The Greatest Comic Book of All Time

Frontmatter

Chapter 1. What If the Greatest Comic Book of All Time Were…

Abstract

Starting from a sociology of culture approach developed by Pierre Bourdieu, the chapter argues that, relative to other art forms, the comics world is relatively underdeveloped in terms of prestige-making institutions. This chapter suggests some of the ways that comics studies in particular has been influenced by traditions in literary studies.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 2. Maus by Art Spiegelman?

Abstract

This chapter outlines the various factors that have contributed to Art Spiegelman’s Maus becoming, indisputably, the “greatest comic book of all time.” That is to say, Spiegelman’s work is the most celebrated comic book in the field, the most widely taught, and the most commonly written about (particularly by scholars). The distorting influence that Spiegelman has had on the field is also considered.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 3. A Short Story by Robert Crumb?

Abstract

This chapter is the first to posit a potential alternative to the domination of the field by Spiegelman. Examining the most celebrated American cartoonist within the world of visual arts, the chapter considers how the field of comics studies might have evolved differently had it been shaped by in disciplinary terms by art history. The chapter suggests the ways that cartoonists are disadvantaged in comics studies when they do not produce “graphic novels.”

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 4. A Superhero Story by Jack Kirby?

Abstract

This chapter discusses the way that the literary bias in comics studies has worked to undermine the prestige of comic book artists and of cultural workers who produce “popular” works. The chapter also considers the evolving conception of quality within comic book fandom, using Kirby as a figure who is seen to be the single most important cartoonist by a certain generation of fandom.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 5. Written by Alan Moore?

Abstract

This chapter addresses the turn toward “ground-level” comics in the 1980s and 1990s, or comics works that were self-consciously “literary” while working in popular and generic traditions. The case of Alan Moore, the most visible of the writers working in this tradition, is assessed to demonstrate the disproportionate attention that has been to writers within this tradition, and also to demonstrate the way that British forms of writing were imported to the American comic book industry as a marker of sophistication.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 6. The Cage by Martin Vaughn-James

Abstract

This chapter examines the case of an avant-garde comic book that is widely discussed within academic comics studies as an important limit case of the form, but which is virtually unknown within the larger comics culture. Published by a poetry press in the 1970s, The Cage circulated outside comics fandom until very recently, and is an example of a work that is highly regarded for its opacity and difficulty.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 7. By Rob Liefeld?

Abstract

This chapter looks at the meteoric rise and rapid fall of one of the most popular superhero comic book creators of the 1990s, Rob Liefeld, whose name has become synonymous in some circles with “bad comics.” This chapter asks how Liefeld’s aesthetics, once among the most popular creators working in the form, can be reconciled with the dominant understandings of comics as literature as they dominated contemporary discussions of the form.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 8. An Archie Comic?

Abstract

This chapter looks at Archie comics to understand the ways that the history of popular comics—and, in particular, comics for young children—have been written out of the history of the form. Archie Comics are used as a stand-in for an entire history of disposable comics that were popular in their time, but which no longer circulate widely. The chapter considers the historical misunderstandings that have been allowed to enter comics studies by scholars who dismiss the material that dominated the newsstand in earlier decades.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 9. Not by a White Man?

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of racial and gendered bias in the construction of the comics canon by focusing on the systematic exclusion of certain creators and their accomplishments. In particular, this chapter examines the important role that the “young adult” comics movement has played in developing a space for nonwhite and non-male cartoonists, including Gene Luen Yang, Jillian and Mariko Tamaki, and Raina Telgemeier.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 10. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi?

Abstract

This chapter considers the way that foreign-language comic books (French-language bandes dessinées and Japanese manga) have shaped the American comic book industry. Specifically, the chapter seeks to demonstrate the way that foreign-language comics are understood differently in the USA than they frequently are in their home countries. This chapter focuses on processes of exoticization and misrecognition that tend to recast works and mitigate against the understanding of comics as a global phenomenon.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 11. Dave Sim’s Cerebus?

Abstract

This chapter uses the example of Dave Sim’s Cerebus to trace the shifting position of a single comic book within the field over time. Once heralded as among the most important comic books ever published, Sim’s work has fallen into critical disrepute over time and is in danger of essentially disappearing from the field altogether. This chapter considers the social factors that contribute to reputation within any field.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Chapter 12. Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks?

Abstract

Our conclusion offers a close reading of Dylan Horrocks’s Hicksville, suggesting that the book illustrates through the movement of its characters all of the concerns that we have raised in the book: the tension between art and commerce, between the popular and the avant-garde, and between generic traditions and innovation within the field.

Bart Beaty, Benjamin Woo

Backmatter