A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are often accompanied by descriptive prose and written narrative, usually, dialogue contained in word balloons emblematic of the comics art form.
Manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term manga is used in Japan to refer to both comics and cartooning. Outside of Japan, the word is typically used to refer to comics originally published in the country.
Yaoi, also known as boys' love and its abbreviation BL, is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for women and is thus distinct from bara, a genre of homoerotic media marketed to gay men, though yaoi does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. Yaoi spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works. While "yaoi" is commonly used in the west as an umbrella term for Japanese-influenced media with male-male relationships, "boys' love" and "BL" are the generic terms for this kind of media in Japan and much of Asia.
Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon comic book shops known as Pegasus Books and founded in 1980.
Manhwa is the general Korean term for comics and print-cartoons. Outside Korea, the term usually refers to South Korean comics. Manhwa is greatly influenced by Japanese Manga comics. Modern Manhwa has extended its reach to many other countries. These comics have branched outside of Korea by access of Webtoons and have created an impact that has resulted in many movie and television show adaptations.
Semic Comics is one of the leading comic book publishers in France, also known as Semic S.A. Along with French comics, formerly the company published the official translations of products produced by DC Comics and Marvel Comics. Today, Semic publishes translations from others American publishers Avatar Press, Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, and Top Cow Productions, among others.
In comics in the United States, a trade paperback is a collection of stories originally published in comic books, reprinted in book format, usually presenting either a complete miniseries, a story arc from a single title, or a series of stories with an arc or common theme.
Andrew Watson is a British cartoonist and illustrator best known for the graphic novels Breakfast After Noon, Slow News Day and his series Skeleton Key and Love Fights, published by Oni Press and Slave Labor Graphics.
Svetlana Chmakova is a Russian-Canadian comic book artist. She is best known for Dramacon, an original English-language (OEL) manga spanning three volumes and published in North America by Tokyopop. Her other original work includes Nightschool and Awkward for Yen Press. She has been nominated for an Eisner Award twice. Previously, she created The Adventures of CG for CosmoGIRL! magazine and the webcomic Chasing Rainbows for Girlamatic.
In comics, LGBT themes are a relatively new concept, as lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) themes and characters were historically omitted from the content of comic books and their comic strip predecessors due to anti-gay censorship. LGBT existence was included only via innuendo, subtext and inference. However the practice of hiding LGBT characters in the early part of the twentieth century evolved into open inclusion in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, and comics explored the challenges of coming-out, societal discrimination, and personal and romantic relationships between gay characters.
Yaoi Press is an independent yaoi comic publisher based in Nevada. Founded in 2004 by publisher Yamila Abraham, the company specializes in Global BL, or yaoi comics originally published outside of Asia. Yaoi Press publishes original OEL manga as well as European yaoi in translation, and features both single volume comics and comic series. As of 2020, Yaoi Press had fifty titles on the market. One of Yaoi Press's early publishing strategies in order to improve the reputation of OEL manga among yaoi fans was to headhunt famous artists of Global BL. In October 2007, Yaoi Press launched a comic book line in order to provide a less expensive option for customers.
Sonia Leong is a British freelance comic artist, illustrator and member of Sweatdrop Studios.
Emma Vieceli is a British comic book artist and writer. After being a hobbyist at Sweatdrop Studios, she began freelancing professionally as an artist on SelfMadeHero's Manga Shakespeare: Hamlet adaptation in 2007. Her subsequent artist work includes Young Avengers, Back to the Future and Doctor Who. Vieceli started co-writing webcomic BREAKS with Malin Ryden in 2014 and was the writer for the Life Is Strange comic adaptation. Bleeding Cool described her as being "embedded into British comic books" and having a "forte" for writing teenage relationships in 2019.
Hong Kong comics, i.e. comics originating in Hong Kong, have a rich history, starting with their use as anti-Qing propaganda during the establishment of the Republic of China in 1911. However, all comic activities stopped when the Japanese occupied Hong Kong in 1941 and only resumed after World War II. The rise of Chinese immigration and the baby boom in the 1950s and 1960s turned Hong Kong into the main market for manhua. The arrival of television in the 1970s and the popularity of Bruce Lee's films triggered a wave of Kung Fu comics. Due to explicit violence in these comics, the Hong Kong government intervened with the Indecent Publication Law in 1975. The comic industry blossomed in the 1990s with work like McMug and three-part stories such as "Teddy Boy", "Portland Street", and "Red Light District".
Sean Michael Wilson is a Scottish comic book writer from Edinburgh. He has written more than 40 books with a variety of US, UK and Japanese publishers and has been nominated for both the Eisner and Harvey book awards, and won a medal in the Japanese government's 'International Manga Award', 2016.
Brea Colleen Grant is an American actress, writer, and director. She played the character of Daphne Millbrook in the NBC television series Heroes.
Although, traditionally, female comics creators have long been a minority in the industry, they have made a notable impact since the very beginning, and more and more female artists are getting recognition along with the maturing of the medium. Women creators have worked in every genre, from superheroes to romance, westerns to war, crime to horror.
Monty Nero is a writer of comic books, graphic novels, and stories published by Marvel, DC, Delcourt, 2000ad and Titan Comics. He created the ongoing series Death Sentence with the artist Mike Dowling, first published by Titan in 2013, as well as writing The X-men and Hulk for Marvel Comics, the semi-autobiographical Hollow Monsters series, and Frenemies with the artist Yishan Li.
