photo comics

{{Redirect2|Fumetto|Fumetti|comics originating in Italy|Italian comics}}

{{Redirect|Fotonovela|the 2008 film|Fotonovela (film)|the Ivan song|Fotonovela (song)}}

File:Killing (comics).jpg, an Italian photo comic series published since the 1960s]]

Photo comics are a form of sequential storytelling using photographs rather than illustrations for the images, along with the usual comics conventions of narrative text and word balloons containing dialogue. They are sometimes referred to in English as fumetti,M. Keith Booker (ed.), Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas, Bloomsbury, 2014, p. 1821 ("Webcomics and New Media"). photonovels, photoromances,{{Cite web |title=The Photoromance |url=https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262539289/the-photoromance/ |access-date=2022-09-03 |website=MIT Press |language=en-US}} and similar terms. The photographs may be of real people in staged scenes, or posed dolls and other toys on sets.

Although far less common than illustrated comics, photo comics have filled certain niches in various places and times. For example, they have been used to adapt popular film and television works into print, tell original melodramas, and provide medical education. Photo comics have been popular at times in Italy and Latin America, and to a lesser extent in English-speaking countries.

Terminology

The terminology used to describe photo comics is somewhat inconsistent and idiosyncratic. Fumetti is an Italian word (literally "little puffs of smoke", in reference to word balloons), which refers in that language to any kind of comics. Because of the popularity of photo comics in Italy, fumetti became a loanword in English referring specifically to that technique. By extension, comics which use a mixture of photographic and illustrated imagery have been described as mezzo-fumetti ("half" fumetti).{{Cite web|url=https://www.behance.net/gallery/52213565/Comic-Book-Page|title=Behance|website=www.behance.net|date=May 2017 |access-date=2017-12-08}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.paladinknightentertainment.com/#xl_xr_page_index|title=Paladin Knight Entertainment|website=www.paladinknightentertainment.com|access-date=2018-08-21}} Meanwhile, the Spanish term fotonovela – referring to popular photo-comics melodramas in Latin America – was adapted in English as fotonovel{{Cite news|url=https://taint-the-meat.com/2014/05/02/star-trek-fotonovels/|title=Star Trek Fotonovels (1977-78)|date=2014-05-02|work=TAINT THE MEAT|access-date=2017-12-07|language=en-US}} or photonovel,{{Cite web|url=http://photonovelalliance.com/|title=The Photonovel Alliance|website=photonovelalliance.com|access-date=2018-08-21}} and came to be associated primarily with film and television adaptations, which were marketed using those terms. Variations such as "photo funnies"{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v8B7DQAAQBAJ&q=%22photo+funnies%22&pg=PA49|title=The Comics Journal Library: Zap — The Interviews|last1=Groth|first1=Gary|last2=Dean|first2=Michael|date=2015-01-15|publisher=Fantagraphics Books|isbn=9781606997888|language=en}} and "photostories" have also been used.

In Italian, a photo comic is referred to as a fotoromanzo ("photonovel", plural: fotoromanzi). In Spanish-speaking countries, the term fotonovela refers to several genres of photo comics, including original melodramas.

History

There were attempts at photo comics in the early days of tabloids in the United States. The New York Graphic (1924-1932) featured a daily multi-panel "Graphic Photo Drama from Life" illustrated feature and an "Antics of Arabella" comic strip in which scantily clad chorus girls or models demonstrated Physical Culture (Macfadden magazine) exercise poses while telling jokes in word balloons.https://comicstriphistory.com/2006/08/obscurity-of-day-antics-of-arabella.html As early as 1927 the New York Daily News featured Ziegfeld Follies stars Eddie Cantor and Frances Upton appearing in sequential photographs, telling jokes (presumably from the Follies scripts) with speech bubbles superimposed.New York Daily News, December 13, 1927, p. 32

Photo comics emerged in Italy in the 1940s and expanded into the 1950s.{{Cite web|url=http://www.iitaly.org/38748/art-fotoromanzo-view-casa-italiana-zerilli-marimo|title=The Art of Fotoromanzo on View at Casa Italiana Zerilli Marimo|access-date=2016-09-09}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.printmag.com/illustration/italy-land-of-fumetti-in-a-sea-of-pulp/|title=Italy's Fumetti: Curiously Sophisticated Pulp Comics - Print Magazine|date=2012-06-19|language=en-US|access-date=2016-09-09}} (Actress Sophia Loren worked for a time as a model.) The lurid Italian crime photo comic Killing ran from 1966 through 1969, and was reprinted in other countries; it has been reprinted and revived numerous times since then.

