Philosophy of Comics: An Introduction

Description

What exactly are comics? Can they be art, literature, or even pornography? How should we understand the characters, stories, and genres that shape them? Thinking about comics raises a bewildering range of questions about representation, narrative, and value. Philosophy of Comics is an introduction to these philosophical questions. In exploring the history and variety of the comics medium, Sam Cowling and Wesley D. Cray chart a path through the emerging field of the philosophy of comics. Drawing from a diverse range of forms and genres and informed by case studies of classic comics such as Watchmen, Tales from the Crypt, and Fun Home, Cowling and Cray explore ethical, aesthetic, and ontological puzzles, including: - What does it take to create-or destroy-a fictional character like Superman? - Can all comics be adapted into films, or are some comics impossible to adapt? - Is there really a genre of "superhero comics"? - When are comics obscene, pornographic, and why does it matter? At a time of rapidly growing interest in graphic storytelling, this is an ideal introduction to the philosophy of comics and some of its most central and puzzling questions.

Sam Cowling is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Denison University, USA. Wesley D. Cray is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Texas Christian University, USA.

Sam Cowling and Wesley Cray offer a delightful examination of the field of the philosophy of comics, in addition to a comprehensive critical history of the medium. Given its capacious scope and accessible tone, I know I will use Philosophy of Comics: An Introduction in my classroom for years to come. * Joanna Davis-McElligatt, Assistant Professor of Black Literary and Cultural Studies, University of North Texas, USA * With the methodological patience and precision that their multi-faceted subject demands, Cowling and Cray provide the comics medium with its most thoroughly philosophical analysis to date. * Chris Gavaler, Associate Professor of English, Washington and Lee University, USA * Cowling and Cray offer up the deepest, most comprehensive discussion of the philosophy of comics I have ever read. Well-structured and well-flowing, this book moves from general debates about what comics are to key-and utterly fascinating-questions of a metaphysical, epistemological, social, and aesthetic nature. I can't recommend this book high enough for those serious about comics. * Adam Barkman, Professor of Philosophy, Redeemer University, Canada * Cowling and Cray's volume is a thorough and engaging study in the philosophy of comics-certainly the most significant work yet produced on the subject. Cowling and Cray bring what feels like the full spectrum of Western analytic philosophy to bear on the subject of comics, a subject for which they offer an equally broad scope. For someone familiar with philosophy, but not comics-or comics but not philosophy-this book will be incredibly informative. For someone familiar with both, it promises to be delightfully provocative. I predict an avalanche of commentary to follow it. Personally, I expect to spend a long time untangling my own responses to this book. * Darren Hudson Hick, Author of Introducing Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art, Furman University, USA *