Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They MeanSuddenly, comics are everywhere: a newly matured art form, filling bookshelves with brilliant, innovative work and shaping the ideas and images of the rest of contemporary culture. In Reading Comics, critic Douglas Wolk shows us why this is and how it came to be. Wolk illuminates the most dazzling creators of modern comics-from Alan Moore to Alison Bechdel to Dave Sim to Chris Ware -- and introduces a critical theory that explains where each fits into the pantheon of art. Reading Comics is accessible to the hardcore fan and the curious newcomer; it is the first book for people who want to know not just what comics are worth reading, but also the ways to think and talk and argue about them. |
Contents
| 3 | |
2 Auteurs the History of Art Comics and How to Look at Ugly Drawings | 29 |
3 Whats Good About Bad Comics and Whats Bad About Good Comics | 60 |
4 Superheroes and Superreaders | 89 |
5 Pictures Words and the Space Between Them | 118 |
PART TWO REVIEWS AND COMMENTARY | 135 |
A Small Disclaimer | 137 |
The Battle Against the Real World | 139 |
ShapeChanging Demons BirthYurts and Robot Secretaries | 220 |
The House of the Magus | 228 |
The Invisible King | 258 |
Aardvark Politick | 289 |
18 The Dark Mirrors of Jim Starlins Warlock | 304 |
The Cheap Strong Stuff | 317 |
Visions from the Enchanted Gas Station | 329 |
Draw Yourself Raw | 336 |
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Common terms and phrases
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