Spider Jerusalem PHD
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- Posted: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 08:44:21 +0000
When I was coming up as an anime/manga fan, American comics were the gateway drug. I'd go into my local comic book shop and see these funky little comics that read backwards. "What is this manga that you speak of?"
So naturally when I got here (by way of an ad in the Street Fighter comic book that Udon puts out ironically enough), I was seeing this new generation of anime/manga fans that have little to no knowledge of western comics which was a new concept to me. With that in mind, I'm here to offer you the blue pill since you've obviously already taken the red pill.
You might think that this is simply a re-hash of Western comics that manga and J-anime fans will like, but I see it as more of a companion thread. I'll offer some reccomendations, but I also want to clear up alot of misconceptions and provide a guide to western comic terminology.
Reccomendations
Most of the reccomendations will be based on manga and anime, but some are also based on American animation and movies that most anime fans would know of.
If you like Naruto, you will probably like:
The X-Men family of comic books. Don't look at me like that. Teens with the potential for spectacular feats written into their genes being trained at a special school that prepares them for going on missions. Wow, that seems somewhat familiar doesn't it? Naruto may have more in common with Harry Potter than the X-Men, but the idea is still vaguely the same. Want a laid back borderline slacker that the girls all love a la Kakashi? Enter Remy "Gambit" LeBeau. He even has weird eyes. Want to read about tweens and teens learning to harness their natural abilities? There's plenty of stories about the students of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, just ask any X-Fan.
The Teen Titans. Again, a team of teens that can do incredible things. You may have seen the cartoon but the original comic is over twenty years old and is much better than the cartoon. Trust me. All of your favourites are there as well as several characters you wouldn't have seen before depending on what era you read from because their lineup changes more often than Menudo. Not to mention that the Impulse version of Kid Flash is way funnier.
If you like Kenshin, Samurai Deeper Kyo, or Samurai manga in general, you will probably like:
Usagi Yojimbo. Sounds like manga, but it isn't. Translated to English the title means Rabbit Bodyguard. It follows the story of Usagi, the title character who just happens to be an anthropomorphic samurai rabbit with several plots derived from manga like Lone Wolf and Cub but deviates from the original well enough to keep it from seeming like plagarism. If the name sounds familiar but you can't remember where you've heard it before, he did a crossover with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the mid nineties. Usagi Yojimbo is published by Dark Horse Comics.
If you like Hellsing, you will probably like:
Hellboy. A powerful, seemingly evil entity working for a government agency. Peculiar indeed. Hellboy isn't anywhere near as powerful as Alucard, but he beats up monsters real good and actually makes sense. *Ducks* I kid, and that was directed at the anime. Hellboy is published by the same company as the Hellsing manga, Dark Horse Comics.
Thirty Days of Night. A brutal and surreal tale of a town in northern Alaska invaded by vampires. When you go farther north than the arctic circle, the days get short in the winter and long in the summer to the point that the sun will not "come up" for thirty days in the winter and the phenomenon called "The Midnight Sun" is the opposite which occurs in the summer. Naturally a large number of vampires decide to head up there when it starts to go on a thirty day bender. What ensues is a brutal, surreal horror experience that strips the vampire myth of all the sexiness of Blade, Underworld, and most other contemporary vampire literature.
If you like Angel Sanctuary, you will probably like:
Lucifer. The series follows Lucifer Morningstar in all of his Paradise Lost glory, which is also likely the basis for Angel Sanctuary's Lucifer. In this comic however, Lucifer has abdicated his throne in Hell because unlike his Angel Sanctuary counterpart, he is not tied to the landscape of Hell. The series opens with him running a piano bar in Los Angeles called Lux where he performs nightly for the unaware humans. Of course this doesn't last long as he plunges head first into a new battle against Heaven, one he wages practically alone. The series is rooted in Judeo-Christian creation stories including Milton's Paradise Lost, Dante's Divine Comedy, the Bible, and the Torah with frequent references to the Archangels and the Lilim, as well as Norse and Japanese mythology which makes it somewhat top heavy for people not familiar with it, but the comic is as equally rewarding as it can be esoteric and seemingly obscure. Lucifer is actually a spin off of another comic book series called The Sandman, in which Lucifer is a villain. Lucifer is published by DC comics' Vertigo imprint and is reccomended for readers eighteen and over because of frequent nudity, gory violence, and profanity.
If you like Dragon Ball Z, you will probably like:
Superman. Yes, ha ha isn't that funny? All those DBZ fans questioning Clark's sexuality and powers. The truth of the matter is that the parts of Dragon Ball/Z/GT that aren't based on Journey to the West are based on Superman. Goku was an orphan sent to Earth in a space ship as a baby and grows up to have amazing powers and fight really evil people. Superman was an orphan sent to earth in a space ship as a baby and grows up to have amazing powers and fight really evil people. Of course Superman has a civilian identity and some relatives/friends like Goku in Superboy, and however many Supergirls are around at the time. Give Superman a try, you likely will not regret it unless you read Chuck Austen's run on Action Comics. Superman is published by DC Comics.
