What exactly is a "Comic Book"?

[Earl Davis]

If we limit our definition of a comic book to the dominant physical format of our own generation we risk our 20th century 'comic books' to one day be de-classified as newer formats come to dominate.

 

To my nephew and niece and maybe many other under 16’s with no knowledge of 20th century a modern mass-market comic books now look like this…

 

 

And not this old format that used to dominate back in the old 20th century like this...

 

 

Is a modern 14 year old saying a 20th century Millie the Model is not a comic book because it looks physically different to the new dominant 21st century format any different than a 20th century generation fan discounting a Victorian age book for being of an outdated format?

 

Earl.

 

But Earl, you could make the arguement that our calling 19th century books "comic books" would be the same as your niece or nephew calling Action comics "early manga."

 

It is isn’t it?

 

Seriously.

 

Apart from it’s not that early an example

But I do take your point as well (thumbs u

 

Earl.

[Theagenes]

OK,OK.......I'll contribute one post, and one post only to this thread. The most memorable moment for me on the Oldbuck vs. Superman thread of last year (similar topic ), had nothing to do with Superman or Oldbuck.

 

At one point in the heated debate, there was a list of 'comic books' dating back to 1842 (Oldbuck). The list focused on various 'comic books' from different years that "could" have been deemed the "1st comic book", and it was focused on a timeline from 1842 ( Oldbuck) - 1934 (Famous Funnies #1). When this list went back to 1897 - The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats......virtually all forumites stopped at this book, stating that it was definately a "comic book", with a big drop off in votes for other books on the list that were older.

 

why was this memorbale????...... because The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats has virtually non of the charactersitics that most people claimed were neccessary 'ingredients' for a "comic book" to be a "comic book"......McFadden's Flats has:

 

a square bound spine - no staples

single panel art with - no word balloons

no - sequential panels

 

 

.............which led me to the conclusion that if the goal is to look for 100% agreement, we must look here....(see image #3)

Steve

 

Doesn't look like YKIMF is a comic book, but it's still very cool. Steve is that a new pic after having the resto removed? If so it looks great!

 

Jeff

[Theagenes]

Is this a comic?....

 

 

Hmmmmm...

 

Nope. It's text with illustrations. Very similar to the Buck Rogers premium mentioned earlier in the thread. Listed by Overstreet, very cool IMO, but definitely not a comic book.

 

Jeff