Minicomic

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Minicomic" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2007) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

A minicomic is a creator-published

The term "minicomic" was originally used in the United States and has a somewhat confusing history. Originally, it referred only to size: a digest comic measured 5.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches tall, while a minicomic was 5.5 inches by 4.25 inches.^{[citation needed]}

Currently, there is no standard format for a minicomic. Anything between something the size of a

Many minicomics are non-standard comic book sizes for aesthetic reasons,^[citation needed] or are often connected to graphic design and book print "tricks" to look good.^{[citation needed]} Many of these typical sizes are convenient for artists using standard office supplies: a US letter page can be folded in half to make a digest, or in quarters for a minicomic. These comics are generally photocopied, although some are produced in larger quantities using offset printing.

In North America, the United Kingdom, and Malaysia, minicomics are rarely found in traditional "direct market" comic-book stores; they are often sold directly by the artist at book fairs or through the mail, ordered from websites, or handled by small bookstores and distributors that carry zines. In terms of production and distribution issues and their audience, minicomics—of all of the sizes and types mentioned above—have much more in common with each other, and with zines, than with any traditionally published comics.^{[citation needed]} In Europe many specialized comic books stores have a special little corner dedicated to the odd off-size little self-printed books.^{[citation needed]} At comic book conventions, such as the one in Angoulême, there are large markets where the little books are available. Because most of the books are rather cheap and were printed in limited quantities, they have become a target of collecters.^{[citation needed]}

Minicomics typically have no editorial oversight, and both their content and quality vary widely. Many of the creators of minicomics do not expect to make a significant amount of money, or even cover their costs, with the price they charge for their comics.^{[citation needed]}

History

The earliest and most popular comics in mini- and digest sizes—predating not only the term minicomic, but even the standard comic-book format—were the anonymous and pornographic Tijuana bibles of the 1920s.

The

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Clay Geerdes's Comix World published numerous popular minicomics, and Artie Romero's Everyman Studios created dozens of titles with full color covers. The Everyman Comics mini-series included solo books by Romero, Hunt Emerson, Larry Rippee, Jim Siergey, Bob Conway, Gary Whitney, Bob Vojtko, J. Michael Leonard, and John Adams, plus a number of themed anthology minicomics. Several minicomics each of these publishers were reprinted in their entirety in Fantagraphics' The Underground Mini Comix of the 1980s.

Matt Feazell's popular Cynicalman mincomics, which began in 1980, utilize the US letter page folded in quarters; the same format used by Alfred Huete's award-winning DADA mini.^{[citation needed]}

Many minicomics in the 1980s were produced by artists influenced by the underground comix scene who were unable to get work published in underground and alternative publications.^[1] Michael Dowers' Starhead Comix published many minicomics throughout the latter half of the 1980s, before the company moved to traditional comic book printing and distribution.

John Porcellino's King-Cat Comics, first published in May 1989 and still being published, is among the best-known and longest-running minicomics titles.

In 1989 and 1990, Roger May published minicomics made of work done at those years' respective

In the 1990s, before the widespread adoption of the World Wide Web, minicomics became a popular form of self-distribution for alternative cartoonists, aided by such publications as Factsheet Five. Comic book series like Jessica Abel's Artbabe, Julie Doucet's Dirty Plotte,^[2] and Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve^[3] all started out as self-published minicomics before being picked up by legitimate publishers.

In 1993, Rick Bradford (who had been involved in the minicomics scene since 1985) began publishing Poopsheet, a zine that reviewed other small publications, including minicomics. Poopsheet eventually became a website and is now known as The Poopsheet Foundation, which is dedicated to archiving the history of minicomics.

The

In 2003, cartoonists Andy Hartzell^[4] and Jesse Reklaw co-founded Global Hobo Distro, a distributor dedicated to hand-made and hard-to-find comics that is partnered with Last Gasp.

Alternate meaning

The term minicomic also refers to the small comics booklets that come in the packages of some toys:

• Masters of the Universe (1981–2014) — The first
  List of He-Man Minicomics
  .
• Atari Force (1982) — a five-issue series included with certain Atari 2600 game cartridges.
• Swordquest (1982–1983) — three comics included with the Atari 2600 cartridges for the Swordquest series.
• Super Powers (1984–1985) —
  List of Super Powers Minicomics
  .
• Transformers (2002–2005) — the toys of Transformers: Armada and Transformers: Energon came with minicomics that featured the characters of the toy lines.
• Marvel Mega Morphs (2005) — this was a toy line created by Toy Biz in order to compete with Hasbro's Transformers. The Mega Morphs were transforming robots patterned on Marvel Comics superheroes. Each figure came with a minicomic featuring the Megamorph with which it came. All six minicomics formed a complete storyline.

See also

• Ashcan copy
• Dōjinshi
• List of minicomics creators
• Miniature book
• United Fanzine Organization
• Underground comix

References