What Are Comic Books?

Technically speaking, a comic book is any sort of periodical that features graphic sequential story-telling along with narrative dialogue as its primary story-telling methods. The magazine may have one or more complete stories in each issue, one or more episodes of continuing stories, or some combination of the two. Characters and settings may continue from story to story, issue to issue, or not at all. There may be text pieces as well, but the primary story-telling vehicle needs to be sequential. This sequential artwork is generally illustration, but can also be photographs (also known as .

The term comic book is something of a misnomer, as most modern comic books are dramatic in tone. 'Comic book' is taken from the term 'comic strip,' since many of the earliest comic books were merely collected editions of popular comic strips of the time. It is generally accepted that the first comic book is Richard F. Outcault's The Yellow Kid in McFadden's Flats, a collection from Outcault's comic strip, Hogan's Alley starring the Yellow Kid in 1896. The first comic book containing all original material was The Funnies in 1929.