3. TIN TIN â HERGE
The next year,BettyBoop by Max
Fleischer,Tarzanby
HaroldFoster,BuckRogersandPopeye(created by
ElzieCrislerSegar) debutedin 1931.
BUCK ROGERS - ElzieCrislerSegar
POPEYE - ElzieCrislerSegar
The30salso broughtalmostimmortalcreationsfor
comics, who introducedthe adventureas the main
theme. AlexRaymondcreatedFlashGordon, Jungle
JimandSecret AgentX-9.
ChesterGouldcreatedDickTracy. LeeFalkdesigned
thePhantomandMandrake.
4. Thepioneerswere theJapanese(the '20s). In
1933camethe firstAmerican
magazineofcomicstoFunnieson Parade. Then
cametheFamousFunnies, Tip TopComics,
KingComics,
ActionComics(whereJerrySiegelandJoeShustercre
atedSuperman)
andDetectiveComics(whereBobKanein 1939,
created theBatman).
SUPERMAN
BATMAN
5. Withthe competitionof the SecondWorld War,
many characters, especially heroes, began
toengage inplotsof war and violence. Then
cameotherfamous characterssuch
asCaptainMarvel, Human Torch, Namor-TheSub-
Mariner, and a wholelegion ofvigilantesdevotedto
the cause ofpeace and democracy.
Betweenso many, Marvel Comicscreated, under the
baton ofStanLeeandJackKirby developed Captain
America. The characterthat hasthe uniforminspired by
theAmerican flagand a shield of anindestructible
metal, it was like a personificationof the struggle
offree peoplesagainst Nazism. Thecharacter hadall the
characteristicsof an American,as asense ofjustice and
freedomand strength tofight for the preservationof
these ideals, against theenemies.
At that time, the magazine was launched Mad (which
satirized the comic classic) and also the character The
Spirit by Will Eisner. To get an idea of the importance
of the Spirit, today the biggest prize in the world of
comics is named after its creator (called Will Eisner
Awards) and is known as the Oscar of Comics.
7. The 60s marked the market recovery heroes. This was
due to several reasons. The code of ethics, which
provided less violence had been in place for some
time, the pursuit of American justice was already low
and the publishers have heroes with more human
characteristics and philosophical, and psychological
dramas with everyday problems.
Emerged at this time characters such as Spider-Man,
the Fantastic Four and Thor - God of Thunder. All were
created by Marvel, designed by master minds of Stan
Lee and Jack Kirby.
With the market for high again heroes, comics gained
a new burst of creation. The other categories came on
the heels. Emerged female characters that inspired
women's fashion worldwide. Also, appeared as erotic
characters likeVampirela by Jean-Claude Forrest,
Jodelle by Guy Peelaert andValentina by Guido
8. Crepax. At the end of the decade, came the
underground genre, which addressed the underworld
of drugs and free sex, lampooning situations. In 1973,
Hagar - the horrible, is created by Dirk Browne and
saw instant success.
The Nowadays Situation
In the last decades of the twentieth century, the
heroes stood firm and won more magazines. The
creators of stories (writers and artists) became world-
famous celebrities and their names in the credits of
the stories come to rely as much as the name of a
famous actor in a movie.
Names like Frank Miller, Dan Jurgens, John Byrne,
Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Kelley Jones, Jim Lee,
Leph Loeb, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore and others
entered into and emerged from the other.
Alternative magazines, on-line sex-terror, have
emerged and have made it with high-level graphical
issues, always aimed at an adult people. This phase
are magazines like Zulu, Hara-Kiri and most classic of
all, Heavy Metal.
The characters continued to appear, like Tank Girl by
Jamie Hurlott, Hellblazer by Alan Moore and Sandman
by Neil Gaiman. It's that time also fever X-Men,
mutant heroes that established itself as the largest
seller of magazines today. Garfield by Jim Davis and
Calvin by Bill Waterson firmed as major characters
from newspaper strips of the late twentieth century.
9. At the end of the 90s, comes a good publisher, Image
Comics, founded by former employees of Marvel and
DC Comics (the two biggest producers of heroes), who
thought they did not have the space needed to create
their characters and had to follow the orders of the
editors. Image of the biggest publishing success came
of the end of the century: Spawn by Todd McFarlane,
who became as popular as Superman and Batman.
The character is enormously successful in his
magazine and lever-products like dolls, clothes, games
and even movies.
The century ends consecrating McFarlane as one of
the greats of comics, alongside geniuses like Alan
Moore (who created the masterpiece of comic book
mini-series Watchmen), Frank Miller (author of the
fantastic Batman - Dark Knight and Daredevil - man
without fear) and designer Alex Ross (who illustrated
the historical works Marvels, Kingdom Come and
Superman - Peace on Earth), who gave a reality never
before seen in the drawings of comics. Ross was the
first designer to gain as much fame as the writers of
comics heroes.