If you like The Incredibles, you will probably like:
The Fantastic Four. They're the original superhero family, and while it's generally more serious, they're very similar. The head of the Fantastic Four family is Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) a brilliant scientist and the basis for Elastigirl's powers. Sue Storm is his wife (The Invisible Woman), also a scientist and the basis for Violet's powers. Johnny Storm is Sue's younger brother, also known as The Human Torch. No characters in The Incredibles were based on him. Benjamin Grimm (The Thing) is a friend of the family and the basis for Mr Incredible's abilities, although The Thing is orange and rocky in appearance. Franklin Richards is the son of Sue and Reed, the basis for Jak Jak, who has nearly limitless powers that have never fully been explained. Dash* was based on Impulse/Kid Flash, and Frozone was based on X-Man Bobby Drake aka Ice Man, who are not related to the Fantastic Four. For a more contemporary and humerous take on the Fantastic Four, read Ultimate Fantastic Four, which is a reimagining of the long running series.
*Dash's hair is shaped similarily to Pietro "Quicksilver" Maximoff, one of the Avengers who is also a speedster. Thanks to bobshots.
Terminology
Pamphlet/Single: A slang term for a single issue of a comic book, typically 32 pages including advertisements and letters page. Roughly the equivalent to a single story in a magazine such as Shonen Jump.
Trade/Trade Paperback/Collected Edition: Very similar to the digest format that Tokyopop and Viz release for titles like Naruto, GTO, or Chobits. The ones that Shonen Jump obnoxiously advertise on every second page of the magazine. They can contain anywhere from two to ten issues, or in the rare case of Dark Horse's Ghost in the Shell release, the entire series. Trade paperbacks frequently have forwards from other creators or celebrities as well as cover galleries and concept art from the series. Typically, trade paperbacks do not contain advertisements but some Marvel trades have a single page of advertisements at the back, somewhat like the advertisements for other titles at the back of Tokypop releases. Vertigo trades have a list of all of their releases on the last page.
Volume: Sometimes used for the sequence of trade paperbacks like manga, it is also used when a series is "restarted" and given a new #1.
(Story) Arc: Is the term used for a complete story within a series. An example of this would be the Cell Saga in Dragon Ball Z. Manga like Chobits have only one arc. Most often arcs will have specific names and a set length when they start and will sometimes include which part of the arc the issue is (1 of 3, etc). Usually a trade paperback will contain one complete arc and some comics (like Ultimate Spiderman) have a set number of issues per arc (5) to make a smooth transition to trade paperback.
Back-up story: A short, two or three page story that follows the main story in the comic which is usually loosely connected to the plot of the main story. Back up stories in mainstream comics have been unheard of in comics for about a decade now with the notable exception of the "Cheap Shots" series that appears in Udon's Street Fighter comic.
Two page spread: Two facing pages that are one big image instead of being separated into smaller panels.
Splash page: A page with a single illustration on it, much like the two page spread, only one page. Usually appears as the first page in an issue.
The Big Three: A slang term used to refer to the top three comic book companies in regards to circulation and sales. The Big Three are Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Image Comics. DC and Marvel have existed for decades longer than Image (Image was founded in 1991), and account for more than two thirds of the comic books sold in the United States. Image is a distant third with Dark Horse Comics following closely behind.
The People Who Make Comics
The majority of the most popular manga in America was written and drawn by a single manga-ka like Love Hina's Ken Akamatsu with the notable exception of the female collective known as CLAMP. In mainstream North American comics the reverse is true. (Many indy comics are written and drawn by a single person.) The majority of American comics are illustrated by three people, written by one, and edited by at least one other.
The Writer: Is responsible for writing the script for the issue. Comic book scripts are similar to movie scripts (there has been significant cross polination of composition techniques between American comics and Holywood films, say nothing about actual plot devices), but divide the script into pages and panels instead of scenes and shots. These are essentially the instructions for the penciler on how to draw the comic. Popular comic book writers have been known to attract large fanbases of their own, which is a relatively new phenomenon within the last thirty years. A select few comic book writers have translated their comic book success into careers as Holywood screenwriters such as David Goyer who wrote the scripts for the Blade Trilogy, the upcoming Batman Begins, and the currently in production Flash movie or NYT Bestselling authors such as British scribe Neil Gaiman. Others have translated film and television success into comic book writing success such as film director Kevin Smith and Buffy creator Joss Whedon.
