| Very selectively (and preliminarily) grouped and annotated.
Bold face indicates an essential work, or one cited in the text. The alphabetical bibliography is the complete citation list.
Comic images
Architectures de bande dessinée. 1985. Paris: Institut français d’architecture.
Catalogue to a seminal exhibition in Paris. French culture had recognized and valued bandes dessinées as a self-sufficient art form since the 1960s, but here was a cross-disciplinary recognition by "official" architecture that public interest might be enhanced by admitting comic images as legitimate representations of public concerns about architecture. Single images, for the most part. Compare to de Busscher 1985.
Groth, Gary, and Chris Ware. 1997. "Understanding (Chris Ware’s) Comics." The Comics Journal (200): 118-178.
Art et innovation dans la bande dessinée européenne. 1987. Brussels: Editions De Buck.
Beauchamp, Monte, ed. 1997. Blab. Vol. 9. Seattle: Fantagraphics.
Breccia, Alberto and Héctor Germán Osterheld, 1997. Mort Cinder. Buenos Aires, Colihue.
Busscher, Jean-Marie de, ed. 1985. Attention travaux! Architectures de bande dessinée. Paris: (A suivre).
The "unofficial" exhibition guide, produced by a comics periodical, that included more political "views", in short graphic tales rather than the isolated "official" images.
Cheval Noir #6. 1990. Milwaukee, OR: Dark Horse Comics.
Christin, Pierre, and A.C. Knigge, eds. 1990. Breakthrough. New York: Catalan Communications.
The English version of a compendium of specially created pages on the destruction of the Berlin Wall, published in many languages — both hopeful and pessimistic, as are most adult comics of the day.
Crumb, Robert. 1995. R. Crumb’s America. San Francisco: Last Gasp.
Herdeg, Walter, and David Pascal, eds. 1972. The Art of the Comic Strip. Zürich: Graphis.
An influential publication on the artistic merits of the comic form, bringing a number of European artists to the attention of North America for the first time as artists rather than merely historical curiosities — and returned the astonishing and pioneering work of Winsor McCay to public view.
Hernandez, Gilbert, Mario Hernandez, Dean Motter, and Jaime Hernandez. 1986. The Return of Mister X. Toronto: Vortex Comics.
Images et imaginaires d’architecture. 1984. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou.
In retrospect, the 1985 IFA exhibition was a small expansion of one chapter of this exhibition of the previous year, which comprised the fine arts, film and photography in a rich stew. Some of the utopian and ant-utopian visions of cities visible in this show have echoes in bandes dessinées — and in certain cases the direction of influence might not be so clear.
Katchor, Ben. 1996. Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer. Boston: Little, Brown.
Mattotti, Lorenzo, and Jorge Zentner. 1997. Caboto. Milan: Hazard Edizioni.
McCay, Winsor. 1969. Little Nemo. Paris: Pierre Horay.
McCay, Winsor. 1990. The Complete Little Nemo in Slumberland. Edited by R. Marschall. Vol. IV (1910—1911). Seattle: Fantagraphics Books.
Miller, Frank, and Bill Sienkiewicz. 1987. Elektra: Assassin. New York: Epic Comics.
Miller, Frank, Klaus Janson, and Lynn Varley. 1986. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. New York: DC Comics.
Moore, Alan, and Dave Gibbons. 1987. Watchmen. New York: Warner Books.
National Lampoon Presents the Very Large Book of Comical Funnies. 1976. New York: National Lampoon Inc.
Ten years before its time (perhaps) this is the very American "exhibition" about the comic world — in effect, a satire on efforts to make comics respectable, which was so well-executed that its double (even triple?) irony might be regarded as the most successful re-representation of a popular cultural form ever. Reprinted a lot.
Robbins, Trina, 1999. From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women's Comics from Teens to Zines. San Francisco, Chronicle Books.
Schuiten, François, and Benoît Peeters. 1996. L’enfant penchée. Tournai: Casterman.
Schuiten, François, and Benoît Peeters. 1996. Le guide des cités. Tournai: Casterman.
Seth. 1996. It’s a Good Life, If You Don’t Weaken. Montréal: Drawn & Quarterly.
Spiegelman, Art, and Françoise Mouly, eds. 1991. Raw. Vol. 2 (3). New York: Penguin.
Spiegelman, Art. 1986. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale. New York: Pantheon.
Spiegelman, Art. 1991. Maus: A Survivor’s Tale II: And Here My Troubles Began. New York: Pantheon.
