Comic book Facts for Kids

A comic book

Comic books are books with comics, with pictures that make a story. Comics were started in the 1900s. Some famous examples are Spider-Man and Batman. Some comic companies are Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Many comic books are about superheroes, but many others are about other things. 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.

There are three different kinds of comic books: 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.

In English speaking countries, you read the speech bubbles left to right. Then you read the row below it left to right. This is different from Japanese comics, called manga. Some famous comics are:

Images for kids

Comic books on display at a museum, depicting how they would have been displayed at a rail station store in the first half of the 20th century.
A common comic-book cover format displays the issue number, date, price and publisher along with an illustration and cover copy that may include a story's title.
René Goscinny (1926–1977), writer of the Astérix comic book series.
Cover to 27 December 1884 edition of Ally Sloper's Half Holiday. Ally Sloper is regarded as the first recurring character in comics.
Statue of Minnie the Minx, a character from The Beano, in Dundee, Scotland. Launched in 1938, The Beano is known for its anarchic humour, with Dennis the Menace appearing on the cover.
Hugo Pratt (1927–1995), author of the Corto Maltese comic book series.

Comic book facts for kids

Images for kids

See also