In 1941, author/illustrator Virginia Lee Burton published Calico the Wonder Horse, or the Saga of Stewy Slinker. Intrigued by her nine-year old son's fascination with comic books, she had tailored the book to his interest, creating an early graphic novel[9]The digest-sized "picture novel" It Rhymes with Lust (1950), one precursor of the graphic novel. Cover art by Matt Baker and Ray Osrin.The 1940s saw the launching of Classics Illustrated, a comic-book series that primarily adapted notable, public domain novels into standalone comic books for young readers. The 1950s saw this format broadened, with popular movies being similarly adapted. By the 1960s, British publisher IPC had started to produce a pocket-sized comic-book line, the "Super Library", that featured war and spy stories told over roughly 130 pages.[10]In 1950, St. John Publications produced the digest-sized, adult-oriented "picture novel" It Rhymes with Lust, a film noir-influenced slice of steeltown life starring a scheming, manipulative redhead named Rust. Touted as "an original full-length novel" on its cover, the 128-page digest by pseudonymous writer "Drake Waller" (Arnold Drake and Leslie Waller), penciler Matt Baker and inker Ray Osrin proved successful enough to lead to an unrelated second picture novel, The Case of the Winking Buddha by pulp novelist Manning Lee Stokes and illustrator Charles Raab.[11][12] In 1955, EC Comics devised the label "Picto-Fiction" when it attempted to graduate from the conventional comic book format to typeset graphic stories with a line of experimental magazines—Confessions Illustrated, Terror Illustrated, Shock Illustrated and Crime Illustrated.By the late 1960s, American comic book creators were becoming more adventurous with the form. Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin self-published a 40-page, magazine-format comics novel, His Name is... Savage (Adventure House Press) in 1968 — the same year Marvel Comics published two issues of The Spectacular Spider-Man in a similar format. Columnist and comic-book writer Steven Grant also argues that Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's Doctor Strange story in Strange Tales #130-146, although published serially from 1965–1966, is "the first American graphic novel".[13]Meanwhile, in continental Europe, the tradition of collecting serials of popular strips such as The Adventures of Tintin or Asterix had allowed a system to develop which saw works developed as long form narratives but pre-published as serials; in the 1970s this move in turn allowed creators to become marketable in their own right, auteurs capable of sustaining sales on the strength of their name.By 1969, the author John Updike, who had entertained ideas of becoming a cartoonist in his youth, addressed the Bristol Literary Society, on "the death of the novel". Updike offered examples of new areas of exploration for novelists, declaring "I see no intrinsic reason why a doubly talented artist might not arise and create a comic strip novel masterpiece".[14][edit] Modern eraDetail from Blackmark (1971) by scripter Archie Goodwin and artist-plotter Gil Kane.Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin's Blackmark (1971), a science fiction/sword-and-sorcery paperback published by Bantam Books, did not use the term originally; the back-cover blurb of the 30th-anniversary edition (ISBN 978-1-56097-456-7) calls it, retroactively, "the very first American graphic novel". The Academy of Comic Book Arts presented Kane with a special 1971 Shazam Award for what it called "his paperback comics novel". Whatever the nomenclature, Blackmark is a 119-page story of comic-book art, with captions and word balloons, published in a traditional book format. It is also the first with an original heroic-adventure character conceived expressly for this form.The first six issues of writer-artist Jack Katz's 1974 Comics and Comix Co. series The First Kingdom were collected as a trade paperback (Pocket Books, March 1978, ISBN 978-0-671-79016-5),[15] which described itself as "the first graphic novel". Issues of the comic had described themselves as "graphic prose", or simply as a novel.European creators were also experimenting with the longer narrative in comics form. In the United Kingdom, Raymond Briggs was producing works such as Father Christmas (1972) and The Snowman (1978), which he himself described as being from the "bottomless abyss of strip cartooning", although they, along with such other Briggs works as the more mature When the Wind Blows (1982), have been re-marketed as graphic novels in the wake of the term's popularity. Briggs notes, however, "I don't know if I like that term too much".[16][edit] Digital eraGraphic novels have been recently adopted in the form of digital versions for various tablet, reader and cell phones. These digitized versions have been taken up by the mainstream graphic novel publishers Marvel Comics and from 2011 have seen the digitized adaptation of classic texts such as Machiavelli's The Prince (SmarterComics 2011, ASIN: B005V1FYZY) and Sun Tzu's The Art of War by Shane Clester (Smartercomics 2011, ASIN: B005P2HQ5A) transferred into digital graphic novels.[edit] First self-proclaimed graphic novels: 1976-1978Cover of Bloodstar (1976) by Robert E. Howard and artist Richard Corben.In 1976, the term "graphic novel" appeared in print to describe three separate works. Bloodstar by Richard Corben (adapted from a story by Robert E. Howard) used the term to define itself on its dust jacket and introduction. George Metzger's Beyond Time and Again, serialized in underground comics from 1967 to 1972, was subtitled "A Graphic Novel" on the inside title page when collected as a 48-page, black-and-white, hardcover book published by Kyle & Wheary.The digest-sized Chandler: Red Tide (1976) by Jim Steranko, designed to be sold on newsstands, used the term "graphic novel" in its introduction and "a visual novel" on its cover, although Chandler is more commonly considered[citation needed] an illustrated novel than a work of comics.The following year, Terry Nantier, who had spent his teenage years living in Paris, returned to the United States and formed Flying Buttress Publications, later to incorporate as NBM Publishing (Nantier, Beall, Minoustchine), and published Racket Rumba, a 50-page spoof of the noir-detective genre, written and drawn by the single-name French artist Loro. Nantier followed this with Enki Bilal's The Call of the Stars. The company marketed these works as "graphic albums".