Artist – The person who creates the images used in comic books. Responsible for both the penciling and inking of the comic books pages.
Bend – When a comic book doesn’t lay flat. A curvature that does not result in a crease.
Bronze Age – Comics created from 1970 to 1985. Known as an age of social relevance, the bronze age begins with Green Lantern #76 and ends in 1985. This age is considered the end of the relevancy of the Comics Code Authority.
Chew – An insect or rodent chew that damages the comic book. Usually results in damage to the cover and several pages. Distinct because of the usually jagged nature of the damage.
Colorist – A colorist adds colors to the finished art which can have an effect on the style of the artwork.
Comic – Originally a comic strip that appeared in newspapers redefined to include periodical comic book magazines in the 1930s.
Comics Code Authority – An alternative to government regulation established in 1954 following Senate hearings on the sexual and violent content in comic books exposed by Frederick Wertham’s book “Seduction of the Innocent”.
Comix – Underground comic books originating in the late 1960s that contained adult content not approved by the Comics Code Authority.
Crease – A fold in the comic book that causes ink removal or color damage usually resulting in a white line on the cover.
Denting – Indentations or dimpling that doesn’t penetrate the paper or remove gloss but affects the comic book from laying flat.
Digital Comics – Comic books available in an online format.
Double Cover – A rare printing defect that results in a comic book having two covers – an exterior and interior cover. The interior cover usually grades at a higher scale than the exterior cover.
Dust Shadow – Seen in older comic books usually stored in a basement or an attic. The comic book has been stored in a stack somewhat askew and dust has collected on just the corners of the book resulting in a discoloration that can visibly be seen as being caused by another book.
Editor – The boss of the comic book production, sets deadlines, assignments, and reviews the comic book work.
Fair – Lowest grade a complete comic book can receive. A fair copy exhibits heavy wear and has little to no eye appeal and displays major defects. A fair copy can be missing non-story elements such as coupons cut out or portions of the cover missing. A fair copy can have significant water damage, mold damage, extreme spine or cover wear or splits.
Fine – Comic is considered above average but displays some wear. Eye appeal has been reduced by an accumulation of minor defects or one or two moderate defects. These can include slight spine roll, moderate amount of spine defects that may break color, small spine split, impacted corners, mild creasing, minimal water damage or moderate foxing.
Fingerprint Damage – Visible damage caused by the oils of fingerprints.
Flash – Method of examining comic book condition using natural light to expose imperfections in the book.
Floppies – Physical comic books as opposed to trade paperbacks or digital comics.
Fold – Crease that does not break color but prevents the book from laying flat.
Foxing – Age related process of deterioration that causes spots or browning and may be caused by oxidation or fungal damage.
Gloss – The shiny surface sheen of the cover.
Golden Age – Comic books created from 1938 to 1954. The Golden Age begins with the introduction of superheroes, specifically Superman in Action Comics #1 and ends with the onset of the Comics Code Seal of Approval in 1954.
Good – A misnomer of comic book collecting. Comic has major defects but is still intact and readable. A good copy has a significant amount of damage possibly including a book length crease, large spine split, cover or centerfold detached, major tears, significant markings on cover, water damage, discoloration, brittleness.
Grading – A system of classifying comic books based on condition. Grades are lowered based on the amount of defects a book has.
Graphic Novel – A comic book presented in a higher quality book style format.
Incomplete – The comic book is missing elements of the book that affect the readability of the story.
Inker – An inker or finisher enhances the artwork a penciler has created by using ink and pen over the penciled image.
International comic books – Comic books of a non-English format.
Layouts – A penciller who lays out only the preliminary outlines of the comic book pages. Leaving a majority of the work to finishers and inkers.
Letterer – The person who gets paid to put words in the bubbles, unfortunately now mostly done digitally like many of the other art jobs.
Manga – The Japanese style of comic books. The most popular of the international comic book styles.
Mint – Perfect in every way.
Modern Age aka Copper Age – Comics created from 1985 to present. Sometimes the era is broken out into the Modern Age (1985-sometime in the 1990s) and the Current Age (sometime in the 1990s-present). The modern age is known for darker, more serious or adult content in comic books. Early comic books that started the trend include Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and Watchmen, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns and Neil Gaiman’s Sandman. Also early in the age are DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths and Marvel’s Secret Wars.
Moisture or Water Damage – Damage caused by the direct or indirect exposure to water/moisture. Moisture damage can cause rippling, loss of page integrity, staining, stiffness or brittleness of pages as well as mold damage and odor.
Near Mint – A nearly perfect copy that looks brand new with few minor defects.
Penciller – Pencils the layouts for the comic book page including characters and backgrounds.
Platinum Age – The first age of comic books. Any comic books created before 1938, the year of the first superhero comic book.
Pre-Code – A term used to describe comics books created prior to the establishment of the Comics Code Authority.
Publisher – The company responsible for the production of the comic book. e.g., Marvel or DC
Rolling – The spine of the comic has begun to curl upwards or downwards (usually) as the result of continual, minute movements. Rolling of the spine gradually develops over time.
Silver Age – Comics created from 1956 to 1970. Known as the second coming of superheroes. The Silver Age begins with Showcase #4 the introduction of the first Silver Age superhero Barry Allen as the Flash and ends in early 1970.
Trade Paperbacks – A collection of comic book stories reprinted in a book format usually recapturing one story arc.
Very Fine – Comic has minor defects but otherwise is a presentable book. Very Fine defects can include minor corner wear, light spine stress, slight deterioration of page quality, very light and/or small creases.
Very Good – A misnomer of comic book collecting. Comic shows significant wear but has not accumulated enough total defects to reduce eye appeal to the point that the book is not collectible to many collectors. A very good copy has a combination of many minor defects, a small amount of moderate defects or one or two major defects.
Webcomics – An online comic usually having no print comic format.
Writer – The author of the script for the comic book story. Can be broken down to having an individual plotter (general story) and scripter (detailed story).