Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Comics/Comic strips work group

Toward an Image Statement

Goal

Comic strips are, of course, a very visual medium and therefore images are a critical part of a comic strip article. In this regard, I would like to start of list of image characteristics that can be used to:

• Improve the quality of articles,
• Standardize the look of our comic strip articles,
• Set goals, and
• Provide an objective set of criteria to resolve image-related disputes.

What did I miss?

Characteristics of a good image

The characteristics of a good Wikipedia comic strip-related image are:

• Each image should be representative of the subject of the article (whether strip, character, or author).

• "Representative" means that the image should convey the flavour of the strip or character, showing the character(s) in their more typical endeavours.
• Images associated with humour strips should attempt to show that humour.
• Images associated with action strips or soap-opera strips should show a typical predicament or situation (e.g. "How's Dick Tracy going to get out of this one?" or "Is Luanne's engagement really off?").
• For action strips or soap-opera strips, it is better to show the characters in a predicament, rather than resolving a predicament (since being in a predicament is the typical state for these strips).

• In general, images associated with comic strip articles (as opposed to comic strip character or author articles) should show as many characters, and as many core characters, as possible.

• This is particularly true for large-cast strips, e.g. articles on Gasoline Alley, Bloom County, or Liberty Meadows.
• This is less critical for limited-cast strips e.g. articles on Prickly City or Baby Blues.

• Images should be self-contained and intelligible to the casual or uninformed reader.

• Images excerpted from the strip itself are preferred both to the bookcovers of strip compilations and to character portraits.

• Images within articles should be of sufficient resolution and large enough to read without having to click-&-move to the image page itself.

• Each comic strip image should be dated with the original publication date.

Not every image will have all of these characteristics. I would prefer calling this a "statement" rather than a policy. How's that for a start?? BayBoy 05:16, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Responses

You've got to keep within the bounds of Wikipedia policy of using copyrighted images under fair use provision, see WP:FU for starters. Have a look at Wikipedia:WikiProject Comics/copyright, we knocked some stuff up there that may be of help. Steve block talk 18:03, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

Thanks for your response. I am definitely familiar with the policies regarding image copyright and fair use. The statements above assume that the image is legal to use and within Wikipedia image policy. They are meant to provide guidance beyond official can-you-or-can't-you-use-this-image. I'll make that explicit in the next iteration.

It seems that the WikiProjects provide a lot of guidance on what an article should look like but really say next to nothing about the use of images (beyond the can-you-or-can't-you-use-this). As mentioned, since comic strips are a visual medium, I thought I'd start the ball rolling here.

Thanks again for responding. BayBoy 18:44, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

List of comic strips

This is just to advise anyone interested that the strips mentioned in the List of comic strips which do not yet already have pages are all eligible for them. If you have enough information to create a page on any of those which don't already have pages, by all means do so. Badbilltucker 17:51, 1 September 2006 (UTC)

• Thanks for the word, Big Bad Bill. A lot of them look pretty obscure, but I think I can do one or two. I'll look into it. BayBoy 03:38, 5 September 2006 (UTC)