The document discusses the definition and history of comics. Comics are a graphic medium that uses images to convey a sequential narrative. While early comics often used humor themes, the term now applies to all uses of the medium. Most comics combine words and images, using techniques like word balloons, thought bubbles, and panels to tell the story. The history of comics is traced from early narrative art to printed comics in the 18th-19th centuries and the emergence of comics as a mass medium in the 20th century, including manga, underground comics, graphic novels, and webcomics.