The Penciler
The Penciler is the rock star of comic books if he is good, and the goat if he is bad. They generate long lines at conventions and are the most likely to have fan followings. Currently Michael Turner and Jim Lee seem to have the biggest fan followings. Pencilers have traded in their popularity for various other pursuits like providing magazines with illustrations for their feature articles (Andy Park for Maxim, Alex Ross for The Village Voice, and Randy Green for Play Magazine to name a couple), create new comic book companies (Image comics co-founders Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee, Aspen Comics founder Michael Turner), or movies (Tim Bradstreet for The Punisher, Alex Ross for Spiderman 2). The current Editor In Chief of Marvel Comics is Joe Quesada, who has written and penciled for Marvel.
The Inker After the penciler draws out the pages on specially sized bristol board, the inker uses a light table and tracing paper to trace the image with black ink to get the crisp clean lines that you see in comics. The black and white image in my signature is a cover of Transmetropolitan after inking. Inkers are almost universally underappreciated and toil in obscurity. Only the most hardcore fans follow inkers, however the difference between a good inker and a bad inker is as easy to notice as a KKK member at a 50 cent concert. You could say that inkers are the bras of comic books. They lift and seperate, making the product look much more appealing.
The Colorist The guy who colours the comics. Perhaps marginally more or less popular than the inker. Mainstream contemporary comic books are almost exclusively colored in Adobe Photoshop after the inks have been scanned into a computer. With the advent of high speed internet, alot of colouring is outsourced to colouring studios who's members rotate colouring duties depending on demand, like Studio F and Team Tron. The studio members rarely if ever talk to anyone in the creative process other than the editors.
The Rare Breeds: The other creators that contribute to comics on a semi regular basis are the painter, the cover artist, and the letterer. The painter either paints traditionally or mimics traditional painting techniques digitally to produce a very different aesthetic. Most painters do their own work from scratch, but some will replace the inker and colorist in the normal process, painting over the penciler's artwork. Their art may appear on the cover or as interior art. The most popular painters rival the pencilers for popularity such as Alex Ross and Greg Horn. The cover artist supplies the art for only the cover and could be a painter or a traditional penciler/inker/colorist team different from the team that does the interior art. Frank Quitley, Adam Hughes, and Michael Turner are probably the most sought after cover artists. The letterer puts the word bubbles and text into the comic.
The Editor
The Companies
Marvel Comics is the home of Spiderman and the X-Men. It is independently owned and operated and has either the #1 or #2 position as best selling comic book company depending on the day of the week. Marvel publishes comics under several labels, kind of like Toyota and Lexus or Chrystler and Plymouth. Same company, just caters to a different audience. The most popular Marvel comics are published with just the Marvel logo and run from PG to PG-13 in content if you want to compare it to movies (which Marvel generally does). Gaia friendly stuff like Superman, The Avengers, and the core X-Men titles. The others break down like this:
Marvel Age These are the comics that are aimed at elementary school aged children, basically what most people think is the one and only demographic for comics. rolleyes Marvel Age publishes comics based on its top characters like Spiderman and Spidergirl. As far as I know, Marvel Age comics are not in continuity, which means that whatever happens in Marvel Age comics does not affect the main Marvel label Spiderman comics and visa versa. If Spiderman died in the mainline Spiderman book, he would still be alive in the Marvel Age comic. All Marvel Age comics can be considered "G" rated in content.
Marvel Knights MK titles are borderline PG-13/R content allowable. Basically no nudity, no profanity, but gory violence is allowed. For example in the upcoming Shanna The She-Devil series a Velociraptor graphically removes a large portion of a man's face, while a naked woman is continually strategically blocking her "naughty bits" with clever framing involving debris in very specific places. I'll refrain from ranting about that for now.
MAX Profanity, nudity, and graphic violence are a go for these titles and are not supposed to be sold to minors but they're shelved out with the mainline stuff and I've never seen anyone carded for buying one. MAX rarely if ever publishes anything remotely worth reading. The Punisher title under the MAX label was the basis for the recent movie and aforementioned cover artist Tim Bradstreet (who does the covers for The Punisher) did the movie posters. Look closely and you'll see that the picture of Tom Jane on the DVD case is actually a drawing. Freaky.
Epic: Epic was basically for fan creations, creator owned comics where the creator would retain ownership of their characters instead of them becoming Marvel property which was the industry standard until Image Comics was founded in 1991. Submissions for Epic were done basically the same as Tokypop's Rising Stars of Manga program, although the comics were published independently of each other and had the potential to become monthly series. I've only heard of one title published by Epic which could be described as Mary Kate and Ashley Olson on the weekend drawn to look like Pamela Anderson. It was meant to be "cautionary" and I don't know what else, but it was created by established professionals, was awful, and was only printed on Epic because Marvel didn't have the balls to put it under any other imprint they own.
Icon is the pseudo replacement for Epic. Currently Brian Michael Bendis' Powers and David Mack's Kabuki are the only comics published by Icon. They have both received wide critical praise and were created by well established professionals.