[17]Similarly, Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species by writer Don McGregor and artist Paul Gulacy (Eclipse Books, August 1978) — the first graphic novel sold in the newly created "direct market" of United States comic-book shops[18] — was called a "graphic album" by the author in interviews, though the publisher dubbed it a "comic novel" on its credits page. "Graphic album" was also the term used the following year by Gene Day for his hardcover short-story collection Future Day (Flying Buttress Press).Another early graphic novel, though it carried no self-description, was The Silver Surfer (Simon & Schuster/Fireside Books, August 1978), by Marvel Comics' Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Significantly, this was published by a traditional book publisher and distributed through bookstores, as was cartoonist Jules Feiffer's Tantrum (Alfred A. Knopf, 1979)[19] described on its dustjacket as a "novel-in-pictures".[edit] Adoption of the termSabre (1978), one of the first modern graphic novels. Art by Paul Gulacy.Hyperbolic descriptions of longer comic books as "novels" appear on covers as early as the 1940s. Early issues of DC Comics' All-Flash Quarterly, for example, described their contents as "novel-length stories" and "full-length four chapter novels."[20]In its earliest known citation, Richard Kyle used the term "graphic novel" in CAPA-ALPHA #2 (November 1964), a newsletter published by the Comic Amateur Press Alliance, and again in Kyle's magazine Fantasy Illustrated #5 (Spring 1966).[21] Kyle, inspired by European and Japanese graphic albums, used the label to designate comics of an artistically "serious" sort.[22] Following this, Bill Spicer, with Kyle's acknowledgment, edited and published a periodical titled Graphic Story Magazine in the fall of 1967.[21] The Sinister House of Secret Love #2 (Jan. 1972), one of DC Comics' line of extra-length, 48-page comics, specifically used the phrase "a graphic novel of Gothic terror" on its cover.[23]The term "graphic novel" began to grow in popularity months after it appeared on the cover of the trade paperback edition (though not the hardcover edition) of Will Eisner's A Contract with God, and Other Tenement Stories (October 1978). This collection of short stories was a mature, complex work focusing on the lives of ordinary people in the real world,[citation needed] and the term "graphic novel" was intended[citation needed] to distinguish it from the traditional serialized nature of comic books, with which it shared a storytelling medium. Eisner cited[citation needed] Lynd Ward's 1930s woodcuts (see above) as an inspiration.The critical and commercial success of A Contract with God helped to establish the term "graphic novel" in common usage, and many sources have incorrectly credited Eisner with being the first to use it. These included the Time magazine website in 2003, which said in its correction, "Eisner acknowledges that the term 'graphic novel' had been coined prior to his book. But, he says, 'I had not known at the time that someone had used that term before.' Nor does he take credit for creating the first graphic book."[24]One of the earliest contemporaneous applications of the term post-Eisner came in 1979, when Blackmark's sequel — published a year after A Contract with God though written and drawn in the early 1970s — was labeled a "graphic novel" on the cover of Marvel Comics' black-and-white comics magazine Marvel Preview #17 (Winter 1979), where Blackmark: The Mind Demons premiered — its 117-page contents intact, but its panel-layout reconfigured to fit 62 pages.Following this, Marvel from 1982 to 1988 published the Marvel Graphic Novel line of 10"x7" trade paperbacks — although numbering them like comic books, from #1 (Jim Starlin's The Death of Captain Marvel) to #35 (Dennis O'Neil, Mike Kaluta, and Russ Heath's Hitler's Astrologer, starring the radio and pulp fiction character the Shadow, and released in hardcover). Marvel commissioned original graphic novels from such creators as John Byrne, J. M. DeMatteis, Steve Gerber, graphic-novel pioneer McGregor, Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz, Walt Simonson, Charles Vess, and Bernie Wrightson. While most of these starred Marvel superheroes, others, such as Rick Veitch's Heartburst featured original SF/fantasy characters; others still, such as John J. Muth's Dracula, featured adaptations of literary stories or characters; and one, Sam Glanzman's A Sailor's Story, was a true-life, World War II naval tale.Cover art for the 1987 U.S. (right) and U.K. (left) collected editions of Watchmen, published by DC Comics and Titan BooksIn the UK, Titan Books held the license to reprint strips from 2000 AD, including Judge Dredd, beginning in 1981, and Robo-Hunter, 1982. The company also published British collections of American graphic novels—including Swamp Thing, printed in black-and-white rather than in color as originally—and of British newspaper strips, including Modesty Blaise and Garth. Igor Goldkind was the marketing consultant who worked at Titan and moved to 2000 AD and by his own account helped to popularize the term "graphic novel" as a way to help sell the trade paperbacks they were publishing. He said he "stole the term outright from Will Eisner" and that his contribution was to "take the badge (today it's called a 'brand') and explain it, contextualise it and sell it convincingly enough so that bookshop keepers, book distributors and the book trade would accept a new category of 'spine-fiction' on their bookshelves".[25]DC Comics likewise began collecting series and published them in book format. Two such collections garnered considerable media attention, and they, along with Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize-winning Maus (1986), helped establish both the term and the concept of graphic novels in the minds of the mainstream public. These were Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (1986), a collection of Frank Miller's four-part comic-book series featuring an older Batman faced with the problems of a dystopian future; and Watchmen (1987), a collection of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 12-issue limited series in which Moore notes he "set out to explore, amongst other things, the dynamics of power in a post-Hiroshima world".[26]These works and others were reviewed in newspapers and magazines, leading to increased coverage.[27] Sales of graphic novels increased, with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, for example, lasting 40 weeks on a UK best-seller list.[28]

