Miniseries - Comic Book

Comic Book

Main article: Limited series See also: List of limited series

A comic book miniseries (also referred to as a limited series), is a commonly used format of comic book distribution, as it allows creators to tell a single specific story focusing on a character or set of characters, whether that story stands alone (Watchmen), or is heavily interlinked with other events in the same fictional universe (Civil War). Most miniseries is anywhere from two to 12 issues (a story contained in a single issue is termed a one-shot; for a time DC Comics used the term "maxi-series" for a 12-issue miniseries, but this term has been abandoned). 52 was arguably the longest comic book miniseries at the time it was released, running for 52 weekly issues (its publisher, DC Comics, has since used the 52-part weekly series structure twice more). A comic series that does not have a planned endpoint—in other words, one which is not a miniseries—is an ongoing series.

Comic book series intended from the beginning to tell a specific, finite story can become longer still, for example Sandman, which lasted 75 issues, or Cerebus the Aardvark, which ran for 300, a goal creator Dave Sim set for himself fairly early in the series' run, but did not plan from the beginning. These are not considered miniseries, partly because of their sheer size and partly because no fixed number of issues was announced at the outset. Similar to a canceled television series, a series intended to be ongoing, but which is discontinued after a dozen or fewer issues (usually due to poor sales), is not considered a miniseries, though they are sometimes described as such by the publisher after the cancellation is announced.