COM 303: Understanding Comics and Manga

In terms of both words and images, the American comic book had a tremendous impact on popular culture. Comics could be funny and cute, or they could be bizarre, morbid, risque (acute accent), violent, and bursting with the subconscious desires of youth culture. The Classic Era of American Comics is a celebration of the golden era of American comics and the wonderful art and stories it produced. This volume takes a look at the pioneers of the comic book and the industry's founding connections with sleazy pulp magazines; the campaign for censorship in the fifties; the unstable and oftentimes unfair relationship between artists and publishers--how comic artists' work wasn't considered art at the time; and, of course, the exciting comics themselves. The Classic Era of American Comics covers all of the genres--superheroes, westerns, crime, horror, war, science fiction, girl comics, animal characters, and more. It is vibrantly illustrated with more than 400 stunning color images and includes a foreword by Joe Kubert, editor of Sgt. Rock, illustrator of Hawkman, and producer of Fax from Sarajevo.

Once perceived as low brow entertainment for children and adolescents, comic books and graphic novels have achieved widespread recognition in recent years as valuable artistic media. This book explores the origins, development, and future of these vibrant and increasingly respected modes of expression.

Now updated, expanded, and available in paperback--the definitive chronicle of DC's celebrated characters and their talented creators In the nearly 70 years since the creation of the first super- heroes, DC's legendary team of artists, writers, and editors have developed, refined, and extended the reach of their comic book characters. DC Comics: A Celebration of the World's Favorite Comic Book Heroes celebrates the remarkable history of America's leading comic book publisher. Packed with 650 dazzling, full-color illustrations, here is a mesmerizing account of DC's growth, tracing the complex genealogies of its legendary characters and describing the behind-the-scenes dynamics that influenced its stories. It also features dozens of personal interviews with the artists and writers who provided the creative genius for DC's classic characters and their amazing adventures. This updated paperback edition sports a brand-new cover by legendary comic book artist Alex Ross, as well as new chapters on the acclaimed graphic novels Kingdom Come and The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Readers will also find brand-new material on Superman's wedding; the movies Batman Forever and Batman & Robin; the Smallville television show; WildStorm comics; and many other exciting comics including JLA, Green Arrow, and Preacher. Filled with comic book artwork, conceptual sketches, and original character designs; scenes from animated cartoons, movie serials and features, television shows, and Broadway musicals; superhero toys, games, comic collectibles, trading cards, and panels from graphic novels--this incredible chronicle is the perfect reference for fans of popular history, art, comics, and everything in between

The Silver Age (circa 1956-1970) was one of the most popular and influential eras in comic book history among creators and readers alike. The Silver Age of Comic Book Art highlights the careers of eight acknowledged Hall of Fame artists who drew definitive versions of the industry's greatest characters, while often setting trends in the look of comic book art itself.

A comprehensive survey of fifty years of comics explores how such characters as Buster Brown, Krazy Kat, and Li'l Abner reflected societal attitudes and changes in the first half of the twentieth century, providing in-depth biographies of twenty-one influential comic creators and featuring rare orig

Organized by decade, with biographical profiles and desciptions of different genres and themes, The Comics forms a graphic survey of American culture since 1945.

This is a history of comics both from an artistic perspective, and as a form of social criticism, and it treats the work of well known artists as well as some outstanding lesser-known artists.

This is the book that comic-book fans all over the world have been waiting for - a unique and definitive, one-volume encyclopedia of more than 1000 of the classic characters created by comics giant DC Comics. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Joker, Catwoman. . . all the world-renowned super heroes and super villains are here, as well as lesser known favourites and weird and wonderful one-offs. The illustrations feature amazing work by the cream of DC's greatest-ever artists, while the authoritative text is supplied by top DC chroniclers. Special double-page features celebrate the incredible vehicles and weaponry, titanic clashes and romantic encounters of your favourite DC heroes and villains. Packed with information as well as thrilling, original, comic-book art, the fun and excitement of more than 60 years of comic-book history explodes off every page!

Copiously illustrated, comprehensive encyclopedia of all the great daily and Sunday newspaper comics and their creators. This spectacular volume, edited by a highly respected international authority, presents the evolution and history of the comics and features all of America's favorite strips: Blondie, Peanuts, Prince Valiant, Dick Tracy, Beetle Bailey, and many more. 64 pages of color comics and 300 black-and-white strips.

Get the skinny on the Manga phenomenon and it's superstars - both human and fictional - via 140 A-Z listings.