History of Comics/Graphic Novels

http://www.informationgoddess.ca/Comics&GraphicNovels/history.htm

History of Comics &
Graphic Novels
I have found much information
about the history of comics and graphic novels online and in print, but am
dissatisfied that there is no single resource that encompasses a chronology of
events, publications, and male and female creators including
Canadians.
I have attempted to do this by
including the major events and publications that molded the history of comics
& graphic novels. It primarily focuses on the North American phenomenon with
smatterings from other cultures.
This is in no way conclusive or
pervasive, but links to much more information on the web and points to resources
in print for further information.


1790s Richard
Newton and English Caricature

1849 Punch in Canada by John Henry Walker
1882 Le Chat Noir Journal by Rodolphe Salis
The journal was very cheap and quickly became popular,
achieving a print run of 20,000 copies per issue. Its format remained
essentially constant throughout the years: four newspaper pages consisting of
poetry, satire, reviews, and cartoons and comical drawings by graphic artists
like Henry Somm (1844-1907) and Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859-1923). Besides smaller
decorations sprinkled among the text pages, these comic drawings had a page to
themselves each issue.
1895 The Yellow
Kid by Richard F. Outcault
Comics Sell Newspapers

1896 Rose
O'Neill
the only female cartoonist for Puck
Magazine

1897 The
Katzenjammer Kids by Rudolf Dirks
"Dirks was an early adopter or inventor of many of
the devices - speech balloons, sweat-drops, frantic motion lines - that became
the LEXICON of comics." (Spiegelman, 2004)

1909 Bobby Blake & Dolly Drake by
Grace
Drayton

1913 Bringing Up
Father by George McManus

1915 Krazy Kat by George Harriman
1920's "Belgian artist Frans
Masereel first coined the term romans in beelden (novels in pictures)
during the 1920s, when he published socially conscious novels narrated in
wordless black-and-white woodcuts." (Beronä,
2004)
1925 Little Orphan Annie
by Harold
Gray

