The Power of Comics and Graphic Novels: Culture, Form, and Context

After the successful and innovative first two editions, now in a new, restructured 3rd edition, this remains the most authoritative introduction for studying comic books and graphic novels, covering their place in contemporary culture, the manifestations and techniques of the art form, the evolution of the medium and how to analyze and write about them.

The new edition includes:
- A completely reworked introduction explores the comics community in the US and globally, its history, and the role of different communities in advancing the medium and its study
- Chapters reframed to get students thinking about themselves as consumers and makers of comics
- Reorganized chapters on form help to unpack encapsulation, composition and layout
- Completely new chapters on comics and how they can be used to report, document, and persuade, as well as a new Preface by Karen Green

Illustrated throughout, with discussion questions and activities for every chapter and an extensive glossary of key terms, The Power of Comics and Graphic Novels also includes further updated resources available online including additional essays, weblinks and sample syllabi.

Randy Duncan is Ellis College Distinguished Professor and Director of the Center for Comics Studies at Henderson State University. He is co-author of Creating Comics as Journalism, Memoir and Nonfiction (Routledge 2015). He is co-editor, with Matthew J. Smith, of Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods (Routledge 2011), Icons of the American Comic Book (ABC-CLIO 2013), The Secret Origins of Comics Studies (Routledge 2017), and More Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods (Routledge 2019). Dr. Duncan is co-founder of the Comics Arts Conference, held each summer in San Diego.

Matthew J. Smith is Dean of the College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences and Professor of Communication at Radford University, USA, where he teaches the introductory Comics Studies course. Along with Randy Duncan, he is a co-editor of the Routledge Advances in Comics Studies Series and co-curator of the traveling exhibition, Marvel: Universe of Super Heroes.

Paul Levitz is a former President and Publisher of DC Comics and has written for many of DC’s major comic books series, including Superman and Justice Society. His story Legion: The Great Darkness Saga was voted one of the top 20 best comic stories of the last century by readers of The Buyers’ Guide. He teaches a course in the American Graphic Novel at Columbia University and was named to the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2019.