The technique spread to Latin America, first adapting popular films, then for original stories. By the 1960s, there were about two dozen fotonovela movie adaptations circulating in Latin America and nearly three times as many original works.{{Cite web|url=http://www.rwhp.org/fotonovela.html|title=RWHP - Fotonovela|last=RWHP|first=Nikki Edwards|website=www.rwhp.org|access-date=2016-09-09}} They remained popular in Mexico into the late 1980s, when 70 million copies of fotonovelas were printed each month.

Photo comics first became successful in the United States and Canada with Harvey Kurtzman's Help! magazine, which ran humorous photo stories from 1960 to 1965. Similar "Foto Funnies" – often featuring female nudity – were a regular feature of National Lampoon magazine beginning in the early 1970s.

During the 1970s, lines of American paperback books were marketed as "Fotonovels" and "Photostories", adapting popular films and television shows. Although home video largely supplanted this market in the 1980s, a small number of photo comic adaptations continued to be produced as promotional tie-ins to the original work.

Photo comics were common in British magazines such as Jackie in the 1980s, and a few are still published. There are a number of photo newspaper strips in the UK and the form was popular in girl's comics in the 1980s. Boy's comics of the early 1980s such as Load Runner and the relaunched Eagle also experimented with photo comics but without much success; when the Eagle was revamped, former photo comic strips such as Doomlord continued as illustrated strips.

Online series such as Night Zero, A Softer World, and Alien Loves Predator are more recent examples of photo comics. In 2007, the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards gave the first award for "Outstanding Photographic Comic".{{cite web|url = http://ryanestrada.com/wcca07/ceremony/photographic.htm |title = Outstanding Photographic Comic |access-date = 2008-07-24}} In 2010 and 2011 the bilingual photo comic Union of Heroes was nominated for the "Web-Sonderman"-Awards for the best German webcomic.{{Cite news|last=Pannor|first=Stefan|date=2010-09-03|title=Comicpreis Sondermann 2010: Vorsicht, freilaufende Frisuren!|language=de|work=Der Spiegel|url=https://www.spiegel.de/kultur/literatur/comicpreis-sondermann-2010-vorsicht-freilaufende-frisuren-a-715459.html|access-date=2021-12-10|issn=2195-1349}} In the 2010s, cartoonist John Byrne – inspired by 1970s photo comics adaptations of Star Trek episodes – produced a series of "photonovel adventures" which combined stills from the series with original digitally rendered background illustrations and new dialogue, to produce new stories featuring the characters.{{Cite news|url=http://www.startrek.com/article/idws-latest-john-byrne-photonovel-made-out-of-mudd-out-dec-10|title=IDW's John Byrne Photonovel, Made Out of Mudd, Out Dec. 10|newspaper=StarTrek.com|access-date=2017-02-22|language=en}}

Software applications such as Comic Life, Comic Strip It, and Strip Designer, which allow users to add word balloons and sound effects to their personal photos and incorporate them into storytelling layouts, have revived some interest in the medium.{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/technology/personaltech/transforming-your-photos-into-comics-strips.html|title=Transforming Your Photos Into Comic Strips|last=Eaton|first=Kit|date=2014-05-14|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|access-date=2016-09-09}}

Common genres

= TV and movie adaptations =

In the United States, one of the common uses of photo comics has been TV and film adaptations, usually abridged for length. Still frames from the film or video are reproduced, often in simple grids but sometimes with creative layouts and cropping, overlaid with balloons with abbreviated dialogue from the screenplays. They are a cost-effective way to adapt films and TV series into comics without the expense of commissioning illustrations, and were a way for consumers to revisit motion-picture stories before the widespread availability of affordable home recording and video playback equipment such as VCRs.{{cite web|url=http://reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com/2005/11/retro-toy-flashback-16-photonovels.html|title=John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: Retro Toy Flashback # 16: Photonovels|first=John Kenneth|last=Muir|date=10 November 2005|website=reflectionsonfilmandtelevision.blogspot.com}}

