One-shot (comics)
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In the comic industry, a one-shot is a piece that is created as a pilot comic or stand-alone story. These single issues are usually emblazoned with a "#1" on the cover despite the fact that it is only a series of one. Many artists publish one-shots to test a possible new story, or to express information that would not fit with the story arc of a multiple-issue monthly series, particularly a long-running regular series.
In the Japanese manga industry, the same concept is expressed by the term yomikiri (読み切り), which implies that the comic is presented in its entirety, without any continuations. One-shot manga tells its entire story in 15-20 pages, usually written for contests, and sometimes later developed into full-length manga series. One Piece began as a one-shot manga competition entry, and Rising Stars of Manga is an annual competition for original English-language one-shot manga, many of which have gone on to become full-length manga series.
Since the rise in popularity of online posting of prose fiction and poetry, which are often written in short chapters resembling comic book issues, the term "one-shot" has also become popular for describing self-contained works of electronic literature that are only a single chapter in length.de:One-Shot fr:One shot ja:読み切り
