The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History (Studies in Popular Culture) [Paperback]

Robert C. Harvey (Author)

Book Description

Series: Studies in Popular Culture | Publication Date: February 1, 1996

In this definitive study of one of popular culture's favorite genres Robert C. Harvey, a cartoonist and comics critic, traces the evolution of the comic book as a potent form of narrative art. He takes it from its beginnings in the 1930s through the most contemporary of productions in the mid-1990s.

In defining comic book aesthetics Harvey establishes both a critical perspective and a vocabulary for evaluating the art. Because he is an able practitioner himself, his insights are especially valuable. As he demonstrates how words and pictures function together to tell stories in ways unique to the medium, he explains the processes of narrative breakdown, page layout, and panel composition, and shows how these aspects of the art form can be manipulated for dramatic effects.

Enhanced by many illustrations, this detailed examination of comic book art includes work from both the mainstream and the counterculture, both veteran and newcomer. Whether traditional or iconoclastic, their cartoon art continues to uphold the aesthetic that Harvey finds to be the basis of cartooning.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Harvey (The Art of the Funnies), a working cartoonist and comics historian, has written a serviceable examination of the aesthetics of comics?what he calls the "verbal-visual blending principle," the interdependency of words and pictures that gives comics their unique communicative character. Among other things he outlines the critical elements of the comics medium (narrative breakdown into panels, panel composition, page layout and drawing style) and usefully debunks the all-too-frequent tendency to align comics criticism with film criticism, which overemphasizes analogous traits between them. Ostensibly about comics aesthetics, in large part the book is really a basic narrative history of the comic book industry and popular comics genres, tangentially but helpfully enumerating how the cutthroat economics of a Depression-born business have shaped the artifice of comics to this day, retarding their development (if not their mainstream commercial popularity) into a serious art form. On occasion his prose can be a bit stilted, but the discussions of Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Harvey Kurtzmann and Gil Kane alone (and the very liberal reproduction of their artwork) would recommend the book. His narrative history carries right up to the alternative comics and artists of today, culminating, naturally enough, with the most inventive, insightful investigation of comics aesthetics: Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Daniels (Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, LJ 10/1/91) has produced an institutional history, and as such it is fatally flawed. Far too much space is spent on the recent Batman and Superman films, television series, and marketing schemes, while the revolutionary Neil Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow series merits a mere two pages. The Teen Titans, DC's answer to the popular Marvel X-Men, gets short shrift as well. Despite the terrific reproductions of art and novelty items (including a 1954 book entitled The Adventures of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis), this will prove nostalgic for those who have thrown out their comics, but of little use to collectors or students. In contrast, Harvey's (The Art of the Funnies, LJ 8/94) scholarly study ignores corporate boundaries and attempts to situate the comic book in terms of its evolution from the comic strip to the world of publishing as a whole. Comic books became an entrenched medium during World War II, when they were popular with soldiers who enjoyed the often lurid, sexy detective stories as well as the comparatively cleaner Westerns and superheroes. Harvey details the sea change brought upon comics by the institution of the Comics Code in 1954, which put horror and detective stories out of business and ushered in the primacy of superheroes. He also engages in close, critical readings of the art itself, focusing on the development of the vocabulary of panel, layout, story, and style, and the relationship between writer and artist during various stages of comic book history. In addition, he pays close attention to the masters, including Will Eisner (who merits only two mentions in Daniels's book), Gil Kane, Frank Miller, and Robert Crumb. The reproductions are ample and illustrate the points made in the text, not the other way around. Highly recommended for collections in popular culture and the history of publishing.
Adam Mazmanian, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (February 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0878057587
• ISBN-13: 978-0878057580
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #416,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A SLIGHTLY FLAWED LOOK AT THE AESTETICS OF COMIC BOOK ART, August 24, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History (Studies in Popular Culture) (Paperback)

This is very well written book that is nevertheless slighty flawed due to the fact that Harvey had to split his great big book on comic strips and comic books into two books leaving this one a little uneven. Still the chapters on Jack Kirby, Will Eisner, Gil Kane, Harvey Kurtzman, and R. Crumb border on wonderfull. I do have one or two minor caveats. Why didn't Harvey Kurtzman get a chapter by himself? He's certainly important enough to warrent one. Instead he has to share one with Howie Chaykin, Frank Miller, Jim Steranko, and Alex Nino among others. Still, it's a good book no matter how much I nit-pick.