Introduction; I. Forms: 1. Comics drawing: a (poly)graphic history Simon Grennan; 2. Comics, media culture and seriality Matthieu Letourneux; 3. Comics and graphic novels Paul Williams; 4. Manga, an affective form of comics Jaqueline Berndt; 5. Digital comics: a new/old form Giorgio Busi Rizzi; II. Readings: 6. Comics and multimodal storytelling Blair Davis; 7. Comics adaptations: fidelity and creativity Jan Baetens; 8. Comics genres: cracking the codes Nicolas Labarre; 9. Life writing in comics Shiamin Kwa; 10. Racialines: interrogating stereotypes in comics Daniel Stein; 11. Women and comics Maaheen Ahmed; 12. Comics at the limits of narration Erwin Dejasse; III. Uses: 13. Comics and their archives Benoît Crucifix; 14. Readers and fans: lived comics cultures Mel Gibson; 15. Comics in the museum Kim Munson; 16. Comics in libraries Jo Sutliff Sanders; 17. 'Educationally occupied': learning with comics Susan Kirtley.

This book provides readers with the histories and theories necessary for studying comics. Individual chapters explore comics through several key aspects, including drawing, serialities, adaptations, and transmedia storytelling. It offers close, interdisciplinary readings of vital works, covering more than a century of comics production.