Tropes that belong exclusively to Comics as a medium, normally based around things such as the sequential nature of the art, graphical style, use of text, results of episodic publishing and distribution. While marked as Comic Book Tropes, tropes shared among all Sequential Art can be included here, with separate lists dealing with the particulars of other formats (like Web Comics).
See also Graphical Tropes and Superhero Tropes. See Sequential Art for the works index.
Tropes:
- 3D Comic Book: Comics that use the same 3-D effect as 3-D movies.
- Absent-Minded Professor
- Alternative Comics
- Amusing Injuries
- Animal Stereotypes
- Animal-Themed Superbeing: A super-powered being who themes themselves after an animal.
- Anthology Comic
- Art Evolution: A character's design gradually changes over the years.
- Artistic License – Biology
- Artistic License – Geography
- Artistic License – Physics
- Ashcan Copy: An adaptation is made solely to hold onto the media rights.
- Ash Face
- Bad Girl Comic
- Banana Peel
- Beat Panel
- The Cameo
- Canon Invasion
- Coconut Meets Cranium
- Comedic Spanking
- Comic-Book Adaptation: A work is adapted into a Sequential Art or Comic medium.
- Comic-Book Limbo
- Comic Book Run: The period when an author has been working on a given comic.
- Comic-Book Time: The amount of time that's passed in the comic in-universe is much shorter than how long the comic has been running in the real world.
- Comics Merger
- Confused Question Mark: A question mark appears over a character's head to show that they are confused by something.
- Creator Cameo
- Decompressed Comic
- Depending on the Artist: A character's physical appearance changes depending on who is drawing them.
- The Door Slams You
- Double Take
- Dramatic Ellipsis
- Drop-In Character
- Editorial Synaesthesia
- Enforced Plug: Used for the Hostess Fruit Pies advertising campaign.
- Explosive Cigar
- Exiled from Continuity: A character is prevented from appearing in an adaptation or from making further appearances in the original work because of legal issues.
- Face Fault
- "Far Side" Island
- Fifth Week Event
- Film Comic: A comic adaptation of a movie or television show that uses screenshots of the original work with speech bubbles, onomatopoeia and narration boxes added instead of using original artwork based on the work being adapted.
- Fourth-Wall Portrait
- Frame Break
- Full Bleed
- Funny Animal Anatomy
- Harmless Electrocution
- Harmless Freezing: Getting frozen is non-lethal and the frozen person will be perfectly fine once thawed out.
- Hit Flash
- Hit Spark
- Idea Bulb
- Identical Panel Gag
- Inconsistent Coloring
- Jumping-On Point
- Kirby Dots
- Legacy Launch
- Monster Modesty: Non-human beings only wear shorts.
- National Stereotypes
- Noodle People
- Odd-Shaped Panel
- One-Two Punchline
- Pacing a Trench
- Page-Turn Surprise: A Cliffhanger's resolution is on the next page.
- Photo Comic: A comic made by photographing posed inanimate objects or actual people rather than by drawing pictures.
- Pictorial Speech-Bubble
- Pintsized Kid
- Rebus Bubble
- Redeeming Replacement
- Red Skies Crossover
- Ret-Canon: An element from an adaptation is added to the source material's continuity. Frequently done with adaptations of comic books that are influential enough.
- Rule of Escalating Threat
- Running Gag
- Sequential Art
- Silent Scenery Panel
- Slapstick
- Speech Bubbles: Comics have round white bubbles containing character dialogue, with tails pointing at the characters saying the dialogue.
- Speech-Bubble Censoring: Speech bubbles are used to censor nudity.
- Speech-Bubbles Interruption: Text is covered or interrupted by speech bubbles.
- Splash Panel
- Stuff Blowing Up
- Superheroes in Space
- Symbol Swearing: Profane language censored by replacing swear words with garish symbols (also known as grawlixes) is commonly done in comics.
- Talking Is a Free Action: Another common staple of comics is for characters to be in impending danger and still have time to talk about a bunch of stuff before getting out of harm's way or falling victim to the disaster that threatens them.
- Textplosion: A comic's panels are suddenly filled with text before reverting to illustrations.
- Thinking the Same Thought
- Thought Bubble Speech
- Thought Caption
- Underground Comics
- Unexpected Art Upgrade Moment: When art media upgrades or enlarges its detail to signify a special moment.
- Unsound Effect: Onomatopoeia is used for actions that can't really be heard.
- Variant Cover: As a ploy to get people to buy more copies of the same issue, comic book issues have variants where the issue has a different cover.
- Visible Silence: A speech bubble that contains three dots instead of words signifies that the character isn't saying anything.
- Wall of Blather
- Wall of Text
- Writing for the Trade
- Written Sound Effect