DC Comics is the Coke to Marvel's Pepsi, home to the original superhero, who you may or may not know is in fact Superman. DC is not an independent company, it is owned by the corporate conglomerate shitpile of Doom known as AOL Time Warner. They were owned by Warner Brothers previous to the merger. DC has recently taken to signing creators to exclusive contracts, meaning that while they are working for DC they cannot work for Marvel or any other comic book company with certain allowances for the biggest names (like Michael Turner who gets to continue self publishing his Aspen Comics while he cranks out about six covers a month for DC). Like Marvel, their biggest titles are published under a normal DC logo like Superman, Batman, Action Comics, Detective Comics, and Justice League of America. DC does not have a Marvel Age equivalent, but Action Comics and Detective Comics are meant to be all ages titles. This is not always the case, and has stirred up contraversy recently.
Vertigo I would say that Vertigo is the answer to Marvel's MAX, but that just isn't true at all. It's the reverse. Vertigo allows nudity, profanity, and graphic violence in it's comics but they are not necessary or even present in every issue of every Vertigo comic. Mature storytelling is the watchword of Vertigo. Vertigo also gets the most critical acclaim out of any imprint of DC as a percentage of titles it releases. Vertigo comics are also most likely to receive praise from non industry related news sources including Spin Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Suicide Girls, and several literary criticism related sources. The titles themselves run the gamut from dystopian sci fi future-shock allegory (Transmetropolitan) to gritty horror (Hellblazer) and high fantasy (Sandman, Lucifer, Fables). For one reason or another it also has the highest concentration of writers from Great Britain (Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, and Garth Ennis to name a few).*
*It has come to my attention that Vertigo was originally intended to be the British wing of DC Comics, but developed into the mature readers label instead. Thanks to Maiadorn.
CMX is Vertigo's basically brand new manga counterpart. Mature readers' manga imported by DC comics.
Wildstorm Wildstorm was originally an independent company started by superstar penciler and Image co founder Jim Lee. The company was eventually bought by DC comics. Wildstorm is a very creator driven imprint that publishes both their proprietary titles such as The Authority, Stormwatch, Danger Girl, Wildcats, Gen 13, Wetworks, and Deathblow as well as original creator owned comics like Desolation Jones and The Boys.
America's Best Comics was originally Alan Moore's personal imprint at Wildstorm, before it was purchased by DC. Jim Lee has told the story about how he flew out to England to tell Moore about the DC aquisition and assure Moore that he would retain his creative control (as he was on the outs with both DC and Marvel at the time). Moore came striding out of his house to meet Lee with his cane in his hand, and Lee was worried that Moore had already heard the news and was coming out to kick his a**. Moore hadn't heard and was coming out to greet Lee. America's Best Comics is best known for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Top Ten, and Promethea, all original creations of Moore's.
Image Comics is the number three man on the totem pole, and as stated earlier was founded in 1991 by superstar pencilers Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee, who wanted an alternative to what they felt was the authoritarian rule of Marvel and DC comics. Thus they created Image comics, which is 100% based on creator owned properties. Basically if Image likes your idea they publish it and take a portion of the profits for providing this service to you. You retain the rights of your comic and if you want to leave Image and publish it elsewhere, you can do so relatively hassle free. Danger Girl for example bounced between Wildstorm and Image at least a couple times, which would have been impossible before Image was created and would still be impossible under Marvel's Epic imprint. Icon I'm not sure about. Image also has more imprints than I can list here easily because of the structure of the company. Suffice to say that if you want to publish your own comic, submit it to Image before anyone else. They will give you the best deal nine times out of ten. Current superstar penciler Michael Turner started his career with Image imprint Top Cow, so there is plenty of possibility for upward mobility if you are an Image creator.
Dark Horse is an independent comic book company best known for Mike Mignola's Hellboy as well as several other indy titles like Grendel and Usagi Yojimbo. They also have a formidable amount of liscenced comics including Star Wars, Judge Dredd, and Alien/Predator. Dark Horse also has the distinction of being the biggest importer of manga among American comic book companies which includes Hellsing, Lone Wolf and Cub, and Blade of the Immortal.
Crossgen Until it went bankrupt in 2004, Crossgen was an impressive newcomer to the comic landscape with predominantly fantasy and horror oriented titles. They held liscences to Lady Death and Dragonlance. In the fall of 2004 Disney bought Crossgen and the rights to all their original comics in a surprise move. Thus far they have stayed quiet about what they plan for Crossgen, but all eyes are on them to see what comes out of it.
Devil's Due A relatively new company that seems very promising. They're currently publishing the majority of UDON's Capcom liscenced comics including Street Fighter.
IDW Mostly publishes liscenced comics for TV shows like The Shield and CSI, but also came out with the indy smash hit of 2003 Thirty Days of Night, which is arguably the best Vampire comic ever written.
