Comic books and strips

Comic books and comic strips, both sometimes called comics, are, contrary to popular opinion, NOT merely a combination of literature and visual art. The vast majority of comics follow a linear narrative format wherein information of the narrative is derieved from a concious sequence recognition of the panels. These narratives are predominately contained in monthly publications, for example as part of newspapers (in the case of comic strips) or as making up magazines or books that consist of many pages of comics (as in the case of comic books). Although a driving force in todays comic industry is the graphic novel (a single issue -- 5 or more times the pagecount of a monthly comic -- either containing a collection of monthly issues or an original story0 and it's presence in major bookstore chains. Comic strips are usually found in newspapers and have a lot less space than are used in comic books, and are often used to tell one joke, or a small part of a continuing story.

For lists of books and strips, see comic book and comic strip.