Comic Styles: Comic Strips and Webcomics

The first step to becoming a comic book artist is to explore the many genres and styles. Comic books aren't necessarily humorous; they have many genres: action, adventure, comedy, romance, horror, slice of life, mystery, fantasy, etc. The genres also have affect on what the art in the comic book will look like. This video covers a brief history of American comic books and how the events during the time formed the main characters. It also goes into some detail about Japanese comics. [1]

I split the types of comic books into five categories: Editorial, Web, Newspaper Comic Strips, American, European, and Japanese comics. In this blog post I will focus on comic strips and webcomics. 

Editorial Comics
Editorial comics are cartoons found in newspapers and contain political satire by caricaturing political leaders or issues. They don’t have a particular story going on because their purpose is to question anything political. Editorial comics have evolved through time to exaggerate and mock a person’s features and ideas. [2][3] Examples can be found on the website of AAEC (The Association of American Editorial Cartoonist).

WebComics
Web comics are typically video game, slice of life, or science genres. Because there is no publisher telling what the artist should do they are very diverse.

Wondermark: 

David Malki’s comic panels rely heavily on irony for humor. They are similar to old European comics because of the Victorian etchings style. [4]

Penny-Arcade: 

Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins focus on video game comics. The story follows two main characters but there is little continuity. [5] 

XKCD:  

XKCD has a set of very random and simple comics. Randall Munroe uses stick figures as people. [6]

Comic Strips

These also appeared in newspapers but the purpose is to tell small humorous stories.

Calvin and Hobbes 

Calvin and Hobbes is a daily comic strip illustrated by Bill Watterson. It is of a smart, adventuresome boy named Calvin and his relationship with his friend stuffed animal tiger, Hobbes. [7]

Garfield

Garfield is written by Jim Davis. The comic is of a fat, lazy cat named Garfield and his owner Jon Arbuckle and owner's dog, Odie. Garfield holds the Guinness World Record for being the world's most widely syndicated comic strip. [8]

Peanuts 

Peanuts was written and illustrated by Charles Schulz from 1950-2000. They are stories of Charlie Brown, his pet dog Snoopy, and his friends. [9]

Comic strips, and most webcomics, tend to be short. They each have their own recognizable style by the comic artist's choice of colors (or no color), way characters are drawn, type of font, speech bubbles, background, panels, and how complex or simple the art is. 

In the next post, I will blog about comic books which are longer, have an ongoing plot that connects the comic strips, and multiple characters.

Sources
[1] Williams, Wadsworth. (2011, May 29). The History of Comic Books. [YouTube]. Retrieved
            from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqvJ0UHFaug
[2] Baker, Joseph. (1865). The Rail Splitter at Work Repairing the Union. Retrieved  
            from http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2008661827/
[3] Anderson, Nick. (2009, September 4). Right-Wing Thinking on Presidents Addressing School Students.
            Retrieved from http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090904/OPINION/90904008/
[4] Malki, David. (2013, October 25). The Extreme Measure of Absolute Last Resort. 
            Retrieved from http://wondermark.com/976/

[5] Krahulik and Holkins (2013). Tall Grass, Big Stakes. Retrieved from  http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/10/18

[6] Munroe, Randall. (2013). Turn Signals. Retrieved from http://xkcd.com/165/. 
[7] Watterson, Bill. (2013). Calvin Needs This Kind of Push. Retrieved from
            http://www.heavy.com/entertainment/2013/03/the-10-best-calvin-hobbes-comic-strips/
[8] Davis, Jim. (2012, May 17). Garfield. Retrieved from http://garfield.com/

[9] Schulz, Charles. (2002). Peanuts. Retrieved from http://www.pvpixels.com/7-awesome-newspaper-comic-strips-childhood/