Comics Glossary
Comics and comic fans have been around for so long that sometimes it’s hard to get into the community if you don’t know the lingo. Comics corner has your back with this handy dandy little guide to some of comic’s biggest tropes, terms, and weird little eccentricities that have developed over the years. Each of these could be an article in and of themselves so I’m going to try and distill them down to their basic meanings. Some may be obvious but I’ll also provide some examples to help you through the basics.
Crossover Events/Event Comics - Made more popular in recent years, event comics are often company wide crossovers that involve a huge threat that needs every hero to join in to stop. Usually it involves a miniseries as well as spreading to particular issues of each character or teams involved. Most usually end up changing the status quo of the company, for a time. Also, many of these just like to use the words Infinity, Crisis, or War in there titles. Don't ask me, I didn't write them.
Examples: Infinity Gauntlet, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Secret Wars, Countdown
Team Ups - Much smaller than a crossover event, team ups usually are either single issue or series where a characters or teams joins up with someone they usually never meet. Almost always they end up fighting one and other before they join forces to beat the villain/threat of the day. Don’t ask me how that trope got started, but it seems every team up the heroes have to throw down.
Examples: Spider-Man/Deadpool, World’s Finest, Super Sons, Deadpool Team Up
Continuity – The current past and present of a universe’s heroes or story-lines. I say current because that can, and does change all the time. And I mean all the time! See the terms below.
Retcons - Retroactive continuity, or retcons if you’re nasty, are some of the most divisive parts of being a comic fan. Simplest explanation is that a particular event happens, and then further down the line said event is somehow changed, either saying details were left out, new things were added, or the event is explained away as never happening.
Examples: Jean Grey’s First Resurrection, Infinite Crisis
Reboots - A reboot is usually a company wide event that changes and restarts key properties, usually creating new origins. Usually a reboot happens after an event series and is meant to clean up conflicting continuity or to help new readers with a jumping on point. For better or worse depending upon who you talk to.
Examples: Crisis on Infinite Earths, Flashpoint/New 52
Issue 0 - I made mention of this before but comics don’t always start at issue one. Issue 0s act like a backstory, prelude, or in some cases an origin for a new series or character. Sometimes these may also l be labeled as ½ issues. Some are also provided on free comic book day as well!
Examples: Blackest Night Issue #0, Avengers vs X-Men Issue #0
Woman in the Fridge/ Fridging - Women in comics have it bad. Founded and popularized by Gail Simone, before she became an accomplished and acclaimed comic book author herself, the woman in the fridge is a trope in comics is where female characters often die or have tragic events happen to them just for the sake of either tragedy itself, or to influence their male counterparts to avenge them.
Examples: Too many to list here. Check out Gail Simone’s original essay and site here.
(The Origin of the term. Apropos, no?)
Holographic/Cover Variants - Popularized in the 90’s during the comic boom when people thought comics would be worth loads in the future, very similar to the Beanie Baby craze, variants are just specialized covered. These covers are done for certain gimmicks or tie ins, released in limited quantities only to certain stores, or given out at events. The issues all have the same content, just the cover is different. Usually, just go with the one you like best.
Examples: X-Men #1 Volume 2
Trade Paperback (TPB) - The trade paperback is great for new readers and those who want to catch up on current stories. These large books often collect 5-10 issues of a comic usually collecting a complete story-line or event.
Examples: The Sandman Vol. 1: Preludes & Nocturnes
Graphic Novel- While a graphic novel can be a a TPB, or a collected edition, most original graphic novels are a full length book, sometimes dealing with a lot more adult subject matter but always contain original stories that are not collected in actual issues elsewhere.
Examples: Persepolis, Maus: A Survivor's Tale, Batman: The Killing Joke
Mini Series - A limited series, usually around 3-9 issues that tells a complete story for a character. Sometimes these can be an origin, a comic focusing on one member of a larger team, or a jumping point to launch a new comic.
