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Post by Ish Kabbible on Nov 18, 2016 21:47:45 GMT -5
But that makes no sense. Most of them aren't funny. Have you never heard the phrase funny books? I though it was quite widely known as something folks in America used to call comic books. The term was commonly used in the U.S. in the early to mid-20th century, back when a lot of comics and comic strips were still filled with humorous content, rather than predominantly superheroes. The comic supplements of American newspapers were similarly called "The Funny Papers", I believe, regardless of whether they actually featured humour, adventure or sci-fi strips. "Funny books" is a fairly archaic term these days though. Slam has long used the term as a way to skewer the more pretentious regard that some comic book fans afford the hobby. Quite correct, though the term was "Funny Pages" pertaining to the comic strip section of the newspapers My grandfather referred to my reading "the funny books" and that was back in the 1960s. Obviously grandpappy and Slam Bradley played pinochle together |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
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Post by Confessor on Nov 18, 2016 21:52:51 GMT -5
Have you never heard the phrase funny books? I though it was quite widely known as something folks in America used to call comic books. The term was commonly used in the U.S. in the early to mid-20th century, back when a lot of comics and comic strips were still filled with humorous content, rather than predominantly superheroes. The comic supplements of American newspapers were similarly called "The Funny Papers", I believe, regardless of whether they actually featured humour, adventure or sci-fi strips. "Funny books" is a fairly archaic term these days though. Slam has long used the term as a way to skewer the more pretentious regard that some comic book fans afford the hobby. Quite correct, though the term was "Funny Pages" pertaining to the comic strip section of the newspapers My grandfather referred to my reading "the funny books" and that was back in the 1960s. Obviously grandpappy and Slam Bradley played pinochle together Ah, yes...the Funny Pages. Sorry, my mistake. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 18, 2016 21:54:19 GMT -5
Have you never heard the phrase funny books? I though it was quite widely known as something folks in America used to call comic books. The term was commonly used in the U.S. in the early to mid-20th century, back when a lot of comics and comic strips were still filled with humorous content, rather than predominantly superheroes. The comic supplements of American newspapers were similarly called "The Funny Papers", I believe, regardless of whether they actually featured humour, adventure or sci-fi strips. "Funny books" is a fairly archaic term these days though. Slam has long used the term as a way to skewer the more pretentious regard that some comic book fans afford the hobby. Quite correct, though the term was "Funny Pages" pertaining to the comic strip section of the newspapers My grandfather referred to my reading "the funny books" and that was back in the 1960s. Obviously grandpappy and Slam Bradley played pinochle together My Dad always called my reading material Funnybooks. I used to take umbrage at it. Over time I've come to really love the term. It's appropriately old-school for my curmudgeony self. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 18, 2016 22:06:42 GMT -5
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Nov 18, 2016 22:17:05 GMT -5
Slam,you've been using that "funnybook" tagline for so long and it still gives me a chuckle because it always reminds me of my grandfather. It was a condescending term he used against comic books but I'm sure he read the funny pages in the 1930s particularly Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Blondie and others. I would catch him from time to time reading those same strips in the 1960s |
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 18, 2016 23:07:19 GMT -5
Was it Eisner or McCloud who suggested "Sequential Art" as a label? I've found myself using it more and more. I've always struggled with what constitutes a "Graphic Novel" -- does any trade paperback count? Or, does any run of comics count? The "novel" aspect is problematic if the work was not published all at one time. Eisner was using it around the time of Contract With God, and in his Comics and Sequential Art. Walt was the major bandleader for distancing what he was doing from other comics, though not alone . The publishers loved the name, as it sounded more up-market and made it easier to sell to booksellers, which opened up new markets to them. To me, if it has pictures with word balloons, it's comics (yeah, Hal Foster messes up that definition) and has panels (but he fits that) to tell a story in sequence, then it is comics. if it is published in a book format, as an original fictional story, it's a graphic novel. If it's a reprint collection, it is a trade collection. In bookselling, a trade paperback is any paperback book larger than a mass market (the "poket size" ones). Before anyone is too hash on Glen, he is a fan and writes some excellent pieces on comics, for the uninitiated, and has promoted everything from superheroes to memoirs, fantastic to the mundane, kids to adults. He doesn't go the Gary Groth route. |
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Wild Card
Full Member
I'm out of my mind; But trapped inside my head!
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Post by Wild Card on Nov 19, 2016 0:32:21 GMT -5
This might be stupid, but... I always called books that become a comic a graphic novel. So, a book series I read called Percy Jackson that has also been published as a graphic novel. Or stories that are derived from books, like with the Warriors series, the graphic novels are not directly from the books, they're side stories that stem from the books. That's a grey area though. Because... Comics are a series of stories that don't stem from novels. They were created to be drawn.With "to be continued" plots for each little section. They're not pulled from novels. And when they are compiled, it's a tradeback. Sorry I suck at explaining. Those are just my terms  |
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Post by berkley on Nov 19, 2016 2:16:07 GMT -5
I never did get used to the "graphic novel" term, so it wouldn't bother me to see it fade out of common usage, but at the same time I didn't have any great dislike for it. It's a bit clumsy, would be the worst I could say about it. Whether it's pretentious or not depends more on the context, the speaker, the way it's used, than on the phrase itself, to my ears.