= Educational =

The widespread familiarity of fotonovelas in Spanish-language culture makes photo comics an effective vehicle for health promotion and health education.Flora, C. (1985). The fotonovela in America. Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, 4, 84-94. Since the small pamphlets can be traded among individuals, they possess an element of portability that traditional materials lack. Both health and non-health entitiesU.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2003). Carlos’ Tragic and Mysterious Illness – how Carlos almost died by eating contaminated raw oysters, College Park: MD.Associated Press (2006, November 24). [https://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/24/us/24methbook.html?_r=1 Using Fiction in a Real Fight Against Drugs.] The New York Times.Marzolla, A. and Yau, A. (2007, Nov) [http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p_mla_apa_research_citation/1/8/8/8/5/p188859_index.html "The Agua Pura Fotonovela Project: Latino Community Engagement in Water Quality Education"] have utilized the fotonovela as informational pamphlets. The fotonovelas produced by these organizations present information in a variety of illustrated forms but usually contain a summation of key points at the end. Health educators have also utilized the fotonovela because the medium overcomes issues of health literacy, which is the degree to which individuals can obtain, process and understand basic health information to make appropriate health decisions,Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment – Office of Health Disparities (2008). [http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/ohd/glossary.html Glossary of a Few Key Public Health Terms.] in their target audience. Most providers believe that health education materials designed specifically for patients with low health literacy would be helpful:Schlichting, J., Quinn, M., Heuer, L., Schaefer, C., Drum, M., and Chin, M. (2007). Provider perception of limited health literacy in community health centers., Patient Education & Counseling, vol. 69(1-3), 114-120. however, written educational materials found in most health settings have been deemed to have serious deficiencies.Demir, F., Ozsaker, E., and Ilce, A.. (2008). The quality and suitability of written educational materials, Journal of Clinical Nursing, vol.17 (2), 259-265.

