Comics studies (also comic art studies, sequential art studies or graphic narrative studies) is an academic field that focuses on

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

and

sequential art In comics studies, sequential art is a term proposed by comics artist Will EisnerWill Eisner, '' Comics and Sequential Art'', Poorhouse Press, 1990 (1st ed.: 1985), p. 5. to describe art forms that use images deployed in a specific order for the pur ...

. Although comics and

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

s have been generally dismissed as less relevant

pop culture Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop!, a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Albums * ''Pop'' ...

texts, scholars in fields such as

semiotics Semiotics (also called semiotic studies) is the systematic study of sign processes ( semiosis) and meaning making. Semiosis is any activity, conduct, or process that involves signs, where a sign is defined as anything that communicates something ...

aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed t ...

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

composition studies Composition studies (also referred to as composition and rhetoric, rhetoric and composition, writing studies, or simply composition) is the professional field of writing, research, and instruction, focusing especially on writing at the college leve ...

and

cultural studies Cultural studies is an interdisciplinary field that examines the political dynamics of contemporary culture (including popular culture) and its historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices re ...

are now re-considering comics and graphic novels as complex texts deserving of serious scholarly study. Not to be confused with the technical aspects of comics creation, comics studies exists only with the creation of comics theory—which approaches comics critically as an art—and the writing of comics historiography (the study of the

history of comics The history of comics has followed different paths in different parts of the world. It can be traced back to early precursors such as Trajan's Column, in Rome, Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Bayeux Tapestry. Early narratives in art Examples o ...

).Benoît Crucifix
"Redrawing Comics into the Graphic Novel: Comics Historiography, Canonization, and Authors' Histories of the Medium"
"Whither comics studies?" panel, International conference of the French Association for American Studies, Toulouse (France), May 24–27, 2016. Comics theory has significant overlap with the philosophy of comics, i.e., the study of the

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophy, philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, Becoming (philosophy), becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into Category ...

epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Epi ...

and

of comics, the relationship between comics and other art forms, and the relationship between text and image in comics. Comics studies is also interrelated with comics criticism, the analysis and evaluation of comics and the comics medium.

Theorizing comics

Although there has been the occasional investigation of comics as a valid art form, specifically in

Gilbert Seldes Gilbert Vivian Seldes (; January 3, 1893 – September 29, 1970) was an American writer and cultural critic. Seldes served as the editor and drama critic of the seminal modernist magazine '' The Dial'' and hosted the NBC television program '' Th ...

' ''The 7 Lively Arts'' (1924), Martin Sheridan's ''Comics and Their Creators'' (1942), and David Kunzle's ''The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c. 1450 to 1825'' (1973), contemporary

Anglophone Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...

comics studies in North America can be said to have burst onto the academic scene with both

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner (March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series ''The Spirit'' (1940–1952) was not ...

's ''

Comics and Sequential Art ''Comics and Sequential Art'' is a book by American cartoonist Will Eisner that analyzes the comics medium, published in 1985 and revised in 1990. It is based on a series of essays that appeared in ''The Spirit'' magazine, themselves based on Eisn ...

'' in 1985 and

Scott McCloud Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. He is best known for his non-fiction books about comics: ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), '' Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and '' Making Comics'' (20 ...

's ''

Understanding Comics ''Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art'' is a 1993 non-fiction work of comics by American cartoonist Scott McCloud. It explores formal aspects of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in ...

'' in 1993. Continental comics studies can trace its roots back to the pioneering work of semioticians such as

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 26 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western pop ...

(particularly his 1964 essay "Rhetoric of the Image", published in English in the anthology ''Image—Music—Text'') and

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of th ...

(particularly his 1964 book ''Apocalittici e integrati''). These works were the first attempts at a general system of comics semiotics. More recently, analysis of comics have begun to be undertaken by cognitive scientists, the most prominent being Neil Cohn, who has used tools from linguistics to detail the theoretical structure of comics' underlying "visual language", and has also used psychological experimentation from cognitive neuroscience to test these theories in actual comprehension. This work has suggested similarities between the way that the brain processes language and the way it processes sequential images. Cohn's theories are not universally accepted, with other scholars like Thierry Groensteen, Hannah Miodrag, and Barbara Postema offering alternative understandings.

