lesson 3+4

Publishers and Companies:

Two of the most popular companies take up 80/90% of the market

DC Comics (owned by warner bros) and Marvel (owned by Walt Disney company) are often referred to as 'The Big Two'.

Others include Manga Entertainment, 2000 AD, Fleetway Press, Image Comics, Dark Horse

Smaller publishers have started to build a big presence in the comic book world and are growing- publishing the boundaries of comic book content and creator-owned content (E.g. Image comics and 'The Walking Dead')

DC

MARVEL

MANGA ENTERTAINMENT

2000 AD

FLEETWAY PRESS

IMAGE COMICS

DARK HORSE

Independent and self-publishers

Independent publishers: almost all are creator-owned (the creator keeps the rights to the characters and stories they create), and some of the topics may contain mature content.

Fanta graphics
Kitchen Sink Press
Top shelf

Self-publishers: generally run by the people who make comic books. They handle most if not all of the duties of making comics, from writing, and art to publishing and press. The quality can vary drastically from publisher to publisher and the fan base is usually local. Due to the internet, however, many of these self-publishers have been able to market their comics to many others. Some have even found some success within self-publishing such as American Splendor (now with DC).

Halloween man

Altered fates

Coffee girl productions

Comics are available in different genres and styles: action and adventure, crime and mystery, sci-fi, fantasy, superheroes, war, Japanese, American & British. 

Task: Earth's Mightiest Heroes: The Avengers

Target Audience

1) Who is going to be interested and why? The primary target audience are young boys/teenagers ranging from 11 years to old-18 years old, the secondary target audience is those who have an interest in comic books/Marvel who typically could be older people

2) Is there a backstory? Why do characters have different personalities? The Avengers start as a group of people who were brought together to defeat Loki and his Chitauri army in New York.

3) What's the development? The development is that the characters try to stop Loki from destroying and taking over the world whilst also fighting Shehulk.

Design

Panelling - Big, chunky, a mix of triangles and squares

Text - Small text for regular dialogue within speech bubbles, the onomatopoeia is bold, big font and coloured to emphasise emotion and frustration between characters

Storyline - 

Structure - Pictures are on either side, advertisements every few pages, different shaped boxes with rectangles, squares, and triangles to fit in as much as possible

Visual narrative - 

Iconography - 

Use of formal elements (e.g., line, tone, colour) - Different colours are displayed throughout the comic reflecting a bright tone 

Speech - 

Thought bubbles and box placements - Circular thought bubbles and box placements are all around the page different shapes to fit in different pictures and scenes to convey the storyline

Symbols and sound effects - Some superheroes wear symbols such as Captain America who holds his famous shield

Meaning - consider how meaning is created through:

1 - Content and style (e.g., colour, language, text, images, props, costumes) The content throughout the comic creates much meaning to the audience as both the primary and secondary audience have a love for Marvel and The Avengers so enjoy reading and looking at the pictures in the Comic. Much meaning is also created through the style as the young boys/teenagers find the font and costumes appealing and would continue reading the Comic until the very end. Furthermore, there are multiple advertisements throughout the Comic which create meaning as those who love the Comic will continue to read it and see the ads leading to them checking out what is being promoted in the advertisement.

2 - Connotations - The characters connote and create meaning of Marvel to attract the primary and secondary target audience

3 - Techniques (e.g., cropping, sizing, use of captions, choice of fonts, angle of the drawn action and characters) The bold, big and small fonts throughout the comic, create much meaning as young boys/teenagers find it appealing and can relate to it as the fonts seem boy-ish.