Unit 9 Prep - Publishers & Companies

Publishers & Companies

Many different publishers in the comic industry
Two of the most popular, taking up almost 80/90% of the market.
DC Comics (owned by Warner Bros.) and Marvel (owned by The Walt Disney Company) are often referred to as 'The Big Two'
Others include Manga Entertainment, 2000 AD, Fleetway Press, Image Comics, Dark Horse
Smaller publishers have started to build a big presence in the comic book world and are growing - pushing the boundaries of comic book content and creator owned content (e.g. Image Comics and 'The Walking Dead')

Examples Of Comic Publishers and Companies:

Manga Entertainment was a producer, licensee, and distributor of anime in the United States and the United Kingdom. Originally founded in the UK in 1987, the UK branch became Funimation UK and Ireland in 2021, also currently known as Crunchyroll Ltd. since 2022, while its U.S. branch was absorbed into Starz Inc. (now owned by Lionsgate).

2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic magazine. As a comics anthology it serialises stories in each issue (known as "progs")[b] and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February.[c] Since 2000 it has been published by Rebellion Developments.

2000 AD is most noted for its Judge Dredd stories, and has been contributed to by a number of artists and writers who became renowned in the field internationally, such as Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Grant Morrison, Brian Bolland, Mike McMahon, John Wagner, Alan Grant and Garth Ennis. Other series in 2000 AD include Rogue Trooper, Sláine, Strontium Dog, ABC Warriors, Nemesis the Warlock and Nikolai Dante.

Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest direct market comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry by market share.
It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-owned properties, in which comics creators could publish material of their own creation without giving up the copyrights to those properties. Normally this is not the case in the work-for-hire-dominated American comics industry, where the legal author is a publisher, such as Marvel Comics or DC Comics, and the creator is an employee of that publisher. It's output was originally dominated by superhero and fantasy titles from the studios of the founding Image partners, but now includes comics in many genres by numerous independent creators.

Dark Horse Comics is an American comic book, graphic novel, and manga publisher founded in Milwaukie, Oregon by Mike Richardson in 1986. The company was created using funds earned from Richardson's chain of Portland, Oregon, comic book shops known as Pegasus Books and founded in 1980.
Dark Horse Comics has emerged as the fourth largest comic publishing company in the United States of America. Dividing profits with artists and writers, as well as supporting artistic and creative rights in the comic book industry, Dark Horse Comics has become a strong proponent of publishing licensed material that often does not fit into mainstream media. Several titles include: Sin City, Hellboy, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 300, Ninja Gaiden, and Star Wars.

Independant Publishers

Independent publishers are almost all creator owned (the creator keeps the rights to the characters and stories they create), and some of the topics may contain mature content.

Self Publishers

Self publishers are generally run by the people who make comic books. They handle most if not all of the duties of making the comics, from writing, and art to publishing and press. The quality can vary drastically from publisher to publisher and the fan base is usually local. Due to the internet, however, many of these self publishers have been able to market their comics to many others successfully.

Comic Conventions

An area of interest to which the reader's eyes are automatically drawn.
Vertical panel - The focal point of a long, wide panel should be centre or slightly to the left or right
Horizontal panel - The focal point of a tall, skinny panel like this one should be dead centre or slightly left or right

sets the scene for where the characters are in detail, to show the reader where they are

Avengers : Worlds Mightiest Heroes

1) Who is going to be interested and why? The primary target audience are young boys/teenagers ranging from 11 years to old-18 years old, the secondary target audience is those who have an interest in comic books/Marvel who typically could be older people. The comic is rated t+ which is suitable for ages 12 and older.
2) Is there a backstory? Why do characters have different personalities? The Avengers start as a group of people who were brought together to defeat Loki and his Chitauri army in New York.
3) What's the development? The development is that the characters try to stop Loki from destroying and taking over the world whilst also fighting Shehulk.

Panelling - Big, chunky, a mix of triangles and squares
Text - Small text for regular dialogue within speech bubbles, the onomatopoeia is bold, big font and coloured to emphasise emotion and frustration between characters
Structure - Pictures are on either side, advertisements every few pages, different shaped boxes with rectangles, squares, and triangles to fit in as much as possible
Visual narrative -
Iconography -

Use of formal elements (e.g., line, tone, colour) - Different colours are displayed throughout the comic reflecting a bright tone
Speech

Thought bubbles and box placements - Circular thought bubbles and box placements are all around the page different shapes to fit in different pictures and scenes to convey the storyline
Symbols and sound effects - Some superheroes wear symbols such as Captain America who holds his famous shield

Meaning - consider how meaning is created through:
1 - Content and style (e.g., colour, language, text, images, props, costumes) The content throughout the comic creates much meaning to the audience as both the primary and secondary audience have a love for Marvel and The Avengers so enjoy reading and looking at the pictures in the Comic. Much meaning is also created through the style as the young boys/teenagers find the font and costumes appealing and would continue reading the Comic until the very end. Furthermore, there are multiple advertisements throughout the Comic which create meaning as those who love the Comic will continue to read it and see the ads leading to them checking out what is being promoted in the advertisement.
2 - Connotations - The characters connote and create meaning of Marvel to attract the primary and secondary target audience
3 - Techniques (e.g., cropping, sizing, use of captions, choice of fonts, angle of the drawn action and characters) The bold, big and small fonts throughout the comic, create much meaning as young boys/teenagers find it appealing and can relate to it as the fonts seem boy-ish.