Comics studies (also comic art studies, sequential art studies or graphic narrative studies) is an academic field that focuses on

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

and

sequential art In comics studies, sequential art is a term proposed by comics artist Will Eisner Will Eisner, '' Comics and Sequential Art'', Poorhouse Press, 1990 (1st ed.: 1985), p. 5. to describe art forms that use images deployed in a specific order for the ...

. Although comics and

graphic novel A graphic novel is a self-contained, book-length form of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and Anthology, anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics sc ...

s have been generally dismissed as less relevant

pop culture Popular culture (also called pop culture or mass culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as popular art pop_art.html" ;"title="f. pop art">f. pop artor mass art, some ...

texts Text may refer to: Written word * Text (literary theory), any object that can be read, including: **Religious text, a writing that a religious tradition considers to be sacred **Text, a verse or passage from scripture used in expository preachin ...

, scholars in fields such as

semiotics Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is a ...

aesthetics Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste (sociology), taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Ph ...

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

composition studies Composition studies (also referred to as composition and rhetoric, rhetoric and composition, writing studies, or simply composition) is the professional field of writing, research, and instruction, focusing especially on writing at the college leve ...

and

cultural studies Cultural studies is an academic field that explores the dynamics of contemporary culture (including the politics of popular culture) and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers investigate how cultural practices rel ...

are now re-considering comics and graphic novels as complex texts deserving of serious scholarly study. Not to be confused with the technical aspects of comics creation, comics studies exists only with the creation of comics theory—which approaches comics critically as an art—and the writing of comics historiography (the study of the history of comics).Benoît Crucifix
"Redrawing Comics into the Graphic Novel: Comics Historiography, Canonization, and Authors' Histories of the Medium"
"Whither comics studies?" panel, International conference of the French Association for American Studies, Toulouse (France), May 24–27, 2016. Comics theory has significant overlap with the philosophy of comics, i.e., the study of the

ontology Ontology is the philosophical study of existence, being. It is traditionally understood as the subdiscipline of metaphysics focused on the most general features of reality. As one of the most fundamental concepts, being encompasses all of realit ...

epistemology Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowle ...

and

of comics, the relationship between comics and other art forms, and the relationship between text and image in comics. Comics studies is also interrelated with comics criticism, the analysis and evaluation of comics and the comics medium. Matthew Smith and Randy Duncan's 2017 book ''The Secret Origins of Comics Studies'' contains a useful overview of early scholarship on comics with standout chapters by Ian Horton, Barbara Postema,

Ann Miller Ann Miller (born Johnnie Lucille Collier; April 12, 1923 – January 22, 2004) was an American actress and dancer. She is best remembered for her work in the classical Hollywood cinema musical film, musicals of the 1940s and 1950s. Her early fi ...

, and Ian Gordon.

Frederick Luis Aldama Frederick Luis Aldama is an American author, editor, and academic. He is the Jacob & Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and founder and director of the Latinx Pop Lab at the University of Texas, Austin. At UT Austin is also affiliate ...

's 2019 book ''Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies'' also contains a wealth of articles on approaches to comics studies and a useful history of the field by Ian Gordon.

Theorizing comics

Although there has been the occasional investigation of comics as a valid art form, specifically in Gilbert Seldes' ''The 7 Lively Arts'' (1924), Martin Sheridan's ''Comics and Their Creators'' (1942), and David Kunzle's ''The Early Comic Strip: Narrative Strips and Picture Stories in the European Broadsheet from c. 1450 to 1825'' (1973), contemporary

Anglophone The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the largest language ...

comics studies in North America can be said to have burst onto the academic scene with both

Will Eisner William Erwin Eisner ( ; March 6, 1917 – January 3, 2005) was an American cartoonist, writer, and entrepreneur. He was one of the earliest cartoonists to work in the American comic book industry, and his series '' The Spirit'' (1940–1952) wa ...

's ''

Comics and Sequential Art ''Comics and Sequential Art'' is a book by American cartoonist Will Eisner that analyzes the comics medium, published in 1985 and revised in 1990. It is based on a series of essays that appeared in ''The Spirit'' magazine, themselves based on Ei ...

'' in 1985 and

Scott McCloud Scott McCloud (born Scott McLeod; June 10, 1960) is an American cartoonist and comics theorist. His non-fiction books about comics, ''Understanding Comics'' (1993), '' Reinventing Comics'' (2000), and '' Making Comics'' (2006), are made in comic ...