So naturally when I got here (by way of an ad in the Street Fighter comic book that Udon puts out ironically enough), I was seeing this new generation of anime/manga fans that have little to no knowledge of western comics which was a new concept to me. With that in mind, I'm here to offer you the blue pill since you've obviously already taken the red pill.
You might think that this is simply a re-hash of Western comics that manga and J-anime fans will like, but I see it as more of a companion thread. I'll offer some reccomendations, but I also want to clear up alot of misconceptions and provide a guide to western comic terminology.
Reccomendations
Most of the reccomendations will be based on manga and anime, but some are also based on American animation and movies that most anime fans would know of.
If you like Naruto, you will probably like:
The X-Men family of comic books. Don't look at me like that. Teens with the potential for spectacular feats written into their genes being trained at a special school that prepares them for going on missions. Wow, that seems somewhat familiar doesn't it? Naruto may have more in common with Harry Potter than the X-Men, but the idea is still vaguely the same. Want a laid back borderline slacker that the girls all love a la Kakashi? Enter Remy "Gambit" LeBeau. He even has weird eyes. Want to read about tweens and teens learning to harness their natural abilities? There's plenty of stories about the students of Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, just ask any X-Fan.
The Teen Titans. Again, a team of teens that can do incredible things. You may have seen the cartoon but the original comic is over twenty years old and is much better than the cartoon. Trust me. All of your favourites are there as well as several characters you wouldn't have seen before depending on what era you read from because their lineup changes more often than Menudo. Not to mention that the Impulse version of Kid Flash is way funnier.
If you like Kenshin, Samurai Deeper Kyo, or Samurai manga in general, you will probably like:
Usagi Yojimbo. Sounds like manga, but it isn't. Translated to English the title means Rabbit Bodyguard. It follows the story of Usagi, the title character who just happens to be an anthropomorphic samurai rabbit with several plots derived from manga like Lone Wolf and Cub but deviates from the original well enough to keep it from seeming like plagarism. If the name sounds familiar but you can't remember where you've heard it before, he did a crossover with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the mid nineties. Usagi Yojimbo is published by Dark Horse Comics.
If you like Hellsing, you will probably like:
Hellboy. A powerful, seemingly evil entity working for a government agency. Peculiar indeed. Hellboy isn't anywhere near as powerful as Alucard, but he beats up monsters real good and actually makes sense. *Ducks* I kid, and that was directed at the anime. Hellboy is published by the same company as the Hellsing manga, Dark Horse Comics.
Thirty Days of Night. A brutal and surreal tale of a town in northern Alaska invaded by vampires. When you go farther north than the arctic circle, the days get short in the winter and long in the summer to the point that the sun will not "come up" for thirty days in the winter and the phenomenon called "The Midnight Sun" is the opposite which occurs in the summer. Naturally a large number of vampires decide to head up there when it starts to go on a thirty day bender. What ensues is a brutal, surreal horror experience that strips the vampire myth of all the sexiness of Blade, Underworld, and most other contemporary vampire literature.
If you like Angel Sanctuary, you will probably like:
Lucifer. The series follows Lucifer Morningstar in all of his Paradise Lost glory, which is also likely the basis for Angel Sanctuary's Lucifer. In this comic however, Lucifer has abdicated his throne in Hell because unlike his Angel Sanctuary counterpart, he is not tied to the landscape of Hell. The series opens with him running a piano bar in Los Angeles called Lux where he performs nightly for the unaware humans. Of course this doesn't last long as he plunges head first into a new battle against Heaven, one he wages practically alone. The series is rooted in Judeo-Christian creation stories including Milton's Paradise Lost, Dante's Divine Comedy, the Bible, and the Torah with frequent references to the Archangels and the Lilim, as well as Norse and Japanese mythology which makes it somewhat top heavy for people not familiar with it, but the comic is as equally rewarding as it can be esoteric and seemingly obscure. Lucifer is actually a spin off of another comic book series called The Sandman, in which Lucifer is a villain. Lucifer is published by DC comics' Vertigo imprint and is reccomended for readers eighteen and over because of frequent nudity, gory violence, and profanity.
If you like Dragon Ball Z, you will probably like:
Superman. Yes, ha ha isn't that funny? All those DBZ fans questioning Clark's sexuality and powers. The truth of the matter is that the parts of Dragon Ball/Z/GT that aren't based on Journey to the West are based on Superman. Goku was an orphan sent to Earth in a space ship as a baby and grows up to have amazing powers and fight really evil people. Superman was an orphan sent to earth in a space ship as a baby and grows up to have amazing powers and fight really evil people. Of course Superman has a civilian identity and some relatives/friends like Goku in Superboy, and however many Supergirls are around at the time. Give Superman a try, you likely will not regret it unless you read Chuck Austen's run on Action Comics. Superman is published by DC Comics.
