Cartoon
A cartoon is a type of illustration animated in a non-realistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage refers to either: an image or series of images intended for satire, caricature, or humor. Someone who creates cartoons in the first sense is called a cartoonist, in the second sense they are called an animator; the concept originated in the Middle Ages, first described a preparatory drawing for a piece of art, such as a painting, tapestry, or stained glass window. In the 19th century, beginning in Punch magazine in 1843, cartoon came to refer – at first – to humorous illustrations in magazines and newspapers. In the early 20th century, it began to refer to animated films. A cartoon is a full-size drawing made on sturdy paper as a study or modello for a painting, stained glass, or tapestry. Cartoons were used in the production of frescoes, to link the component parts of the composition when painted on damp plaster over a series of days; such cartoons have pinpricks along the outlines of the design so that a bag of soot patted or "pounced" over a cartoon, held against the wall, would leave black dots on the plaster.
Cartoons by painters, such as the Raphael Cartoons in London, examples by Leonardo da Vinci, are prized in their own right. Tapestry cartoons colored, were followed with the eye by the weavers on the loom. In print media, a cartoon is an illustration or series of illustrations humorous in intent; this usage dates from 1843, when Punch magazine applied the term to satirical drawings in its pages sketches by John Leech. The first of these parodied the preparatory cartoons for grand historical frescoes in the then-new Palace of Westminster; the original title for these drawings was Mr Punch's face is the letter Q and the new title "cartoon" was intended to be ironic, a reference to the self-aggrandizing posturing of Westminster politicians. Cartoons can be divided into gag cartoons, which include editorial cartoons, comic strips. Modern single-panel gag cartoons, found in magazines consist of a single drawing with a typeset caption positioned beneath, or—less often—a speech balloon. Newspaper syndicates have distributed single-panel gag cartoons by Mel Calman, Bill Holman, Gary Larson, George Lichty, Fred Neher and others.
Many consider New Yorker cartoonist Peter Arno the father of the modern gag cartoon. The roster of magazine gag cartoonists includes Charles Addams, Charles Barsotti, Chon Day. Bill Hoest, Jerry Marcus, Virgil Partch began as magazine gag cartoonists and moved to syndicated comic strips. Richard Thompson illustrated numerous feature articles in The Washington Post before creating his Cul de Sac comic strip; the sports section of newspapers featured cartoons, sometimes including syndicated features such as Chester "Chet" Brown's All in Sport. Editorial cartoons are found exclusively in news publications and news websites. Although they employ humor, they are more serious in tone using irony or satire; the art acts as a visual metaphor to illustrate a point of view on current social or political topics. Editorial cartoons include speech balloons and sometimes use multiple panels. Editorial cartoonists of note include Herblock, David Low, Jeff MacNelly, Mike Peters, Gerald Scarfe. Comic strips known as cartoon strips in the United Kingdom, are found daily in newspapers worldwide, are a short series of cartoon illustrations in sequence.
In the United States, they are not called "cartoons" themselves, but rather "comics" or "funnies". Nonetheless, the creators of comic strips—as well as comic books and graphic novels—are referred to as "cartoonists". Although humor is the most prevalent subject matter and drama are represented in this medium; some noteworthy cartoonists of humorous comic strips are Scott Adams, Steve Bell, Charles Schulz, E. C. Segar, Mort Walker and Bill Watterson. Political cartoons are like illustrated editorial that serve visual commentaries on political events, they offer subtle criticism which are cleverly quoted with humour and satire to the extent that the criticized does not get embittered. The pictorial satire of William Hogarth is regarded as a precursor to the development of political cartoons in 18th century England. George Townshend produced some of caricatures in the 1750s; the medium began to develop in the latter part of the 18th century under the direction of its great exponents, James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson, both from London.