's ''

Understanding Comics ''Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art'' is a 1993 non-fiction work of comics by American cartoonist Scott McCloud. It explores formal aspects of comics, the historical development of the medium, its fundamental vocabulary, and various ways in ...

'' in 1993.

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' (album), an album by Saint Etienne * Continen ...

comics studies can trace its roots back to the pioneering work of

semiotician Semiotics ( ) is the systematic study of sign processes and the communication of meaning. In semiotics, a sign is defined as anything that communicates intentional and unintentional meaning or feelings to the sign's interpreter. Semiosis is an ...

s such as

Roland Barthes Roland Gérard Barthes (; ; 12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980) was a French literary theorist, essayist, philosopher, critic, and semiotician. His work engaged in the analysis of a variety of sign systems, mainly derived from Western popu ...

(particularly his 1964 essay "Rhétorique de l'image", published in English as "Rhetoric of the Image" in the anthology ''Image—Music—Text'') and

Umberto Eco Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian Medieval studies, medievalist, philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular ...

(particularly his 1964 book ''Apocalittici e integrati'' 'Apocalypse Postponed''. These works were the first attempts at a general system of comics semiotics. More recently, analysis of comics have begun to be undertaken by

cognitive scientist Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...

s, the most prominent being

Neil Cohn Neil Cohn (; born 1980) is an American cognitive scientist and comics theorist. His research focuses on the cognition of understanding comics, and uses an interdisciplinary approach combining aspects of theoretical and corpus linguistics with co ...

, who has used tools from linguistics to detail the theoretical structure of comics' underlying "visual language", and has also used psychological experimentation from cognitive neuroscience to test these theories in actual comprehension. This work has suggested similarities between the way that the brain processes language and the way it processes sequential images. Cohn's theories are not universally accepted, with other scholars like

Thierry Groensteen Thierry Groensteen (; born 18 April 1957, Uccle, Brussels) is a Belgian comics researcher and theorist. Career In 1984, Groensteen became the editor-in-chief of the old fanzine ''Schtroumpf : Les Cahiers de la bande dessinée'', transformin ...

, Hannah Miodrag, and Barbara Postema offering alternative understandings.

Defining comics

Similar to the problems of defining literature and film, no consensus has been reached on a definition of the comics medium, and attempted definitions and descriptions have fallen prey to numerous exceptions. Theorists such as

Rodolphe Töpffer Rodolphe Töpffer ( ; ; 31 January 1799 – 8 June 1846) was a Swiss teacher, author, painter, cartoonist, and caricaturist. He is best known for his illustrated books (''littérature en estampes'', " graphic literature"), which are possibly ...

, R. C. Harvey,

, David Carrier, Alain Rey, and Lawrence Grove emphasize the combination of text and images, though there are prominent examples of

pantomime comics Silent comics (or pantomime comics) are comics which are delivered in mime. They make use of little or no dialogue, speech balloons or Glossary of comics terminology#Caption, captions written underneath the images. Instead, the stories or gags are ...

throughout its history. Other critics, such as Thierry Groensteen and Scott McCloud, have emphasized the primacy of sequences of images. Towards the close of the 20th century, different cultures' discoveries of each other's comics traditions, the rediscovery of forgotten early comics forms, and the rise of new forms made defining comics a more complicated task.

Composition studies

In the field of

, an interest in comics and graphic novels is growing, partially due to the work of comics theorists but also due to composition studies' growing focus on multimodality and

visual rhetoric Visual rhetoric is the art of effective communication through visual elements such as images, typography, and texts. Visual rhetoric encompasses the skill of visual literacy and the ability to analyze images for their form and meaning. Drawing on ...

. Composition studies theorists are looking at comics as sophisticated texts, and sites of complex

literacy Literacy is the ability to read and write, while illiteracy refers to an inability to read and write. Some researchers suggest that the study of "literacy" as a concept can be divided into two periods: the period before 1950, when literacy was ...

