It draws from the syntax of comics, images, panels, speech balloons, and so on, in order to produce a literary or artistic experience akin to that of traditional poetry.
In the mid-2000s, a number of artist-poets began publishing independently of one another, referring to what they were doing expressly as comics poetry.
These works include Warren Craghead’s How To Be Everywhere (2007); Matt Madden's Comic Sestina (2004), Michael Farrell's BREAK ME OUCH (2006); as well as a host of comics poetry collections by Bianca Stone, Alexander Rothman, Paul K. Tunis, Gary Sullivan, John Hankiewicz, Anders Nilsen, Derik Badman, Eroyn Franklin, Franklin Einspruch, Sommer Browning, Kimball Anderson, Mohit Trendster, Kevin Czapiewski, Malcy Duff and Julie Delporte, among others.
Alexander Rothman, editor-in-chief of Ink Brick, has written, "I call the work that I make and publish 'comics poetry.'
Where the poet’s toolbox contains every imaginable arrangement or manipulation of words, the cartoonist’s holds analogs for the visual elements of the page.