comet Any of a class of small icy objects orbiting the Sun and devel¬ oping diffuse gaseous envelopes and often long glowing tails when near the Sun. They are distinguished from other objects in the solar system by their composition, hazy appearance, and elongated orbits. Most comets originate in the Oort cloud or in the Kuiper belt. Other bodies’ gravity can alter their orbits, causing them to pass close to the Sun. Short-period comets return in 200 years or less, others in thousands of years or not at all. A comet typically consists of a small, irregular nucleus, often described as a “dirty snowball,” with dust and other materials frozen in water mixed with volatile compounds. When one nears the Sun, the heat vaporizes its surface, releasing gases and dust particles, which form a cloud (coma) around the nucleus. Material in the coma may be pushed away from the Sun by its radiation and the solar wind, forming one or more tails. Meteor showers occur when Earth passes through dust left by the passage of a comet.
comfrey Vkom-freV Any herb of the Eurasian genus Symphytum (bor¬ age family). Best known is the medicinal common comfrey (S. officinale), used to treat wounds and as a source of a gum used to treat wool. Tradi¬ tionally it was also taken internally for various complaints. Organic farm¬ ers use it to deter slugs and as a green manure. The coiled sprays of bell¬ like, hanging comfrey blooms are usually pollinated by bees. Common comfrey is about 3 ft (90 cm) tall, with winged, hairy stems and blue, purplish, or yellow flowers.
comic book Bound collection of comic strips, usually in chronological sequence, typically telling a single story or a series of different stories.
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438 i comic strip ► commode
The first true comic books were marketed in 1933 as giveaway advertis¬ ing premiums. By 1935 reprints of newspaper strips and books with origi¬ nal stories were selling in large quantities. During World War II comics dealing with war and crime found many readers among soldiers stationed abroad, and in the 1950s comic books were blamed for juvenile delin¬ quency. Though the industry responded with self-censorship, some adven¬ ture strips continued to be criticized. In the 1960s comic books satirizing the cultural underworld became popular, especially among college stu¬ dents, and comic books have been used to deal with serious subjects (e.g., Art Spiegelman’s Maus books, about the Holocaust). Japanese comic books (manga), with their great variation in content and affect, have achieved wide popularity. Today comic “’zines” represent a thriving sub¬ culture.
comic strip Series of drawings that read as a narrative, arranged together on the page of a newspaper, magazine, or book. In the 1890s several U.S. newspapers featured weekly drawings that were funny, but without indicated speech. In 1897 Rudolph Dirks’s Katzenjammer Kids, in the New York Journal, featured humorous strips containing words pre¬ sumably spoken by the characters. Soon speeches in balloons appeared in other cartoons, arranged in a series to form a strip. The comic strip arrived at its maturity in 1907 with Bud Fisher’s Mutt and Jeff, which appeared daily in the San Francisco Chronicle. Important later comic- strip artists include George Herriman, Al Capp, Walt Kelly, and Charles Schulz. See also comic book.
Cominform in full Communist Information Bureau Agency of international communism founded under Soviet auspices in 1947. Its original members were the Communist Parties of the Soviet Union, Bul¬ garia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, France, and Italy, but Yugoslavia was expelled in 1948. The Cominform’s activi¬ ties consisted mainly of publishing propaganda to encourage international communist solidarity. It was dissolved by Soviet initiative in 1956 as part of a Soviet program of reconciliation with Yugoslavia.
Comintern or Communist International or Third Interna¬ tional Association of national communist parties founded in 1919. Vladimir Ilich Lenin called the first congress of the Comintern to undermine efforts to revive the Second International. To join, parties were required to model their structure in conformity with the Soviet pattern and to expel moderate socialists and pacifists. Though the Comintern’s stated purpose was the promotion of world revolution, it functioned chiefly as an organ of Soviet control over the international communist movement. In 1943, during World War II, Joseph Stalin dissolved the Comintern to allay fears of communist subversion among his allies.
Comitia Centuriata Nko-'mish-o-.sen-.tur-e-'a-toV Ancient Roman military assembly, instituted c. 450 bc. It decided on war and peace, passed laws, elected consuls, praetors, and censors, and considered appeals of capital convictions. Unlike the older patrician Comitia Curiata, it included plebeians as well as patricians, assigned to classes and centuriae (centuries, or groups of 100) by wealth and the equipment they could provide for military duty. Voting started with the wealthier centuries, whose votes outweighed those of the poorer.
command economy Economic system in which the means of produc¬ tion are publicly owned and economic activity is controlled by a central authority. Central planners determine the assortment of goods to be pro¬ duced, allocate raw materials, fix quotas for each enterprise, and set prices. Most communist countries have had command economies; capitalist countries may also adopt such a system during national emergencies (e.g., wartime) in order to mobilize resources quickly. See also capitalism; com¬ munism.
commando In British military forces, a unit consisting of marines and soldiers organized for rapid deployment and trained to conduct special operations. The commando originated with the Boers in South Africa, where it was the administrative and tactical unit “commandeered” by law. In World War II the British adopted the term for a new specially trained amphibious raiding force. Modern commandos are units of the Royal Marines with support troops from the British Army; by extension a mem¬ ber of such a unit is also called a commando and is entitled to wear a green beret.
commedia dell'arte \k6m-'mad-ya-del-Tar-ta\ Italian theatrical form that flourished throughout Europe in the 16th—18th centuries. The char¬ acters, many portrayed by actors wearing masks—including the witty
gentleman’s valet Harlequin, the Venetian merchant Pantelone, the hon¬ est and simpleminded servant Pierrot, the maidservant Columbina, the unscrupulous servant Scaramouche, and the braggart captain or Capitano—were derived from the exaggeration or parody of regional or stock fictional types. The style emphasized improvisation within a frame¬ work of conventionalized masks and stock situations. It was acted by pro¬ fessional companies using vernacular dialects and plenty of comic action; the first known commedia dell’arte troupe was formed in 1545. Outside Italy it had its greatest success in France as the Comedie-Italienne; in England, it was adapted in the harlequinade and the Punch-and-Judy show (see Punch). See also Andreini family.
commerce clause In the Constitution of the United States (Article I, section 8), the clause that authorizes Congress “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with Indian Tribes.” It is the legal foundation of much of the U.S. government’s regu¬ latory authority. See also interstate commerce.
commercial bank Bank that makes loans to businesses, consumers, and nonbusiness institutions. Early commercial banks were limited to accepting deposits of money or valuables for safekeeping and verifying coinage or exchanging one jurisdiction’s coins for another’s. By the 17th century most of the essentials of modern banking, including foreign exchange, the payment of interest, and the granting of loans, were in place. It became common for individuals and firms to exchange funds through bankers with a written draft, the precursor to the modern check. Because a commercial bank is required to hold only a fraction of its deposits as cash reserves, it can use some of the money deposited by its customers to extend loans. Commercial banks also offer a range of other services, including savings accounts, safe-deposit boxes, and trust services. See also bank; central bank; investment bank; savings bank.