Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean

Description

Suddenly, comics are everywhere: a newly matured art form, filling bookshelves with brilliant, innovative work and shaping the ideas and images of the rest of contemporary culture. In Reading Comics, critic Douglas Wolk shows us why and how. Wolk illuminates the most dazzling creators of modern comics-from Alan Moore to Alison Bechdel to Chris Ware-and explains their roots, influences, and where they fit into the pantheon of art. As accessible to the hardcore fan as to the curious newcomer, Reading Comics is the first book for people who want to know not just which comics are worth reading, but ways to think and talk and argue about them.

Douglas Wolk writes about comics and music for publications including the New York Times, Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, Salon, and The Believer. He lives in Portland, Oregon.

"(A) welcome contribution to the field." Metro "(Douglas Wolk) writes sensitively about the awe-inspiring amount of time and effort it takes to write and draw a graphic novel, an ill-rewarded job that's only ever done for the love of it". Sunday Telegraph "(Douglas Wolk's) writing style is breezy and engaging... This enthusiasm is Reading Comics' main selling-point. It should do well among a twenty-something demographic that is starting to explore the field for the first time..." Observer "Douglas Wolk is an evangelist for comic books. In his authoritative, passionately argued Reading Comics, he draws our attention to a spectrum of creations that promise at least the equal of that of much contemporary literature. Wolk makes a likeable and unpretentious guide, never hectoring or waxing polemical, and his enthusiastically imparted knowledge should ensure that readers go on to investigate his recommendations." TLS "Critics in any artistic field could learn from Wolk's willingness to express not just appreciation but joy. His enthusiasm is as infectious as it is refreshing... Wolk knows comics as well as he loves them. He has a keen eye for both the surface appeal that makes the reading of comics enjoyable and the underlying patterns that make it rewarding; he is open-minded, bending over backwards to ensure that his own opinions are not mistaken fro facts, yet not lacking the courage of his convictions... Wolk's contribution is intelligent, discerning, incisive and terrifically engaging: not the last word, but a very good place to start." Irish Times "(s)ubsidiary literature is beginning to appear - most obviously Douglas Wolk's Reading Comics, which wears its learning lightly and entertainingly..." Glasgow Herald"