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Topic: What is a Comic Book? (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post ReplyPost New Topic
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Brian Rhodes
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | 1  

...a comic book is an album containing sequential art used to
graphically tell a story or stories. They of course can contain a partial
story, collecting multiple albums tell to one whole.

It doesn't matter if that album is made of stone, paper or a digital file.

It also doesn't matter if the art used is photo, hand drawn, or digital.

My wife scrapbooks. She used three albums of photos to document our wedding ceremony.  They are, for the most part, in chronological order. There are even captions. Are these comic books?
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Stephen Churay
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Posted: 19 May 2015 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | 2  

My wife scrapbooks. She used three albums of photos to document
our wedding ceremony.  They are, for the most part, in chronological
order. There are even captions. Are these comic books?
=====
If they told a story cohesively, why not?

Edited by Stephen Churay on 19 May 2015 at 10:57pm
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Stephen Churay
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 3:22am | IP Logged | 3  

Hey, I'm just tying to answer the original question. By some thoughts
here, JB's Star Trek works aren't comics. Well, I think they are.

So, what is a comic?
The definition I gave was one I believe in, built from the different types
of comics I've read, and books about comics, from two guys who's
books I respect. You may disagree, but I stick by my answer.
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Rod Collins
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 3:46am | IP Logged | 4  

While we're on comic book terminology, nothing irks me more than when comic books are called "floppies".  It's kind of cutesy, but at the same time dismissive of the format. 

Edited by Rod Collins on 20 May 2015 at 3:46am
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Eric Ladd
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 4:48am | IP Logged | 5  

I would add that a comic book is fictional. Therefore your photo album isn't a comic book. 
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Stephen Robinson
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 7:35am | IP Logged | 6  

I wonder if the people who question the classification of
NEW VISIONS as a "comic book" would also claim that PAUL'S
BOUTIQUE or THE BLUEPRINT, which are primarily samples of
other songs with new lyrics from the performers, are *not*
albums.

This is not to say that JB is the Jay-Z of comics but it's
another way of looking at the issue. There are people who
don't like rap because of the use of samples or people who
don't like LORD OF THE RINGS because of the use of CGI but
they can't deny the larger form of these works (music
albums and movies).
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David Miller
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 8:06am | IP Logged | 7  

 Eric Ladd wrote:
I would add that a comic book is fictional. Therefore your photo album isn't a comic book. 


Harvey Pekar just rolled over in his grave and said you were wrong.
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Dale Lerette
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 9:22am | IP Logged | 8  

I think a comic book is any book typically in magazine format with illustrations accompanied by some form of narrative. It could be based on reality or fictional. Usually they tend to have dynamic stories that evoke some kind of emotional response. More typically action. But also including romance. And the range of emotions could vary widely. From children to adult content -- they're all comic books. Just some have different target audiences.   
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Eric Ladd
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 9:33am | IP Logged | 9  

 David Miller wrote:
Harvey Pekar just rolled over in his grave and said you were wrong.


There are exceptions! =) Perhaps I should have written, "comic books are typically fiction" instead of something so absolute. My guess is there will not be a definition of a comic book that neatly encompasses everything we can cite. We are speaking about the exceptions and fringes that push the limits of a succinct definition.
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Peter Martin
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 9:53am | IP Logged | 10  

If a wedding album is put together with the intention of telling a narrative and the pictures truly tell the story sequentially, rather than just being loosely chronological, then it is a form of comic book.

If any photos are included just to include them rather than tell a story, or if they are out of sequence with no narrative-intentions in doing so, then I wouldn't describe it as a comic book.
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Jesus Garcia
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 10:28am | IP Logged | 11  

A comic book is whatever a comic book was when the term "comic book" was first applied. If the term was first used in 1937 to describe an American mass-produced, cheaply printed, 7 1/2 X 10 1/2 inches periodical, featuring adventure stories targeted at an all-age audience, distinguished from other publications by a cinematic illustrative approach (manually rendered), with English narrative and dialogue super-imposed over the drawings ...

... then THAT is a comic book.

Anything else is a variation on comic book: for example, a series of pages without captions, dialogue, or sound effects would not be a comic book, despite the time-sequential presentation because such as thing didn't get published when the term "comic book" was first coined.

I would described JB's efforts with ST using TV clips as "Delivered in Comic book format". But it is not a comic book.

But it IS a brilliant way to breathe new life into classic material, and merits applause. It obviously takes more time and effort to do it this way than drawing it so no one can accuse JB of saving time or cutting corners.


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Peter Martin
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Posted: 20 May 2015 at 10:47am | IP Logged | 12  

a series of pages without captions, dialogue, or sound effects would not be a comic book

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