1925 The City by Frans
Masereel
1926 Passionate Journey by Frans Masereel
1929 God's Man by Lynd Ward


1929 Popeye by EC Segar
1930's the dirty thirties
1930'3 Comics of the Thirtiesearly comic book magazines
mysteries, adventure, romance stories

The "comic
book" is born!
1934 Famous Funnies
by Max
Gaines

1933 Superman by Jerry Siegel & Joe
Shuster
The Superman
Encyclopaedia

1934 - 1977 L'il Abner by Al
Capp

1935 Little Lulu by Marjorie Henderson Buell
1937 Prince Valiant by Hal Foster
1938 Superman by Jerry Siegel & Joe
Shuster

1939 Batman by Bob Kane & Bill
Finger

Heroines of the
Golden Age


1940 Captain
Marvel by Bill Parker & Charles Clarence Beck
Comics
during WWII were filled with patriotic heroes & propaganda.They were
supplied to troops by the U.S. military.
The War Exchange Conservation Act was passed in
Canada. It restricted the importation of nonessential goods including comics.
This essentially kick started the Canadian comics industry.
Bing Bang Comics, Lucky Comics and
Rocket Comics
Freelance
Commander Steel, Red Rover, Dr.
Destine, Purple Rider
Better ComicsIron
Man by Vernon Miller

1941 Nelvana
of the Northern Lights by Adrian Dingle another one decide
later

1941 Captain America Jack Kirby & Joe
Simon

1941 Plastic Man by Jack Cole
1941 Classics
Illustrated created by Albert Kantner

1942 Johnny Canuck by Leo
Bachle
1942 Wonder Woman by
Harry G.
Peter
1943 Canada Jack by George Menendez Rae
1944 Brok Windsor by Jon St.
Ables
1945 The term "teenager" was
coined. This would be the 1st generation to grow up with comic
books.
1947 The first romance comic My Date Comics by Jack Kirby & Joe Simon
1949 Nipper by Doug Wright
1950's Young
Romance

The Silver Age of Comicscirca 1956-1972
1954 Wertham's Seduction
of the Innocent Wertham
Turned Advocate?
Comics Code
Authority
Two Fisted Tales
1956 The Flash by
Julius Schwartz & Carmine Infantino
1960's
By the mid-1960s, two companies dominated the British industry: IPC, the
descendent of Amalgamated Press, and DC Thompson, the Scottish giant. (Sabin,
32)
“Surveys
have a tendency to focus on the very best examples in the field, but it is
important to recognize that most comics produced in this period were not
anywhere near the quality of the Beano, Eagle, or
Fantastic Four, and were produced with the aim of making as
much money as possible for as little effort. Hence, most humour comics were made
up of hackneyed, repetitive gags; most adventure comics were contrived and dull;
most girls’ comics were trite and “wet;” and most superhero comics were
constructed around endless fight-scenes.” (Sabin, 33)
1970's
It Ain't Me Babe was an underground comix anthology, edited by
Trina Robbins in 1970.It was among the first comics to feature all women
artists, and it stands as an early example of the feminist art produced as part
of the Women's Liberation movement.
Wimmins Comixhttp://www.lambiek.net/magazines/wimmenscomix.htm
UNDERGROUND
COMICS

The 1960s
saw a new breed of comic book, one that was not directed at children but at a
definite adult audience. These titles concentrated on specifically adult themes:
notably sex, drugs and radical politics. These titles both reflected and
transmitted the counter-cultural message and were satirical and revolutionary.
Produced outside the commercial mainstream, they were often called “comix”
(sometimes “komix”) both in contra-distinction to their straight counterpart and
to denote their “x-rated” content. However, they were not “underground” in the
sense that they were produced clandestinely under conditions of totalitarianism,
and always included the name and address of the publisher on the inside cover.
(Sabin, 36) They had, instead, different production and distribution channels
than regular comics. They were printed and produced by a variety of small
presses and cooperative ventures.
Creators retained the copyright for their materials, something that
mainstream creators could not do at the time. Instead of being sold at
newsstands, underground comix were sold mostly through a loose network of record
stores, alternative bookstores and head shops. (Rogers, 62)