Funny books I know mostly through seeing Slam use it around here, though I've seen it elsewhere. I just took it as another way of saying "comic books", which is a completely synonymous term, really: we're just so used to it that we don't take any notice.
For that reason, I've always liked "comix", as a spelling specific to the thing being referred to while still deriving directly from the traditional "comic books" or just plain "comics". It never quite caught on to the extent of replacing those, however - perhaps because of the drawback of not having an obvious singular form? "I just read a great comix" doesn't sound right, does it.
Maybe we should go back to Latin or Greek, the way they used to whenever they needed a word for something new, like the telephone, for instance. Or, come to think of it, the telegraph - which reminds me that "graphic novel" never made any sense in the first place, since graphic refers to writing rather than pictorial images. So yeah, I changed my mind, let's get rid of that stupid term.
(edit:) I just looked it up to check, and graph, from the ancient Greek, actually can refer to painting as well as writing, so "graphic novel" does make sense after all. Damn it.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2016 14:10:04 GMT -5
Seems like a term originated by people who were ashamed of reading comic books, so they had to make it sound more sophisticated. It's never bothered me, but that is pretty much where I thought the term 'graphic novel' originated from... I do own a couple of Irish trade paperbacks that deal with Irish history that are graphic novels, as they are not collected editions and were created to tell a story in the tpb format. (O'Brien Press, Dublin.) If people want to call them 'comic books' - even though the are not - it's fine by me, as comic is not a dirty word. Each to their own though... |
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Post by coke & comics on Nov 19, 2016 14:34:12 GMT -5
I use the phrase "graphicless novel". I feel like having some pictures is the default, and prose without illustrations should be singled out as such.
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Post by adamwarlock2099 on Nov 19, 2016 14:38:49 GMT -5
If you ask me, in the US, Death of Captain Marvel was the first GN. And it seems from the advertisements in Epic Illustrated (certainly an adult targeted series of stories) that was the intention of Marvel's GN line. Especially with stories like Arena. Perhaps it wasn't intentionally for Americans to associate GN with actual "high brow" or just pretentious material. But it seems of younger generation or readers reading comic from other mediums associated with the characters that's the consensus.
But I'm a youngin here to so I don't have the observances first hand; mostly just in hind sight.
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Post by codystarbuck on Nov 19, 2016 20:49:02 GMT -5
If you ask me, in the US, Death of Captain Marvel was the first GN. And it seems from the advertisements in Epic Illustrated (certainly an adult targeted series of stories) that was the intention of Marvel's GN line. Especially with stories like Arena. Perhaps it wasn't intentionally for Americans to associate GN with actual "high brow" or just pretentious material. But it seems of younger generation or readers reading comic from other mediums associated with the characters that's the consensus. But I'm a youngin here to so I don't have the observances first hand; mostly just in hind sight. Not Even Close: The Death of Captain Marvel-Marvel Comics, 1982 Contract With God-Will Eisner, Bantam Books 1978 Sabre-Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy, Eclipse Comics, 1978 The Silver Surfer-Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Simon & Schuster/Fireside Books, 1978 Son of Sherlock-Byron Preiss and Ralph Reese, Pyramid Books, 1977 Chandler: Red Tide-Jim Steranko, Pyramid Books, 1976 Starfawn-Byron Preiss and Stephen Fabian, Pyramid Books, 1976 Schlomo Raven: Public Detective-Byron Preiss and Tom Sutton, Pyramid Books 1976 Bloodstar-Richard Corben, Morning Star Press, 1976 Blackmark-Gil Kane and Archie Goodwin, Bantam Books, 1971 His Name is...Savage-Archie Goodwin and Gil Kane, Adventure House Publications, 1968 Rhymes with Lust-Arnold Drake and Leslie Walker, St John Publications, 1950 The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck, Rudolphe Topffer, Wilson & Co., 1842 That doesn't even get into the various comic strip reprint books, things like the European graphic albums and Japanese manga "phonebooks". There's a ton of debate between comic historians as to what constituted a graphic novel. For instance, the Goodwin & Kane books feature illustrations with prose narration and dialogue, as do the Byron Preiss books (and Steranko's, which Preiss packaged and published). Even taking the narrow definition of "same as a comic book; but in a book format and a complete, original story," Silver Surfer, Contract with God and Sabre all beat it by at least 4 years. Grove Press published English translations of Barbarella and Jodelle in the mid-60s, Fireside was producing trade collections of DC and Marvel in the mid to late 70s, with Origins of Marvel Comics, Son of Origins, bring on the Badguys, The Superhero Women, Mystery In Space, America At War, and Young Romance; plus several others. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2016 21:54:58 GMT -5
To be honest with everyone here ... I never liked the term "Funny Books" at all to be it's degarotory towards Comics. I know many of you here use that term - but I don't.
Sorry, everyone!
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Post by Ish Kabbible on Nov 19, 2016 23:37:10 GMT -5
One other early graphic funnybook novel codystarbuck left off on his list  This was released in 1950 from St. Johns, right after It Rhymes With Lust. Written by Manning Lee Stokes and illustrated by Charles Raab |
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Post by Icctrombone on Nov 19, 2016 23:46:58 GMT -5
The first time I heard the term "graphic Novel" was when Marvel announced the Death Of Captain Marvel back in 1983. I was confused and didn't know what it was . I discovered that it was just a Comic in large format.
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