Examples: Deadpool (1994 Mini Series) , Batgirl Year One
Maxi Series - Similar to a mini series and much less used but a Maxi Series usually spans 12 issues or more of a single story with a planned end.
Examples: All Star Superman, Batman: The Long Halloween
Multiverse - Usually with large publishers, there isn’t just one universe. Marvel and DC both have untold numbers of alternate realities, depending upon a companies current policy. With DC there was a point when all alternate realities were destroyed after the first Crisis event. Usually, the main Marvel universe is designated 616, whereas the current main universe for DC Is Prime Earth.
Examples: Marvel Multiverse, DC Multiverse
Annuals - A giant sized issue of a comic series released once a year. Can continue a comic’s current story-line, tie into a long running event, have multiple small stories told, or be an original one shot.
Examples: Really, there are just TOO many to list here as each long running series has their own annual.
What Ifs/Elseworlds - Comics that explore alternate versions of canon events that show consequences if things happened differently . What If’s are usually Marvel's stories dealing with this trope while DC has its Elseworlds inprint.
Examples: Earth X, Superman Red Sun, Kingdom Come
Hi comicscorner,
LEARN MORE: Join Curie on Discord chat and check the pinned notes (pushpin icon, upper right) for Curie Whitepaper, FAQ and most recent guidelines.
Thank you so much for the up-vote! I'm stunned to see you selected my article for this, I really do appreciate it and hope to keep making articles not only to inform others, but to entertain them as well!
Great explanation and examples..
I'm no comic-book lover, but I can see myself grabbing one now, after reading this :)
I have to add, your comment:
amazed me!
Good job, keep it up!
Well I I didn't expect this kind of response but thank you! And if you do wanna start, there's many places to do so but some of my current favs are Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl. Ms. Marvel is much more classical superheroing while Squirrel Girl is a much more comedic, tongue in cheek series. Check out ComiXology too if you don't have a local Comic Shop, you can find all the back-issues there. https://www.comixology.com
Well my job at Curie is to find good posts like yours, on every subject!
We don't have Comic Shop here, but I searched online, and I got interested in few. I mostly write fiction stories and I actually have Superheros series :)
That's awesome! Is there anything you'd like to see an article on about comics in some way?
Sure, I love good reviews, collection blogs, even character analyze sounds great!
Heres a bit of history, that may be interesting...What happened back in the 90s caused a crash in comic book collections, and almost ruined publishers. Silver and gold age comics were selling at high end auctions for lots of money. When new collectors saw the prices they rushed out and bought multiple copies of newer comics. The silver and gold age comics sold at high prices because they were rare (there was an effort to recycle them for the war effort during WW2). The newer collectors hording multiple copies of newer comics made them much less rare, and prices didn't rise. They eventually figured this out, causing the crash. It took major publishers like Marvel and D.C. Comics joining with movie producers to revive interest.
That is exactly the history I was referring to, but considering this was just a glossary, I didn't want to overwhelm new readers. I plan to do an article about this at some point, as well as one on the comics code authority! Thanks for explaining this to everyone!
Cool explanation, dude! I can't wait for your next post! :D
Thanks so much! I plan to have a new comparison article between the movie and comic version of Rocket Raccoon out sometime this week!
Welcome to steemit and congrats on the curie! This was a wonderful, and very in depth article. I'd love to see more from you.
I'm a friend of your husband @vaughndemont.
I'm a huge fan of comics. If you want join a server for comic fans and creators alike, I'd love to have you.
https://discord.gg/cDt5UgT
I'll check it out but I'm honestly not on discord a lot! Thanks so much for commenting and I'm glad you liked it! Hopefully I'll have some new content up soon!
Congratulations @comicscorner!
Your post was mentioned in the Steemit Hit Parade for newcomers in the following category:
I also upvoted your post to increase its reward
If you like my work to promote newcomers and give them more visibility on Steemit, feel free to vote for my witness! You can do it here or use SteemConnect
Thanks so much!