Gunther Kress Gunther Rolf Kress Order of the British Empire, MBE (26 November 1940 – 20 June 2019) was a linguist and semiotician. He is considered one of the leading theorists in critical discourse analysis, social semiotics and multimodality, particularly ...

defines multimodality as "the use of several semiotic modes in the design of a semiotic product or event, together with the particular way in which these mode are combined" or, more simply as "any text whose meanings are realized through more than one semiotic code". Kristie S. Fleckenstein sees the relationship between image and text as "mutually constitutive, mutually infused", a relationship she names "imageword". Fleckenstein sees "imageword" as offering "a double vision of writing-reading based on hefusion of image and word, a double vision of literacy". Dale Jacobs sees the reading of comics as a form of "multimodal literacy or

multiliteracy Multiliteracy (plural: multiliteracies) is an approach to literacy theory and pedagogy coined in the mid-1990s by the New London Group.

Comics historiography

Comics historiography (the study of the history of comics) studies the historical process through which comics became an autonomous art medium and an integral part of culture. An area of study is premodern sequential art; some scholars such as Scott McCloud consider Egyptian paintings and

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

American picture manuscripts to be the very first form of comics and sequential art. Another area of study is the 20th-century emergence of the

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture, cultural society that differentiates itself from the values of the conservative, standard or dominant culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures ...

of comics reading,

comic book collecting Comic book collecting is a hobby that treats comic books and related items as collectibles or Visual arts, artwork to be sought after and preserved. Though considerably more recent than the collecting of postage stamps (philately) or books (bibl ...

and comicphilia, the passionate interest in comic books. A person with a passionate interest in comics is informally called a comicphile or comics buff. The first attempts at comics historiography began in the United States in the 1940s with the work of Thomas Craven, Martin Sheridan, and Coulton Waugh. It was not until the mid-1960s, with the publication of

Jules Feiffer Jules Ralph Feiffer ( ; January 26, 1929 – January 17, 2025) was an American cartoonist and author, who at one time was considered the most widely read satirist in the country. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for Pulitzer Prize for Editori ...

's ''The Great Comic Book Heroes'', that the field began to take root. Historiography became an accepted practice in the 1970s with the work of

Maurice Horn Maurice Horn (June 28, 1931 – December 30, 2022) was a French-American comics historian, author, and editor, considered to be one of the first serious academics to study comics. He was the editor of ''The World Encyclopedia of Comics'', ''The ...

Jim Steranko James F. Steranko (; born November 5, 1938) is an American graphic artist, comics artist, comic book writer/artist, comics historian, Illusionist, magician, publisher and film production illustrator. His most famous comic book work was with th ...

Ron Goulart Ronald Joseph Goulart (; January 13, 1933 – January 14, 2022) was an American popular culture historian and mystery, fantasy and science fiction author. He worked on novels and novelizations (and other works) being published under various ps ...

Bill Blackbeard William Elsworth Blackbeard (April 28, 1926 – March 10, 2011), better known as Bill Blackbeard, was a writer-editor and the founder-director of the San Francisco Academy of Comic Art, a comprehensive collection of comic strips and cartoon art fr ...

, and Martin Williams. The late 1990s saw a wave of books celebrating American comics' centennial. Other notable writers on these topics include Will Jacobs,

Gerard Jones Gerard Jones (born July 10, 1957) is an American writer, known primarily for his non-fiction work about American entertainment media, and his comic book scripting, which includes co-creating the superhero Prime for Malibu Comics, and writing for ...

Rick Marschall Richard "Rick" Marschall (born February 3, 1949) Miller, John Jackson"Comics Industry Birthdays" ''Comics Buyer's Guide'', June 10, 2005. Accessed January 10, 2011. . is an American writer, editor, and comic strip historian, described by ''Bostoni ...

, and R. C. Harvey. The 1990s also saw a growth of scholarly work on comics with new books from academics such as Martin Barker, David Kunzle, Thomas Inge, Joseph "Rusty" Witek, and Ian Gordon.

Educational institutions

Comics studies is becoming increasingly more common at academic institutions across the world. Some notable examples include:

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

, University of Toronto at Mississauga, and

University of California Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located in Monterey Bay ...

, among others. Beside formal programs and degrees, it is common to see individual courses dedicated to comics and graphic novels in many educational institutions. Sol M. Davidson's

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

thesis A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...

