The Art of Comics A Philosophical Approach

The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Introduction is the first-ever collection of essays published in English devoted to the philosophical questions raised by the art of comics. The volume, which includes a preface by the renowned comics author Warren Ellis, contains ten cutting-edge essays on a range of philosophical topics raised by comics and graphic novels. These include the definition of comics, the nature of comics genres, the relationship between comics and other arts such as film and literature, the way words and pictures combine in comics, comics authorship, the “language” of comics, and the metaphysics of comics.

The book also contains an in-depth introduction by the co-editors which provides an overview of both the book and its subject, as well as a brief history of comics and an overview of extant work on the philosophy of comics.

In an area of growing philosophical interest, this volume constitutes a great leap forward in the development of this fast expanding field, and makes a major contribution to the philosophy of art.

Aaron Meskin is Associate Professor of Philosophy and a member of the Centre for Aesthetics at the University of Leeds.

Roy T. Cook is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, a Resident Fellow at the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science, and an Associate Fellow of the Northern Institute of Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen.

List of Figures viii

Notes on Contributors ix

Foreword xii
Warren Ellis

The Art and Philosophy of Comics: An Introduction xiv
Aaron Meskin and Roy T. Cook

Part One: The Nature and Kinds of Comics 1

1 Redefining Comics 3
John Holbo

2 The Ontology of Comics 31
Aaron Meskin

3 Comics and Collective Authorship 47
Christy Mag Uidhir

4 Comics and Genre 68
Catharine Abell

Part Two: Comics and Representation 85

5 Wordy Pictures: Theorizing the Relationship between Image and Text in Comics 87
Thomas E. Wartenberg

6 What’s So Funny? Comic Content in Depiction 105
Patrick Maynard

7 The Language of Comics 125
Darren Hudson Hick

Part Three: Comics and the Other Arts 145

8 Making Comics into Film 147
Henry John Pratt

9 Why Comics Are Not Films: Metacomics and Medium?]Specific Conventions 165
Roy T. Cook

10 Proust’s In Search of Lost Time : The Comics Version 188
David Carrier

Index 203

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