Comics and Culture: Analytical and Theoretical Approaches to Comics

Comics have become important elements in the culture of the 20th century, not only has the genre been recognized as a medium and an art form in its own right; it has also inspired other means of communication from text books to interactive media. In 13 articles, Comics and Culture offers an introduction to the field of comics research written by scholars from Europe and the USA. The articles span a great variety of approaches including general discussions of the aesthetics and definition of comics, comparisons of comics with other media, analyses of specific comics and genres, and discussions of the cultural status of comics in society. One way to characterize this book is to focus on the contributors. Recognized and established research with important publications to their credit form one group: Donald Ault, Thierry Groensteen, M. Thomas Inge, Pascal Lefèvre and Roger Sabin. Another group is from the new generation of researches represented by PhD students: Hans-Christian Christiansen, Old Frahm, James How, Abraham Kawa, Anne Magnussen and Christopher Murray. A third group of contributors approach the subject of comics from other fields of research such as Maya sequential art and interactive media: George Legrady, Jesper Nielsen and Søren Wichmann.