Gillray explored the use of the medium for lampooning and caricature, has been referred to as the father of the political cartoon. By calling the king, prime ministers and generals to account for their behaviour, many of Gillray's satires were directed against George III, depicting him as a pretentious buffoon, while the bulk of his work was dedicated to ridiculing the ambitions of revolutionary France and Napoleon. George Cruikshank became the leading cartoonist in the period following Gillray, from 1815 until the 1840s, his career was renowned for his social caricatures of English life for popular publications. By the mid 19th century, major political newspapers in many other countries featured cartoons commenting on the politics of the day. Thomas Nast, in New York City, showed how realistic German drawing techniques could redefine American cartooning, his 160 cartoons relentlessly pursued the criminal c
Runaways (comics)
Runaways is a superhero comic book series published by Marvel Comics. The series features a group of teenagers who discover that their parents are part of an evil crime organization known as "The Pride". Created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona, the series debuted in July 2003 as part of Marvel Comics' "Tsunami" imprint; the series was canceled in September 2004 at issue eighteen, but due to high numbers of trade collection sales, Marvel revived the series in February 2005. The series featured a group of six kids whose parents met every year for a charity event. One year, the kids spy on their parents and learn they are "the Pride", a criminal group of mob bosses, time-travelers, dark wizards, mad scientists, alien invaders and telepathic mutants; the kids steal weapons and resources from their parents, learn they themselves inherited their parents' powers. The kids band together and defeat their parents, atone for the sins of their parents by fighting the new threats trying to fill in the Pride's void.
They are joined by cyborg Victor Mancha, shape-shifting Skrull Xavin, plant-manipulator Klara Prast. Since the original groups' introduction, the Runaways have been portrayed as a somewhat dysfunctional yet loving family. Series creators Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona left the series at issue 24 of the title's second volume; the series was cancelled in November 2009 after issue 14 of Volume 3, but the characters have been seen in other comics. On June 1, 2017, it was announced that Rainbow Rowell and Kris Anka would be the new creative team in a revival of the series, which debuted in September of the same year. A live-action adaptation of the series was in development for several years, leading to the Runaways TV series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it debuted on Hulu in 2017. Series creator Brian K. Vaughan pitched Runaways in 2003 as a part of Marvel's Tsunami imprint, the goal of, to attract new readers young readers and the manga audience. Marvel editorial staff agreed to it prompting Wizard Magazine to name the series as "one of the best original concepts from Marvel in thirty years."
The Tsunami imprint turned out to be unsuccessful, the series ended at issue #18. After the series' sales in digests, Vaughan pitched the idea again to Marvel. Writer Brian K. Vaughan has claimed that he had only planned to write Runaways for six months, but because of the popularity of the series and new ideas from Vaughan, Marvel decided to continue issuing it on a monthly basis. In 2007, Brian K. Vaughan announced his departure from Runaways, deciding to leave the series at the top of its game. Longtime Runaways-fan Joss Whedon was hand-picked by Vaughan to write an arc and finish the second volume. In 2008, writer Terry Moore, alongside artist Humberto Ramos became the new creative team for the third volume. In Blair Butler's "Fresh Ink" segment on the cable television station G4 show Attack of the Show Marvel revealed that Kathryn Immonen and Sarah Pichelli were the new creative team, they started with issue #11 of Volume 3, which will "start with a prom and end with a death". To be honest, no offense to Joss or Terry, I hadn't felt this way since Gert died."
The story ended with a major cliffhanger, resolved in other comics. After three years the Runaways returned in the story arc "Pride Comes Before It", in issues 17 to 19 of Daken: Dark Wolverine, they appeared in Avengers Academy #27-28. Since Victor Mancha became a regular character in the robot-themed comic Avengers A. I. while Nico Minoru and Chase Stein became part of the cast in Avengers Arena, its sequel Avengers Undercover. In February 2015, it was announced that a new Runaways series would be launching during Marvel's Secret Wars crossover, featuring a new cast set on Battleworld, a Parallel universe; the lineup of the new team included all new members. Additionally, Nico Minoru was featured in A-Force. Nico was used on a second run of A-Force, this time based in the mainstream Marvel Universe, but was cancelled after ten issues. In May 2017, Marvel released teasers with the characters of the Runaways. In June 2017, it was announced that Marvel will release a new Runaways series written by Rainbow Rowell, illustrated by Kris Anka.
