Big Comic (ビッグコミック, Biggu Komikku?) is a semimonthly seinen manga magazine published since 1968-02-29 by Shogakukan in Japan. It was originally launched as a monthly magazine, but switched to twice monthly on the 10th and 25th beginning in April 1968. It is paired with sister magazine Big Comic Original, going on sale in the weeks Big Comic Original doesn't. Circulation in 2008 was reported at slightly over a half-million copies.
The magazine has published works by a number of well-known manga artists, including Osamu Tezuka, Shotaro Ishinomori, Sanpei Shirato, Takao Saito, Fujiko Fujio (A), Fujiko F. Fujio, and Tetsuya Chiba. Big Comic also serializes Saito's long-running Golgo 13 manga.
The front cover of the magazine featured a caricature of a famous individual by manga illustrator Shūichi Higurashi for more than forty years. Higurashi's drawings were featured on the cover of Big Comic from 1970 until 2011. Higurashi retired in the Fall of 2011 due to failing health.
Famous quotes containing the words big and/or comic:
“... there is ... a big aspect of play in writing novels, and making the story more and more elaborate is just more and more fun.”
—Gish Jen (b. 1956)
“Wit is often concise and sparkling, compressed into an original pun or metaphor. Brevity is said to be its soul. Humor can be more leisurely, diffused through a whole story or picture which undertakes to show some of the comic aspects of life. What it devalues may be human nature in general, by showing that certain faults or weaknesses are universal. As such it is kinder and more philosophic than wit which focuses on a certain individual, class, or social group.”
—Thomas Munro (1897–1974)