u/MissPolaroidEyes

In this analogy a comic book mini-series (whose defined lengths are up to debate but are generally agreed to be anywhere from 3 to 10ish issues) is a Movie. They’re both shorter expressions of narrative, and the way that narrative is constructed has much to do with how much wiggle room is allowed. Even a 3 hour movie may not have the chance to do what a singular season of Television can do in its time, whether good or bad.

And on the other hand the longer run, the 18 issue series, the 24 issue series, the 100 issue series, etc etc, represent a bigger base template for the scope it can set out to achieve in its run.

Another coversation is where exactly does a mini series become a thing more representative of a longer series?

One argument could be that the maxi-series, usually defined as a twelve issue series is the absolute longest extension that a mini series could have, but inversely, a maxi-series is then the absolute smallest duration that a “longer run” could have?

Where is this line drawn?

Which leads me to a second argument, that in this grey area where a comic book series, in its western comics publishing conventions, starts to metastasize into somethig with a bigger resemblance of narrative extension, where an eleven issue series becomes an 15 issue series and suddenly becomes thought of more of a run than a mini series, maybe the biggest deciding factor is; the VIBE of what the story is trying to achieve.

It takes reading into the what exactly type of story it is, is it one that has the attributes of a story with a very precise beginning-middle-end structure? Or something with a more liberal loose type of story telling that wants to stretch its legs more than get to the conclusion of the story.

Then again, a 60 issue run can still have the beginning-middle-end factor embedded in it. What about anthologies? an anthology being 6 issues could be a mini series, mostly rid of narrative structure through its issues. It’s a limited series, a mini, and also just a normal series?

It’s all in the abstract and absolutely a very semantical game, but I guess the question i’m begging is, when in comic series ranking discussions, where do we start to rank movies with television?