The new series was released in September 2017. When Alex, Gert, Karolina and Nico witness their parents sacrifice a girl in an occult ceremony, the group runs off; as the story progresses, the children learn of their heritage and abilities, steal resources from their parents, including futuristic gauntlets, a dinosaur, a mystical Staff. Using these resources, they manage to remove their parents, who were aided by their benefactors, the Gibborim, from their criminal hold of Los Angeles. Alex, concealing his true loyalty to his parents, betrays the other Runaways to the Pride. With the Pride defeated, Nico becomes the defacto leader, the other Runaways now vow to prevent other villains from filling in the void left by their parents; when an older version of Gert time travels to the present, she begs the Runaways to find a boy named Victor Mancha and stop him before he grows up to become a villain in her time named "Victorious". He betrayed her and murd
Histoire de M. Vieux Bois
Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois, published in English as The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck, is a 19th-century publication written and illustrated by the Swiss caricaturist Rodolphe Töpffer, it was created in 1827 and published first in Geneva, Switzerland in 1837 as Histoire de Mr. Vieux Bois in London, UK in 1841 by Tilt and Bogue editions as the book The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck, in New York, U. S. in a newspaper supplement titled Brother Jonathan Extra No. IX, followed by an 1849 republication as a book titled The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck, published in New York by Wilson & Co; the English-language editions were unlicensed copies of the original work as they were done without Töpffer's authorization. Oldbuck is referred to as the first comic book printed in the U. S. and America's first newspaper comic. The format consists of sequential pictures with captions, aka "text comics", rather than utilizing the staple of word-balloons, a convention that would be developed in newspaper comic strips.
In Understanding Comics, comics theorist Scott McCloud says Töpffer's work is in many ways "the father of the modern comic". McCloud emphasizes Töpffer's use of "cartooning and panel borders" along with "the first interdependent combination of words and pictures seen in Europe". Töpffer described comics as a medium appealing to children and the lower classes, this is evident in the style of the work, it is notable that the story was never intended for publication but rather as an idle "diversion" for his close friends. Töpffer used a lithography method called autography, in which the pen draws on specially prepared paper, allowing a freer line than the engraving of the time. Autography lithographs did not require the drawings to be flipped horizontally. Mr. Vieux Bois encounters young woman and falls in love, his initial attempts at courting are ignored, followed by short periods of his desperation. He attempts suicide by falling on his own sword and by hanging himself. Both attempts fail, he challenges him to a duel.
He is better with his dueling sword and his rival has to flee. Vieux Bois contacts the parents of his girlfriend, he starts to celebrate loudly. His celebration ends with his arrest for disturbing the neighbours; the marriage is called off and he feels suicidal. He is given herb soup instead, he goes traveling but falls prey to highwaymen. Seeking refuge in a lair, he meets a hermit. After two weeks he escapes the cloister dressed in drag, he starts wearing an eyepatch. At home he finds a letter from his love interest returning his affection. Nightly he serenades her with a unspecified string instrument, they flee on his horse. But Vieux Bois is returned to prison, he throws himself out of a window in his fourth suicide attempt. Released he flees again with his fiancée. Returning to his home by way of the local river they are discovered by a "little hermit". Vieux Bois keeps the boy's head under the water, he can arrange for their marriage without opposition from the monks. On his wedding day Vieux Bois leaves his home for the church but returns to place his dog as guard outside the house.
He arrives late for his own wedding. His in-laws called off the marriage again, he tries to shoot himself in the head but only wounds his face. He is buried. Crows digging at his grave manage to awake him, he is "called back into existence". Dressed in a shroud, he is mistaken for a ghost and a couple of local peasants chase him with their pitchforks, his return home terrifies his inheritors. As soon as he changes his clothes, he is again arrested for assault, his bullet had entered a neighbour's leg. He defends himself in court but ends up sentenced to imprisonment for a year, his only cellmate is his loyal dog. They soon manage to escape by opening a hole in the roof, he jumps to the roof of the neighbouring house but his dog falls into the chimney. The house belongs to his object of her parents; the latter are scared by their canine visitor but their daughter recognizes it and hugs it. Mr. Vieux Bois is surprised at its weight; the rope breaks and he falls from the roof and onto a street lamp. He flees the local police.
