Comic books are a collaborative medium. Generally, some kind of writer/scripter/plotter will outline the whole story and is a core of the story telling process. The penciller is the first step in rendering the story in visual form and may require several steps of feedback with the writer. These artists are concerned with layout (positions and vantages on scenes) to showcase steps in the plot. In earlier generations it was more common for artists to use a loose pencilling approach, in which the penciller does not take much care to reduce the vagaries of the pencil art, leaving it to the inker to interpret the penciller's intent and render the art in a more finished state. Today many pencillers prefer to create very meticulously detailed pages, where every nuance that they expect to see in the inked art is indicated in pencil. This is known as tight pencilling. Because the inking and the pencilling are so closely aligned there are strong cross influences - inked lines emphasize aspects of the scene, but is this particular emphasis the intention of the penciller or is the penciller's preference off-base compared to the point of the story? Then the colorist comes into the picture and is responsible for adding color to the black and white (possibly shaded) line art. Almost all comic books are rendered in color and have been for much of the history of comic books. Sometimes color is not added for specific effect or when production resources don't allow for a colorist. A colorist also can add to or shift the emphasis of a page of comic art - the penciller laid out the basic scene - the inker emphasizes the depth and drama of the edges of things and their weight on the page, and the colorist can futher emphasize what draws the eye and adds or subtracts to the realism of the scene. Finally the letterer renders what needs to be said on a page of art for the story - which could be dialogue or the content of signs or print if shown. This may seem like an easy job, but the right use of fonts, letter size, and layout of the words inside the balloon all contribute to the impact of the art. A good letterer is a good calligrapher, and a great letterer has as much to do with the quality of the comic as the writer, penciler, inker, or colorist.
Aside from differences in regional styles of comics books the disciplines of writer, penciler, inker, colorist and letterer are under pressures of production efficiencies as well - and computers are mixing things up too. Different parts of the creative process are generally being done by fewer people but which mixing of responsabilies happens varies. But there are few that do all the steps in comic production.
Superhero dramatic-adventure and science-fiction stories have dominated American comic books for most of the medium's history. Before the 1960s, comics were published in many genres, including humor, Westerns, romance, horror, military fiction, crime fiction, biography, and adaptations of classic literature. Non-superhero comics have continued to exist as niche publishing, with humor titles, such as those from Archie Comics and Bongo Comics, the most visible alternatives.
Typical prices of a new, standard size, mainstream (DC/Marvel) comic book: Timing varies slightly by publisher as not all publishers changed prices at the same time (data samples taken from X-Men, Action Comics and Avengers cover price listings in ComicBase 10 Archive Edition)
· Prior to 1962 $ .10
· 1962 - 1969 $ .12
· 1969 - 1971 $ .15
· 1971 - 1974 $ .20
· 1974 - 1976 $ .25
· 1976 - 1977 $ .30
· 1977 - 1979 $ .35
· 1979 - 1980 $ .40
· 1980 - 1981 $ .50
· 1982 - 1985 $ .60
· 1985 - 1986 $ .65
· 1986 - 1988 $ .75
· 1988 - 1991 $ 1.00
· 1992 - 1995 $ 1.25
· 1995 - 1996 $ 1.50
· 1996 - 1997 $ 1.95
· 1997 - 2000 $ 1.99
· 2000 - 2005 $ 2.25
· 2005 - 2006 $ 2.50
· 2006 - Present $ 2.99
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literature_of_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_of_American_Poets
http://www.poets.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicano_poetry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chicano_poets
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theater_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_comic_book
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J.D._Salinger
http://www.salinger.org/index.php?title=Main_Page