ABSTRACT

Building off the argument that comics succeed as literature—rich, complex narratives filled with compelling characters interrogating the thought-provoking issues of our time—this book argues that comics are an expressive medium whose moves (structural and aesthetic) may be shared by literature, the visual arts, and film, but beyond this are a unique art form possessing qualities these other mediums do not. Drawing from a range of current comics scholarship demonstrating this point, this book explores the unique intelligence/s of comics and how they expand the ways readers engage with the world in ways different than prose, or film, or other visual arts. Written by teachers and scholars of comics for instructors, this book bridges research and pedagogy, providing instructors with models of critical readings around a variety of comics.

chapter 1|10 pages

Introduction

The Growing Relevance of Comics

part Section 1|36 pages

Materiality and the Reading of Comics

chapter 2|17 pages

Designing Meaning

A Multimodal Perspective on Comics Reading

chapter 3|17 pages

Multimodal Forms

Examining Text, Image, and Visual Literacy in Daniel Handler's Why We Broke Up and Markus Zusak's The Book Thief

part Section 2|32 pages

Comics and Bodies

chapter 4|13 pages

Illustrating Youth

A Critical Examination of the Artful Depictions of Adolescent Characters in Comics

part Section 3|32 pages

Comics and the Mind

chapter 6|14 pages

Telling the Untellable

Comics and Language of Mental Illness

part Section 4|48 pages

Comics and Contemporary Society

chapter 8|19 pages

Poverty Lines

Visual Depictions of Poverty and Social Class Realities in Comics

chapter 9|15 pages

Can Superhero Comics Defeat Racism?

Black Superheroes “Torn Between Sci-Fi Fantasy and Cultural Reality”

part Section 5|4 pages

End Points

chapter 11|2 pages

End Points