Defining comics

Similar to the problems of defining literature and film, no consensus has been reached on a definition of the comics medium, and attempted definitions and descriptions have fallen prey to numerous exceptions. Theorists such as

Rodolphe Töpffer Rodolphe Töpffer ( , ; 31 January 1799 – 8 June 1846) was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist. He is best known for his illustrated books (''littérature en estampes'', "graphic literature"), which are possibly ...

, R. C. Harvey,

David Carrier David Carrier (; born 1944) is an American philosopher of art and cultural critic. Education Carrier received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University, where he was a student of Arthur Danto, in 1972. He was a Getty Scholar (1999–2000), ...

, Alain Rey, and Lawrence Grove emphasize the combination of text and images, though there are prominent examples of pantomime comics throughout its history. Other critics, such as Thierry Groensteen and Scott McCloud, have emphasized the primacy of sequences of images. Towards the close of the 20th century, different cultures' discoveries of each other's comics traditions, the rediscovery of forgotten early comics forms, and the rise of new forms made defining comics a more complicated task.

Composition studies

In the field of

, an interest in comics and graphic novels is growing, partially due to the work of comics theorists but also due to composition studies' growing focus on multimodality and visual rhetoric. Composition studies theorists are looking at comics as sophisticated texts, and sites of complex

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in Writing, written form in some specific context of use. In other wo ...

Gunther Kress Gunther Rolf Kress MBE (26 November 1940 – 20 June 2019) was a linguist and semiotician. He is considered one of the leading theorists in critical discourse analysis, social semiotics and multimodality, particularly in relation to their educat ...

defines multimodality as "the use of several semiotic modes in the design of a semiotic product or event, together with the particular way in which these mode are combined" or, more simply as "any text whose meanings are realized through more than one semiotic code". Kristie S. Fleckenstein sees the relationship between image and text as "mutually constitutive, mutually infused"—a relationship she names "imageword". Fleckenstein sees "imageword" as offering "a double vision of writing-reading based on hefusion of image and word, a double vision of literacy". Dale Jacobs sees the reading of comics as a form of "multimodal literacy or multiliteracy, rather than as a debased form of print literacy". According to Jacobs, comics can help educators to move "toward attending to multimodal literacies" that "shift our focus from print only to multiple modalities". He encourages educators to embrace a pedagogy that will give students skills to effectively negotiate these multiple modalities.

Comics historiography

Comics historiography (the study of the

) studies the historical process through which comics became an autonomous

art medium Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wh ...

and an integral part of culture. An area of study is

premodern The term premodern refers to the period in human history immediately preceding the modern era, as well as the conceptual framework in the humanities and social sciences relating to the artistic, literary and philosophical practices which precede ...

sequential art; some scholars such as Scott McCloud consider Egyptian paintings and

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

picture manuscripts to be the very first form of comics and sequential art. Another area of study is the 20th-century emergence of the

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

of comics readers and comicphilia, the passionate interest in comic books. (A person with a passionate interest in comics is informally called a comicphile or comics buff.) The first attempts at comics historiography began in the United States in the 1940s with the work of

Thomas Craven Thomas Craven (January 6, 1888 – February 27, 1969) was an American author, critic and lecturer, who promoted the work of American Regionalist painters, Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry and Grant Wood, among others. He was known for hi ...

, Martin Sheridan, and

Coulton Waugh Frederick Coulton Waugh (; 10 March 1896 – 23 May 1973) was a cartoonist, painter, teacher and author, best known for his illustration work on the comic strip ''Dickie Dare'' and his book ''The Comics'' (1947), the first major study of the fi ...

. It was not until the mid-1960s, with the publication of

Jules Feiffer Jules Ralph Feiffer (born January 26, 1929)''Comics Buyer's Guide'' #1650; February 2009; Page 107 is an American cartoonist and author, who was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 as North- ...

's ''The Great Comic Book Heroes'', that the field began to take root. Historiography became an accepted practice in the 1970s with the work of Maurice Horn,

Jim Steranko James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, magician, publisher and film production illustrator. His most famous comic book work was with the 1960s superspy feature " ...

Ron Goulart Ronald Joseph Goulart (; January 13, 1933 – January 14, 2022) was an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy, and science fiction author. He published novelizations and other work under various pseudonyms: Kenneth Robeson, Co ...

Bill Blackbeard William Elsworth Blackbeard (April 28, 1926 – March 10, 2011), better known as Bill Blackbeard, was a writer-editor and the founder-director of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, a comprehensive collection of comic strips and cartoon art fr ...

