Graphic Novel Resource Guide: Books About Graphic Novels

Entries organized alphabetically by title for "over 215 well-regarded works of the independent and underground genre summarizing plots and analyzing the works." Each entry includes sections on publication history, plot, characters, artistic style, themes, impact, further reading, a bibliography, and photos of the work's cover and interior pages. Appendices include works by artist, author, and publisher. Also available in print (Sawyer Reference PN6725 .C754 2012 v.1-3)

"More than 130 signed entries (most of the 86 authors are affiliated with universities) focus on specific works, e.g., the nine Batman titles, or deal with a series collectively, e.g., the entries for Cerebus and Conan, which list and describe volumes sequentially. Entries identify creators, publishers, publication history, plots, characters, artistic styles, and themes. They also discuss a title's/character's impact on the medium and feature suggestions for further reading and a bibliography. Where appropriate, they address films or television series. End matter includes a "Guide to Online Resources," a time line (15,000 BCE-2009), winners of major awards (Eisners, Harveys, etc.), and entries listed by artist, author, and publisher." (CHOICE magazine review.) Also available in print (Sawyer Reference PN6725 .C753 2012).

"Covers the high spots of this Japanese form, with many dozens of alphabetically arranged entries. Each is highly structured, offering basic bibliographic and publication information (including information on the original Japanese and first English publications); a plot synopsis; character summaries; brief discussions of "artistic style," "themes," and "impact"; and references to further reading and media adaptations (if relevant)." Also available in print (Sawyer Reference PN6725 .C756 2013).

"In this history of comics dating back to antiquity, Danziger-Russell weaves an analysis that focuses on the period from the turn of the 20th century to the contemporary moment in the US. She analyzes production, content, interpretation, and readership to explore comics as a hybrid cultural product that combines literature and art, and she attempts to figure out their gender dimensions. The textual analyses include readings of early Little Lulu strips and recent manga and digital blogs... She includes interviews with writers who, while not setting out to produce gender-inclusive comics, do create female-centered narratives that appeal to a minority female audience." (CHOICE magazine review.)

"As this small but potent book shows, African Americans didn't fare any better in the comics medium than elsewhere in popular culture. Stromberg's compact cultural critique encapsulates each of about 100 black comics characters in a brief, single-page essay and a full-page illustration. The presentation is chronological, from stereotyped coons in early newspaper strips, such as The Katzenjammer Kids and Moon Mullins, to servile sidekicks such as Mandrake the Magician's Lothar and the Spirit's Ebony, to black additions to the casts of Peanuts and Beetle Bailey." (Booklist review.)

"Bringing together contributors from a wide-range of critical perspectives, Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation is an analytic history of the diverse contributions of Black artists to the medium of comics. Covering comic books, superhero comics, graphic novels and cartoon strips from the early 20th century to the present, the book explores the ways in which Black comic artists have grappled with such themes as the Black experience, gender identity, politics and social media." (Syndetics summary)

"Jewish Images in the Comics showcases more than 150 comic strips, comic books and graphic novels from all over the world, stretching over the last five centuries and featuring Jewish characters and Jewish themes. The book is divided into chapters on Anti-Semitism, the Old Testament, the Holocaust, Israel, the Golem and much more, featuring everything from well-known comics like Art Spiegelman's Maus and the work of Will Eisner to much more obscure (and in some cases far less savory) but no less culturally and historically interesting examples of how Jewish culture has been depicted in comics." (Syndetics summary.)

"In only 136 pages, the late Szasz provides a fascinating account of the depiction of atomic warfare and energy in US and Japanese comics and cartoons. Szasz knew his subject, having interviewed many Manhattan Project veterans for his two previous books on atomic history, and having collected and carefully read every atomic-themed comic book he could find...Some of what Szasz reveals is downright scary: the extreme censorship of WW II and the devastating impacts of American nuclear testing and failures. An additional merit: the book treats not only comic books and manga but also comic strips and political and advertising cartoons, material that is usually shortchanged in such histories." (CHOICE magazine review.)

"In the less than eight decades since Superman's debut in 1938, comic book superheroes have become an indispensable part of American society and the nation's dominant mythology. They represent America's hopes, dreams, fears, and needs. As a form of popular literature, superhero narratives have closely mirrored trends and events in the nation. This study views American history from 1938 to 2010 through the lens of superhero comics, revealing the spandex-clad guardians to be not only fictional characters but barometers of the place and time in which they reside." (Syndetics summary.)

"Moving beyond simple comparisons and common explanations, this volume details how the workings of the superhero comics industry and the conventions of the medium have developed a culture like that of traditional epic storytelling. It chronicles the continuation of the oral/traditional culture of the early 20th century superhero industry in the endless variations on Superman and shows how Frederic Wertham's anti-comic crusade in the mid-1950s helped make comics the most countercultural new medium of the 20th century. By revealing how contemporary superhero comics, like Geoff Johns' Green Lantern and Warren Ellis's the Authority, connect traditional aesthetics and postmodern theories, this work explains why the superhero comic book flourishes in the "new traditional" shape of our acutely self-conscious digital age." (Syndetics summary.)

"This volume collects a wide-ranging sample of fresh analyses of Spider-Man. It traverses boundaries of medium, genre, epistemology, and discipline in essays both insightful and passionate that move forward the study of one of the world's most beloved characters. The editors have crafted the book for fans, creators, and academics alike. Foreword by Tom DeFalco, with poetry and an afterword by Gary Jackson (winner of the 2009 Cave Canem Poetry Prize)." (Syndetics summary.)