Power of Comics and Graphic Novels

Randy Duncan is Ellis College Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Comics Studies at Henderson State University. He is co-author of Creating Comics as Journalism, Memoir and Nonfiction (2015). He is co-editor, with Matthew J. Smith, of Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods (2011), Icons of the American Comic Book (2013), The Secret Origins of Comics Studies (2017), and More Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods (2019). Dr. Duncan is co-founder of the Comics Arts Conference, held each summer in San Diego.Matthew J. Smith is Dean of the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Communication at Radford University, USA, where he teaches the introductory Comics Studies course. Along with Randy Duncan, he is a co-editor of the Routledge Advances in Comics Studies Series and co-curator of the traveling exhibition, Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes.Paul Levitz is a former President and Publisher of DC Comics and has written for many of DC's major comic books series, including Superman and Justice Society. His story Legion: The Great Darkness Saga was voted one of the top 20 best comic stories of the last century by readers of The Buyers' Guide. He teaches a course in the American Graphic Novel at Columbia University and was named to the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2019.

Duncan, Smith, and Levitz have delivered an outstanding and much-needed volume that should be required reading in any of the growing number of comics studies classes in academia today. The Power of Comics provides historical, cultural, and literary approaches that will not only deepen students’ understanding of this medium but help them develop the critical tools required to engage meaningfully with a host of other subjects and issues. Highly recommended.

• PrefaceIntroductionUnit 1 – CULTUREChapter 1: Comics in Culture, Comics as CultureChapter 2: Making and Reading ComicsUnit 2 – FORMChapter 3: Encapsulation of the Narrative Chapter 4: Composition of the PanelsChapter 5: Layout of the PagesUnit 3 – GENREChapter 6: Genres of ComicsChapter 7: Memoir ComicsChapter 8: Superhero ComicsChapter 9: Emerging Genres: Journalism, Documentary, AdvocacyUnit 4 – CONTEXT & ANALYSISChapter 10: The Evolution of ComicsChapter 11: Exploring Meanings in ComicsChapter 12: Writing about ComicsGlossaryBibliography