A comic book, 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.
Boys' love, also known by its abbreviation BL, is a genre of fictional media originating in Japan that depicts homoerotic relationships between male characters. It is typically created by women for a female audience, distinguishing it from the equivalent genre of homoerotic media created by and for gay men, though BL does also attract a male audience and can be produced by male creators. BL spans a wide range of media, including manga, anime, drama CDs, novels, video games, television series, films, and fan works.
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.
Alternative comics or independent comics cover a range of American comics that have appeared since the 1980s, following the underground comix movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Alternative comics present an alternative to mainstream superhero comics which in the past have dominated the American comic book industry. They span across a wide range of genres, artistic styles, and subjects.
A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper. As of 2014, the three longest-running comics of all time were all British.
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.
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, LGBTQ themes are a relatively new concept, as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) themes and characters were historically omitted from the content of comic books and their comic strip predecessors due to anti-gay censorship. LGBTQ existence was included only via innuendo, subtext and inference. However the practice of hiding LGBTQ 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.
Andrew Foley is a writer and occasional editor and artist of comic books and graphic novels. Andrew Foley lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada with his wife, graphic designer Tiina Andreakos.
Hong Kong comics are comics originally produced in Hong Kong.
Helen McCarthy is the British author of such anime reference books as 500 Manga Heroes and Villains, Anime!, The Anime Movie Guide and Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation. She is the co-author of The Erotic Anime Movie Guide and the exhaustive The Anime Encyclopedia with Jonathan Clements. She also designs needlework and textile art.
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 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 – also known as Montynero – is a Scottish writer of comic books, graphic novels, and stories published by Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Delcourt, 2000ad and Titan Comics.
Alain Ayroles is a French author, playwright, screenwriter and translator known best for his graphic novels Garulfo, De cape et de crocs and Les Indes Fourbes.