Notable examples

=Original photo comics=

Twisted ToyFare Theatre, the inspiration behind Robot Chicken
The Brick Bible, stories from the Bible illustrated using photos of Lego figurines and sets, as well as speech balloons and caption boxes
Killing{{cite web|url=http://morttodd.com/sadistik.html|title=SADISTIK!|website=morttodd.com}}
A Softer World by Joey Comeau and Emily Horne.{{cite web|url = http://asofterworld.com/ |title = A Softer World: 332 |access-date = 2008-07-24}}
Doomlord by Alan Grant and John Wagner.
Alien Loves Predator by Bernie Hou.{{cite web|url = http://www.alienlovespredator.com/ |title = Alien Loves Predator: In New York, no one can hear you scream |access-date = 2008-07-24}}{{Cite web|url=http://comicsalliance.com/alien-vs-predator-game-alien-loves-predator/|title='Alien Loves Predator' Creator Reviews 'Alien vs. Predator' Game|website=Comics Alliance|date=8 March 2010 |access-date=2016-09-09}}
Transparent Life by Charlie Beck{{cite web |url = http://www.undertoadcomics.com/ |title = Undertoad Comics |access-date = 2008-07-24 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080608193238/http://www.undertoadcomics.com/ |archive-date = 2008-06-08 |url-status = dead }}
Night Zero by Anthony van Winkle and Eli Black-Mizuta.{{cite web|url = http://www.NightZero.com/ |title = Night Zero: A Photographic Novel |access-date = 2008-10-02}}
[http://thechefsofdeath.com/ The Chefs of Death] mini-series written by Alex Finch and starring Ian Lane, Chloe Taylor and Christopher Denton.{{Cite web |last=Brown |first=Jason |date=July 11, 2023 |title=Comic Book Review: The Chefs of Death #1 |url=https://midlifegamergeek.com/2023/11/07/comic-book-review-the-chefs-of-death-1/ |access-date=August 30, 2024 |website=Mid-Life Gamer Geek}}
The series 3hoog, Ype and De Uitgeverij by Dutch comics artist Ype Driessen.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/driessen_ype.htm|title=Ype Driessen|website=lambiek.net|language=en|access-date=2017-08-05}}
The one-shot album De Hete Urbanus (The Hot Urbanus) in the Urbanus series by Willy Linthout and Urbanus.{{Cite web|url=http://www.urbanusfan.be/urbanusstrip/urbanusuniekealbums.php?stripheldurbanus=3050|title=Urbanus (De Stripheld) / Unieke Albums / Urbanus Luxe Albums Met Plaat / 50. De Hete Urbanus|website=www.urbanusfan.be|access-date=2017-08-05}}
Urbanus, Kamagurka and Herr Seele made some one-shot photo comics in the 1980s for the magazine Humo.{{Cite web|url=http://www.urbanusfan.be/urbanus/fotostrip.php?fotostrips=2|title=Urbanus (De Komiek) / Fotostrips / De Lastige Krapuultjes|website=www.urbanusfan.be|access-date=2017-08-05}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.urbanusfan.be/urbanus/fotostrip.php?fotostrips=1|title=Urbanus (De Komiek) / Fotostrips / Nestor|website=www.urbanusfan.be|access-date=2017-08-05}}
Louis Salvérius and Raoul Cauvin once made a one-shot photo comic strip parodying their own series Les Tuniques Bleues with themselves dressed up as their characters.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/s/salverius_louis.htm|title=Louis Salvérius|website=lambiek.net|language=en|access-date=2017-08-05}}
Mannetje en Mannetje (Little Man and Little Man) by Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/wit_peter_de.htm|title=Peter de Wit|website=lambiek.net|language=en|access-date=2017-08-05}}
Christopher's Punctured Romance by Terry Gilliam, starring John Cleese.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/g/gilliam_tery.htm|title=Terry Gilliam|website=lambiek.net|language=en|access-date=2017-08-05}}
Jean Teulé is a French cartoonist who takes photographs or makes photocopies, which he then changes with colors and pencil.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/teule.htm|title=Jean Teulé|website=lambiek.net|language=en|access-date=2017-08-05}}
@$$hole by Trevor Mueller{{Cite web|url=http://tgtmedia.com/podcast/ep143-trevormueller/|title=Trevor Mueller from @$$hole! - 144 {{!}} Two Geeks Talking|date=2010-12-27|language=en-US|access-date=2016-09-09}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.geekcal.com/Convention-News/Anime-zing-Announces-Cristina-Vee-and-Trevor-Mueller.html|title=Anime-zing! Announces Cristina Vee and Trevor Mueller [4319] {{!}} Convention News|language=en-US|access-date=2016-09-09}}
Kwakzalver en Knettergek by Nix.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/n/nix.htm|title=Nix|website=lambiek.net|language=en|access-date=2017-08-05}}
God en Klein Pierken by Nix and Bart Schoofs.
The work of Dutch Internet artist Kakhiel.{{cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/k/kakhiel.htm|title=Kakhiel|website=lambiek.net}}
Crimefighters by Fjodor Buis and Thé Tjong-Khing.{{cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/t/tjong_khing.htm|title=Thé Tjong-Khing|website=lambiek.net}}
Happenstance by Stephen Saperstein Frug, which used color photographs, sometimes intentionally blurred, to tell the story of a character with prosopagnosia (the inability to recognize faces).{{Cite web|url=http://happenstance.thecomicseries.com/|title=Happenstance: a photographic novel|date=2017-05-17|language=en-US|access-date=2021-02-17}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.ithaca.com/entertainment/books/an-ithaca-comic-experience-another-locally-produced-locally-set-comic/article_97d5dfc2-71ec-11ea-b2c0-bf938d5c4130.html|title=An Ithaca Comic Experience: Another locally produced, locally set comic book|date=29 March 2020 |language=en-US|access-date=2021-02-17}}
Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime, a book by Ge Wang.{{Cite book|title=Artful Design: Technology in Search of the Sublime (A MusiComic Manifesto)|last=Wang|first=Ge|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-1-5036-0052-2|pages=488|url=https://artful.design/}}
Punk magazine by John Holmstrom et al. frequently used the photo comics format for interviews and other features, notably in the case of two full-length photo comics "The Legend of Nick Detroit" (#6, October 1976), and "Mutant Monster Beach Party" (#15, July/August 1978).{{Cite web|title=PunkMagazine.com Homepage|url=https://www.punkmagazine.com/|access-date=2021-04-20|website=www.punkmagazine.com}}
The Last Gay Man on Earth, an autobio graphic novel by Ype Driessen.{{Cite web |last=Oliver |first=Andy |date=2023-06-08 |title=The Last Gay Man on Earth - Ype Driessen Brings Photo Comics to Graphic Memoir |url=https://www.brokenfrontier.com/last-gay-man-on-earth/ |access-date=2024-12-10 |website=Broken Frontier |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Locke |first=Jude |date=May 19, 2023 |title=Overcoming Self Doubt: Reviewing ‘The Last Gay Man On Earth’ |url=https://comicon.com/2023/05/19/overcoming-self-doubt-reviewing-the-last-gay-man-on-earth/ |access-date=2024-12-10 |website=comicon.com}}

=Film adaptations=

(Many marketed as "Fotonovels")

Alien (1979 film) (large format)
Americathon (1979)
The Best of Rocky and the Complete Rocky II (1979)
Blair Witch Project, The (2000)
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
Can't Stop the Music (1980)
The Champ (1979)
Charlie's Angels (2000)
Cheech and Chong's Next Movie (1980)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
Grease (1978)
Hair (1979)
Heaven Can Wait (1978)
Ice Castles (1978)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
The Jerk (1979)
Little Shop of Horrors (1986), adapted by Robert and Louise Egan
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
Love at First Bite (1979)
Nashville (1975)
Nightwing (1979)
Outland (1981) (large format)
Revenge of the Pink Panther (1979)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Star Trek: The Motion Picture: The Photostory, edited by Richard J. Anobile (1980)
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: Photostory, by Richard J. Anobile (1982)

=Television adaptations=