NATIONAL COMIC BOOK DAY
Every year on September 25, comic book readers, collectors, lovers and fans celebrate National Comic Book Day.
Also called a comic magazine, a comic book is a publication, first popularized in the United States, of comic art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. The panels are often accompanied by a descriptive prose and written narrative, usually dialog contained in word balloons emblematic of the comics art form.
In 1933, a comic book, Famous Funnies, appeared in the United States and is believed to be the first real comic book. It was a reprinting of earlier newspaper comic strips which had established many of the story telling devices used in comics.
The term “comic book” got its name as the first book sold as a book reprinted of humor comic strips.
Despite their name, comic books are not all humorous in tone and actually feature stories in all genres.
Comics as a print medium have actually existed in America since the printing ofThe Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck in 1842 in hardcover, making it the first known American prototype comic book.
In 1896, a proto-comic-book magazine was published in the United States featuring The Yellow Kid in a sequence titled “McFadden’s Row of Flats”. The 196 page book, which was a black and white publication, measured 5 x 7 inches and sold for 50 cents.
People who collect comic books are known as pannapictagraphists.