Comic Book

A comic is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, and is often accompanied by dialog (usually in word balloons) as well as including brief descriptive prose.

The first comic book appeared in the United States in 1933, reprinting the earlier newspaper comic strips, which established many of the story-telling devices used in comics. The term "comic book" arose because the first comic books reprinted humor comic strips. Despite their name, comic books are not necessarily humorous in tone; modern comic books tell stories in a variety of genres.

The United States has produced the most titles, with only the British comic and Japanese manga as close competitors in terms of quantity of titles, though manga has many more followers and dwarfs American comics in readership.

Underground comic books

As the name suggestsUnderground comics emerged in retaliation to the established comic industry in the late 1960s. These titles were published and distributed independently, almost never sold at news stands, but rather in  record stores, or by mail order.  These comics reflected the youth counterculture and drug culture of the time. Many had an uninhibited, often irreverent style; their frank depictions of nudity, sex, profanity, and politics had no parallel outside their precursors.

Alternative comics

The rise of comic book specialty stores in the late 1970s created a dedicated market for independent comics in the U.S. The first such comics included the anthology series Star Reach, published by comic book writer Mike Friedrich, and Harvey Pekar's American Splendor, which continued sporadic publication into the 21st century and which was adapted into a  film in 2003.

Some independent comics continued in the tradition of underground comics, though their content was generally less explicit, and others resembled the output of mainstream publishers in format and genre but were published by smaller artist-owned companies or by single artists. A few were experimental attempts to bring comics closer to the status of fine art.

Graphic Novels

The term graphic novel was first coined in 1964 by Richard to distinguish European works from American comics, which were more genre driven.  Graphic novels use either an experimental design or in a traditional comic format.The term is employed in a broad manner, encompassing non-fiction works and thematically linked short stories as well as fictional stories across number of genres

Graphic novels usually have a more complicated plotline and complex character development when compared to comics.

There is some critism of the term graphic novel, as some suggest it is just a comic - with better binding.

Digital comics

This terms refers to comics created entirely on a computer or comics released digitally. This type of comic has grown dramitcally with the rise of the internet, particularly Apple's iPhone and iPad, many major publishers have begun releasing titles in digital form.

Some of the most popular platforms for such release are Graphicly and comiXology.

In 2011, a completely free digital comic sales platform named Whizu.com was launched, enabling creators to post their own comics for sale immediately.

Another method of digital distribution is to create the publication in its entirety and have it hosted on a digital storage locker site, such as YouSendit.com. (This method removes anyone between the creator and the customer.) The customer purchases the publication by Paypal or Credit Card. Then the customer receives in their email the download link of the file. Some of the popular formats are CBR, CBZ, ePub and PDF.

Notable digital comics
This list includes some hybrids of digital and traditional media.

• Mr. Punch, by Neil Gaiman & Dave McKean (September, 1995). Hybrid: mixed media, digitally manipulated. DC Comics
• Astounding Space Thrills, by Steve Conley, (1997). Hybrid: inked in Adobe Illustrator. Image Comics / Web comic
• The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln, by Scott McCloud (1998). Hybrid: penciled on paper, "inked" in Photoshop with 3-D backgrounds. Homage Comics
• The Dome: Ground Zero, by Dave Gibbons & Angus McKie (1998). All-digital. DC Comics
• Delta Thrives, by Patrick Farley, (2002). All-digital Web comic
• Pocket God by Ape Entertainment,^[2] (August 2010). iOS application, also sold in print.