"Magnificent! The best how-to manual ever published." -- Kevin Kelly, Cool Tools The renowned author of Understanding Comics offers brilliant instruction on how to actually create this widely beloved art form. Scott McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture in 1993 with Understanding Comics, a massive comic book about comics, linking the medium to such diverse fields as media theory, movie criticism, and web design. In Reinventing Comics, McCloud took this to the next level, charting twelve different revolutions in how comics are generated, read, and perceived today. Now, in Making Comics, McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character's facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.) And he does all of it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon stand-in narrator, mixing dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way. Both comic book devotees and the uninitiated will marvel at this journey into a once-underappreciated art form.

"A gold mine of essential information for every aspiring comics artist. Highly recommended." --Scott McCloud Drawing Words and Writing Pictures is a course on comic creation - for college classes or for independent study - that centers on storytelling and concludes with making a finished comic. With chapters on lettering, story structure, and panel layout, the fifteen lessons offered - each complete with homework, extra credit activities and supplementary reading suggestions - provide a solid introduction for people interested in making their own comics. Additional resources, lessons, and after-class help are available on the DW-WP website.

The entire first year of the great Milton Caniff's landmark action and adventure comic strip featuring All-American flyboy Steve Canyon and a menagerie of faithful comrades and diabolical rogues. Four complete stories which began Canyon's forty-year run in the pages of newspapers throughout the world. With b/w illustrations throughout.

From the very first Beetle Bailey strips on a college campus through Beetle's enlistment in the US army, this volume contains the first two years of Mort Walker's famous trips encompassing September 1950 through June 1952. Readers can now enjoy two separate casts of quirky characters, the first based on Moart Walker's fraternity brothers at the University of Missouri and the second on his Korean era stint in the Army. These are the strips that won him the Ruben Award in 1953. With an introduction by Mort Walker himself.

Volume One of The Complete Little Orphan Annie contains more than 1,000 daily comics in nine complete stories, from the very first strip in August 1924 through October 1927. In the pages of "Will Tomorrow Ever Come?" readers will discover how Annie escapes the orphanage and is ultimately adopted by "Daddy;" how she finds that loveable mutt Sandy and rescues him from being tortured; how she meets the Silos, who become recurring characters throughout the series; how she joins the circus and first encounters Pee Wee the elephant; and how, broke and alone, she hits the road on a succession of dangerous yet spiritually uplifting adventures. This volume also includes an index, and a biographical essay by Jeet Heer. -The Library of American Comics is the world's #1 publisher of classic newspaper comic strips, with 14 Eisner Award nominations and three wins for best book.

Picking up right where the first collection leaves off, these action-packed strips circa 1948 contain the complete classic Canyon adventures 'Medical Sabotage', 'The Nine Maid', 'Operation Convoy', 'Plantation Sabotage', and 'Puppy Love'. The Rembrandt of cartooning truly hits his stride here. In b/w throughout.

This second volume of the acclaimed hit series collecting the entirety of E.C. Segar's original Popeye (a.k.a. Thimble Theatre) comic strips begins with a foreword by Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker, and continues with an introduction by noted film and cartooning critic Donald Phelps. This second volume features work from 1930 to 1932, and most notably includes the debut of Segar's second greatest character: J. Wellington Wimpy, which stands as a one-of-a-kind icon some 70 years after his creation - the most likeable lowdown cad ever to grace the comics page. Popeye Volume 2 includes the stories: "Clint Gore" (continued from the cliffhanger last volume); "A One-Way Bank," in which Popeye opens a bank that allows withdrawals but no deposits; a long war story featuring King Blozo that begins with "The Great Rough-House War"; and "Skullyville," which wraps up the daily strips for this volume.

For 35 years, Hal Foster created epic adventure and romantic fantasy in hislegendary Sunday strip, Prince Valiant. Realistic in its visual executionand noble in its subject, depicting a time in which the fabled warriors ofhistory and legends fought together for the greater good, it remains one of thegreat masterpieces of the medium. In this second volume, Prince Valiant helpshis father reclaim his throne in kingdom of Thule; fights alongside King Arthur;is made a knight of the Round Table; battles the Huns; sets off with Sir Gawainand Tristam of Arthurian legend fame; and is thrown off-course from Sicily; adventure follows him everywhere. Fantagraphics is proud to present thesestrips, which, thanks to the use of original proof sheets and advances inprinting technology, are even brighter and crisper than when they wereoriginally published 70 years ago. Foster's work, painterly and sweeping, isfinally treated to the grand depiction it deserves. These illustrative,time-honored comic strips will enthrall old readers and just as easily awe newones. Readers will be able to read it in tandem with their Definitive PrinceValiant Companions (coming from Fantagraphics in Dec. 2009).

