Projections

When Art Spiegleman's Mauswon the Pulitzer Prize in 1992, comics entered a new era. Long dismissed as an art form, they are taken seriously today by both major newspapers and academic journals. In another sign of the times, Harvey Pekar's self-published American Splendoris now distributed by an imprint of DC comics and has been released as a successful film. This return of comics in print has seen a parallel development in the film industry, where numerous comic-related films have recently been released or are in some stage of development. Projectionsargues that these recent media developments are no accident. Comics and moving pictures were parallel forms since their inception, and with the advent of interactive media, they again intersect. Covering a neglected history of American comics, from the rise of sequential comics in the late nineteenth century, through comic books and underground comix, to the graphic novel and webcomics, Gardner shows why comics offer the best models for rethinking storytelling in the twenty-first century. In the process, he reminds readers of various beloved characters from our past and present, including Happy Hooligan, Krazy Kat, Crypt Keeper, and Mr. Natural.