, ''Culture and the Comic Strips'', earned him the first PhD in comics in 1959, In France,

Jean-Christophe Menu Jean-Christophe Menu (; born 23 August 1964) is a French underground cartoonist, graphic designer, comics scholar and publisher, son of the Egyptologist Bernadette Menu. He is best known for being one of the founders of L'Association, an influe ...

was awarded a Doctorate in Art and Art Sciences in 2011 from Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne after defending his thesis ''The Comics and its Double: Language and Frontiers of Comics: Practical, Theoretical and Editorial Prospects''. In 2012, the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

offered the first Comics and Cartoon Studies minor in the United States. This Comics Studies program is currently directed by Benjamin Saunders.

In the United Kingdon

In Britain, growing interest in comics has led to the establishment of a center for comics studies, the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies (SCCS) at the

University of Dundee The University of Dundee is a public research university based in Dundee, Scotland. It was founded as a university college in 1881 with a donation from the prominent Baxter family of textile manufacturers. The institution was, for most of its ...

in Scotland, launched 2014, and research is also done at the Comics Research Hub at the

University of the Arts London The University of the Arts London is a public collegiate university in London, England, United Kingdom. It specialises in arts, design, fashion, and the performing arts. The university is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of ...

, launched 2015.

Teesside University Teesside University is a public university with its main campus in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire in North East England. It was officially opened as ''Constantine Technical College'' in 1930, before becoming a polytechnic in 1969, and finally g ...

began offering a BA in Comics and Graphic Novels in 2014, as well as an MA in Comics from 2018. They have since appointed a team of renowned comics practitioners including Fionnuala Doran, Julian Lawrence, Con Chrisoulis,

Nigel Kitching Nigel Craggs Kitching (born 29 May 1959) is a British comic book writer and artist. He is best known for his work in British comics, especially '' Sonic the Comic,'' the premiere UK depiction of Sonic the Hedgehog. Since 2001, Kitching has le ...

and Tara McInerney. In 2015, French comics studies scholar Benoît Peeters (a student of Roland Barthes) was appointed as the UK's first ever comics professor at the

University of Lancaster Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...

. The University began offering a PhD degree in comics studies that same year.

Learned societies

In addition to its presence in academic institutions, comics have also been studied in interdisciplinary

learned society A learned society ( ; also scholarly, intellectual, or academic society) is an organization that exists to promote an academic discipline, profession, or a group of related disciplines such as the arts and sciences. Membership may be open to al ...

. The first US association dedicated to supporting the study of graphic narrative and sequential art was the Comics Studies Society (CSS), launched in 2014 at ICAF. Other anglophone societies that can be mentioned are British Consortium of Comics Scholars (BCCS, created in 2012 by Paul Davies), Scottish Centre for Comics Studies (SCCS) and Canadian Society for the Study of Comics (CSSC, created in October 2010 by Sylvain Rheault).

Learned societies in Americas

Canadian Society for the Study of Comics

The first learned society about comics in American continent was the Canadian Society for the Study of Comics (CSSC), also known as Société Canadienne pour l'Étude de la Bande Dessinée (SCEBD). It is a bilingual community of academics focused in discuss all aspects of comics as an art form and cultural phenomenon founded in October 2010 by

University of Regina The University of Regina is a public university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a j ...

professor Sylvain Rheault.

Associação de Pesquisadores em Arte Sequencial

Associação de Pesquisadores em Arte Sequencial (ASPAS, ''Association of Researchers in Sequential Art'' in Portuguese) was founded in Brazil on March 31, 2012 during the 1st National Forum of Researchers in Sequential Art (FNPAS), an event promoted in the city of Leopoldina, Minas Gerais. In addition to regular events, ASPAS also promotes various academic activities, such as the Meeting of Comic Artists with Trina Robbins, held in 2015 at Gibiteca Henfil, in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

, and in 2017 at

Federal University of Rio de Janeiro The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (, UFRJ) is a public university, public research university in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is the largest federal university in the country and is one of the Brazilian centers of excellence in teaching and r ...

Comics Studies Society

In November 2014, during the International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF), the

California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge), is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. With a total enrollment of 36,848 students (as of Fall 2024), it has the ...

professor Charles Hatfield made a motion to create the Comics Studies Society as an interdisciplinary association open to academics, non-academics or independent scholars, teachers, and students who had the goal of promoting the critical study of comics. At a meeting inside the

Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum is a research library of American cartoons and comic art affiliated with the Ohio State University library system in Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as the Cartoon Research Library and the Cartoon Libra ...