Reading comics
Eisner, Will. 1985. Comics and Sequential Art. Tamarac, FL: Poorhouse Press.
Eisner has been one of America’s most graphically inventive and "European" artist in a long career beginning in the 1930s. This book is his self-analysis as well as a presentation of his rules and understanding of the form overall. He emphasizes the cinematic qualities of comic pages — and it’s interesting to compare his idea of cinema coming from the first half of the century with McCloud’s (1993), coming from the second half. Cinema has changed more than comics, perhaps?
Eisner, Will. 1995. Graphic Storytelling. Tamarac, FL: Poorhouse Press.
Fresnault-Deruelle, Pierre. 1976. "Du linéaire au tabulaire." Communications (24): 7-23.
Groensteen, Thierry. 1991. "Les lieux superposés de Richard McGuire". In Y. Lacroix, ed. Lectures de bandes dessinées. Rimouski, Québec: Urgences. 95-109.
Lacroix, Yves, ed. 1991. Lectures de bandes dessinées. (Vol. 32, Urgences). Rimouski, Québec: Urgences.
McCloud, Scott. 1993. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Northampton, MA: Tundra.
Originally published by a comic-book house, this book has been re-released by HarperCollins and has become more widely available. It is a text on comics in comic-book form, by a comics creator, explaining by example as it goes along. It has weathered criticism from other artists by having simplified certain "mysteries" of the craft, as well as having simplified (!!???) concepts like semiotics into a couple of page spreads. There are after all certain things we cannot communicate in words or even think about because we need words to give form to our thoughts — perhaps McCloud demonstrates that there are certain characteristics of comics that cannot be explained in comic form. Essential reading.
McCloud, Scott. 2000. Reinventing Comics. New York, Paradox Press.
McCloud's long-awaited sequel responding to the many comics creators who took exception to details of his thesis while lauding his effort in general. The response continues on the Web at www.scottmccloud.com.
Rio, Michel. 1976. "Cadre, plan, lecture." Communications (24): 94-107.
Sabin, Roger. 1993. Adult Comics: An Introduction. London: Routledge.
Particularly interesting socio-historical treatments of comics in different current cultures — including the cultural differences between US and UK.
Sabin, Roger. 1996. Comics, Comix & Graphic Novels. London: Phaidon.
Saint-Gelais, Richard. 1991. "Entre les cases (quelques effets fictionnels des interstices en bande dessiné)". In Y. Lacroix, ed. Lectures de bandes dessinées. Rimouski, Québec: Urgences. 7-17.
Sauter, Catherine, and Philippe Sohet. 1991. "´Histoire de voirª: historicité et logique narrative dans l’œuvre de Jacques Martin". In Y. Lacroix, ed. Lectures de bandes dessinées. Rimouski, Québec: Urgences. 30-43.
Schodt, Frederik L. 1983. Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics. Tokyo: Kodansha International.
The best exposition of comic culture in Japan, which has now crossed the Pacific in cult form as translated albums and animated "animé" for aficionados — and Pokémon for millions of kids.
Thiebault, Michel. 1992. Dans le sillage des sirènes: autour des Compagnons de crépuscule de François Bourgeon. Tournai: Casterman.
The creation of a hermetic graphic universe, as a re-creation of medieval material culture on the printed page.
Reading images
Baxandall, Michael. 1985. Patterns of Intention: On the Historical Explanation of Pictures. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Gowans, Alan. 1983. Learning to See: Historical Perspectives on Modern Popular/Commercial Arts. Bowling Green, OH: Popular Press.
Gowans, Alan. 1991. "The Case for Kitsch: Popular/Commercial Arts as a Reservoir of Traditional Culture and Humane Values". In G. L. Pocius, ed. Living in a Material World. St. John’s, Nfld.: Institute of Social and Economic Research, Memorial University. 127-143.
Elkins, James. 1998. On Pictures and the Words That Fail Them. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Elkins, James. 1999. The Domain of Images. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Frayling, Christopher, Helen Frayling, and Ron van der Meer. 1992. The Art Pack. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Martin, Gregory, and Mia Cinotti. 1969. The Complete Paintings of Bosch, (Classics of World Art). London: Weidenfield and Nicolson.
Mann, Ron. 1994. Comic Book Confidential. New York: Voyager. CD-ROM (Film original, 1988. Sphinx Productions).
