Comic book

19th century

Comics were first made in the 19th century after the development of modern colour printing and many other inventions. Woodcut engraving was a cheaper type of illustration widely used in the 19th century.

These are important because they created an understanding that illustrations are sometimes just as important as words. The first comic strip appeared in France in 1889, and in the United States in 1897.

20th century

Since the middle 20th century, DC Comics and Marvel Comics have introduced superheroes such as Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk and the X-Men. Very often, characters in books, video games, movies and television appear in comics, and sometimes comic book characters are used in movies, TV shows or video games.

Comic books are published in three different forms.

• Single issues that are usually 32 pages long are called comic books. These are printed and bound like a magazine, with the pages folded and stapled together through the centerfold.
• Several comics may be put together in a trade paperback. These have spines like a book and are glued together.
• A bigger comic book that is bound like a trade paperback but is all new, instead of collecting older comics, is called a graphic novel.

Japanese manga

Japanese comics are called manga (漫画) and they are read from right to left.

Korean manhwa

Manhwa (만화) are comic books or graphic novels originating from Korea.