Autobiographical Comics

Andrew J. Kunka is Professor of English at University of South Carolina Sumter, USA. He is co-editor of May Sinclair: Moving Towards the Modern (2006).

Bloomsbury has launched a Comics Studies Series that has kicked off with Andrew Kunka's Autobiographical Comics ... It's an excellent resource, combining a brief history of this sub-genre with critical questions, key texts and a glossary. Kunka shows us that you can learn a lot about comics by how cartoonists organize their lives on the page.

• List of Figures Acknowledgements 1. Introduction: What Are Autobiographical Comics? 2. The History of Autobiographical Comics 3. Critical Questions 4. Social and Cultural Impact Trauma Adolescence The Quotidian and the Confessional Gender and Sexuality Race and Ethnicity Graphic Medicine Censorship and Controversy Self-Publishing and Web Comics 5. Key Texts Justin Green, Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb Harvey Pekar, et al, American Splendor Keiji Nakazawa, Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima Art Spiegelman, Maus and In the Shadow of No Towers Phoebe Gloeckner, A Child’s Life and The Diary of a Teenage Girl Joe Matt, Chester Brown, and Seth Lynda Barry, One Hundred Demons Craig Thompson, Blankets Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis Alison Bechdel, Fun Home 6. Appendix Appendix 1: Autobiographical Comics Panel Appendix 2: Interview with Jennifer Hayden Appendix 3: David Chelsea Appendix 4: Ryan Claytor 7. Glossary 8. Resources Primary Texts Critical Bibliography 9. Index