February 15, 2007

a style guide to "Reading Comics"

Preferred spelling and usage in my forthcoming book Reading Comics, courtesy of my excellent copyeditor:

acknowledgment
ad hoc
African-American
aka
Al-Qaeda
annus mirabilis
apocryphal
art cartoonist
art comics (n.), art-comics (adj.)
Art Nouveau
assembly-line (adj.)
auteur
avant-garde

backstory
badass
best-selling
biblical
black and white (n.), black-and-white (adj.)
books-of-comics
bookstore [vs. "comic book store"]

cartoony
cocreate
codirect
coedit
comic book (n., adj.)
comic book store
Comics Code
Comics Code Authority
comics-like
comics-news (adj.)
comics readers
company men
cop-out
counterargument
counterculturalist
counterculture
cover-dated
coworker
crisscrossing
cross section
culture vulture

death trap
Decadent (ref. to art movement)
de facto
diehard
Drawn & Quarterly

editor in chief
email
endnotes
eye candy

façade
fait accompli
fanboy
fan service
far-fetched
farmgirl
femme fatale
film noir
fin de siècle
fine-art (adj.)
flip side
folktale
freestanding
front and center
funnybook

gangbanger
god-awful

hard-ass
hard-core (adj.), hardcore (n.)
Hays Code
Heaven
Hell
high school (n., adj.)
hometown
hyper-controlled

ideologue
imagination-bombs
indie (adj., n.)
indiedom
in medias res
insectoid
Internet

jet-black
judgment

Kabbala, Kabbalistic
knockdown (adj.)

L&R (short for Love & Rockets)
L&RX (short for Love & Rockets X)
left-hand (adj.)
lifeline
like-minded
linework

MacGuffin
magical realist (adj.)
manga
markup (n.)
metacomics
metafictional
metalhead
meta-narratives
meta-pleasure
metatextual

mind-set
minicomic(s)
miniseries
monkey wrench
motormouthed
muscle-bound

name-drop (v.)
near miss (n.)
noir
noncombatants
non-comics (adj.)
non-comics reader
nonfiction
non-genre (adj.)
nonmainstream
nonnarrative
nonrealistic
nonreturnable
nonsequential
non sequitur
nonverbal
nonvisual
nostalgie de la boue

other-dimensional
out-there (adj.)

page-count
penny-ante (adj.)
postapocalyptic
postcybernetic
post-reading
postwar
preempt
preestablished
preexisting
preform
pretechnological
preverbal
prewar
prima facie
punchline
"Purgatory" (section of Divine Comedy)

quasi-monthly

real-world (adj.)
redraw
reformat
relaunch
reroute
right-hand (adj.)
Rollerblades
roman à clef
rule of thumb

samizdat
science fiction (n., adj.)
scriptural
semi-realism, semi-realistic
sephirot
Seth
side by side (adv.)
single-handedly
single-minded
Situationist
sleight of hand
soup-to-nuts
spandex
Spider-Man
spin-off (n.)
squarebound
stoplight
story line
straightedge
sugarcoat, sugarcoating
sui generis
superhero
superheroine
Superman
superreader
super-villains

Tarot
tool-kit
touchpoint
tour de force
train wreck

ultraminimal
underrealized
United States (n.), U.S. (adj.)

wasp waist (n.)
water tower
Web site
word for word (adv.)
work for hire (n.)
worldview

I suspect this gives a frighteningly good preview of what the book itself is going to be like.

Posted by Douglas at February 15, 2007 10:31 PM | TrackBack
Comments

Oh my god it sounds awesome.

Posted by: gabe on February 16, 2007 8:11 AM
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