Comics: History, Culture and the Visual Storytelling Phenomenon

Comics <TAG1> is a special art form that combines text and image, creating a story through a sequence of frames. At its core, comic — is not just pictures with captions, but a way to tell a story through the interaction of the picture, dialogue and rhythm of the page. It is in this combination of word and visual narrative that the strength and uniqueness of the comic as a medium.

The first prototypes of comics can be found in medieval illustrated manuscripts, wall frescoes or Japanese scrolls emaki. However, modern comics as a genre was formed at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. One of the first comics published in the newspaper is believed to be The Yellow Kid (1895) by Richard F. Outcolta — is a satirical story about a street boy, drawn in bright colors. It is with the appearance of this character that the birth of the term is associated comic strip («humorous stripe»).

In the 1930s, comics experienced a real boom thanks to superheroes — Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. This period is often called the «golden age of comics». Later came the «silver» and «bronze» eras, when the genre became more and more diverse — came stories about anti-heroes, hard social themes, experiments with graphic style.

Comics have spread far beyond the US. In France and Belgium, they have become part of high culture (bande dessinée), in Japan have developed into a mass art form — manga that covers all genres: from children's adventures to philosophical dramas. Italy, Argentina, Poland and even Ukraine have all developed their own schools of comics, combining national themes with global visual language.

Today, comics — is not only entertainment, but also a serious artistic tool. They are used for education, journalism, biographies and even research into traumatic experiences (such as in a famous graphic novel) Maus Pulitzer Prize-winning Art Spiegelman). Screen adaptations of Marvel and DC comics have become the main direction of modern cinema, and graphic novels — are a separate genre of literature.

Comics today — is a global culture that blends art, literature and pop culture. They are able to speak the language of generations and peoples, depict the most complex topics in a simple, accessible visual language. And, despite the digital age, paper comics do not lose their charm —, because every frame in them, as before, remains a small window to the whole world.