What are Comics?Comic books are magazines that are comprised of several comic strips. Many times,

these comic strips are all related, and they tell a story. Other comic strips, may be comprised of several different unrelated comic strips. Comics are a way of creating a universe and populating it with characters using a secret code that works in the simplest and most direct way  possible to enter the 'reader's' brain, series of  little pictures and groups of words arranged in a  rhythmic pattern to create and activate a world  inside us. Comics are a medium, not a genre (usually). The medium we call comics is based on a simple idea: the idea of placing one picture after another to show the passage of time. Comics area language. Its vocabulary is the full range of visual symbols. Comics are an integration of images and words, visual art and storytelling. Comics are a form of storytelling, like a song, film, or short story, not a type of story to be told. A static image or series of static images, most commonly drawn, and often incorporating text, depicting the passage of time for a narrative or other informational purpose.

There’s all kinds of comics! They come from all over the worldThe Classics Commercial comics Underground comics Alternative comics ‘ Post-Alternative’ comics ‘ Art comics’

Early Narratives of comicsThe history of comics has followed different paths in different parts of the world. It can

be traced back to early precursors such as Trajan's Column, Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Bayeux Tapestry.

Rome's Trajan's Column, dedicated in 113 AD, is an early surviving example of a narrative told through sequential pictures, while Egyptian hieroglyphs, Greek friezes, medieval tapestries such as the Bayeux Tapestry and illustrated manuscripts also combine sequential images and words to tell a story. Versions of the bible relying primarily on images rather than text were widely distributed in Europe in order to bring the teachings of christianity to the illiterate. In medieval paintings, many sequential scenes of the same story appear simultaneously. 

The invention of the printing press, allowing movable type, established a separation between images and words, the two requiring different methods in order to be reproduced. It was also during this period that the speech bubble was developed as a means of attributing dialogue. 

Individual comics have been around for centuries, comic books are a relative newcomer to the literary world. Single-panel comics have been published in papers and broadsheets since the mid-1700s, and comic strips became popular around the end of the 19th century. Comic books as we know them today, though, are generally thought to have found their origin with Funnies on Parade in 1933 and Action Comics #1 (the first appearance of Superman) in 1938.Comic books cornered the market for decades, until a resurgence in the popularity of graphic novels.

One of the first creators of comics was William Hogarth(1697–1764).

Graphic Novels VS. Comic Books

Graphic Novels Comic Books much longer more complex more often to have their storylines

wrapped up in only one or two books.

longer works tell a single story from the beginning

to the end more detailed Graphic novels actually pre-date

comic books. a reputation as being gritty, explicit,

and for mature audiences

tells a story over many issues serialized stories most are relatively short tell the story of the book’s heroes and

heroines over a long period of time. Stories can unfold over months and

sometimes years. Sometimes, successful comic books will

be collected and packaged in a graphic novel format

relegated to more mainstream popularity have long carried their own stigma of

being a childish, immature, guilty pleasure at best

Calling something a graphic novel isn’t just a fancy way of saying “comic book.” There’s a very clear difference between the two. Accuse someone who’s reading a graphic novel of being into comic books, and you’re likely to get a dirty look at the very least (or a lecture at the very slightly worse). They might look the same at a glance, but they’re actually very different types of story medium.  Both comic books and graphic novels use a combination of illustrations and words to tell any story. The difference isn’t so much in the content, but in the presentation.