3/5/22, 13:38 Glossary of Comic Book Terms « How To Love Comics

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Glossary of Comic Book Terms

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When talking to comic book fans it can sometimes feel like

they are speaking another language. Trade paperback?
Free Comic Book Day Is This Saturday –
Variant cover? Retcon? Splash page? It can all get a bit
Here’s Everything You Need To Know
confusing for someone new to comic books. This Glossary of
Comic Book Terms aims to help those unfamiliar with the
comic book lingo so that they can join in the conversation.

Creative Roles Within a Comic Book

Creation
All of these people collaborate together to make a comic
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book. I would consider all of these people storytellers in one
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way or another.

Writer – The writer writes the story and has the overall
vision of how the story will go. They write the dialogue and
how the story will progress.
Penciler – This person takes the script and draws the
comic. They draw the comic in pencil which then gets
inked and coloured later on.
Inker – The inker inks over the pencils that the penciler
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drew. Sometimes this is digitally but often it is with actual
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ink. The inker can also be known as the finisher – especially
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when they have added additional detail to the art which

the penciler has not provided.
Colourist – This person gives the comic colour. This used to
be done with coloured ink but nowadays this is done
digitally to allow for a variety of different styles.
Letterer – The letterer will take the script and place all the
dialogue, word balloons, thought bubbles, sound effects
etc into the comic in the intended places. Dark Crisis Reading Order Guide

Editor – The editor makes sure that everything is good to

publish in a comic. They will check for spelling mistakes, art
problems and will also co-ordinate with other
collaborators to make sure story elements will not interfere
with other comic books.

Comic Book Formats

Hulk vs Thor: Banner of War Reading
Single Issue – This is the serial magazine-style format of a
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comic. Generally, 20-32 pages of a story but sometimes can
be more, with some being up to 100 pages. These are
generally numbered in chronological order eg. Issue #5.

Prestige Edition – These are comics that are generally 48-64

pages long that have a thin spine.

Digital Comics – Editions of comics that can be viewed on

computer screens, tablets or mobile phones. A Thing Called Truth Is Doing Romantic
Comedy Better Than Hollywood
Digital First – This is where a comic is released in a digital [Review]
format first then later in print.

Collected Edition – This is where multiple single issues are

collected to create a whole story or set of stories, often
collecting 5-6 single issues.

There are many kinds of collected editions including…

Trade Paperback (TPB) – This is the most common kind of It Doesn’t Matter If Your Cap Is Steve
collected edition where it is usually collecting 5-8 single Rogers Or Sam Wilson, It’s A Perfect
issues. It is in a paperback format and can be often referred Time To Start Reading Captain America
to as a “trade”. Read here to find out if reading in trade
paperback is for you.
Digest – These are collected editions that are smaller in
height and length. The most popular comics in this format
are All Ages comics and Manga.
Hardcover (HC) – Similar to a Trade Paperback but the
cover has a very thick stock just like a hardcover novel.
Sometimes these collected editions can collect more single
issues than Trade Paperbacks, with 12 issues common.
Omnibus – These are very large hardcover collections.
These collections can can be 25+ singles issues collected.
Often these collect entire series or a creative run on a
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comic series.

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Graphic Novel – Often a fancier term for collected edition

but can also be used to describe an OGN. Essentially any
comic that is bounded like a book. Some people use the
term graphic novel to make the comic book medium
sound more serious.
Original Graphic Novel (OGN) – This is a comic book that
comes out in the trade paperback/hardcover format
without being in the serial single issue format beforehand.

Variant Cover – A variant cover is an alternative cover of a

single issue. Most of the time it includes the art of a different
artist and are often fewer of these available. More information
on variant covers.

Incentive Cover – A variant cover in which the retailer has to

order x amount of a cover to redeem the variant cover. For
example the retailer might need to or 10, 25, 50 or maybe
even 100 of the regular cover to be eligible to order the
variant.

Limited Series/Mini-series – This is a comic series that has a

set number of issues. Most commonly it is 6 issues but it will
often vary depending on the story. The series has a
beginning, middle and an end.

Maxi-series – A maxi-series is a longer mini-series generally 12

issues or longer but often each publisher has a different
definition. Often mini-series of 12 issues duration has been
referred to as maxi-series.

Annual – An over-sized special of a comic book that is

released in addition to the regular comics in that series.

One-shot – A story that is contained to a single issue.

Webcomic – Comics that are made for viewing on

the Internet  This could be in a comic strip format or as an on-
going narrative.

Mini-comic – A comic that is smaller than the conventional

comic book size. Generally, these comics are handmade with
a DIY ethos and have small print runs.

Zine – Self-published and often handmade comic or

magazine. I talk more about zines here.

Floppies – A slang term for the single issue comic. Called so

as it is used with floppy paper.

Comic Book Grading Terms

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I don’t really go into the collecting side of comics on this

website, but if you’re looking to purchase comics online then
it is good to know what these terms mean.