, and Martin Williams. The late 1990s saw a wave of books celebrating American comics' centennial. Other notable writers on these topics include Will Jacobs,

Gerard Jones Gerard Jones (born July 10, 1957) is an American writer, known primarily for his non-fiction work about American entertainment media, and his comic book scripting, which includes co-creating the superhero Prime for Malibu Comics, and writing f ...

, Rick Marschall, and R. C. Harvey.

Educational institutions

Comics studies is becoming increasingly more common at academic institutions across the world. Some notable examples include:

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

, University of Toronto at Mississauga, and University of California Santa Cruz, among others. In Britain, growing interest in comics has led to the establishment of a center for comics studies, the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies (SCCS) at the

University of Dundee , mottoeng = "My soul doth magnify the Lord" , established = 1967 – gained independent university status by Royal Charter1897 – Constituent college of the University of St Andrews1881 – University College , ...

in Scotland. Beside formal programs and degrees, it is common to see individual courses dedicated to comics and graphic novels in many educational institutions. Sol M. Davidson's

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144 ...

, ''Culture and the Comic Strips'', earned him the first PhD in comics in 1959, while in France,

Jean-Christophe Menu Jean-Christophe Menu (; born August 23, 1964) is a French underground comix, underground cartoonist, graphic designer, comics scholar and publisher, son of the Egyptologist Bernadette Menu. He is best known for being one of the founders of L'Asso ...

was awarded a Doctorate in Art and Art Sciences in 2011 from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne after defending his thesis ''The Comics and its Double: Language and Frontiers of Comics: Practical, Theoretical and Editorial Prospects''. In 2012, the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc Nike, Inc. ( or ) is a ...

offered the first Comics and Cartoon Studies minor in the United States. This Comic Studies program is currently directed by Benjamin Saunders. Teesside University began offering a BA in Comics and Graphic Novels in 2014, as well as an MA in Comics from 2018. They have since appointed a team of renowned comics practitioners including Fionnuala Doran, Julian Lawrence,

Con Chrisoulis Con Chrisoulis is a Greek multidisciplinary artist and academic, most famous for his graphic novels, '' Tales of The Smiths'', ''Dryland'', ''Giant-Size Fascists'', and ''Rebel Rebel''. Career Chrisoulis was born in Victoria, Australia, to Gree ...

, Nigel Kitching and Tara McInerney. The

University of Lancaster , mottoeng = Truth lies open to all , established = , endowment = £13.9 million , budget = £317.9 million , type = Public , city = Bailrigg, City of Lancaster , country = England , coor = , campus = Bailrigg , faculty = ...

started offering a PhD degree in comics studies in 2015. The same year French comics studies scholar Benoît Peeters (a student of Roland Barthes) was appointed as the UK's first ever comics professor at Lancaster University.

Learned societies

In addition to its presence in academic institutions, comics have also been studied in interdisciplinary

learned society A learned society (; also learned academy, scholarly society, or academic association) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and science. Membership ...

. The first US association dedicated to supporting the study of graphic narrative and sequential art was the Comics Studies Society (CSS), launched in 2014 at ICAF. Its main focuses are "promoting the critical study of comics, improving comics teaching, and engaging in open and ongoing conversations about the comics world". CSS also publishes the journal INKS (since 2017), organizes the Annual Conference of the Comics Studies Society (since 2018) and awards comics studies, books and articles with five annual prizes: the CSS Article Prize, the Hillary Chute Award for Best Graduate Student Paper, the Gilbert Seldes Prize for Public Scholarship, the Charles Hatfield Book Prize, and the CSS Prize for Edited Book Collections. Other anglophone societies that can be mentioned are British Consortium of Comics Scholars (BCCS, created in 2012 by Paul Davies), Scottish Centre for Comics Studies (SCCS) and Canadian Society for the Study of Comics (CSSC, created in October 2010 by Sylvain Rheault). The CSSC, also known as Société Canadienne pour l'Étude de la Bande Dessinée (SCEBC), is a bilingual community of academics focused in Canadian scholars but open for international associates. Among other activities, CSSC/SCEBD organizes an academic conference during Toronto Comic Arts Festival.

Scholarly publications

Some notable academic journals specifically dedicated to comics studies are listed below in alphabetical order: *''CuCo, Cuadernos de cómic'' (published by the Editorial de Universidad de Alcalá) *''European Comic Art'' *''ImageTexT'' (a

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...

ed, open-access journal that began in the spring of 2004 and is based at the

) *''Image and Narrative'' (stylized as ''Image Narrative'', a peer-reviewed

e-journal An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...

on visual narratology) *''Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society'' (published by the

Ohio State University Press The Ohio State University Press is the university press of Ohio State University. It was founded in 1957. The OSU Press has published approximately 1700 books since its inception. The current director is Tony Sanfilippo, who had previously wor ...