If you like The Incredibles, you will probably like:
The Fantastic Four. They're the original superhero family, and while it's generally more serious, they're very similar. The head of the Fantastic Four family is Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) a brilliant scientist and the basis for Elastigirl's powers. Sue Storm is his wife (The Invisible Woman), also a scientist and the basis for Violet's powers. Johnny Storm is Sue's younger brother, also known as The Human Torch. No characters in The Incredibles were based on him. Benjamin Grimm (The Thing) is a friend of the family and the basis for Mr Incredible's abilities, although The Thing is orange and rocky in appearance. Franklin Richards is the son of Sue and Reed, the basis for Jak Jak, who has nearly limitless powers that have never fully been explained. Dash* was based on Impulse/Kid Flash, and Frozone was based on X-Man Bobby Drake aka Ice Man, who are not related to the Fantastic Four. For a more contemporary and humerous take on the Fantastic Four, read Ultimate Fantastic Four, which is a reimagining of the long running series.
*Dash's hair is shaped similarily to Pietro "Quicksilver" Maximoff, one of the Avengers who is also a speedster. Thanks to bobshots.
Terminology
Pamphlet/Single: A slang term for a single issue of a comic book, typically 32 pages including advertisements and letters page. Roughly the equivalent to a single story in a magazine such as Shonen Jump.
Trade/Trade Paperback/Collected Edition: Very similar to the digest format that Tokyopop and Viz release for titles like Naruto, GTO, or Chobits. The ones that Shonen Jump obnoxiously advertise on every second page of the magazine. They can contain anywhere from two to ten issues, or in the rare case of Dark Horse's Ghost in the Shell release, the entire series. Trade paperbacks frequently have forwards from other creators or celebrities as well as cover galleries and concept art from the series. Typically, trade paperbacks do not contain advertisements but some Marvel trades have a single page of advertisements at the back, somewhat like the advertisements for other titles at the back of Tokypop releases. Vertigo trades have a list of all of their releases on the last page.
Volume: Sometimes used for the sequence of trade paperbacks like manga, it is also used when a series is "restarted" and given a new #1.
(Story) Arc: Is the term used for a complete story within a series. An example of this would be the Cell Saga in Dragon Ball Z. Manga like Chobits have only one arc. Most often arcs will have specific names and a set length when they start and will sometimes include which part of the arc the issue is (1 of 3, etc). Usually a trade paperback will contain one complete arc and some comics (like Ultimate Spiderman) have a set number of issues per arc (5) to make a smooth transition to trade paperback.
Back-up story: A short, two or three page story that follows the main story in the comic which is usually loosely connected to the plot of the main story. Back up stories in mainstream comics have been unheard of in comics for about a decade now with the notable exception of the "Cheap Shots" series that appears in Udon's Street Fighter comic.
Two page spread: Two facing pages that are one big image instead of being separated into smaller panels.
Splash page: A page with a single illustration on it, much like the two page spread, only one page. Usually appears as the first page in an issue.
The Big Three: A slang term used to refer to the top three comic book companies in regards to circulation and sales. The Big Three are Marvel Comics, DC Comics, and Image Comics. DC and Marvel have existed for decades longer than Image (Image was founded in 1991), and account for more than two thirds of the comic books sold in the United States. Image is a distant third with Dark Horse Comics following closely behind.
The People Who Make Comics
The majority of the most popular manga in America was written and drawn by a single manga-ka like Love Hina's Ken Akamatsu with the notable exception of the female collective known as CLAMP. In mainstream North American comics the reverse is true. (Many indy comics are written and drawn by a single person.) The majority of American comics are illustrated by three people, written by one, and edited by at least one other.
The Writer: Is responsible for writing the script for the issue. Comic book scripts are similar to movie scripts (there has been significant cross polination of composition techniques between American comics and Holywood films, say nothing about actual plot devices), but divide the script into pages and panels instead of scenes and shots. These are essentially the instructions for the penciler on how to draw the comic. Popular comic book writers have been known to attract large fanbases of their own, which is a relatively new phenomenon within the last thirty years. A select few comic book writers have translated their comic book success into careers as Holywood screenwriters such as David Goyer who wrote the scripts for the Blade Trilogy, the upcoming Batman Begins, and the currently in production Flash movie or NYT Bestselling authors such as British scribe Neil Gaiman. Others have translated film and television success into comic book writing success such as film director Kevin Smith and Buffy creator Joss Whedon.
