Comic books have become a staple in popular culture over the past hundred years. Taking on multiple forms of media, the comic has made its mark by creating its very own culture and genre. The comic book comes in many forms including the comic strip, the gag cartoon, the graphic novel, webcomics, editorial cartoons, and more recently, panel comics called memes.

The variety of formats that comics have taken on over the years has expanded their popularity, and kids along with adults both enjoy the comic genre. The characters developed from comic books have taken on a life of their own, moving into massive franchises providing fans with a variety of products from their favourite comic. There have been specific companies that have come to the forefront of the genre like Marvel and DC Comics, which both have separate lines of superhero characters and story lines. These comic books have been taken and developed into some of the highest grossing films of all time.

Cartooning and funetti can both be seen as the styles in the most popular comics, with magna cartooning from Japan contributing to the overall genre. Fans of comics can be found at a national convention in America called “Comic Con,” which has expanded more than ever before. There are now multiple comic cons happening worldwide, with fans of sci fi entertainment and comics gathering from around the world.

Cosplay is now very popular, and refers to the act of dressing up or taking on an avatar and integrating that character’s fictional traits into their behaviours. Some people take cosplay very seriously, and others dress up just for the fun of it. Similar to civil war reenactments, cosplay brings old comic book characters back to life. The rise in comic book popularity has occurred in all of mainstream media, so get involved and acquainted with this genre to be on the cutting edge of all media trends.