13. Mauricio de Sousa is the biggest name of national
comics. It was the only living exclusively from the
profits of their publications. The Monica is the most
successful of its kind in the country, at all times.
Turned a line of products ranging from sandals, to
noodles, passing school supplies, clothes, etcâŠHas
also been produced cartoon feature film with the
characters.
The newspaper Pasquim was famous for his comic-
strip, especially the Jaguar. The cartoonist Henfil also
excels at that time. Daniel Azulay also created and
maintained a Brazilian hero, Captain Liana, who
represented one of the best moments of national
comics.
EditoraAbril begins to publish the heroes of Marvel
and DC Comics in Brazil, with the magazines and
Captain America Heroes TV. Later, with Batman,
Superman, Spiderman and Incredible Hulk, among
others.
From the 80, the major Brazilian newspapers begin to
enter works of national authors in their strips before
uniquely American. Amongthem, wehighlight Miguel
Paiva (Radical Chic), Glauco (GeraldĂŁo), Laerte (Piratas
do TietĂȘ), Angeli (Chiclete com Banana), Fernando
Gonsalves (NĂquel NĂĄusea) andLuis Fernando
Verissimo (As Cobras). Also the Brazilian edition of
Mad magazine begins to publish works with Brazilian
authors.
RADICAL CHIC
14. In the '90s the Brazilian market grows a little more.
New comic book heroes come to be edited in the
country, especially the newly created Image Comics.
EditoraAbril still ahead of rivals and publishes Spawn
U.S..
Brazil enters the twenty-first century with the comic
market expanding. EditoraGlobo continues to publish
highly successful comics of Monica; EditoraAbril
continues strong with the American comic book
heroes Marvel, DC and Image, the American Heavy
Metal magazine launches its Brazilian edition, to
ââMetal Pesadoââ, and publishers smaller publish
materials from other sources. Some cartoonists
national launch magazine caricature ÂŽÂŽBundasââ
WOOD CUT
Woodcutâoccasionally known as xylographyâ
is a relief printing artistic technique in
printmaking in which an image is carved into the
surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts
remaining level with the surface while the non-
printing parts are removed, typically with gouges.
The areas to show 'white' are cut away with a
knife or chisel, leaving the characters or image to
show in 'black' at the original surface level. The
block is cut along the grain of the wood (unlike
wood engraving where the block is cut in the end-
grain). The surface is covered with ink by rolling
over the surface with an ink-covered roller
(brayer), leaving ink upon the flat surface but not
in the non-printing areas.
Multiple colors can be printed by keying the paper
to a frame around the woodblocks (where a
different block is used for each color). The art of
carving the woodcut can be called "xylography",
but this is rarely used in English for images alone,
although that and "xylographic" are used in
connection with blockbooks, which are small
books containing text and images in the same
block. Single-leaf woodcut is a term for a
woodcut presented as a single image or print, as
opposed to a book illustration.
Division of labour
In both Europe and the Far East, traditionally the
artist only designed the woodcut, and the block-
carving was left to specialist craftsmen, called
block-cutters, or Formschneider in Germany,
some of whom became well known in their own
right - among the best known are the 16th century
Hieronymus Andreae (who also used
"Formschneider" as his surname), Hans
LĂŒtzelburger and Jost de Negker, all of whom ran
workshops and also operated as printers and
publishers. The formschneider in turn handed the
block on to specialist printers. There were further
specialists who made the blank blocks.
This is why woodcuts are sometimes described by
museums or books as "designed by" rather than
"by" an artist; but most authorities do not use this
distinction. The division of labour had the
advantage that a trained artist could adapt to the
medium relatively easily, without needing to learn
the use of woodworking tools.
15. There were various methods of transferring the
artist's drawn design onto the block for the cutter
to follow. Either the drawing would be made
directly onto the block (often whitened first), or a
drawing on paper was glued to the block. Either
way, the artist's drawing was destroyed during the
cutting process. Other methods were used,
including tracing.
In both Europe and the Far East, such as Japan
and China, in the early twentieth century some
artists began to do the whole process themselves.
In Japan, this movement was called SĆsakuhanga,
as opposed to the Shin hanga movement, which
retained the traditional methods. In the West,
many artists used the easier technique of linocut
instead.
Methods of printing
Compared to intaglio techniques like etching and
engraving, only low pressure is required to print.
As a relief method, it is only necessary to ink the
block and bring it into firm and even contact with
the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print.
In Europe fruitwood like pear or cherry was
commonly used;[1]
in Japan, the wood of the
cherry species Prunusserrulata was preferred.
There are three methods of printing to consider:
Stamping: Used for many fabrics and most
early European woodcuts (1400â40).
