Written by: Pranish Khanal - 24080, Grade XII
Posted on: 15 December, 2023
Art is the expression or application of human creativity, usually in the form of something visually appealing or emotionally stirring. One of the widely used forms of art is literature. In addition, comic books are one of the most widely read forms of writing among the various forms of literature. They are visually represented stories that consists of images, texts and captions. Literally, comics are humorous and amusing strips of text or cartoon.
The word ‘Comics’ is derived from the Latin word ‘comicus’ and Greek word ‘kōmikós’ which means relating to comedy. Comics were most popular during the late 1900s but are not preferred these days. The trend of studying comics is comparatively decreasing day by day but is still going strong as a form of entertainment. However, comics have gained and shared popularity in recent times with its derivative ‘Manga’ the Japanese literature.
In today’s date, comics are not anything new to us. It is available in newspapers, digitally on the web, it is used as a background for fictional movies (especially of superheroes) and so on. However, going back in time, comics was a revolutionary release in the 19th century since it drastically changed people’s opinion towards books and occupied huge market share. ‘The Glasgow Looking Glass’ in 1826 AD was the first recorded comics magazine. It was a political satire and had maximum components of what modern comics demand. Apart from this, ‘The Yellow Kid’, 1895 AD. was the first ever collated comic in the United States and a comic by Charles Henry Ross, ‘Ally Sloper’s Half Holiday’ in 1884 was the first serialized comic that approximately made 350,000 circulations. The advancement in comics was made rapidly by Britons, whereas, other countries followed in the 19th -20th century. Along with time, the worldwide comics market grew bigger and bigger slowly. Furthermore, the 1930s were the recorded growing years for comics from the resurgence of the fiction. Comics regained its popularity in the 1960s to the late 20th century.
In addition to this, Japan had its own form of comics after the end of World War II. Comics shared its market with its derivative i.e. the Japanese comics, known as ‘Manga’. Unlike the western form of comics, manga are more fictional, less satirical and consist of hundreds of pages. Later, comics were able to be adapted in movies and so were Mangas. In the present day, comics are widely a part of fictional movie story lines and on the other hand, Mangas are developed and adapted into animated movies i.e. anime. Comic books have evolved and are capable enough to make you laugh, break your heart, cover the contemporary world, political satire and are much more than just a strip of cartoon.
