Official Genres List

• While every narrative sequence can be tagged with at least one of the Genres from Table 1 (adventure, drama, humor, non-fiction), the indexer does not have to pick one of these. The indexer can be more specific by choosing a Genre from Table 2. The distinction is supposed to be, "Here are the broad categories in Table 1. Here are the more specific ones in Table 2."
• See also the Genre page for more detail on use of this field.
• See also Genres in other languages.

GCD Genre Table 1

Genre	Description	Includes	See Also...	Examples
adventure	Works characterized by an emphasis on physical and often violent action, exotic locales and danger	action	animal, aviation, car, crime, detective-mystery, fantasy, horror-suspense, jungle, martial arts, science fiction, sports, spy, superhero, sword and sorcery, war, western-frontier	Bob Morane, Indiana Jones, Tintin, Captain Easy, Terry and the Pirates
drama	Works containing events having vivid, emotional, conflicting, or striking interest or results on a human level	melodrama, soap opera, joho, ryori	erotica, fashion, medical, romance	Box Office Poison, Love & Rockets, Mary Worth, A Tale of Two Cities
humor	Works that are primarily comical or amusing	pantomime, demenziole	anthropomorphic-funny animals, children, domestic, military, satire-parody, teen	Mutt and Jeff
non-fiction	Works purporting to present factual information	fact, real life	biography, history, math & science, nature	Ripley's Believe It or Not

