Comic books, strips, manga, BD and graphic novels terms.
| ALBUM | Comic book in Europe (typical comic album is 48-page hardcover). |
| ANIME | Japanese animated cartoon |
| ANNUAL | A book or publication that is published once a year. |
| ARRIVAL DATE | Markings on a comic book cover made by the newsstand dealer or distributordenoting the date the book was placed on the newstand. Usually in pencil. |
| ARTWORK | Original paintings of comic book art. |
| ASHCAN | A publisher's in-house mock-up of a proposed new title. Usually consistingof a black and white cover stapled to an existing book; a half-sized (4" x 5"), typically black and white, promotionalcopy of a comic book. Originally, ashcans were produced to claim trademarks.Today, ashcans are produced more as a promotion than to gain guardianshipof intellectual property. |
| BALLOONS | The container of the text-dialogue spoken by character. |
| B&W | Artwork done in black and white. |
| BD | Bande Dessinee - comic book in French. |
| BI-MONTHLY | A book published every two months. |
| BI-WEEKLY | A book published every two weeks. |
| BLURB | Copy whitch relates to a title. |
| BONDAGE COVER | A book cover with a bondage scene, usually female. |
| BORDER | The outline of the page. |
| BRITTLENESS | The final stage of paper deterioration. |
| BUBBLES | The little connecting circles on thought balloons. |
| CAMEO | Situation, when a character briefly appears in one or two panels. |
| CAPTION | Copy in whitch someone is talking to the reader. |
| CBG | Comic Buyers' Guide, a weekly newspaper. |
| CCA | Comics Code Authority. |
| CCA SEAL | A emblem placed on a cover of the comic showing approval by the CCA.This practice began in April-May 1955. |
| CENTERFOLD | The two folded pages found in the center of the book, where thestaples can be seen. |
| COLORIST | The artist that applies color to black and white pen and ink drawings. |
| COMIC CODE AUTHORITY | A committee formed in 1954 by the major publishers to set up guidelines for acceptable contents for comics. |
| COMICS | Juxtaposed pictorial and other images in deliberate sequence (from the book "Understanding Comics - The Invisible Art" by Scott McCloud. |
| COMIX | Independent, non-mainstream comics, such as Yummy Fur or DesertPeach. |
| CON | A comic book convention. |
| CREDITS | Text where the authors are listed. |
| CRISIS | The Crisis on Infinite Earths (usually). |
| CSN | Comic Shop News, a free weekly hype sheet dangling plotline. |
| DANGLER | An unresolved plotline or mystery which an author has apparently forgottenabout, since it hasn't been mentioned in a long time. |
| DEBUT | The first time a character ever appears. |
| DOUBLE COVER | A binding process error in which two or more covers are bond to a singlebook. |
| FANBOY/FANGIRL | A rabidly devoted fan, often said to be "drooling". Thiscan be used in a general sense, or a specific sense, such as X-Men fanboy,Sandgirl, Image fanboy, etc. |
| FANZINE | A fan club publication put out by amateurs. |
| FILE COPY | A comic originationg from the publisher's files. |
| FIRST APPERANCE | When a characture makes it's first ever appearance. |
| FLASHBACK | Recalling an earlier story. |
| FOUR COLOR | a) The series published by Dell called 'Four Color'. b) A printing process involving three colors and black. |
| "THE FOURTH WALL" | Originally used with reference to stage sets, this term refers to theimaginary wall between the characters and the audience. "Breakingthe fourth wall" refers to comics in which the characters are awarethat they exist in a comic book, sometimes for the purpose of humor. |
| FOXING | The small orange and brown spots found on the pages and coversof comics. |
| FUMETTI | Comic book in Italian. |
| FURRY | An anthropomorphic animal, such as Mickey Mouse. |
| GESTURE | Human movement of expression. |
| GOLDEN AGE | The period of comics beginning June, 1938 with Action #1 and endingin 1945 with the end of World War II. |
| GRAPHIC NOVEL | Term created by Will Eisner; comic book with high quality storyline and artwork. |
| GUTTERS | The space between panels. |
| HEADLIGHT | Protruding breasts. |
| HENTAI | Manga-term, abnormality, sexual perversion. Used also to describea certain class of anime or otaku. |
| INDICIA | Text, showing who, when and where is publishing the magazine, usuallyfound on the bottom of the first page. |
| INFINITY COVER | A cover scene that repeats itself into infinity. |
| INKER | The artist that does the inking for a comic. |
| INTRO | When a character makes it's first appearance. |
| JLA, JLE, JLI, JLUTB | The popular DC super-hero groups "Justice League of America", "Justice League of Europe", "Justice League International", and for those tired of them, the hypothetical "Justice League Up-the-Butt". |
| LETTERER | The artist that applies letters to comic book artwork. |
| LOGO | Title of a comic book as it appears on the cover or title page. |
| LSH | Legion of Super-heroes (a DC comic book). |
| MANGA | Japanese comic book. |
| MARKET VALUE | The price for which a comic may be bought from a dealer for. |
| MARVEL CHIPPING | A defect occuring on Marvel Comics during the 1950s and 1960s causedby a triming process that causes a ragged edge around the cover. |
| MECHA | Manga-term, just about anything mechanical: weapons, vehicles,robots, but usually not items like pencil sharpeners or ceiling fans. |
| MILE HIGH | A large NM-Mint collection originating from Denver, Colorado. OriginallyEdgar Church's collection. |
| ND | No Date for comic. |
| NN | No Number for comic. |
| OAV/OVA | Original Video Animation: an anime direct to video release, animemade only for the video market. |
| OHOTMUDE | Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, Deluxe Edition. |
| ONE SHOT | When only a single issue is produced of a title, or when the titleis changed with each issue. |
| OPEN LETTERS | Letters drawn in outline, with space for color to be added. |
| ORIGIN | The story in which a character's creation is given. |
| OTAKU | Anime fanboy or fangirl. Generally good thing in America, aparentlycloser to being a geek in Japan. |