The Penciler
The Penciler is the rock star of comic books if he is good, and the goat if he is bad. They generate long lines at conventions and are the most likely to have fan followings. Currently Michael Turner and Jim Lee seem to have the biggest fan followings. Pencilers have traded in their popularity for various other pursuits like providing magazines with illustrations for their feature articles (Andy Park for Maxim, Alex Ross for The Village Voice, and Randy Green for Play Magazine to name a couple), create new comic book companies (Image comics co-founders Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee, Aspen Comics founder Michael Turner), or movies (Tim Bradstreet for The Punisher, Alex Ross for Spiderman 2). The current Editor In Chief of Marvel Comics is Joe Quesada, who has written and penciled for Marvel.
The Inker After the penciler draws out the pages on specially sized bristol board, the inker uses a light table and tracing paper to trace the image with black ink to get the crisp clean lines that you see in comics. The black and white image in my signature is a cover of Transmetropolitan after inking. Inkers are almost universally underappreciated and toil in obscurity. Only the most hardcore fans follow inkers, however the difference between a good inker and a bad inker is as easy to notice as a KKK member at a 50 cent concert. You could say that inkers are the bras of comic books. They lift and seperate, making the product look much more appealing.
The Colorist The guy who colours the comics. Perhaps marginally more or less popular than the inker. Mainstream contemporary comic books are almost exclusively colored in Adobe Photoshop after the inks have been scanned into a computer. With the advent of high speed internet, alot of colouring is outsourced to colouring studios who's members rotate colouring duties depending on demand, like Studio F and Team Tron. The studio members rarely if ever talk to anyone in the creative process other than the editors.
The Rare Breeds: The other creators that contribute to comics on a semi regular basis are the painter, the cover artist, and the letterer. The painter either paints traditionally or mimics traditional painting techniques digitally to produce a very different aesthetic. Most painters do their own work from scratch, but some will replace the inker and colorist in the normal process, painting over the penciler's artwork. Their art may appear on the cover or as interior art. The most popular painters rival the pencilers for popularity such as Alex Ross and Greg Horn. The cover artist supplies the art for only the cover and could be a painter or a traditional penciler/inker/colorist team different from the team that does the interior art. Frank Quitley, Adam Hughes, and Michael Turner are probably the most sought after cover artists. The letterer puts the word bubbles and text into the comic.
The Editor
The Companies
Marvel Comics is the home of Spiderman and the X-Men. It is independently owned and operated and has either the #1 or #2 position as best selling comic book company depending on the day of the week. Marvel publishes comics under several labels, kind of like Toyota and Lexus or Chrystler and Plymouth. Same company, just caters to a different audience. The most popular Marvel comics are published with just the Marvel logo and run from PG to PG-13 in content if you want to compare it to movies (which Marvel generally does). Gaia friendly stuff like Superman, The Avengers, and the core X-Men titles. The others break down like this:
Marvel Age These are the comics that are aimed at elementary school aged children, basically what most people think is the one and only demographic for comics. rolleyes Marvel Age publishes comics based on its top characters like Spiderman and Spidergirl. As far as I know, Marvel Age comics are not in continuity, which means that whatever happens in Marvel Age comics does not affect the main Marvel label Spiderman comics and visa versa. If Spiderman died in the mainline Spiderman book, he would still be alive in the Marvel Age comic. All Marvel Age comics can be considered "G" rated in content.
Marvel Knights MK titles are borderline PG-13/R content allowable. Basically no nudity, no profanity, but gory violence is allowed. For example in the upcoming Shanna The She-Devil series a Velociraptor graphically removes a large portion of a man's face, while a naked woman is continually strategically blocking her "naughty bits" with clever framing involving debris in very specific places. I'll refrain from ranting about that for now.
MAX Profanity, nudity, and graphic violence are a go for these titles and are not supposed to be sold to minors but they're shelved out with the mainline stuff and I've never seen anyone carded for buying one. MAX rarely if ever publishes anything remotely worth reading. The Punisher title under the MAX label was the basis for the recent movie and aforementioned cover artist Tim Bradstreet (who does the covers for The Punisher) did the movie posters. Look closely and you'll see that the picture of Tom Jane on the DVD case is actually a drawing. Freaky.
Epic: Epic was basically for fan creations, creator owned comics where the creator would retain ownership of their characters instead of them becoming Marvel property which was the industry standard until Image Comics was founded in 1991. Submissions for Epic were done basically the same as Tokypop's Rising Stars of Manga program, although the comics were published independently of each other and had the potential to become monthly series. I've only heard of one title published by Epic which could be described as Mary Kate and Ashley Olson on the weekend drawn to look like Pamela Anderson. It was meant to be "cautionary" and I don't know what else, but it was created by established professionals, was awful, and was only printed on Epic because Marvel didn't have the balls to put it under any other imprint they own.
Icon is the pseudo replacement for Epic. Currently Brian Michael Bendis' Powers and David Mack's Kabuki are the only comics published by Icon. They have both received wide critical praise and were created by well established professionals.