, the CSS's first Executive Committee was officially voted and the CSS main focuses were defined as "promoting the critical study of comics, improving comics teaching, and engaging in open and ongoing conversations about the comics world". CSS also organizes the Annual Conference of the Comics Studies Society since 2018.

Scholarly publications

Some notable academic journals specifically dedicated to comics studies are listed below in alphabetical order: * ''CuCo, Cuadernos de cómic'' (published by the Editorial de Universidad de Alcalá) * ''European Comic Art'' * ''ImageTexT'' (a

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work (:wiktionary:peer#Etymology 2, peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the ...

ed,

open-access journal Open access (OA) is a set of principles and a range of practices through which nominally copyrightable publications are delivered to readers free of access charges or other barriers. With open access strictly defined (according to the 2001 de ...

that began in the spring of 2004 and is based at the

) * ''Image and Narrative'' (stylized as ''Image Narrative'', a peer-reviewed

e-journal An academic journal (or scholarly journal or scientific journal) is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. They serve as permanent and transparent forums for the dissemination, scr ...

on visual narratology) * '' Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society'' (published by the Ohio State University Press and organized by Comics Studies Society since 2017). The journal was nominated as

Eisner Awards The Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, commonly shortened to the Eisner Awards, are awards for creative achievement in American comic books. They are regarded as the most prestigious and significant awards in the comic industry and often referred ...

Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism in 2020. * '' International Journal of Comic Art'' * 9a Arte Online at https://www.revistas.usp.br/nonaarte/ * ''Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics'' * ''Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre la Historieta'' * ''Studies in Comics'' * ''SANE: Sequential Art Narrative in Education'' (based at the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln The University of Nebraska–Lincoln (Nebraska, NU, or UNL) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. Chartered in 1869 by the Nebraska Legislature as part of the M ...

) * ''The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship'' (first published in January 2011; an open-access, researcher-led, peer-reviewed academic journal published by the

Open Library of Humanities The Open Library of Humanities is a nonprofit, diamond open access publisher in the humanities and social sciences founded by Martin Paul Eve and Caroline Edwards. Founded in 2015, OLH published 27 scholarly journals as of 2022, and as of 2025 ...

)

Conferences

Although presentations dedicated to comics are commonplace at conferences in many fields, entire conferences dedicated to this subject are becoming more common. There have been conferences at SAIC ( International Comic Arts Forum, 2009), MMU (The International Bande Dessinée Society Conference), UTS (Sequential Art Studies Conference), Georgetown,

Ohio State The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one of the largest universities by enrollme ...

(Festival of Cartoon Art),"Regularly Held Conferences"
and

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

(Comics in Popular Culture conference), and there is a yearly conference at

(Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels). Additionally, there is an annual

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State o ...

Comics Forum, which brings together academics and professionals working in the industry. Notable regularly held movable conferences include the Comic Art and Comics Area of the Popular Culture Association of America and the conference of the International Society for Humor Studies. The International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF), begun in 1995 at

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

, has been described as one of the earliest academic initiatives for the study of comics. The German Gesellschaft für Comicforschung (ComFor, Society for Comics Studies) has organized yearly academic conferences since 2006. The Comics Arts Conference has met regularly since 1992 in conjunction with

San Diego Comic-Con San Diego Comic-Con is a comic book convention and multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California, at the San Diego Convention Center. Founded in 1970, originally showcasing primarily comic books and science fiction/fant ...

and

WonderCon WonderCon is an annual comic book, science fiction, and film fan convention, convention held in the San Francisco Bay Area (1987–2011), then—under the name WonderCon Anaheim—in Anaheim, California (2012–2015, 2017–present), and Wond ...

. Another important conference is the annual International Graphic Novels and Comics Conference held since 2010 organized by British academics. This conference has been held in conjunction with the longer running International Bande Dessinée Society conference. ''Comics Forum'', a UK-based community of international comics scholars, also holds an annual conference at

Leeds Central Library Leeds Central Library is a public library in Leeds. Situated in the city centre, on Calverley Street, it houses the city library service's single largest general lending and reference collection and hosts the Leeds Art Gallery. Services avai ...

; the first was held in 2009.