Once past the conceit on the back cover of the box — that comics are "America’s only purely indigenous art form" — this may be the best presentation of American comics as they existed in the "pre-computer" age. Mann is of course Canadian. The production of the medium has changed a great deal now that lettering and colouring can be instant and reversible, no matter how much handwork might remain to be done. The interviews with artists are invaluable, and it’s interesting to see how it is possible (or not) to "animate" a printed page. The CD-ROM medium is at its best for this kind of material, because you can change the pace at which you look at those "animated" pages — and even back up — and that is a key characteristic of the comic medium that film cannot reproduce.
Peeters, Benoît, Jacques Faton, and Philippe de Pierpont. 1992. Storyboard — le cinéma dessiné. Crisnee, Belgium: Editions Yellow Now.
Piper, David, ed. 1981. Understanding Art: Themes, Techniques and Methods, (Random House Library of Painting and Sculpture, Vol. 1). New York: Random House.
Richardson, John Adkins. 1986. Art: The Way It Is. 3rd ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Spaulding, Amy E. 1995. The Page as a Stage Set: Storyboard Picture Books. Metuchen, NJ: The Scarecrow Press.
This is a very carefully documented review of techniques in the composition of comic pages, along the lines of French authors, directed to the making of children’s comics, but nevertheless universal.
Spiegelman, Art. 1994. The Complete Maus: A Survivor's Tale. New York: Voyager. CD-ROM.
The CD-ROM includes the contents of both Maus books, but its overriding interest is into how Spiegelman produced the books, both graphically and biographically.
Historic contexts
Alessandrini, Marjorie, Marc Duveau, Jean-Claude Glasser, and Marion Vidal, eds. 1986. L’encyclopédie des bandes dessinés. 2nd ed. Paris: Albin Michel.
Camille, Michael. 1992. Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Canemaker, John. 1987. Winsor McKay: His Life and Art. New York: Abbeville Press.
Clark, Kenneth. 1990. 100 Details from Pictures in the National Gallery. Cambridge , MA: Harvard University Press.
Couperie, Pierre, and Maurice C. Horn. 1968. A History of the Comic Strip. New York: Crown.
This is in essence an exhibition catalog from the Musée des Arts décoratifs in Paris, translated and adapted for American consumption, and perhaps the first thematic treatment — rather than biographical — of comics in English. After this, the Smithsonian Institution gets interested in comics as a form of popular material culture. This book remains the most comprehensive of any that have come since. Pierre Couperie’s chapter 9 on "the World of the Comic Strip" might be considered the foundation text for this project.
Feiffer, Jules. 1997. "The Great Comic Book Heroes." The Comics Journal (200): 181-205.
Gaumer, Patrick, and Claude Moliterni. 1997. Dictionnaire mondial de la bande dessinée. Paris: Larousse.
Harvey, Robert C. 1996. The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
Inge, M. Thomas. 1990. Comics as Culture. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press.
Kunzle, David. 1973. The Early Comic Strip (History of the Comic Strip, Vol. 1). Berkeley: University of Califormia Press.
Kunzle, David. 1990. The Nineteenth Century (History of the Comic Strip, Vol. 2). Berkeley: University of Califormia Press.
This is about the 19th century in Europe — in his introduction, Kunzle suggests there will eventually be a Volume 3, about the 19th century in America, for which there is presently no comprehensive work.
Moliterni, Claude, Philippe Mellot, and Michel Denni. 1996. Les aventures de la BD. (Vol. 273, Découvertes). Paris: Gallimard.
Cultural contexts
Berger, John. 1972. Ways of Seeing. New York: Viking Press.
Berger, John. 1980. About Looking. New York: Pantheon.
Borden, Iain, Joe Kerr, Alicia Pivaro, and Jane Rendell, eds. 1996. Strangely Familiar: Narratives of Architecture in the City. London: Routledge.
Conley, Tom. 1996. "The Wit of the Letter: Holbein’s Lacan". In T. Brennan and M. Jay, eds. Vision in Context: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives on Sight. London: Routledge. 45-61.
Danto, Arthur C. 1981. The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Danto, Arthur C. 1999. The Body/Body Problem. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Elkins, James. 1999a. Why Are Our Pictures Puzzles? On the Modern Origins of Pictorial Complexity. London: Routledge.
Elkins, James. 1999b. What Painting Is: How to Think about Oil Painting, Using the Language of Alchemy. London: Routledge.
Foucault, Michel. 1970. The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. Translated from Les Mots et les choses (1966). London: Tavistock.
Hollander, Anne. 1991. Moving Pictures. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Hopkins, Robert. 1998. Picture, Image and Experience: A Philosophical Inquiry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.
