What is the secret identity of Spider-Man?
Answer : Peter Parker
Peter Parker is a teenager bitten by a radioactive spider in Amazing Fantasy no. 15 (1962); Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent and Tony Stark are the alter egos of Batman, Superman and Iron Man.
Questions and answers: Comics & Graphic Novels
Revise Comics & Graphic Novels: here is a selection of questions of every level, with the answer and an explanation. To test yourself without seeing the answers, play the quizzes.
Play the Comics & Graphic Novels quizzesVery easy
What is Batman's real name?
Answer : Bruce Wayne
Bruce Wayne, a billionaire orphan whose parents were murdered in Gotham, becomes Batman; Peter Parker is Spider-Man, Steve Rogers is Captain America and Barry Allen is the Flash.
Which planet is Superman originally from?
Answer : Krypton
Superman, whose Kryptonian name is Kal-El, was sent to Earth as a baby by his father Jor-El just before his home planet, Krypton, was destroyed.
Which quiffed reporter hero is accompanied by his white dog?
Answer : Tintin
Tintin, a young quiffed reporter created by Hergé, travels the world with his faithful dog Snowy; Spirou, Lucky Luke and Gaston are other heroes of Franco-Belgian comics.
Which Gaul carries menhirs and is Asterix's best friend?
Answer : Obélix
Obélix, a menhir delivery man, fell into the magic potion cauldron as a child; Panoramix is the druid, Abraracourcix the chief and Assurancetourix the bard.
Who is the hero of the manga One Piece?
Answer : Monkey D. Luffy
In One Piece, published since 1997, Luffy dreams of becoming King of the Pirates; his rubber body comes from a Devil Fruit he ate.
Who is the main hero of Dragon Ball?
Answer : Son Goku
Son Goku, inspired by the Monkey King of the Chinese legend Journey to the West, is the hero of Dragon Ball, which Akira Toriyama began in 1984.
What is the secret identity of Iron Man?
Answer : Tony Stark
Tony Stark, a billionaire and genius inventor, builds a high-tech suit of armor to become Iron Man; Steve Rogers is Captain America and Bruce Banner is the Hulk.
Easy
Which author created Tintin?
Answer : Hergé
Hergé, the pen name of Belgian Georges Remi, comes from his initials pronounced backwards (R.G.); he launched Tintin in 1929 and kept it going for nearly half a century.
Asterix was created by René Goscinny and which artist?
Answer : Albert Uderzo
Goscinny wrote the Asterix scripts while Albert Uderzo drew them; after Goscinny died in 1977, Uderzo continued the series on his own.
Which cowboy "shoots faster than his shadow"?
Answer : Lucky Luke
Lucky Luke, created by Morris in 1946, travels with his horse Jolly Jumper and his dog Rantanplan; his trademark line says he shoots faster than his shadow.
Which publisher created the Avengers and the X-Men?
Answer : Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics, Stan Lee's company, launched the Avengers and the X-Men in 1963; DC Comics is the publisher of Batman and Superman.
Who is the author of the manga Dragon Ball?
Answer : Akira Toriyama
Akira Toriyama created Dragon Ball in 1984 after Dr. Slump and also designed the characters of Dragon Quest; he passed away in 2024.
Who is the author of the manga One Piece?
Answer : Eiichiro Oda
Eiichiro Oda has serialized One Piece in Weekly Shōnen Jump since 1997; it is one of the best-selling manga series of all time.
Which Belgian cartoonist created the Smurfs?
Answer : Peyo
Peyo, whose real name was Pierre Culliford, launched the Smurfs in 1958 in the series Johan and Peewit, published in the magazine Spirou.
Which superhero is nicknamed the fastest man alive?
Answer : Flash
The Flash draws his speed from the Speed Force and is nicknamed the fastest man alive; Barry Allen is his best-known alter ego.
Medium
Who created Spider-Man in 1962?
Answer : Stan Lee & Steve Ditko
Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created Spider-Man in Amazing Fantasy no. 15 (1962); Siegel and Shuster are Superman's fathers, and Kane and Finger are Batman's.
Who created Superman?
Answer : Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster
Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two teenagers from Cleveland, created Superman; they sold the rights to the publisher in 1938 for only 130 dollars.
In what year did Superman first appear in Action Comics?
Answer : 1938
Superman made his debut in Action Comics no. 1, dated June 1938, which kicked off the Golden Age of superheroes.
In which manga does Light Yagami find a notebook that kills?