Besides the much-heralded
innovations in popular music, the most influential and distinctive artistic
achievements of the 1960s counterculture were the uninhibited and socially
defiant underground comic books, which distinguished themselves from their
code-approved counterparts by adopting the soubriquet “comix.” . . . They were a
crucial phase in the development of sequential art as a means of artistic
expression, and the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and 1970s
formed the matrix from which emerged in the 1980s comic books that, unlike the
iconoclastic commix, made a new and unprecedented bid for acceptance as
literature . . . They were the first
significant group of comic books in America aimed at an entirely adult audience,
and the commix proved to a whole generation of readers who had been raised on
the vapid Code-approved comics that the sequential art medium is a powerful
narrative form capable of enormous range and flexibility. (Witek, 52)

The first widely available title was
Zap, first published in 1967 in San
Francisco by Robert Crumb. It introduced characters that became counter-cultural
icons such as: ‘Whiteman’ (an uptight, racist, pillar of the establishment) and
‘Mr. Natural’ (a misanthropic, capitalistic guru, a satire on the love
generation and “a cipher for the intellectual conundrum ‘how do you ‘teach’
wisdom?” (Sabin, 37)
In
1970, the first comic devoted to women’s liberation appeared. It Ain’t Me, Babe was followed by the better-known Wimmins Comix line in 1972. Both were a direct
feminist response to what was seen as the profound sexism present in many of the
existing undergrounds (particularly the work of Crumb, Wilson and Spain), and
provided a valuable platform for new female talent. (Sabin, 41)
Comix publishers were not
competing with mainstream publishers since they were going for an entirely
different readership. This is why they were able to so easily ignore the Comics
Code. (Sabin, 41) The economics of the underground were an entirely
different character to the mainstream comics industry, and, as Sabin points out,
this had a value above the purely practical: it gave creators a pride in what
they were doing, and inspired original, self-motivated work. (Sabin, 45) The
underground artists who grew up with comic books had found the format to be the
perfect medium to express their defiance of social norms. “What better way to
demonstrate their disdain of conservative taste than to pervert what the public
perceived as children’s entertainment?” (Nyberg, 138)
Nyberg
claims that these comics were important to the mainstream comic book industry in
three ways.
1.
They demonstrated that there was a market for adult comics.
2. The
retail network developed for distribution was an important precursor to changes
in the way more mainstream comics were distributed in the 1980s.
3. Some
underground artists went on to make a name for themselves with the new
mainstream adult comics that were to emerge in the 1980s. (Nyberg, 138)

THE DECLINE OF THE UNDERGROUND INDUSTRY
The
decline of the underground is essentially the story of the decline of the
counter-culture. There were three main reasons that applied in both Britain and
America:
v The
backlash from “straight” society,
v The
fracturing and co-option of alternative society and
v The
rise of new kinds of adult
comics. (Sabin, 46)

In retrospect, the comix were bound to provoke a
hostile reaction for two reasons: because they were an integral part of the
counter-culture and thus a conduit for anti-establishment ideas; and because
they subverted what was considered “by nature” a childish form. . . . The
mainstream press was the first to go on the offensive. The underground was a
story begging to be sensationalized, and duly shock articles began to appear
about “the American sex-comics”. They were characterized as pornographic,
perverted and generally beyond the pale, though usually very little attempt was
made to explain why. (Sabin, 47)

In
the United States, the chief unifying element for the old hippie consensus ended
when, in 1973, America withdrew from the Vietnam War. This also heralded the end
of the underground commix. However, influences and creative forces from the era
still formulate much of what is happening in the world of comics today.