Mint Condition – The comic is perfect in every way and has

no damage or blemishes.

Near Mint (NM) – It is very close to perfect.

Very Fine (VF) – It is close to mint but will have very minor
damages or blemishes.

Fine (FN) – Has some wear but that is more noticeable than a
Very Fine copy.

Very Good (VG) – A used comic book which has noticeable

wear.

Good – Has a lot of wear but is still okay for reading.

Fair – Has a lot of wear – more than a Good copy.

Poor – A very damaged comic.

Key Issue – A often very collectable comic. Key issues tend to

have events in them – such as first appearances or deaths –
and are high in demand on the secondary market (eg, eBay
or at auction)

Heritage Auctions has a great guide and more detail on these

terms and how they align to a score out of 10.

Other Comic Book Terms

Panel – A panel is one of the boxes on the page of a comic
book.

Splash Page – When a panel consists of the entire page.

Two Page Spread – When the comic book art spills over into
two pages.

Manga – Japanese comics. These comics are read right to

left, opposed to left to right like western comics. Discover
more about Manga.

Manhwa – Comics that originate from Korea.

Anthology – These are comics that contain multiple short

stories from multiple creators. One of the most successful of
the format is 2000AD.

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Zero Issue – Usually an issue set before issue #1 that acts as a

prelude to the main series.

Creator-Owned – This means the creator owns the work that

they create. This also means that the publisher doesn’t own
the rights to the characters or story but just the right to
publish it. The most successful creator-owned comic at the
moment is The Walking Dead.

Solicitations – A block of text, generally accompanied with

cover images, which details upcoming comic book releases
that have been supplied by the publisher. I go into greater
detail on comic book solicitations here.

Indie – Generally referring to an independent publisher who

publishes comics independently from a large corporate
entity.

Continuity – This is where a comic book’s narrative has a past

which might also be shared within a universe of a vast array
of other comic books. The majority of Marvel and DC
Comics‘ comics involve continuity in one way or another. This
allows characters like Batman and Superman to exist in the
same universe.

Retcon – Short for “Retroactive Continuity”. This is when a

past event in a shared universe or a character’s past is
changed retroactively. This can be done to add new elements
to an existing story that allows for future stories. It could also
be used to update a character eg: originally Tony Stark (Iron
Man) was wounded in Vietnam but Marvel comics retconned
this and now it is in Afghanistan.

Crossover – This is when story elements of two or more

comic books come together to create one storyline across
multiple titles.

Event – This is a crossover story on a generally larger scale

than normal. Often these events include many more comic
book characters from a shared universe coming together.
Also, the outcome of the storyline often affects on-going
titles for months and sometimes years to come. Find out
more about event comics.

Pre-Crisis/Post-Crisis – This refers to a period in DC Comics’

history set either before (pre) or after (post) a comic called
Crisis on Infinite Earths, which was released in 1985-6.
Without going into too much detail, Crisis on Infinite Earths
acted as a big housecleaning for DC continuity with parallel
universes disappearing and characters getting modern
updates. Many comics fans use the term Pre/Post-Crisis as a

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way to describe characters and stories on either side of this

story as due to the big changes that it created.

Pre-Flashpoint – This refers to DC comics between the 1986

and 2011 before the Flashpoint storyline. The conclusion of
Flashpoint allowed for some housecleaning of DC Comics
continuity and paved the way for the New 52 era.

New 52 – This is the era of DC Comics between 2011-2015 in

which DC Comics did a soft reboot of their whole line. All of
the comics went back to issue #1 and there were many
changes done to their histories. Some franchises had more
changes than others. Superman and Wonder Woman had
many changes made why Batman and Green Lantern left
relatively untouched.

Back-issue – A previous issue of a single comic. Back issues

are a month or older and not the latest issue.

Back-up Feature – This is a short story in the back of another

comic book. Often these will feature a secondary story of the
character, a new character that the publisher is testing the
water with, or a character who isn’t popular enough to
warrant their own series.

The Big Two – This a term used to refer to Marvel and DC

Comics. Used as they’re the two publishers with the largest
market share.

LCS – An acronym for Local Comics Store/Shop. This acronym

is often used in comics journalism.

Run – This is a number of consecutively published comics of a

series by a writer and/or artist. For instance, Stan Lee and
Jack Kirby’s run on Fantastic Four lasted 100 issues.

Off-Panel – It’s the things that happened between the comic

panels which the reader didn’t see. It’s the comics version to
the movie term off-screen.

Onomatopoeia – The sounds effects that you see in comics

(eg. BOOM, POW, BANG etc)

Comixology – A popular online marketplace/app for digital

comics.

Story Arc – An extended or continuing storyline that spreads

over multiple issues or smaller stories of a comic book. Can
also be known as a narrative arc.

Diamond – This is the shorthand name for the Diamond

Comics Distributor. Diamond is the major distributor of

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