Comics studies awards

Eisner Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work

Comics Studies Society Prizes

Since 2018, Comics Studies Society awards comics studies, books and articles with five annual prizes: the CSS Article Prize, the Hillary Chute Award for Best Graduate Student Paper, the Gilbert Seldes Prize for Public Scholarship, the Charles Hatfield Book Prize, and the CSS Prize for Edited Book Collections. The nominated scholars do not need to be CSS members, but only members can send the nomination letters. All first-time publications during the previous calendar year are eligible (in case of translated books, is considered the year of English publication).

Winners

= Charles Hatfield Book Prize

= * 2018 - Brannon Costello, by ''Neon Visions: The Comics of Howard Chaykin'' (

Louisiana State University Press The Louisiana State University Press (LSU Press) is a university press at Louisiana State University. Founded in 1935, it publishes works of scholarship as well as general interest books. LSU Press is a member of the Association of University Pres ...

) * 2019 - Lara Saguisag, by ''Incorrigibles and Innocents: Constructing Childhood and Citizenship in Progressive Era Comics'' (

Rutgers University Press Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Pub ...

) * 2020 - Jorge Santos, by ''Graphic Memories of the Civil Rights Movement: Reframing History in Comics'' (

University of Texas Press The University of Texas Press (or UT Press) is the university press of the University of Texas at Austin. Established in 1950, the Press publishes scholarly and trade books in several areas, including Latin American studies, Caribbean, Caribbea ...

) * 2021 - Rebecca Wanzo, by ''The Content of Our Caricature: African American Comic Art and Political Belonging'' (

New York University Press New York University Press (or NYU Press) is a university press that is part of New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 ...

) ** Honorable Mention: Jean Lee Cole, by ''How the Other Half Laughs: The Comic Sensibility in American Culture, 1895-1920'' (

University Press of Mississippi The University Press of Mississippi (UPM), founded in 1970, is a university press that is sponsored by the eight state universities in Mississippi (i.e., Alcorn State University, Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi Sta ...

) * 2022 - Susan E. Kirtley, by ''Typical Girls: The Rhetoric of Womanhood in Comic Strips'' ( Ohio State University Press) ** Honorable Mention: Esther De Dauw, by ''Hot Pants and Spandex Suits: Gender Representation in American Superhero Comic Books'' (

) ** Honorable Mention: Zack Kruse, by ''Mysterious Travelers: Steve Ditko and the Search for a New Liberal Identity'' (

)

= CSS Article Prize

= * 2018 - Benoît Crucifix, by "Cut-up and Redrawn: Charles Burns's Swipe Files", published in '' Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society'' * 2019 - André M. Carrington, by "Desiring Blackness: A Queer Orientation to Marvel's Black Panther, 1998–2016", published in ''

American Literature American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the British colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also ...

'' * 2020 - Dan Mazur, by "Ibrahim Njoya, a Comics Artist in Colonial-Era Cameroon", published in ''

The Comics Journal ''The Comics Journal'', often abbreviated ''TCJ'', is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels. Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials and scathing r ...

'' * 2021 - Sydney Phillips Heifler, by "Romance Comics, Dangerous Girls, and the Importance of Fathers", published in ''Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics'' ** Honorable Mention: Maite Urcaregui, by "(Un)documenting Single-Panel Methdologies and Epistemologies in the Non-fictional Cartoons of Eric J. García and Alberto Ledesma", published in ''Prose Studies: History, Theory, Critics'' * 2022 - Vincent Haddad, by "Detroit vs. Everybody (Including Superheroes): Representing Race through Setting in DC Comics", published in ''

Inks Ink is a gel, sol, or solution that contains at least one colorant, such as a dye or pigment, and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing or writing with a pen, brush, reed pen, or quill. T ...