Answer : Death Note
In Death Note, by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, the student Light Yagami finds the notebook of a death god named Ryuk.
Which author, nicknamed the "god of manga", created Astro Boy?
Answer : Osamu Tezuka
Osamu Tezuka launched Astro Boy in 1952 and laid the foundations of modern manga, with its big expressive eyes and cinematic pacing.
Which cartoonist created Gaston?
Answer : André Franquin
André Franquin launched Gaston in Spirou in 1957; he also took over the series Spirou and Fantasio and created the Marsupilami.
What is the name of the X-Men's school headmaster, a telepath in a wheelchair?
Answer : Charles Xavier
Charles Xavier, also known as Professor X, founded the school for gifted youngsters where he trains the X-Men; Erik Lehnsherr is Magneto, Scott Summers is Cyclops and Logan is Wolverine.
Which fictional city does Batman protect?
Answer : Gotham City
Gotham City is Batman's city; Metropolis belongs to Superman, Central City to the Flash and Star City to Green Arrow.
Hard
In which magazine did Asterix first appear in 1959?
Answer : Pilote
Pilote was launched on October 29, 1959 by Goscinny, Uderzo and Charlier; Asterix appeared in its very first issue before being collected in albums from 1961.
In what year did Frank Miller publish The Dark Knight Returns?
Answer : 1986
Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns, published in 1986, shows an aging Batman coming out of retirement and gave comics a darker tone.
Who is the author of the manga Akira?
Answer : Katsuhiro Otomo
Katsuhiro Otomo created Akira, a post-apocalyptic manga serialized from 1982 and adapted by Otomo himself into an animated film in 1988.
Who is the author of the graphic novel Maus?
Answer : Art Spiegelman
In Maus, Art Spiegelman tells how his Polish Jewish father survived the Holocaust, depicting Jews as mice and Nazis as cats; it won a special Pulitzer Prize in 1992.
Who is the author of the graphic novel Persepolis?
Answer : Marjane Satrapi
In Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi tells of her childhood and adolescence in Iran during the Islamic Revolution; it was adapted into an animated film in 2007.
Which artist drew the western series Blueberry?
Answer : Jean Giraud
Jean Giraud, known as Gir, drew Blueberry from scripts by Jean-Michel Charlier; under the name Moebius he also left a lasting mark on science fiction.
Who illustrated the manga Death Note?
Answer : Takeshi Obata
Tsugumi Ohba wrote Death Note and Takeshi Obata drew it; Togashi, Arakawa and Horikoshi are other manga artists, behind Hunter x Hunter, Fullmetal Alchemist and My Hero Academia.
Which publisher releases Hellboy, created by Mike Mignola?
Answer : Dark Horse Comics
Hellboy, a demon turned paranormal investigator, was published by Dark Horse Comics in the 1990s; the publisher also puts out Sin City and Conan.
Expert
In what year did the Fantastic Four first appear?
Answer : 1961
Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the Fantastic Four launched Marvel's modern age in 1961, with heroes who were more human and flawed.
In which comic did Batman first appear in 1939?
Answer : Detective Comics
Batman debuted in Detective Comics no. 27 in May 1939, created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger; Action Comics is the series where Superman first appeared.
In what year did Tintin first appear in Le Petit Vingtième?
Answer : 1929
Tintin first appeared on January 10, 1929 in Le Petit Vingtième, the youth supplement of the Belgian newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle, with Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.
Which illustrator did Goscinny create Le Petit Nicolas with?
Answer : Jean-Jacques Sempé
René Goscinny wrote the stories of Le Petit Nicolas, illustrated by Jean-Jacques Sempé from 1955; Uderzo, by contrast, drew Asterix.
Which 1978 Will Eisner work helped popularize the term "graphic novel"?
Answer : A Contract with God
A Contract with God, published by Will Eisner in 1978, is regarded as one of the first graphic novels; Eisner also created The Spirit (1940).
Who is the author of the manga Monster and 20th Century Boys?
Answer : Naoki Urasawa
Naoki Urasawa wrote Monster (1994) and 20th Century Boys (1999), thrillers with complex plots; he also reimagined Astro Boy in Pluto.
Which Japanese magazine serialized Dragon Ball?
Answer : Weekly Shōnen Jump
Dragon Ball was serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1984 to 1995; the magazine also ran One Piece, Naruto and Slam Dunk.
Who created Captain America in 1941?
Answer : Joe Simon & Jack Kirby
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby created Captain America in 1941; the cover of issue no. 1 already showed him punching Hitler, before the United States entered the war.
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