) *''

International Journal of Comic Art The ''International Journal of Comic Art'' is a journal about comics art, published twice a year. It was established in 1999 by John Lent (Temple University), who is also the editor-in-chief. The journal is independently published and does not m ...

'' *''Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics'' *''Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre la Historieta'' *''Studies in Comics'' *''SANE: Sequential Art Narrative in Education'' (based at the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a public land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the Morrill Act of 1862, the school was known as the Univers ...

) *''The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship'' (first published in January 2011; an open-access, researcher-led, peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Open Library of Humanities)

Conferences

Although presentations dedicated to comics are commonplace at conferences in many fields, entire conferences dedicated to this subject are becoming more common. There have been conferences at SAIC ( International Comic Arts Forum, 2009), MMU (The International Bande Dessinée Society Conference), UTS (Sequential Art Studies Conference), Georgetown,

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

(Festival of Cartoon Art),"Regularly Held Conferences"
and

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

(Comics in Popular Culture conference), and there is a yearly conference at

(Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels). Additionally, there is an annual

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...

Comics Forum, which brings together academics and professionals working in the industry. Notable regularly held movable conferences include the Comic Art and Comics Area of the Popular Culture Association of America and the conference of the International Society for Humor Studies. The International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF), begun in 1995 at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

, has been described as one of the earliest academic initiatives for the study of comics. The German Gesellschaft für Comicforschung (ComFor, Society for Comics Studies) has organized yearly academic conferences since 2006. The Comics Arts Conference has met regularly since 1992 in conjunction with

San Diego Comic-Con International San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is co ...

and

WonderCon WonderCon is an annual comic book, science fiction, and film convention held in the San Francisco Bay Area (1987–2011), then—under the name WonderCon Anaheim—in Anaheim, California (2012–2015, 2017–present), and WonderCon Los Angel ...

. Another important conference is the annual International Graphic Novels and Comics Conference held since 2010 organized by British academics. This conference has been held in conjunction with the longer running International Bande Dessinée Society conference. ''Comics Forum'', a UK-based community of international comics scholars, also holds an annual conference at

Leeds Central Library Leeds Central Library is a public library in Leeds. Situated in the city centre, on Calverley Street, it houses the city library service's single largest general lending and reference collection and hosts the Leeds Art Gallery. Services avai ...

; the first was held in 2009.

References

Works cited

* * * * *

* Ayaka, Carolene and Ian Hague (eds.), ''Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels'', Routledge, 2014. * Bongco, Mila, ''Reading Comics: Language, Culture, and the Concept of the Superhero in Comic Books'', Routledge, 2014. * Bonura, Massimo, Provenzano, Federico, ''Teorie e Storia del Fumetto. Il fumetto e le sue teorie comunicative'', Palermo, Zap edizioni, 2017. * Bramlett, Frank (ed.), ''Linguistics and the Study of Comics'', Springer, 2012. * Bramlett, Frank, Roy Cook and Aaron Meskin (eds.), ''The Routledge Companion to Comics'', Routledge, 2016. * Burke, Liam, ''The Comic Book Film Adaptation: Exploring Modern Hollywood's Leading Genre'', University Press of Mississippi, 2015. * Caswell, Lucy Shelton and Jared Gardner, ''Drawing the Line: Comics Studies and INKS, 1994–1997'', Ohio State University Press, 2017. * Claudio, Esther and Julio Cañero (eds.), ''On the Edge of the Panel: Essays on Comics Criticism'', Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015. * Cohn, Neil (ed.), ''The Visual Narrative Reader'', Bloomsbury, 2016. * Cowling, Sam and Wesley Cray, ''Philosophy of Comics: An Introduction'', Bloomsbury, 2022. * * Denson, Shane, Christina Meyer, Daniel Stein, ''Transnational Perspectives on Graphic Narratives: Comics at the Crossroads'', Bloomsbury, 2013. * DiPaolo, Marc, ''War, Politics and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film'', McFarland, 2011. * Dong, Lan (ed.), ''Teaching Comics and Graphic Narratives: Essays on Theory, Strategy and Practice'', McFarland, 2012. * Duncan, Randy and Matthew J. Smith, ''The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture'', Continuum, 2009. * Earle, Harriet, ''Comics, Trauma, and the New Art of War'', University Press of Mississippi, 2017. * Fawaz, Ramzi, Deborah Whaley, and Shelley Streeby (eds.), ''Keywords for Comics Studies'', NYU Press, 2021. * Fuchs, Wolfgang J. and Reinhold Reitberger, ''Comics: Anatomy of a Mass Medium'', Little Brown & Co, 1972. * Gravett, Paul, ''Comics Art'', Yale University Press, 2013. * Groensteen, Thierry, ''Comics and Narration'', University Press of Mississippi, 2013. * Groensteen, Thierry, ''The System of Comics'', University Press of Mississippi, 2009. * Hague, Ian, ''Comics and the Senses: A Multisensory Approach to Comics and Graphic Novels'', Routledge, 2014. * Hatfield, Charles, ''Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature'', University Press of Mississippi, 2005. * Hatfield, Charles and Bart Beaty (eds.), ''Comics Studies: A Guidebook'', Rutgers University Press, 2020. * Heer, Jeet and