'' ** Honorable Mention: Daniel Stein, by "Black Bodies Swinging: Superheroes and the Shadow Archive of Lynching" published in ''Closure'' ** Honorable Mention: Justin Wigard, by "'The Fearless Spaceman Spiff, Interplanetary Explorer Extraordinaire': Parodic Imagination & the Pulp Aesthetic in Bill Watterson's Calvin & Hobbes", published in ''

= CSS Prize for Edited Book Collections

= * 2020 - Tahneer Oksman and Seamus O'Malley, by ''The Comics of Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell'' ( University of Mississippi Press) * 2021 - Anna F. Peppard, by ''Supersex: Sexuality, Fantasy, and the Superhero'' (

) ** Honorable Mention: Frederick Luis Aldama, by ''Graphic Indigeneity: Comics in the Americas and Australasia'' (

) ** Honorable Mention: Dominic Davies and Candida Rifkind, by ''Documenting Trauma in Comics: Traumatic Pasts, Embodied Histories, and Graphic Reportage'' (

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

) ** Honorable Mention: Martha Kuhlman and José Alaniz, by ''Comics of the New Europe: Reflections and Intersections'' (

Leuven University Press Leuven University Press () is a university press located in Leuven, Belgium. It was established in 1971 in association with KU Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Leuve ...

) * 2022 - Benjamin Woo and Jeremy Stoll, by ''The Comics World: Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Their Publics'' (

) ** Honorable Mention: Jamie Brassett and Richard Reynolds, by ''Superheroes and Excess: A Philosophical Adventure'' (

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

)

= Hillary Chute Award for Best Graduate Student Paper

= * 2018 - Alex Smith, by "Breaking Panels: Gay Cartoonists' Radical Revolt" * 2019 - Isabelle Martin, by "'The Weight of Their Past': Reconstructing Memory and History through Reproduced Photographs in Thi Bui's Graphic Novel The Best We Could Do" * 2020 - Haniyeh Barahouie, by "Mapping the War in Zeina Abirached's A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return" * 2021 - Maite Urcaregui, by "Political Geographies of Race in James Baldwin and Yoran Cazac's ''Little Man, Little Man''" ** Honorable Mention: Clémence Sfadj, by "Windows on Everyday Harlem: 'The Cartoons of Ollie Harrington'" * 2022 - Kay Sohini, by "The Peculiarity of Time" ** Honorable Mention: Bryan Bove, by "It Can't All Be Sorrow: Confronting Trauma Through Television in Marvel's ''WandaVision''" ** Honorable Mention: Adrienne Resha, by "Good Is Not a Thing You Are, It's a Thing Superheroes Do: Kamala Khan and the Identity Pause in ''Ms. Marvel'', Superhero Bildungsroman"

= Gilbert Seldes Prize for Public Scholarship

= * 2019 - Osvaldo Oyola, by "Guess Who's Coming Home for the Holidays: Intergenerational Conflict in Bitch Planet", The Middle Spaces, "'I AM (not) FROM BEYOND!': Situating Scholarship & the Writing 'I'", The Middle Spaces, and "YA = Young Avengers: Asserting Maturity on the Threshold of Adulthood", The Middle Spaces * 2020 - Zoe D. Smith, by "4 Colorism, or, the Ashiness of it All" and "4 Colorism, or, White Paper/Brown Pixels", Women Wrote About Comics * 2021 - Zachary J.A. Rondinelli, by "#WelcomeToSlumberland Social Media Research Project" ** Honorable Mention: Anna F. Peppard, by "(Behold?) The Vision's Penis: The Presence of Absence in Mutant Romance Tales" * 2022 - Ritesh Badu, by "Civilized Monsters: These Savage Shores and the Colonialist Cage" ** Honorable Mention: Vincent Haddad, by "'That Wingnut is Insane': Reality vs. Fictionality in Conspiracy Comics" ** Honorable Mention: The Oh Gosh, Oh Golly, Oh Wow! Podcast with Anna Peppard, Christopher Maverick, J. Andrew Deman, and Shawn Gilmore, episode 5, "Excalibur #5: 'Send in the Clowns'"

References

Works cited

* * * * *

External links

The National Association of Comic Art Educators' page

ComicsResearch.org

Comics in the Classroom

(defunct)
Comics Research--annotated bibliographies for comics scholarship

Comic book annotations and bibliographies

Neil Cohn's Visual Language Lab website

Cognitive Comics: A Constructivist Approach to Sequential Art

The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship

The Comics Studies Society (CSS)

their journal (publisher's site)
The Japan Society for Studies in Cartoons and Comics (JSSCC, Nihon manga gakkai)

Association des Critiques et journalistes de Bande Dessinée

CuCo, Cuadernos de Cómic

Revista Latinoamericana de Estudios sobre la Historieta

Oxford Comics Network
{{DEFAULTSORT:Comics Studies Literary theory Postmodern theory Popular culture studies