These were printed by putting the
paper/fabric on a table or other flat surface
with the block on top, & pressing or
hammering the back of the block
Rubbing: Apparently the most common
method for Far Eastern printing on paper
at all times. Used for European woodcuts
and block-books later in the fifteenth
century, and very widely for cloth. Also
used for many Western woodcuts from
about 1910 to the present. The block goes
face up on a table, with the paper or fabric
on top. The back is rubbed with a "hard
pad, a flat piece of wood, a burnisher, or a
leather frotton".[2]
A traditional Japanese
tool used for this is called a baren. Later in
Japan, complex wooden mechanisms were
used to help hold the woodblock perfectly
still and to apply proper pressure in the
printing process. This was especially
helpful once multiple colors began to be
introduced, and needed to be applied with
precision atop previous ink layers.
Printing in a press: presses only seem to
have been used in Asia in relatively recent
times. Printing-presses were used from
about 1480 for European prints and block-
books, and before that for woodcut book
illustrations. Simple weighted presses may
have been used in Europe before the print-
press, but firm evidence is lacking. A
deceased Abbess of Mechelen in 1465 had
"unuminstrumentumadimprintendumscript
uras et ymagines ... cum 14
aliislapideisprintis" - "an instrument for
printing texts and pictures ... with 14
stones for printing" which is probably too
early to be a Gutenberg-type printing press
in that location.
History
In Europe, Woodcut is the oldest technique used
for old master prints, developing about 1400, by
using, on paper, existing techniques for printing
on cloth. One of the more ancient woodcuts on
paper that can be seen today is The Fire Madonna
(Madonna delFuoco, in Italian), in the Cathedral
of ForlĂŹ, in Italy.
16. The explosion of sales of cheap woodcuts in the
middle of the century led to a fall in standards,
and many popular prints were very crude. The
development of hatching followed on rather later
than engraving. Michael Wolgemut was
significant in making German woodcuts more
sophisticated from about 1475, and Erhard
Reuwich was the first to use cross-hatching (far
harder to do than engraving or etching). Both of
these produced mainly book-illustrations, as did
various Italian artists who were also raising
standards there at the same period. At the end of
the century Albrecht DĂŒrer brought the Western
woodcut to a level that, arguably, has never been
surpassed, and greatly increased the status of the
single-leaf woodcut (i.e. an image sold
separately).
As woodcut can be easily printed together with
movable type, because both are relief-printed, it
was the main medium for book illustrations until
the late-sixteenth century. The first woodcut book
illustration dates to about 1461, only a few years
after the beginning of printing with movable type,
printed by Albrecht Pfister in Bamberg. Woodcut
was used less often for individual ("single-leaf")
fine-art prints from about 1550 until the late
nineteenth century, when interest revived. It
continued to be important for popular prints until
the nineteenth century in most of Europe, and later
in some places.
The art reached a high level of technical and
artistic development in East Asia and Iran. In
Japan woodblock printing is called "mokuhanga",
and was introduced in the seventeenth century for
both books and art. The popular "floating world"
genre of ukiyo-e originated in the second half of
the seventeenth century, with prints in monocrome
or two colours. Sometimes these were hand-
coloured after printing. Later prints with many
colours were developed. Japanese woodcut
became a major artistic form, although at the time
it was accorded a much lower status than painting.
It continued to develop through to the twentieth
century
Colour
Coloured woodcuts first appeared in ancient
China. The oldest known are three Buddhist
images dating to the 10th century. European
woodcut prints with coloured blocks were
invented in Germany in 1508 and are known as
chiaroscuro woodcuts (see below). However,
colour did not become the norm, as it did in Japan,
in the ukiyo-e and other forms.
In Europe and Japan, colour woodcuts were
normally only used for prints rather than book
illustrations. In China, where the individual print
did not develop until the nineteenth century, the
reverse is true, and early colour woodcuts mostly
occur in luxury books about art, especially the
more prestigious medium of painting. The first
known example is a book on ink-cakes printed in
1606, and colour technique reached its height in
books on painting published in the seventeenth
century. Notable examples are the Treatise on the
Paintings and Writings of the Ten Bamboo Studio
of 1633, and the Mustard Seed Garden Painting
Manual published in 1679 and 1701.[4]
In Japan colour technique, called nishiki-e in its
fully developed form, spread more widely, and
was used for prints, from the 1760s on. Text was
nearly always monochrome, as were images in
books, but the growth of the popularity of ukiyo-e
brought with it demand for ever increasing
numbers of colors and complexity of techniques.
By the nineteenth century most artists worked in
colour. The stages of this development were:
Sumizuri-e (ćąšæșăç””, "ink printed
pictures") - monochrome printing using
only black ink