He wasn't a dwarf but he was a bit of a comic figure.

Alexis (, c. 394 BC – c. 288 BC ) was a Greek comic poet of the Middle Comedy period.

The public opinion of voters was remarkably influenced by the political satire performed by the comic poets at the theatres.

Salieri would also write several bravura aria's for a soprano playing the part of a middle class character that would combine coloratura and concertante woodwind solos, another innovation for a comic opera that was to be widely imitated.

Again a classic of Renaissance literature was the basis of the libretto by Boccherini, in this case a comic mock-epic by Tassoni, in which a war between Modena and Bologna ensues over a stolen bucket.

Gluck feared that the Parisian critics would denounce the opera by a young composer known mostly for comic pieces and so the opera was originally billed in the press as being a new work by Gluck with some assistance from Antonio Salieri, then shortly before the premiere of the opera the Parisian press reported that the work was to be partly by Gluck and partly by Salieri, and finally after popular and critical success were won on stage the opera was acknowledged in a letter to the public by Gluck as being wholly by the young Antonio.

Alfred Gerald Caplin ( September 28, 1909 – November 5, 1979 ), better known as Al Capp, was an American cartoonist and humorist best known for the satirical comic strip Li ' l Abner.

The technique — as invigorating as it was unorthodox — was later adopted by cartoonists like Walt Kelly and Garry Trudeau ," wrote comic strip historian Rick Marschall.

Li ' l Abner was also the subject of the first book-length, scholarly assessment of an American comic strip ever published.

( This fable-like story was collected into an educational comic book called Mammy Yokum and the Great Dogpatch Mystery !, and distributed by the Anti-Defamation League of B ' nai B ' rith later that year.

" The article recounted Capp's days working for an unnamed " benefactor " with a miserly, swinish personality, who Capp claimed was a never-ending source of inspiration when it came time to create a new unregenerate villain for his comic strip.

As is usual with collaborative efforts in comic strips, his name was the only one credited — although, sensitive to his own experience working on Joe Palooka, Capp frequently drew attention to his assistants in interviews and publicity pieces.

There was also a separate line of comic book titles published by the Caplin family-owned Toby Press, including Shmoo Comics featuring Washable Jones.

Cartoonist Mell Lazarus, creator of Miss Peach and Momma, wrote a comic novel in 1963 titled The Boss Is Crazy, Too which was partly inspired by his apprenticeship days working with Capp and his brother Elliot at Toby.

In the Golden Age of the American comic strip, successful cartoonists received a great deal of attention ; their professional and private lives were reported in the press, and their celebrity was often nearly sufficient to rival their creations.

Besides his use of the comic strip to voice his opinions and display his humor, Capp was a popular guest speaker at universities, and on radio and television.

Li ' l Abner was one of 20 classic American comic strips honored with a USPS commemorative postage stamp.

In the comic, minor characters like Earl, Billy Bob, Clark Cobb, and Mistress Cora Anthrax would get repeated appearances ; Earl was quite regular, and Anthrax was in two issues and got to answer a letter's page.

William " Bill " Boyd Watterson II ( born July 5, 1958 ) is an American cartoonist and the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, which was syndicated from 1985 to 1995.

Later, when Watterson was creating names for the characters in his comic strip, he allegedly decided upon Calvin ( after the Protestant reformer John Calvin ) and Hobbes ( after the social philosopher Thomas Hobbes ) as a " tip of the hat " to the political science department at Kenyon.

On December 21, 1999 a short piece, written by Watterson to mark the forthcoming end of the comic strip Peanuts, was published in the Los Angeles Times.

* In the Judge Dredd comic stories, originally published in 2000 AD, the megalopolis of Mega-City One consists of many hundreds, if not thousands, of City Blocks, in which a citizen can be born, grow, live, and die without ever leaving.

In 1946 Capp created a special full-color comic book, Al Capp by Li ' l Abner, to be distributed by the Red Cross to encourage the thousands of amputee veterans returning from the war.

Another " feud " seemed to be looming when, in one run of Sunday strips in 1957, Capp lampooned the comic strip Mary Worth as " Mary Worm.

He remains the only cartoonist to be embraced by TV ; no other comic artist to date has come close to Capp's televised exposure.

" Comics ,” wrote Capp in 1970, “ can be a combination of the highest quality of art and text, and many of them are .” Capp would produce many giveaway educational comic books and public services pamphlets, spanning several decades, for the Red Cross, the Department of Civil Defense, the Department of the Navy, the U. S. Army, the Anti-Defamation League, the Department of Labor, Community Chest ( a forerunner of United Way ), and the Job Corps.

Whedon stated: " The Origin comic, though I have issues with it, CAN pretty much be accepted as canonical.

In all traditions most ballads are narrative in nature, with a self-contained story, often concise and relying on imagery, rather than description, which can be tragic, historical, romantic or comic.

The Beano comic takes its name from the English word beano which can be loosely interpreted as a good time.

A copy of this first issue sold for £ 12, 100 on 16 March 2004, which was at the time thought to be the highest price ever paid for a British comic at an auction.

The comic revealed Plug's full name to be Percival Proudfoot Plugsley and also gave him a pet monkey by the name of Chumkee.

Although he initially declined the part of Dr. David Banner in The Incredible Hulk because of its comic book origins, on reading Kenneth Johnson's script for the pilot episode, he was persuaded to change his mind ( and agreed to remain involved with the series for as long as Johnson was to be involved ).

Segar's ' Chaplin ' comics would later be collected in 1917 into five books, precursors of the later comic book format.

" Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire ( 2001 ) had a disappointing box office performance but is considered to be a " cult favorite " because of its unique art and animation style inspired by comic book artist Mike Mignola.

As the name implies, comic strips can be humorous ( for example, " gag-a-day " strips such as Blondie, Bringing Up Father, Marmaduke and Pearls Before Swine ).

All are called, generically, comic strips, though cartoonist Will Eisner has suggested that " sequential art " would be a better name.

Some comic strips, such as Doonesbury and The Boondocks, may be printed on the editorial or op-ed page rather than the comics page because of their regular political commentary.

When most people think of a superhero or a comic book celebrity, Superman, Spider-Man, and Batman will usually be the first that comes to mind.

In comic books, continuity has also come to mean a set of contiguous events, sometimes said to be " set in the same universe " ( see fictional crossover and fictional universe ) or " separate universes " ( see intercompany crossover ).

The term " Low Fantasy " is used to represent other types of fantasy, however, so while comic fantasies may also correctly be classified as low fantasy, many examples of low fantasy are not comic in nature.

Elements of comic fantasy can be found in such nineteenth century works

After the French Revolution it was popular in part due to its central ethic that individuals can be right while society is quite wrong and seen as disenchanting — not comic at all.

In the meantime, the abandoned trademark had been seized by Marvel Comics in 1967, disallowing the DC comic itself to be called that.