The classification "fantasy comics" broadly encompasses illustrated books set in an other-worldly universe or involving elements or actors outside our reality.

Fantasy has been a mainstay of fiction for centuries, but burgeoned in the late 1930s and early 1940s, spurred by authors such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien.

This trend faded with the publication of Dr. Fredric Wertham's book Seduction of the Innocent, which led to a Senate hearing that claimed a purported relationship between comics and juvenile violence.

In the 1990s, The Sandman, created by Neil Gaiman, Sam Kieth and Mike Dringenberg took comics on a more literary path.

Several fantasy manga have been adapted into anime television series, including Hakkenden: Eight Dogs of the East (2013),[1] Akame ga Kill!