Meanwhile, the resident family climbs the chimney to the rooftop. They find nobody and are trapped on the roof. Three days Mr. Vieux Bois returns disguised as an officer, he is informed that the whole family is still missing. He leaves to search for them; the following day, a chimney sweep discovers the whole family. Vieux Bois encounters one of the monks responsible for his imprisonment, he cuts off his beard in revenge but has to flee a legion of vengeful monks. He returns empty-handed to his hometown; the chimney sweep informs him of the rescue of his lady. Led to the roof, he finds his lost dog, he stays on the roof for nine days in an effort to communicate with his love... not realizing the family has moved. On the ninth day he leaves the roof and reestablishes contact with his lady, they flee again with carriage. Mr. Vieux Bois is rushing the horse and manages to cover 18 leagues in three hours... only to find that the carriage containing his lady was lost at some point
Little Nemo
Little Nemo is a fictional character created by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. He originated in an early comic strip by McCay, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, before receiving his own spin-off series, Little Nemo in Slumberland; the full-page weekly strip depicted Nemo having fantastic dreams that were interrupted by his awakening in the final panel. The strip is considered McCay's masterpiece for its experiments with the form of the comics page, its use of color, its timing and pacing, the size and shape of its panels, perspective and other detail. Little Nemo in Slumberland ran in the New York Herald from October 15, 1905, until July 23, 1911; when McCay returned to the Herald in 1924, he revived the strip, it ran under its original title from Aug 3, 1924, until December 26, 1926, when McCay returned to Hearst. A weekly fantasy adventure, Little Nemo in Slumberland featured the young Nemo who dreamed himself into wondrous predicaments from which he awoke in bed in the last panel; the first episode begins with a command from King Morpheus of Slumberland to a minion to collect Nemo.
Nemo was to be the playmate of Slumberland's Princess, but it took months of adventures before Nemo arrived. Nemo and Flip become companions, are joined by an African Imp whom Flip finds in the Candy Islands; the group travels far and wide, from shanty towns to Mars, to Jack Frost's palace, to the bizarre architecture and distorted funhouse-mirror illusions of Befuddle Hall. The strip shows McCay's understanding of dream psychology of dream fears—falling, impalement; this dream world has its own moral code difficult to understand. Breaking it has terrible consequences, as when Nemo ignores instructions not to touch Queen Crystalette, who inhabits a cave of glass. Overcome with his infatuation, he causes her and her followers to shatter, awakens with "the groans of the dying guardsmen still ringing in his ears". Although the strip began October 15, 1905 with Morpheus, ruler of Slumberland, making his first attempt to bring Little Nemo to his realm, Nemo did not get into Slumberland until March 4, 1906 and, due to Flip's interfering, did not get to see the Princess until July 8.
His dream quest is always interrupted by either him falling out of bed, or his parents forcibly waking him up. On July 12, 1908, McCay made a major change of direction: Flip visits Nemo and tells him that he has had his uncle destroy Slumberland. After this, Nemo's dreams take place in his home town, though Flip—and a curious-looking boy named the Professor—accompany him; these adventures range from the down-to-earth to Rarebit-fiend type fantasy. The famous "walking bed" story was in this period. Slumberland continued to make sporadic appearances until it returned for good on December 26, 1909. Story-arcs included Befuddle Hall, a voyage to Mars, a trip around the world. McCay experimented with the form of the comics page, its timing and pacing, the size and shape of its panels and architectural and other detail. From the second installment, McCay had the panel sizes and layouts conform to the action in the strip: as a forest of mushrooms grew, so did the panels, the panels shrank as the mushrooms collapsed on Nemo.
In an early Thanksgiving episode, the focal action of a giant turkey gobbling Nemo's house receives an enormous circular panel in the center of the page. McCay accommodated a sense of proportion with panel size and shape, showing elephants and dragons at a scale the reader could feel in proportion to the regular characters. Narrative pacing McCay controlled through variation or repetition, as with equally-sized panels whose repeated layouts and minute differences in movement conveyed a feeling of buildup to some climactic action. In his familiar Art Nouveau-influenced style McCay outlined his characters in heavy blacks. Slumberland's ornate architecture was reminiscent of the architecture designed by McKim, Mead & White for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, as well as Luna Park and Dreamland in Coney Island, the Parisian Luxembourg Palace. McCay made imaginative use of color, sometimes changing the backgrounds' or characters' colors from panel to panel in a psychedelic imitation of a dream experience.