GCD Genre Table 2

Genre	Description	Example Keywords	Examples
advocacy	Works in which the reader is specifically asked to take some action to protect or support a cause, idea, event or person. Often published by an organization outside of normal publishing channels.	propaganda, politics, idealogies, charities	Brought to Light, Is This Tomorrow?, History of Gas, Eat Right to Work and Win, Blood is the Harvest, The Story of Harry S. Truman, Vica (Nazi comic published in France)
animal	Works featuring animals essentially acting like real animals	dog, horse, cat	Lassie, Rex the Wonder Dog, Inubaka
anthropomorphic-funny animals	Works featuring characters acting like humans which are not human	Disney, funny animals	Donald Duck, Corky the Cat, Cerebus, Milk and Cheese
aviation	Works centered on flying planes or other flying machines	jets	Airboy, Steve Canyon
biography	Non-fictional works depicting the actual events and experiences of a real person’s life or real persons’ lives	memoir, autobiography	American Splendor, Political Power, Wonder Women of History
car	Works featuring automobiles, race cars, trucks, etc.	hot rod, NASCAR, trucks	Hot Wheels, Speed Racer, Michel Vaillant
children	Works featuring children (approximately age 12 or younger) as the primary protagonists, often having to act more reasonably and resourcefully than their age, in the absence of adult figures	kid gang.	Little Lulu, Peanuts, Dennis the Menace
crime	Works featuring realistic stories centering on the commission of a crime or crimes and those who commit the crime or crimes	gangsters, prohibition	Stray Bullets, A True Crime Story, Torpedo
detective-mystery	Works featuring realistic stories centering on the solving of a crime or mystery and those who solve the crime or mystery	private investigator, whodunnit?	Charlie Chan, Roy Raymond, P.C. 49
domestic	Works centered on life in and around the home	family, sitcom	Blondie, The Simpsons
erotica	Works with sexually explicit content whose primary purpose is to elicit sexual arousal	hardcore, softcore, gay, hentai	Tijuana Bibles, Little Annie Fannie, Sally Forth, Dragon Pink
fantasy-supernatural	Works in which magic, enchantment, or the occult encroach upon the material, scientific world and/or in which such elements form the backdrop of an alternate realm. A useful test is if the story does NOT terrify, repulse, or unsettle the reader, but is instead lighter and may be meant to amuse.	mythology, fairy tales, witches, ghosts, Magic	Fables, Wolff & Byrd, Cardcaptor Sakura, Dr. Strange, Zatanna, Sabrina
fashion	Works centered on fashion and the fashion industry	models	Katy Keene, Barbie, Cloth Road
historical	Fictional works set in an historical period prior to the time of publishing which attempt to convey the spirit, manners, and social conditions of a past age with realistic detail. At least partially they aim to explore some aspects of that setting to play off of particular historical events, to explore social mores, to play with certain technologies and/or technological limitations, examine historical developments, or to involve actual historical personages, etc.	Trojan War, Victorian England, Medieval	Prince Valiant, Berlin, Lone Wolf and Cub
history	Works relating actual events from history	American history, World War II	Hop Harrigan’s History of Aviation, Picture Stories from American History
horror-suspense	Works intended to terrify, frighten, shock, mystify, or otherwise hold the reader in tension or dread. Stories in this genre are often concluded with an ironic plot twist	monsters, supernatural	The Walking Dead, Jack O’Justice, non-Feature stories from Tales of the Crypt or other "horror" comics, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, Swamp Thing
jungle	Works featuring stories primarily set in the world’s jungles, rainforests, or other equatorial wildernesses	Africa	Tarzan, Nyoka, Saber - King of the Jungle
martial arts	Works featuring stories centered on characters who use the fighting styles developed in East Asia and similar fighting styles	kung fu, karate, judo	Master of Kung Fu, Street Fighter, Jimmy Chang
math & science	Works relating information about the mathematical disciplines or the hard sciences	astronomy, algebra	Science Says You’re Wrong If…, The TRS-80 Computer Whiz-Kids
medical	Works centered on medicine and the medical profession	nurses, doctors	Rex Morgan, MD; Linda Carter, Student Nurse; Black Jack
military	Works featuring armed forces outside of combat, or related, situations	army, coast guard	Sad Sack, Steve Canyon
nature	Works relating information about the environment and the natural world	ecology	Nature’s Notebook, Ma Nature’s Curiosity Shop
religious	Works centered on a particular religious tradition or reflecting a particular religious point of view	mythology, propaganda	Picture Stories from the Bible, The Crusaders, Amar Chitra Katha
romance	Works centered on love and related personal relationships	soap opera, dating, wedding	Johnny Love, Dance ‘Til Tomorrow, non-Feature stories in Sweethearts
satire-parody	Works using irony, sarcasm, ridicule and the like to comment on, denounce, or deride social conventions, human relationships, or other literary works (including other comics)	pastiche, social commentary	Mad’s Spy Vs. Spy, Cerebus, Sid the Sexist, Fighting American, normalman
science fiction	Works featuring advanced scientific, futuristic, or extra-terrestrial elements	cyberpunk, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, mecha	Star Wars, Dr. Who, non-Feature stories from Metal Hurlant
sports	Works featuring athletic activities	baseball, Olympics, tennis	Joe Palooka, Strange Sports Stories, Roy of the Rovers
spy	Works featuring spies, secret agents, and secret service agencies	espionage, thriller, political	Man from U.N.C.L.E., Modesty Blaise, Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D
superhero	Works featuring the adventures of costumed crime fighters, who may also battle alien or supernatural menaces, similarly costumed and/or powered criminals, or other antagonists bent on conquest, often with the aid of specialized and/or superhuman abilities or unique weapons and gadgetry. Also include stories of non-costumed characters who otherwise fit the definition, particularly if they are often referred to in story as super-heroes, and also to stories featuring super-villains	team, pulp	Superman, The Phantom, Marvelman
sword and sorcery	Works featuring stories of epic or heroic fantasy, violent conflicts, often with elements of romance, and usually elements of the supernatural	enchanted swords, post-apocalyptic	Conan, Axa, Elric
teen	Works featuring teenagers (approximately 13-19 years of age) as the primary protagonists, particularly in stories that deal with their coming of age or maturing into the beginnings of adulthood	pop music, high school, school life	Dick Cole, Archie, Kare Kano
war	Works featuring armed forces in combat, or related, activities during wartime	Revolutionary War, World War II, navy, army, frogmen	Willie and Joe, Charley’s War, non-Feature stories from G.I. Combat
western-frontier	Works primarily set in the American frontier during the 19th or early 20th century and often featuring cowboys, Indians, ranchers, etc., and other period stories in a similar style, set in other times and places	Native Americans	Red Ryder, Lucky Luke, Jonah Hex

For a mapping of genres to languages other than English, see https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkhWAzEemAojdHl0MEluaDJQdmlBMXlXWVlZeUJNTkE#gid=0 .

See also Report - Genre Committee

(end of definition)

---

Policy Votes Affecting This Topic

• Ballot 187: Fantasy-Supernatural genre - 2013-08-09

• Ballot 135: Adding genre 'Advocacy' - 2012-07-11

• Ballot 131: Add genre 'Historical' - 2012-06-27

• Ballot 130: Limit the genre field data entry to officially-sanctioned genre list - 2012-06-23

• Ballot 124: Amend the Genre document for "Anthropomorphic-Funny Animals" - 2012-06-02

• Ballot 123: Approve Genre Document - 2012-05-23

• Senior Editor vote: Martial Arts genre - 2008-02-19

---

Back to Genre

---