The Secret Origins of Comics Studies

Matthew J. Smith is Professor and Director in the School of Communication at Radford University in Virginia. Along with Randy Duncan, he is co-editor of Routledge’s Advances in Comics Studies series. Previously, the two writing partners teamed with former DC Comics President and Publisher Paul Levitz to produce The Power of Comics: History, Form, and Culture (2nd Edition). Randy Duncan is Professor of Communication and Director of the Comics Studies Minor at Henderson State University. He is co-editor, with Matthew J. Smith, of the Eisner-nominated Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods. He is a co-founder, with Peter M. Coogan, of the Comics Arts Conference and received the Inkpot Award for contributions to Comics Studies.

Foreword by Charles Hatfield



Preface by Matthew J. Smith and Randy Duncan



Chapter 1- Educating with Comics by Carol L. Tilley



Chapter 2 - Educating about Comics by Robert G. Weiner



Chapter 3 - The Historians of Creators by Brad Ricca



Chapter 4 - The Historians of the Comics Industry by Julie Davis and Robert Westerfelhaus



Chapter 5 - The Historians of the Art Form by Ian Horton



Chapter 6 - The Librarians and Archivists by Jenny Robb



Chapter 7 - Literary Theory/Narrative Theory by Barbara Postema



Chapter 8 - Semiotics and Linguistics by Gert Meesters



Chapter 9 - Myths, Archetype, and Religion by Beth Davies-Stofka and David McConehy



Chapter 10 - Ideological/Sociological by Ian Gordon



Chapter 11 - Formalist Theory: The Cartoonists by Henry Jenkins



Chapter 12 - Formalist Theory: Academics by Ann Miller



Chapter 13 - Psychology/Psychiarty by Travis Langley



Chapter 14 - Gender Studies and Queer Studies by Kane Anderson



Chapter 15 - Manga Studies, A History by Nicholas A. Theisen



Chapter 16 - The Organizations by Jeremy Larance



Chapter 17 - The Galleries by Kim Munson



Chapter 18 - The Conferences by Julia Round and Chris Murray



Chapter 19 - The Journals by Alec R. Hosterman



Chapter 20 - The Presses by Joseph Michael Sommers



Featuring additional sidebars from José Alaniz, Jacqueline Berndt, Christina Blanch, Ian Hague, A. David Lewis, and William Proctor along with 'Pioneer Perspectives' from trailblazing scholars James "Bucky" Carter, Peter M. Coogan, Maurice Horn, M. Thomas Inge, David Kunzle, Pascal Lefèvre, John Lent, and Waldomiro Vergueiro.