The colors were enhanced by the careful attention and advanced Ben Day lithographic process employed by the Herald's printing staff. McCay annotated the Nemo pages for the printers with the precise color schemes he wanted. For the first five months the pages were accompanied with captions beneath them, at first the captions were numbered. In contrast to the high level of skill in the artwork, the dialogue in the speech balloons is crude, sometimes approaching illegibility, "disfigur otherwise flawless work", according to critic R. C. Harvey; the level of effort and skill apparent in the title lettering highlights what seems to be the little regard for the dialogue balloons, their content, their placement in the visual composition. They tend to contain repetitive monologues expressing the increasing distress of the speakers, showed that McCay's gift was in the visual and not the verbal. McCay used traditional ethnic stereotypes prominently in Little Nemo, as in the ill-tempered Irishman Fl
The Katzenjammer Kids
The Katzenjammer Kids is an American comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks in 1897, drawn by Harold Knerr for 35 years. It debuted December 12, 1897, in the American Humorist, the Sunday supplement of William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal. Dirks was the first cartoonist to express dialogue in comic characters through the use of speech balloons; the comic strip was turned into a stage play in 1903. It inspired several animated cartoons and was one of 20 strips included in the Comic Strip Classics series of U. S. commemorative postage stamps. After a series of legal battles between 1912 and 1914, Dirks left the Hearst organization and began a new strip, first titled Hans and Fritz and The Captain and the Kids, it featured the same characters seen in The Katzenjammer Kids, continued by Knerr. The two separate versions of the strip competed with each other until 1979, when The Captain and the Kids ended its six-decade run; the Katzenjammer Kids published its last strip on January 1, 2006, but is still distributed in reprints by King Features Syndicate, making it the oldest comic strip still in syndication and the longest-running ever.
The Katzenjammer Kids was inspired by Max and Moritz, a children's story of the 1860s by German author Wilhelm Busch. Katzenjammer translates as the wailing of cats but is used to mean contrition after a failed endeavor or hangover in German. Whereas Max & Moritz were grotesquely but comically put to death after seven destructive pranks, the Katzenjammer Kids and the other characters still thrive; the Katzenjammer Kids was so popular that it became two competing comic strips and the subject of a lawsuit. This happened because Dirks, in 1912, wanted to take a break after drawing the strip for 15 years, but the Hearst newspaper syndicate would not allow it. Dirks left anyway, the strip was taken over by Harold Knerr. Dirks' last strip appeared March 16, 1913. Dirks sued, after a long legal battle, the Hearst papers were allowed to continue The Katzenjammer Kids, with Knerr as writer and artist, he took over permanently in the summer of 1914. However, Dirks was allowed to create an identical strip of his own for the rival Pulitzer newspapers, although he had to use a different name for the strip.
Named Hans und Fritz after the two naughty protagonist brothers, Dirks' new feature was called The Captain and the Kids from 1918 on. The Captain and the Kids was similar to The Katzenjammer Kids in terms of content and characters, but Dirks had a looser and more verbal style than Knerr, who on the other hand produced stronger, more direct gags and drawings; the Captain and the Kids soon proved to equal the popularity of The Katzenjammer Kids. It was distributed by the United Feature Syndicate; the Captain and the Kids expanded as a daily strip during the 1930s. However, the Sunday strip remained popular for decades. From 1946, Dirks' son, John Dirks began doing more of the work on The Captain and the Kids, they introduced new characters and plots during the 1950s, including a 1958 science fiction storyline about a brilliant inventor and alien invasions. As John Dirks took over most of the work, Rudolph Dirks signed the strip until his death in 1968. John Dirks' drawing shifted towards a more square-formed line, though it maintained the original style until The Captain and the Kids ended its run in 1979.
Knerr continued drawing The Katzenjammer Kids until his death in 1949. "Doc" Winner, with Joe Musial taking over in 1956. Musial was replaced on The Katzenjammer Kids by Mike Senich, Angelo DeCesare, Hy Eisman. Now syndicated in reprint form, the strip is distributed internationally to some 50 newspapers and magazines. Eisman reused a lot of old gags and stories in years; the Katzenjammer Kids featured Hans and Fritz, twins who rebelled against authority in the form of their mother, Mama. Other characters included John Silver, a pirate sea captain and his crew, King Bongo, a primitive-living but sophisticated-acting black jungle monarch who ruled a tropical island. Several of the characters spoke in stereotypical German-accented English; the defining theme of the strip was Hans and Fritz pranking der Captain, der Inspector, Mama, or all three, for which the boys were spanked, but sometimes shifted the blame to others. Other stories involved der Captain taking the Katzenjammers on treasure hunts or cargo voyages, sometimes aided by or competing with John Silver.
