Bande dessinée
Bande dessinée is a form of sequential art that tells stories or conveys ideas through images arranged in panels, often with written text.
Panel (comics): A bounded or implied space in comics that presents one moment, scene, or unit of information. Panels are the basic units whose arrangement makes a bande dessinée sequential.
Töpffer's histoires en estampes: Rodophe Töpffer's illustrated stories, published from the 1830s, that combined drawings with captions in sequences. These works are often treated as foundational examples of modern comics.
The Obscure Cities: A Belgian graphic novel series by François Schuiten and Benoît Peeters, set in elaborate fictional cities. Its architectural worlds make setting and visual design central to the narrative.
Manga: Comics produced in Japan or in styles strongly associated with Japanese comics traditions. Manga has distinct publishing conventions and visual traditions despite sharing sequential storytelling.
Graphic medicine: The use and study of comics in relation to health, illness, medical practice, and care. Bande dessinée can render embodied illness and clinical experience through words and images.
Gutter (comics): The space between comic panels, where readers infer continuity, change, or omitted events. Events often unfold across the gaps between its panels.
The Adventures of Tintin: Hergé's bande dessinée series about a young reporter and his companions, begun in 1929. Tintin helped establish the album format and ligne claire style for broad audiences.
Persepolis: Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel about growing up during and after the Iranian Revolution. It demonstrates how sequential images can carry personal and political history.
American comic book: A periodical or collected comic format associated especially with the United States. The comic book's issue-based publishing contrasts with the French-language album tradition.
Comics journalism: Journalism that uses comics to report, explain, or investigate real events. Sequential art can combine reportage, testimony, and visual interpretation.