| OVER GUIDE | When a comic book's price is greater than the guide's price. |
| PAGE | A leaf of the publication or total area of the work. |
| PANEL | A box whitch contains a given scene (also BOX, FRAME). |
| PATCH | (see retcon). |
| PEDIGREE | A comic book from a famous outstanding collection. |
| PENCILER | The artist that does the penciling for the comic. |
| A character who has been taken over by a new writer and/or editor andimmediately acts very inconsistently with previous characterization, withno explanation given for the change, and no change noticed by other charactersin the book. The term is from the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers,where aliens grew duplicates of people in giant pods. First use of 'pod'was in reference to the changeover after Keith Giffen left the JLI titles,concerning the characters Fire, Ice, Max, and Oberon. | |
| POGS OR | Round, approximately 2.5 inches in diameter, and cardboard, pogs arethe element of a game from Hawaii. While the game involves stacking thepogs and flipping another to knock them over, on the continent in recentmonths, they have simply become another alternative to trading cards, bearingart and/or text concerning super-heroes. Many here consider pogs on themainland an example of a manufacture fad. |
| POST-CODE | Comic books that where published with the CCA seal. |
| POST-CRISIS | events/history/characters in the DC Universe as they existed *after*the Crisis on Infinite Earths. |
| POST GOLDEN AGE | Comic books published between 1945 and 1950. |
| POST SILVER AGE | Comic books published from 1969 to the present. |
| POSTURE | Attitude of the body. |
| PRE-CODE | Comic books published before the CCA seal. |
| PRE-CRISIS | events/history/characters in the DC Universe as they existed *prior*to the Crisis on Infinite Earths. |
| PRE GOLDEN AGE | Comic books published before June, 1938 when Action #1 was published,and introduced the Golden Age. |
| PRE SILVER AGE | Comic books published between 1950 and 1956 when Showcase #4 was published. |
| PRINTING DEFECT | A defect caused during the printing of the book. These tend to lowerthe value of the comic book. |
| PROVENANCE | When the past owner of the book is known, adding to the documentationof it's authenticity. |
| QUARTERLY | A publication published 4 times a year. |
| RARE | A comic in which only 10 to 20 copies are known to exist. |
| comic book REPAIR | A repair of a tear, or centerfold with glue, tape or some othereasily detected means. This does not change or add to the book's finnish,and is concidered a defect. |
| REPRINT | Newspaper comic strips reprinted in comic book form. |
| comic book RESTORATION | Any attempt to enhance the appearance of a comic book. Whether doneby a proffesional or amateur the restored book can not be worth as muchas an unrestored book in the same condition. |
| RETCON | To retroactively change the continuity of a character or title. Originally, the term "retcon" was used only in cases wherethe interpretation of "facts" from earlier stories is changed,but the facts themselves are preserved. A "patch" was the term used (taken from programmer's jargon) to mean an actual change, rather than merely filling in details. These days, however, "retcon" is used increasingly to mean changes to history as well as to retroactive continuity. So, to "retcon" is to change history, so that something that had existed in the continuity of the fictional universe, not ONLY doesn't exist now, but in the fictional history, NEVER HAS existed. This can be true of an event, of a character, or whatever. |
| RICE PAPER | A thin type of paper used by restorer to repair covers and pages ofcomic books. |
| SCARCE | A comic in which only 20 to 100 copies are estimated to exist. |
| SERIES COLLECTING | Collecting issues in a single title. |
| SILVER AGE | The period that begins in 1956 with the publishing of Showcase #4 andends in 1969. |
| SILVER PROOF | The actual size black and white print given to a colorist to indicatecolors to the engraver. |
| SOUND EFFECT | BANG! WHAM! ZAT! etc. |
| SPINE | The folded and stapled part of the comic book. |
| SPINE ROLL | A defect of uneven pages and bowing of the spine caused by improperstorage. |
| SPLASH BALLOON | An outline around lettering done in jagged shape. |
| SPLASH PAGE | The first page of the story, with a large introductory illustration. |
| SPLASH PANEL | A large panel, usually at the front of the comic book. |
| SPOILER | Any item which "gives away" information about a comic.Proper netiquette is to give a "Spolier Warning" first, to allowpeople to avoid the spoiler if they wish to not have their surprise ruined. |
| SQUAREBOUND | A glue bound comic book, resulting in a square spined cover. |
| STRESS LINES | Wrinkles occuring along the cover or spine of the book. |
| comic STRIP | Comics, published in newspapers, mostly 3-4 panels in horizontal layout. |
| STYLE | The manner in whitch artist draws (or writes). |
| SUBSCRIPTION CREASE | A defect resulting from the folding of comic books for mailing to subscribers,causing a crease in the center of the book. |
| SUPERHERO | Phenomenon in American comic culture - strangely popular mutants and freaks, usually wearing thights and some highly uncomfortable costumes. Occupation - saving the world and (pseudo)destroiyng other similar creatures. |
| TAIL | Pointer leading from balloon to speaker; sometimes also POINTER. |
| TECHNIQUE | The manner in whitch art is rendered. |
| THOUGHT BALLOON | The container with the text whitch represents what a character is thinking. |
| TIER | Row of panels (left to right) on page. |
| TITLE | The name of the story. |
| UNDER GUIDE | A comic book that is priced less than the guide book price. |
| VERY RARE | A comic book in which only 1 to 10 copies are extimated to exist. |
| WAREHOUSE COPY | A comic originating from the publisher's warehouse. |
| X-OVER | Situation, when a character crosses over to another strip or book. |
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