A comic book or comic book, often known as a comic magazine or just a comic, is a book that consists of sequentially juxtaposed panels that depict distinct scenes. Panels are frequently accompanied by brief descriptive text and written narration, generally in the form of word balloons, which are emblematic of the comics art form. Although comic books have roots in 18th century Japan, they were initially popularised in the 1930s in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Famous Funnies, the first contemporary comic book, was published in the United States in 1933 as a reproduction of previous newspaper comedy Comic Stripes, which introduced many of the story-telling methods employed in comics. The name "comic book" comes from the fact that American comic books used to be a collection of funny comic strips; however, this practise has been supplanted by tales of various genres, most of which are not comical in tone.

A graphic novel is a book that contains content from comic books. Despite the fact that the term "novel" usually refers to large fictional works, the phrase "graphic novel" is used to refer to fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized works. It is usually distinguished from the word "comic book," which is commonly used for comics magazines and trade paperbacks, at least in the United States.

In an essay published in the November 1964 edition of the comics fanzine Capa-Alpha, fan historian Richard Kyle invented the phrase "graphic novel." After the commercial success of the first volume of Art Spiegelman's Maus in 1986, and the collected editions of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns in 1986, the term gained popularity in the comics community and became familiar to the public in the late 1980s after the publication of Will Eisner's A Contract with God (1978) and the start of Marvel's Graphic Novel line (1982) and Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen in 1987, In 2001, the Book Industry Study Group designated "graphic novel" as a book shop category.