Prown, Jules David, 1988. "Mind in Matter: An Introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method." Material Life in America. Ed. R. B. S. George. Boston, Northeastern University Press. 17–37.
Rossi-Landi, Ferruccio. 1983. Language As Work and Trade. South Hadley, MA: Bergin & Garvey.
Rossi-Landi, Ferruccio. 1992. Between Signs and Non-Signs. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Solso, Robert L. 1994. Cognition and the Visual arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Staniszewski, Mary Anne. 1995. Believing is Seeing: Creating the Culture of Art. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Stewart, Susan. 1984. On Longing: Narratives of the Miniature, the Gigantic, the Souvenir, the Collection. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Varnedoe, Kirk, and Adam Gopnik. 1990. High & Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
An important resource: an ambitious series of "case studies" looking at the high art that has emerged from popular influences, including comics, caricature, advertising and the like. Picasso read comics (!), and we all know Roy Lichtenstein’s "appropriations" from very banal American comic books of the 1950s. But the history of cross-relationships among these popular phenomena (comics and advertising, for instance) are actually no less important, and these are seldom exposed anywhere else, given the tight focus of many popular culture studies when "industrial" or "modern" culture is examined.
Cultural parallels
Aitken, Stuart C., and Leo E. Zonn, eds. 1994. Place, Power, Situation and Spectacle: A Geography of Film. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Allen, Richard. 1995. Projecting Illusion: Film Spectatorship and the Impression of Reality (Cambridge Studies in Film). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Appleyard, Donald, Kevin Lynch, and John R. Myer. 1964. The View from the Road. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Baker, Stephen. 1961. Visual Persuasion: The Effect of Pictures on the Subconscious, (McGraw-Hill Series in Marketing and Advertising). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Barrett, Edward, and Marie Redmond, eds. 1995. Contextual Media: Multimedia and Interpretation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Bosselmann, Peter. 1998. Representation of Places: Reality and Realism in City Design. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Burgin, Victor. 1996. In/Different Spaces: Place and Memory in Visual Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Dant, Tim. 1999. Material Culture in the Social World: Values, Activities, Lifestyles. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Farinelli, Franco, Gunnar Olsson, and Dagmar Reichert, eds. 1994. Limits of Representation, (Studies of Action and Organization). Munich: Accedo.
Forty, Adrian. 1986. Objects of Desire: Design and Society, 1750—1980. London: Thames & Hudson.
Glassie, Henry. 1999. Material Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Hayden, Dolores. 1995. The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hayden, Dolores. 1996. "The Power of Place: Urban Landscapes as Public History". In I. Borden, J. Kerr, A. Pivaro and J. Rendell, eds. Strangely Familiar: Narratives of Architecture in the City. London: Routledge. 47-51.
Lester, Paul Martin. 1995. Visual Communication: Images with Messages. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Levinson, Paul. 1997. The Soft Edge: A Natural History and Future of the Information Revolution. London: Routledge.
Lippard, Lucy. 1997. The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society. New York: The New Press.
Mijksenaar, Paul, and Piet Westendorp. 1999. Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design. New York: Joost Elfers Books.
Mitchell, W. J. T., ed. 1980. The Language of Images. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mitchell, William J. 1992. The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Neumann, Dietrich, ed. 1996. Film Architecture: Set Designs from Metroplis to Blade Runner. Munich: Prestel.
Pearce, Susan M., ed. 1994. Interpreting Objects and Collections (Leicester Readers in Museum Studies). London: Routledge.
Queneau, Raymond, 1981. Exercises in Style. New York, New Directions. (translation of Exercices de style. Paris: Gallimard, 1947)
Robin, Harry. 1992. The Scientific Image: fram Cave to Computer. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
Rudofsky, Bernard. 1964. Architecture without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Ruetsch, Jurgen, and Weldon Kees. 1956. Nonverbal Communication. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Wells, Paul. 1998. Understanding Animation. London: Routledge.
Wollen, Peter. 1998. Signs and Meaning in the Cinema. Expanded ed. London: British Film Institute.
Reference
Lent, John A. 1994. Comic Art of Europe: An International, Comprehensive Bibliography. (Vol. 5, Bibliographies and Indexes in Popular Culture). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Overstreet, Robert, ed., 1999. The Overstreet Comic Price Guide. New York, Avon Books.
Rothschild, D. Aviva. 1995. Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Book-Length Comics. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
Williams, Raymond. 1983. Keywords: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. London: Flamingo/Fontana. |