Still other stories involved King Bongo enlisting the Katzenjammers to run errands or go on missions related to his kingdom. Knerr's version of The Katzenjammer Kids introduced several major new characters in the 1930s. Miss Twiddle, a pompous tutor, her brainy niece Lena came to stay permanently with the Katzenjammers in early 1936. In the year Twiddle's ex-pupil, "boy prodigy" Rollo Rhubarb joined them; the ever-smug Rollo is always trying to outwit Hans and Fritz, but his cunning plans backfire. The Captain and the Kids introduced some new characters. Ginga Dun is a snooty Indian trader who can outsmart anyone and only talks in verse. Captain Bloodshot is a pint-sized pirate rival of John Silver's. Notable features of the strips, at both syndicates, included a more constructiv
Marvel Universe
The Marvel Universe is a fictional universe where the stories in most American comic book titles and other media published by Marvel Comics take place. Super-teams such as the Avengers, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, the Guardians of the Galaxy, the Defenders, the Inhumans, the New Warriors, the Nova Corps and other Marvel superheroes live in this universe, including characters such as Spider-Man, Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Wolverine, Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain Marvel, Ghost Rider, the Punisher, Silver Surfer, Moon Knight and numerous others; the Marvel Universe is further depicted as existing within a "multiverse" consisting of thousands of separate universes, all of which are the creations of Marvel Comics and all of which are, in a sense, "Marvel universes". In this context, "Marvel Universe" is taken to refer to the mainstream Marvel continuity, known as Earth-616 or as Earth Prime. Though the concept of a shared universe was not new or unique to comics in 1961, writer/editor Stan Lee, together with several artists including Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, created a series of titles where events in one book would have repercussions in another title and serialized stories would show characters' growth and change.
Headline characters in one title would make guest appearances in other books. Many of the leading heroes assembled into a team known as the Avengers; this was not the first time that Marvel's characters had interacted with one another—Namor the Sub-Mariner and the Original Human Torch had been rivals when Marvel was Timely comics —but it was the first time that the comic book publisher's characters seemed to share a world. The Marvel Universe was notable for setting its central titles in New York City. Care was taken to portray the city and the world as realistically as possible with the presence of superhumans affecting the common citizens in various ways. Over time, a few Marvel Comics writers lobbied Marvel editors to incorporate the idea of a Multiverse resembling DC's parallel worlds. What happens on Earth in the main Marvel Universe would have no effect on what happens on a parallel Earth in another Marvel-created universe. However, storywriters would have the creative ability to write stories in which people from one such universe would visit this alternative universe.
In 1982, Marvel published the mini-series Contest of Champions, in which all of the major heroes in existence at the time were gathered together to deal with one threat. This was Marvel's first miniseries; each issue contained biographical information on many major costumed characters. The Marvel Universe is based on the real world. Earth in the Marvel Universe has all the features of the real one: same countries, same personalities, same historical events, so on. H. I. E. L. D. and its enemy, HYDRA and A. I. M. In 2009 Marvel described its world's geography in a two-part miniseries, the Marvel Atlas. Most the Marvel Universe incorporates examples of all major science fiction and fantasy concepts, with writers adding more continuously. Aliens, magic, cosmic powers and advanced human-developed technology all exist prominently in the Marvel Universe. Monsters play a more prominent role with east Asian origins of magical incantation, outlandish sorcery and manifesting principle in the Marvel Universe. One such case is Fin Fang Foom arising from the ashes of tantric magic.
Thanks to these extra elements, Earth in the Marvel Universe is home to a large number of superheroes and supervillains, who have gained their powers by any of these means. Comparatively little time passes in the Marvel Universe compared to the real world, owing to the serial nature of storytelling, with the stories of certain issues picking up mere seconds after the conclusion of the previous one, while a whole month has passed by in "real time". Marvel's major heroes were created in the 1960s, but the amount of time that has passed between and now within the universe itself has most been identified as thirteen years; the settings of some events which were contemporary when written have to be updated every few years in order to "make sense" in this floating timeline. Thus, the events of previous stories are considered to have happened within a certain number of years prior to the publishing date of the current issue. For example, Spider-Man's high school graduation was published in Amazing Spider-Man #28, his college graduation in Amazing Spider-Man #185, his high school reunion in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #7.
Because of the floating timeline, where stories refer to real-life historic events, these references are ignored or rewritten to suit current sensibilities. For instance, the origin of Iron Man was changed in a 2004 storyline to refer to armed conflict in Afghanistan, whereas the original Iron Man stories had referred to the Vietnam War. Marvel Comics itself exists as a company within the Marvel Universe, ver
