The Secret Origins of Comics Studies

by Matthew Smith (Editor), Randy Duncan (Editor)

Overview

In The Secret Origins of Comics Studies, today’s leading comics scholars turn back a page to reveal the founding figures dedicated to understanding comics art. Edited by comics scholars Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan, this collection provides an in-depth study of the individuals and institutions that have created and shaped the field of Comics Studies over the past 75 years. From Coulton Waugh to Wolfgang Fuchs, these influential historians, educators, and theorists produced the foundational work and built the institutions that inspired the recent surge in scholarly work in this dynamic, interdisciplinary field. Sometimes scorned, often underappreciated, these visionaries established a path followed by subsequent generations of scholars in literary studies, communication, art history, the social sciences, and more. Giving not only credit where credit is due, this volume both offers an authoritative account of the history of Comics Studies and also helps move the field forward by being a valuable resource for creating graduate student reading lists and the first stop for anyone writing a comics-related literature review.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138884519
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	02/28/2017
Pages:	328
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Matthew J. Smith, Ph.D. teaches courses in media studies at Wittenberg University in Springfield, OH. Smith regularly teaches a course in "Graphic Storytelling" and offers a week-long field study at Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, each summer. His latest book is based on that program, It Happens at Comic-Con: Ethnographic Studies of a Pop Culture Phenomenon (McFarland 2014), and edited in collaboration with Ben Bolling of UNC-Chapel Hill.

Randy Duncan, Ph.D. is a co-founder the Comic Arts Conference, the nation's first annual academic conference devoted solely to the study of comics. Duncan's research on the unique blending of words and pictures in comics, "The Weaver's Art: An Examination of Comic Book ‘Writing’", was published in the International Journal of Comic Art. Randy Duncan is also one of the few academics to serve on panels with comics professionals at the Comic-Con International, the nation’s largest and most prestigious comics convention. Through his involvement in Comic-Con International, Duncan has met and interviewed many of the major figures in the comic book industry. Duncan is the 2009 recipient of the M. Thomas Inge Award for Excellence in Comics Scholarship given by the Comic Arts Area of the Popular Culture Association.

Matt and Randy have co-produced four editions beginning with The Power of Comics: History, Form and Culture (Continuum 2009; revised in a second edition in 2015 with co-author Paul Levitz), and continuing with Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods (Routledge 2012) and Icons of the American Comic Book (ABC-CLIO 2013). Critical Approaches was nominated for "Best Educational/Academic Work" for the 2012 Will Eisner Comic Book Industry Awards and won the 2013 Peter C. Rollins Book Award in Sequential Art/Comics and Animation Studies from the Southwest Popular Culture Association.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Charles Hatfield

Preface by Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan

Chapter 1- Educating with Comics by Carol L. Tilley

Chapter 2 - Educating about Comics by Robert G. Weiner

Chapter 3 - The Historians of Creators by Brad Ricca

Chapter 4 - The Historians of the Comics Industry by Julie Davis and Robert Westerfelhaus

Chapter 5 - The Historians of the Art Form by Ian Horton

Chapter 6 - The Librarians and Archivists by Jenny Robb

Chapter 7 - Literary Theory/Narrative Theory by Barbara Postema

Chapter 8 - Semiotics and Linguistics by Gert Meesters

Chapter 9 - Myths, Archetype, and Religion by Beth Davies-Stofka and David McConehy

Chapter 10 - Ideological/Sociological by Ian Gordon

Chapter 11 - Formalist Theory: The Cartoonists by Henry Jenkins

Chapter 12 - Formalist Theory: Academics by Ann Miller

Chapter 13 - Psychology/Psychiarty by Travis Langley

Chapter 14 - Gender Studies and Queer Studies by Kane Anderson

Chapter 15 - Manga Studies, A History by Nicholas A. Theisen

Chapter 16 - The Organizations by Jeremy Larance

Chapter 17 - The Galleries by Kim Munson

Chapter 18 - The Conferences by Julia Round and Chris Murray

Chapter 19 - The Journals by Alec R. Hosterman

Chapter 20 - The Presses by Joseph Michael Sommers

Featuring additional sidebars from José Alaniz, Jacqueline Berndt, Christina Blanch, Ian Hague, A. David Lewis, and William Proctor along with 'Pioneer Perspectives' from trailblazing scholars James "Bucky" Carter, Peter M. Coogan, Maurice Horn, M. Thomas Inge, David Kunzle, Pascal Lefèvre, John Lent, and Waldomiro Vergueiro.

Editorial Reviews

"This landmark book makes a compelling and coherent narrative out of the complex and multi-threaded history - and pre-history - of comics studies. Its existence and publication is a powerful testament to just how far comics studies have now progressed." –Richard Reynolds, University of the Arts, London

"The emergence of comics studies as a full-blown academic discipline constitutes one of the most exciting and important developments in the contemporary humanities. This valuable book explores the circumstances that made our present moment possible while paying a generous and necessary tribute to many early pioneers of the field." –Ben Saunders, University of Oregon

From the Publisher