A Comics Studies Reader [Paperback]

Jeet Heer (Editor), Kent Worcester (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 6, 2008

A Comics Studies Reader offers the best of the new comics scholarship in nearly thirty essays on a wide variety of such comics forms as gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, manga, and graphic novels.

The anthology covers the pioneering work of Rodolphe Töpffer, the Disney comics of Carl Barks, and the graphic novels of Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware, as well as Peanuts, romance comics, and superheroes. It explores the stylistic achievements of manga, the international anti-comics campaign, and power and class in Mexican comic books and English illustrated stories.

A Comics Studies Reader introduces readers to the major debates and points of reference that continue to shape the field. It will interest anyone who wants to delve deeper into the world of comics and is ideal for classroom use.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

While such critically acclaimed graphic novels as Art Spiegelman’s Maus (1986, 1991), Chris Ware’s Jimmy Corrigan (2000), and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home(2006) established the artistic legitimacy of comics, academic comics scholarship has thriven apace. The 28 essays Heer and Worcester collect reflect the various approaches to writing about comics taken by writers in the burgeoning discipline. Those include the historical in pieces on nineteenth-century graphic storyteller Rodolphe Töpffer and other progenitors of the medium; the formal in esoteric pieces on the craft and art of comics, covering such aspects as the “verbal-visual blend” of words and pictures, the ways artists indicate panel sequencing, and sound representation in Japanese manga; and the critical-analytic in considerations of seminal works by Ware, Spiegelman, and others. Most of the essays focus on American comics, but several examine works from Japan, Mexico, and France, where scholars have deemed comics “the ninth art.” The contributions range in readability from totally accessible to highly rarefied and borderline pedantic. Still, altogether they attest to the artistic importance of a long-neglected medium. --Gordon Flagg --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From the Publisher

A Comics Studies Reader offers the best of the new comics scholarship in nearly thirty essays on a wide variety of such comics forms as gag cartoons, editorial cartoons, comic strips, comic books, manga, and graphic novels.

The anthology covers the pioneering work of Rodolphe Töpffer, the Disney comics of Carl Barks, and the graphic novels of Art Spiegelman and Chris Ware, as well as Peanuts, romance comics, and superheroes. It explores the stylistic achievements of manga, the international anti-comics campaign, and power and class in Mexican comic books and English illustrated stories.

A Comics Studies Reader introduces readers to the major debates and points of reference that continue to shape the field. It will interest anyone who wants to delve deeper into the world of comics and is ideal for classroom use.

With contributions from
--Thomas Andrae
--Martin Barker
--Bart Beaty
--John Benson
--David Carrier
--Hillary Chute
--Peter Coogan
--Annalisa Di Liddo
--Ariel Dorfman
--Thierry Groensteen
--Robert C. Harvey
--Charles Hatfield
--M. Thomas Inge
--Gene Kannenberg, Jr.
--David Kasakove
--Adam Kern
--David Kunzle
--Pascal Lefèvre
--John Lent
--W. J. T. Mitchell
--Amy Kiste Nyberg
--Fusami Ogi
--Robert S. Petersen
--Anne Rubenstein
--Roger Sabin
--Gilbert Seldes
--Art Spiegelman
--Fredric Wertham
--Joseph Witek --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi (November 6, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1604731095
• ISBN-13: 978-1604731095
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 1 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #221,464 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Inspiring pop cultural studies August 22, 2009

By Karna Mustaqim

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

At last, comics studies got its own legitimate places in between the study of culture, pop-art, and visual aesthetics.