History
The creation of Captain America is in direct reaction to this 1939-1945 event, which also accounts for many of the differences between American and Japanese comics.
What is World War II?
This comic book artist’s style—whose style emphasized intensity/power over realistic anatomy and shaped American comics for decades—is described here in Neal Adams’ words: “He’d do a straight line through the muscle that represented sinew. But sinew is something that’s very subtle, with a slight curve. He’d do a straight line, and another couple of lines, and in your mind you’d go, I know what that is—it’s sinew.
Who is Jack Kirby?
This defender of truth, justice, and the American way, was rejected by the army because he was “blind as a bat”—and accidentally using x-ray vision to read the eye chart in the next room.
Who is Superman?
This is the term for a single panel which takes up the entire page:
What is a splash page?
McCloud distinguishes this Japanese comic form from American comics in their use of iconic characters, strong sense of place, frequent use of wordless panels, subjective motion, genre maturity, a broad variety of character designs, small real world details, and various emotionally expressive effects. They also make more use of the "Aspect to Aspect" and "Moment to Moment" transitions than do American comics typically.
What is manga?
This is the term used to designate comics produced during the era of 1959-1969:
What is the Silver Age?
In 2008, a 4chan user invented "rage comics"--a short cartoon strip using a growing set of pre-made cartoon faces, or rage faces, which usually express rage or some other simple emotion or activity. A year later, this creator imitated the style in her Hyperbole and a Half.
Who is Allie Brosh?
This character thinks "some lives are worth more than others."
Who is Eva?
Although Jay Garrick was originally the Flash, the creation of a new origin for the Flash as Barry Allen exemplifies this term:
What is a reboot?
In order for storytellers to get students to 1.understand the comic's message and 2.keep reading until it's done, creators must make any one of these 5 basic types of choices (name at least 3):
What is choice of moment, frame, image, word, and flow?
America waited weeks to determine the results of the election between these two presidential candidates, as manifested in demands for a Florida recount, debates concerning "hanging chads," and a Supreme Court intervention:
Who are Bush and Gore?
For over ten years, this company (associated with Stan Lee) publishing Amazing Fantasy, Tales of Suspense, and Tales to Astonish could only distribute the number of comics dictated by their rival DC—usually, just 8 titles a month.
What is Marvel?
Superman's mask in "The Two Faces of Superman" closely resembles this character from Mad Magazine:
Who is Alfred E. Neuman?
A panel which solely focuses on a watch would be an example of this type of camera angle:
What is an extreme close-up?
PICTURE DAILY DOUBLE.
In identifying 4 categories of types of creators, McCloud categorizes artwork like Hal Foster’s in this category:
This scandal, referenced in "The Do-Nothing Decade," refers to the selling of arms to Iran to obtain the release of hostages and to fund Nicaraguan rebels:
What is the Iran/Contra Affair/Scandal?
Video Daily Double:
Alongside Frank Thorne in this clip from “Red Sonja and the Wizard” show, this artist and co-writer of Elfquest often attended comic conventions dressed as the sword and sorcery character Red Sonja.
This character, originally intended to be named "Suprema," was intended by its creator to "“Give (men) an alluring woman stronger than themselves to submit to, and they’ll be proud to become her willing slaves!”
Who is Wonder Woman?
This term refers to the claim that the comics medium began with the work of OUtcault's Hogan's Alley.
What is the Yellow Kid thesis?
Dividing basic human expressions into the six basic elements of "anger," "disgust," "fear," "joy," "sadness," and "surprise," McCloud identifies "horror" as the synthesis of "fear" and what other element?
What is disgust?
This book by Fredrick Wertham inspired a series of school-sponsored book burnings and televised senate hearings.
What is Seduction of the Innocent?
This editor of war comics (and editor of Mad) remarked, "I was absolutely appalled by the lies in the war books that publishers were putting out… They focused on what they thought the reader would like to read, which was, 'Americans are good guys and anybody against us is the bad guys. We're human. They're not. And God is always on our side.' This trash had nothing to do with the reality of life.
Who is Harvey Kurtzman?
This T. rex with cop glasses and robot-machine-gun arms and who catches bad guys on the moon and the sun might just be the most awesome badass ever.
Who is Wexter?
Alan Moore writes that, "With a comic … even though you've got pictures there for you, you're having to fill in all the gaps between the panels.” The technical term for those gaps between panels is the following:
What is the gutter?
This McCloud term describes "where words and letters take on pictorial qualities and are combined more freely with the pictures that surround them."
What is montage?