The Art of Comics

Editors' Acknowledgments vii
 
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

Aaron Meskin is Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Leeds. He is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters on aesthetics and other philosophical subjects. His work on comics has been published in The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism and the British Journal of Aesthetics. He was the first aesthetics editor for the online journal Philosophy Compass, and he co-edited Aesthetics: A Comprehensive Anthology (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007). He is a former Trustee of the American Society for Aesthetics and is Treasurer of the British Society of Aesthetics.
 
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. He has published numerous articles and book chapters on philosophical logic, mathematical logic, philosophy of mathematics, and more recently on the aesthetics of comics. He previously edited The Arché Papers on the Mathematics of Abstraction (2007), and is the author of A Dictionary of Philosophical Logic (2009).

"The Art of Comics: A Philosophical Approach is the first-ever anthology on the aesthetics of comics in the analytic tradition. As such, it is predictably rigorous, but, perhaps more surprisingly, it exhibits a very deep love of comics as well as an intimate and close knowledge of the artform in all its diversity and detail. The book is a splendid addition to the growing body of work on the philosophies of the arts." -- Noel Carroll, The Graduate Philosophy Program, CUNY

"This is a groundbreaking collection that sets the agenda for philosophical reflection on the nature of comics and their place among the arts. Readers will find their thought bubbles bursting out on every page, as fresh insights are delineated and new questions are framed." -- Jesse Prinz, The Graduate Philosophy Program, CUNY

"A new, rich topic is always welcome in philosophy. Comics are just such a topic in the philosophy of art, and this excellent collection is a splendid opportunity to explore the subject." -- Ted Cohen, University of Chicagooach is the first-ever anthology on the aesthetics of comics in the analytic tradition. As such, it is predictably rigorous, but, perhaps more surprisingly, it exhibits a very deep love of comics as well as an intimate and close knowledge of the artform in all its diversity and detail. The book is a splendid addition to the growing body of work on the philosophies of the arts." -- Noel Carroll, The Graduate Philosophy Program, CUNY

"This is a groundbreaking collection that sets the agenda for philosophical reflection on the nature of comics and their place among the arts. Readers will find their thought bubbles bursting out on every page, as fresh insights are delineated and new questions are framed." -- Jesse Prinz, The Graduate Philosophy Program, CUNY

"A new, rich topic is always welcome in philosophy. Comics are just such a topic in the philosophy of art, and this excellent collection is a splendid opportunity to explore the subje

"Regardless, though, considered as a whole, The Art of Comicsis an excellent collection and one which is likely to provoke spirited debate and serve as a spur to further research within Anglo-American philosophy (and philosophy more generally) into this sadly neglected art form. I, for one, look forward to these future developments immensely. To quote one of the greats in the history of comics--excelsior!." (British Journal of Aesthetics, 1 October 2013)
 
"The Art of Comics would make a fine addition to any undergraduate reading list, introducing as it does several important notions in contemporary aesthetics." (The Journal of Aesthetics & Art Criticism, 1 November 2013)