Presenting the third volume of IDW Publishing's deluxe hardcover collection of Chester Gould's timeless comic strip, Dick Tracy. Volume Three once again contains over 500 comic strips from the series' early years, this time covering material that originally ran from January 1935 through June 1936. This special volume features an introduction from Consulting Editor and longtime Tracy writer Max Allan Collins. Each volume will feature book design from award-winning designer/artist Ashley Wood. -The Library of American Comics is the world's #1 publisher of classic newspaper comic strips, with 14 Eisner Award nominations and three wins for best book.

Peanuts surges into the 1970s with Schulz at the peak of his powersand influence. Sally Brown - school phobia, malapropisms, unrequited love forLinus and all - elbows her way to center stage, at least among the humans, andis thus the logical choice for cover girl... and in her honor, the introductionis provided by none other than television, Broadway and film star Kristin(Pushing Daisies, Wicked) Chenoweth, who first rose to Tony-winning famewith her scene-stealing performance as Sally in You're a Good Man, CharlieBrown. Speaking of introductions, Peppermint Patty's new permanent sidekick,the one and only Marcie, makes her debut, and then there's the birth of oneRerun Van Pelt! Also, Snoopy as Joe Cool, Woodstock in worm school, and muchmore!

Terry and the Pirates debuted on October 22, 1934. For the next twelve years, Terry would weave a spell of exotic adventure, sex appeal, and humor as its creator, Milton Caniff, became the consummate storyteller who forevermore would be known as "The Rembrandt of the Comic Strip." No cartoonist has so heavily influenced his medium as has Milton Caniff, and no comic strip has had more imitators than Terry and the Pirates. The Sunday pages are reproduced in their original color, alongside the daily black-and-white strips. Volume One contains more than 800 consecutive strips, from the series' beginning in October 1934 through the end of 1936. This extraordinary graphic narrative introduces Terry Lee, Pat Ryan, their sidekick Connie, and an array of unforgettable brigands such as Captains Judas and Blaze, and the two toughest women to ever sail on the China Seas: the alluring Burma and the inimitable Dragon Lady.  WINNER OF THE 2011 EISNER AWARD for BEST ARCHIVAL COMIC STRIP COLLECTION!

After more than 80 years--the complete Silly Symphony newspaper strips are collected in English for the first time ever! The artwork for these rare strips has come straight from the Disney vaults. Each page has been meticulously colored using, as a guide, the original bound file copies that belonged to Walt Disney himself! This first of four volumes includes all the strips featuring Bucky Bug, the first Disney character to be originated in newspaper comics. The book also includes the very first Donald Duck newspaper strip--an adaptation of The Wise Little Hen. Other classic adaptations are Birds of a Feather, Penguin Isle, The Boarding School Mystery, The Robber Kitten, and Cookieland. Plus, the "Mickey Mouse Movies" bonus toppers!

Join Calvin and Hobbes on all their adventures in this three-volume hardcover collection of every comic strip from the comic strip's eleven year history (1985 to1996). Calvin and Hobbes is unquestionably one of the most popular comic strips of all time. The imaginative world of a boy and his real-only-to-him tiger was first syndicated in 1985 and appeared in more than 2,400 newspapers when Bill Watterson retired on January 1, 1996. The entire body of Calvin and Hobbes cartoons published in a truly noteworthy tribute to this singular cartoon in The Complete Calvin and Hobbes. Composed of three hardcover, four-color volumes in a sturdy slipcase, this New York Times best-selling edition includes all Calvin and Hobbes cartoons that ever appeared in syndication. This is the treasure that all Calvin and Hobbes fans seek.  

An occultist attempting to capture the physical embodiment of Death to bargain for eternal life traps her younger brother Dream instead. After his seventy-year imprisonment and eventual escape, Dream, also known as Morpheus, goes on a quest for his lost objects of power to reclaim his reign. From there, one of the greatest series in the history of the graphic novel genre begins... New York Times best-selling author Neil Gaiman's transcendent series The Sandman is often hailed as the definitive Vertigo title and one of the finest achievements in comics storytelling. Gaiman created an unforgettable tale of the forces that exist beyond life and death by weaving ancient mythology, folklore and fairy tales with his own distinct narrative vision. This graphic novel--a perfect jumping-on points for any reader--includes the introductions of Morpheus, Lucifer and The Endless, all intricate parts of this enduring series that is still as relevant today as ever. Includes issues #1-8 of the original series with completely new coloring, approved by the author.