(eds.), ''A Comics Studies Reader'', University Press of Mississippi, 2009. * Klock, Geoff, ''How to Read Superhero Comics and Why'', Continuum, 2002. * Kukkonen, Karin, ''Studying Comics and Graphic Novels'', Wiley-Blackwell, 2013. * Kukkonen, Karin, ''Contemporary Comics Storytelling'', University of Nebraska Press, 2013. * Lund, Martin, ''Re-Constructing the Man of Steel: Superman 1938–1941, Jewish American History, and the Invention of the Jewish–Comics Connection'', Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. * Magnussen, Anne and Hans-Christian Christiansen (eds.), ''Comics & Culture: Analytical and Theoretical Approaches to Comics'', Museum Tusculanum Press, 2000. * McLaughlin, Jeff (ed.), ''Comics as Philosophy'', University Press of Mississippi, 2005. * McLaughlin, Jeff (ed.), ''Graphic Novels as Philosophy'', University Press of Mississippi, 2017. * Meesters, Gert, "Creativity in Comics. Exploring the Frontiers of the Medium by Respecting Explicit Self-imposed Constraints," in Tony Veale, Kurt Feyaerts, Charles Forceville (ed.), ''Creativity and the Agile Mind: A Multi-Disciplinary Study of a Multi-Faceted Phenomenon'', Walter de Gruyter, 2013, pp. 275–292. * Miller, Ann and Bart Beaty (eds.), ''The French Comics Theory Reader'', Leuven University Press, 2014. * Miodrag, Hannah, ''Comics and Language: Reimagining Critical Discourse on the Form'', University Press of Mississippi, 2013. * Pizzino, Christopher, ''Arresting Development: Comics at the Boundaries of Literature'', U of Texas Press, 2016. * Postema, Barbara, ''Narrative Structure in Comics: Making Sense of Fragments'', Boydell & Brewer, 2013. * Reynolds, Richard, ''Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology'', University Press of Mississippi, 1994. * Saraceni, Mario, ''The Language of Comics'', Routledge, 2003. * Schmitz-Emans, Monika (ed.), ''Comic und Literatur: Konstellationen'', Walter de Gruyter, 2012. * Smith, Matthew and Randy Duncan (eds.), ''Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods'', Routledge, 2012. * Smith, Matthew and Randy Duncan (eds.), ''The Secret Origins of Comics Studies'', Routledge, 2017. * Stein, Daniel and Jan-Noël Thon (eds.), ''From Comic Strips to Graphic Novels: Contributions to the Theory and History of Graphic Narrative'', Walter de Gruyter, 2015. * Weiner, Robert G. (ed.), ''Graphic Novels and Comics in Libraries and Archives: Essays on Readers, Research, History and Cataloging'', McFarland, 2010. * Wolk, Douglas, ''Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean'', Da Capo Press, 2008.

