Critical Directions in Comics Studies

This volume successfully demonstrates that comics studies deserves, to paraphrase editor Giddens, consideration as a discipline in its own right. G. P. de Syon, CHOICE

If there have been some rather weary debates about the intellectual maturation of comics studies over the past few years, then this book puts them to bed. Combining comics with the academic essay and close readings with discussions of history, theory, and form, the contributors stake out a new field called ‘critical comics studies’—crucial reading for all scholars interested in growing the discipline. Dominic Davies, author of Urban Comics: Infrastructure and the Global City in Contemporary Graphic Narratives and coeditor of Documenting Trauma in Comics: Traumatic Pasts, Embodied Histories, and Graphic Reportage

Critical Directions in Comics Studies offers a set of excellent essays that make a significant contribution to the development and evolution of comics studies. The essays extend the ways in which comics are treated in terms of themes, theories, and modes of writing. The collection is of a high quality and is innovative in approach, style, and content. On a number of occasions, it really does show what is possible in comics studies and where the field might be going. Neal Curtis, author of Sovereignty and Superheroes