DC Comics is the Coke to Marvel's Pepsi, home to the original superhero, who you may or may not know is in fact Superman. DC is not an independent company, it is owned by the corporate conglomerate shitpile of Doom known as AOL Time Warner. They were owned by Warner Brothers previous to the merger. DC has recently taken to signing creators to exclusive contracts, meaning that while they are working for DC they cannot work for Marvel or any other comic book company with certain allowances for the biggest names (like Michael Turner who gets to continue self publishing his Aspen Comics while he cranks out about six covers a month for DC). Like Marvel, their biggest titles are published under a normal DC logo like Superman, Batman, Action Comics, Detective Comics, and Justice League of America. DC does not have a Marvel Age equivalent, but Action Comics and Detective Comics are meant to be all ages titles. This is not always the case, and has stirred up contraversy recently.
Vertigo I would say that Vertigo is the answer to Marvel's MAX, but that just isn't true at all. It's the reverse. Vertigo allows nudity, profanity, and graphic violence in it's comics but they are not necessary or even present in every issue of every Vertigo comic. Mature storytelling is the watchword of Vertigo. Vertigo also gets the most critical acclaim out of any imprint of DC as a percentage of titles it releases. Vertigo comics are also most likely to receive praise from non industry related news sources including Spin Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Suicide Girls, and several literary criticism related sources. The titles themselves run the gamut from dystopian sci fi future-shock allegory (Transmetropolitan) to gritty horror (Hellblazer) and high fantasy (Sandman, Lucifer, Fables). For one reason or another it also has the highest concentration of writers from Great Britain (Neil Gaiman, Warren Ellis, Alan Moore, and Garth Ennis to name a few).*
*It has come to my attention that Vertigo was originally intended to be the British wing of DC Comics, but developed into the mature readers label instead. Thanks to Maiadorn.
CMX is Vertigo's basically brand new manga counterpart. Mature readers' manga imported by DC comics.
Wildstorm Wildstorm was originally an independent company started by superstar penciler and Image co founder Jim Lee. The company was eventually bought by DC comics. Wildstorm is a very creator driven imprint that publishes both their proprietary titles such as The Authority, Stormwatch, Danger Girl, Wildcats, Gen 13, Wetworks, and Deathblow as well as original creator owned comics like Desolation Jones and The Boys.
America's Best Comics was originally Alan Moore's personal imprint at Wildstorm, before it was purchased by DC. Jim Lee has told the story about how he flew out to England to tell Moore about the DC aquisition and assure Moore that he would retain his creative control (as he was on the outs with both DC and Marvel at the time). Moore came striding out of his house to meet Lee with his cane in his hand, and Lee was worried that Moore had already heard the news and was coming out to kick his a**. Moore hadn't heard and was coming out to greet Lee. America's Best Comics is best known for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Top Ten, and Promethea, all original creations of Moore's.
Image Comics is the number three man on the totem pole, and as stated earlier was founded in 1991 by superstar pencilers Todd McFarlane and Jim Lee, who wanted an alternative to what they felt was the authoritarian rule of Marvel and DC comics. Thus they created Image comics, which is 100% based on creator owned properties. Basically if Image likes your idea they publish it and take a portion of the profits for providing this service to you. You retain the rights of your comic and if you want to leave Image and publish it elsewhere, you can do so relatively hassle free. Danger Girl for example bounced between Wildstorm and Image at least a couple times, which would have been impossible before Image was created and would still be impossible under Marvel's Epic imprint. Icon I'm not sure about. Image also has more imprints than I can list here easily because of the structure of the company. Suffice to say that if you want to publish your own comic, submit it to Image before anyone else. They will give you the best deal nine times out of ten. Current superstar penciler Michael Turner started his career with Image imprint Top Cow, so there is plenty of possibility for upward mobility if you are an Image creator.
Dark Horse is an independent comic book company best known for Mike Mignola's Hellboy as well as several other indy titles like Grendel and Usagi Yojimbo. They also have a formidable amount of liscenced comics including Star Wars, Judge Dredd, and Alien/Predator. Dark Horse also has the distinction of being the biggest importer of manga among American comic book companies which includes Hellsing, Lone Wolf and Cub, and Blade of the Immortal.
Crossgen Until it went bankrupt in 2004, Crossgen was an impressive newcomer to the comic landscape with predominantly fantasy and horror oriented titles. They held liscences to Lady Death and Dragonlance. In the fall of 2004 Disney bought Crossgen and the rights to all their original comics in a surprise move. Thus far they have stayed quiet about what they plan for Crossgen, but all eyes are on them to see what comes out of it.
Devil's Due A relatively new company that seems very promising. They're currently publishing the majority of UDON's Capcom liscenced comics including Street Fighter.
IDW Mostly publishes liscenced comics for TV shows like The Shield and CSI, but also came out with the indy smash hit of 2003 Thirty Days of Night, which is arguably the best Vampire comic ever written.