Historiography

* Barrier, J. Michael and Martin Williams. ''A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics'' (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1982) * Blackbeard, Bill and Martin Williams, editors. ''The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics'' (Smithsonian Institution Press, 1977) * Blackbeard, Bill and Dale Crain. ''The Comic Strip Century: Celebrating 100 Years of an American Art Form'' (Kitchen Sink Press, 1995) * Booker, M. Keith (ed.), ''Comics through Time: A History of Icons, Idols, and Ideas'', Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2014. * Booker, M. Keith (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of Comic Books and Graphic Novels'', Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, 2010. * Couperie, Pierre C. and Maurice Horn, editors. ''A History of the Comic Strip'' (Crown Publishers, 1968) * Craven, Thomas, editor. ''Cartoon Cavalcade: A Collection of the Best American Humorous Cartoons from the Turn of the Century to the Present'' (Simon & Schuster, 1943) * Feiffer, Jules. ''The Great Comic Book Heroes: The Origins and Early Adventures of the Classic Super-Heroes of the Comic Books'' (Dial Press, 1965) * Gabilliet, Jean-Paul, ''Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books'', University Press of Mississippi, 2010. * Goulart, Ron. ''The Adventurous Decade: Comic Strips In the Thirties'' (Crown Publishers, 1975) * Goulart, Ron. ''The Great Comic Book Artists'' (St. Martin's Press, 1986) * Goulart, Ron. ''Ron Goulart's Great History of Comic Books: the Definitive Illustrated History from the 1890s to the 1980s'' (Contemporary Books, 1986) * Goulart, Ron. ''The Encyclopedia of American Comics: From 1897 to the Present'' (Facts on File, 1991) * Goulart, Ron. ''The Comic Book Reader's Companion: an A-Z Guide to Everyone's Favorite Art Form'' (Harper Perennial, 1993) * Goulart, Ron. ''The Funnies: 100 Years of American Comic Strips'' (Adams Media Corp, 1995) * Goulart, Ron. ''Comic Book Encyclopedia: The Ultimate Guide to Characters, Graphic Novels, Writers, and Artists in the Comic Book Universe'' (HarperCollins, 2004) * Hajdu, David, ''The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America'', Picador, 2009 (originally Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008). * Harvey, R. C. ''The Art of the Funnies: An Aesthetic History'' (University Press of Mississippi, 1994) * Harvey, R. C. ''The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History'' (University Press of Mississippi, 1996) * Horn, Maurice, editor. ''The World Encyclopedia of Comics'' (Chelsea House, 1976) * Horn, Maurice. ''The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons'' (Chelsea House, 1979) * Horn, Maurice, editor. ''100 Years of American Newspaper Comics: An Illustrated Encyclopedia'' (Gramercy Books, 1996) * Kunzle, David, ''The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c. 1450 to 1825'', University of California Press, 1973, * Jacobs, Will and

. ''The Comic Book Heroes: The First History of Modern Comic Books: From the Silver Age to the Present'' (Crown Publishers, 1985) * Jones, Gerard, ''Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book'', Basic Books, 2005. * Marschall, Rick. ''America's Great Comic Strip Artists: From the Yellow Kid to Peanuts'' (Abbeville Press, 1989) * Petersen, Robert S., ''Comics, Manga, and Graphic Novels: A History of Graphic Narratives'', ABC-CLIO, 2011. * Pustz, Matthew (ed.), ''Comic Books and American Cultural History: An Anthology'', Continuum, 2012. * Sheridan, Martin. ''Comics and Their Creators: Life Stories of American Cartoonists'', Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1942. * Steranko, Jim. ''The Steranko History of Comics'' vol. 1 (Supergraphics, 1970) * Steranko, Jim. ''The Steranko History of Comics'' vol. 2 (Supergraphics, 1972) * Walker, Brian. ''The Comics: Before 1945'' (Harry N. Abrams, 2004) * Walker, Brian. ''The Comics: Since 1945'' (Harry N. Abrams, 2006) * Waugh, Colton. ''The Comics'' (Macmillan, 1947) * Williams, Paul and James Lyons (eds.), ''The Rise of the American Comics Artist: Creators and Contexts'', University Press of Mississippi, 2010. * Wright, Bradford W., ''Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America'', Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.

External links

The National Association of Comic Art Educators' page

ComicsResearch.org

Comics in the Classroom

(defunct)
Comics Research--annotated bibliographies for comics scholarship

Comic book annotations and bibliographies

Neil Cohn's Visual Language Lab website

Cognitive Comics: A Constructivist Approach to Sequential Art

The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship

The Comics Studies Society (CSS)

their journal (publisher's site)
The Japan Society for Studies in Cartoons and Comics (JSSCC, Nihon manga gakkai)

Association des Critiques et journalistes de Bande Dessinée

CuCo, Cuadernos de Cómic

Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre la Historieta
{{DEFAULTSORT:Comics Studies Literary theory Postmodern theory Popular culture studies