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.