Mark Rogers quotes Amy Kiste Nyberg in citing three basic
reasons that underground comix were important to the mainstream comic book
industry. These are the same three reasons why we are looking at this genre of
comics as well.
They
demonstrated that there was a market for adult comics.
The
retail network developed for distribution would be an important precursor to
changes in the way more mainstream comics were distributed in the 1980s. “By
showing that comics could be sold to an already interested audience through
outlets other than newsstands, underground comix created an example that the
direct sales market would soon emulate. Furthermore, many of the head shops
would become the comic book stores of the late 1970s and early 1980s.” (Rogers,
62)
Some
underground artists would go on to make a name for themselves with the new
mainstream adult comics that would emerge in the 1980s. (Rogers, 62)
Examples
of titles created at this time include:
a. The
Adventures of Luther Arkwright,
an epic-length story by British creator Bryan Talbot, about an
‘intra-dimensional agent’ and his battle against the Puritan rulers of a
fascistic Britain. The comic’s “sheer
complexity and use of allegory marked it out as a major innovation in extended
narrative.” (Sabin, 72)
b. Elfquest, by Wendy and Richard Pini, is an ongoing successful
series about various communities of elves.
c. Cerebus the Aardvark,
by Canadian Dave Sims. This title began as a clever parody of the sword and
sorcery genre in general, and Conan the Barbarian in particular, and developed
into a strong satire on everything from state power to organized religion.
(Sabin, 73)
Comics
generated by direct sales and were orientated specifically to the comic book
stores. These were of two types: those produced by the new independent
companies, and those published by Marvel and DC.
v Examples
of titles created at this time include:
Love and Rockets,
by the Hernandez Brothers, which despite the fantasy and SF elements of the
early issues, soon developed into one of the more ‘realistic’ comics on the
market. The series features two main stories, both with female main characters:
one set in post-punk Los Angeles (by Jaime) and the other in a mythical village
in Mexico (by Gilbert). “The comic was well-received critically, especially
Jaime’s crisp, hard-edged art and Gilbert’s empathetic writing, which was
compared to that of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.” (Sabin, 76)
Daredevil,
an old Marvel superhero title with declining sales, which was taken over by
Frank Miller. “With more or less full artistic control, he remoulded what was an
essentially run-of-the-mill vehicle into a fast-moving thriller, much influenced
by the Dirty Harry movies of the time.” (Sabin, 77)
Writer
Alan Moore brought Swamp Thing, an old
DC title about a half-man, half-plant swamp monster, back to life. He relocated
the story into the present by turning the story into an ecological fable—“the
Swamp Thing becoming a symbol for Green consciousness.” (Sabin, 77) He used the
comic to comment upon American gun laws, feminism and multinational
economics.
Titles
which originated from alternative creative sources but which publishers found
expedient to sell from specialist shops. This included the avant-garde, the
small press and the continuing underground. An influential example is RAW, an anthology co-edited by Art Spiegelman
and Françoise
Mouly. Speigelman’s story “Maus” was the
anchor-strip.
70's The Hulk, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and old favourites
Superman and Batman


1966 Trina Robbins
1967

1975 Captain
Canuck by Ron Leishman & Richard Comely published by Comely Comics
Winnipeg http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Study/4273/cc.html
1976 American
Splendor by Harvey Pekar
1977 Cerebus the
Ardvark by Dave
Sim
1978 A
Contract With God and other Tenement Stories by Will Eisner
1986 Maus I: A
Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art
Spiegelman


1991 Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My
Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
Won the Pulitzer Prize
2000 and beyond
2003 Persepolis

????Pulp
Heroes
From The
Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck by Rodolphe Toffler - 1842.From Richard Outcault's The Yellow Kid - Created in 1895.Action Comics No. 1 by Jerry Siegel and Joe
Shuster - 1938.From
Tintin in the Land of the Soviets by Herge -
1930.



Further Reading
Online

Beyond
the Funnies: The History of Comics in English Canada and Quebec
Canadian
Superheroes
The Canadian Comic Art
Centre
Giants of the
North: The Canadian Cartoonist Hall of Fame
Guardians of
the North
The Canadian EnclyclopediaCartoons and Comic
Strips
Cartoon Research Library at the
Ohio State University
Comic Art &
Graffix Gallery History of ComicsA good chronological source which
includes a pictorialHistory of
Sequential Art From Cave Painting to
Spider-Man andA
Chronological History of Comic Art in America
in 5 parts.
Comic Books in English
Canada
The Comic Page
Don Markestein's
Toonopedia A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge
The History of Comic
Books
The
History of Comic Books and Graphic Novels in Mexico
Comiclopedia
The
Museum From Then 'Til Now
Superhero
Chronology
Women's Cartoon Index

In Print
1986Canuck
Comics by John Bell

1999Children of the Yellow KidThe Evolution of the American
Comic Stripby Robert C. Harvey






1996Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic Historyby Robert C.
Harvey





1993The Great Women
Cartoonistsby Trina Robbins






1999From Girls to GrrrlzA History of Comics from Teens to Zinesby Trina
Robbins






1996Comics, Comix & Graphic Novelsby Roger
Sabin



2003Faster Than a Speeding Bullet:
The Rise of the Graphic Novel by Stephen
Weiner










References
Spiegelman, A. (2004). In the
shadow of no towers. New York: NY, Pantheon.
Baronä, D. A. (2004). Worth a thousand
words. Retrieved Dec. 06, 2004, from Library Journal Web
site: http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA381420.