Comic Books
Comic books are often shortened to simply comic and sometimes called a funny book, comic paper o is a magazine made up of narrative artwork, often accompanied by dialog usually in word balloons, emblematic of the comic book art form and often including brief descriptive prose. The first comic book appeared in the United States of America in 1934, 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, but despite their name, comic books do not necessarily operate in humorous mode; most modern comic books tell stories in a variety of genres. The Japanese and European comic book markets demonstrate this clearly. In the United States the super-hero genre dominates the market, even though other genres also exist. Since the introduction of the comic-book format in 1934 with the publication of Famous Funnies, 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. The comic-book industry in the U.S. markets the majority of its output to young adult readers, though it also produces titles for young children as well as catering to adult audiences. American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 17 x 26 cm (6 ⅝" × 10 ¼"), although larger formats appeared in the past. Sales of comic books began to decline after World War II, when the medium had to face competition with the spread of television and mass-market paperback books. Confirming the trend, mass-media researchers in the period found comic-book reading among children with television sets in homes "drastically reduced". In the 1960s, comic books' audience expanded to include college students who favored the naturalistic, "superheroes in the real world" trend