Every week, the comic book artist Riad Sattouf has a chat with his friend's daughter, Esther. She tells him about her life, about school, her friends, her hopes, dreams and fears, and then he works it up into a comic strip. This book consists of 52 of those strips, telling between them the story of a year in the life of this sharp, spirited and funny child. The result is a moving, insightful and utterly addictive glimpse into the real lives of children growing up in today's world.

What exactly are comics? Can they be art, literature, or even pornography? How should we understand the characters, stories, and genres that shape them? Thinking about comics raises a bewildering range of questions about representation, narrative, and value. Philosophy of Comics is an introduction to these philosophical questions. In exploring the history and variety of the comics medium, Sam Cowling and Wesley D. Cray chart a path through the emerging field of the philosophy of comics. Drawing from a diverse range of forms and genres and informed by case studies of classic comics such as Watchmen, Tales from the Crypt, and Fun Home, Cowling and Cray explore ethical, aesthetic, and ontological puzzles, including: - What does it take to create—or destroy—a fictional character like Superman? - Can all comics be adapted into films, or are some comics impossible to adapt? - Is there really a genre of “superhero comics”? - When are comics obscene, pornographic, and why does it matter? At a time of rapidly growing interest in graphic storytelling, this is an ideal introduction to the philosophy of comics and some of its most central and puzzling questions.

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, TIME, BUZZFEED, ESQUIRE, LIBRARY JOURNAL AND KIRKUS REVIEWS LONGLISTED FOR THE PEN/OPEN BOOK AWARD 'Hilarious and heart-rending' Celeste Ng 'Heartbreaking, but also infused with levity and humour. What stands out most is the fierce compassion with which she parses the complexities of family and love' Time How brown is too brown? Can Indians be racist? What does real love between really different people look like? Like many six-year-olds, Mira Jacob's half-Jewish, half-Indian son, Z, has questions about everything - and as tensions from the 2016 election spread from the media into his own family, they become much, much more complicated. Trying to answer him honestly, Mira has to think back to where she's gotten her own answers. Written with humor and vulnerability, this deeply relatable graphic memoir is a love letter to the art of conversation - and to the hope that hovers in our most difficult questions. 'Helps us think with grace and disarming wit ... Reading these searching, often hilarious tete-a-tetes is as effortless as eavesdropping on a crosstown bus ... Magic' New York Times Book Review 'Vibrant, inventive and vulnerable ... Good Talk attempts to answer, with humour and heart, some of the most difficult questions of all' Bustle 'Moving and very funny' Esquire

In The Transmedia Construction of the Black Panther: Long Live the King, Bryan J. Carr explores and analyzes the evolution of the Black Panther character since his inception in the 1960s across comics, film, television, video games, and music. The Black Panther, Carr argues, is the sum of the creative works of countless individuals across various media that have each contributed to the legacy of the first mainstream Black superhero, all happening against a backdrop of social and cultural upheaval, global political struggle for equality, and the long shadow of colonizing Western attitudes. The Panther's existence is a complex one that not only illustrates in microcosm those same struggles in the historically white superhero space, but also offers a perfect case study for media trends of representation then and now. Carr addresses a number of questions: Does the Black Panther really represent a powerful counter-narrative to long-standing regressive attitudes toward Black identity and Africa? Who were the key contributors to our understanding of the character? And finally, how can we use the character to understand the complexities of our modern consolidated media systems? Scholars of media studies, film and television studies, comics studies, cultural studies, critical race studies, and African studies will find this book particularly useful.

Two strangers, both reading the same novel, share a fleeting glance between passing subway cars. A bookstore owner locks eyes with a neighbor as she receives an Amazon package. Strangers are united by circumstance as they wait on the subway stairs for a summer storm to pass. Instantly recognizable, Adrian Tomine's illustrations and comics have been appearing for over a decade in the pages (and on the cover) of The New Yorker. New York Drawings is a loving homage to the city that Tomine, a West Coast transplant, has called home for the past seven years. This lavish, beautifully-designed volume collects every cover, comic and illustration that he has produced for The New Yorker to date, along with an assortment of other rare and uncollected illustrations and sketches. Complete with notes and annotations by the author, New York Drawings will also feature an all-new introductory comic (in the style of the final two pages of Optic Nerve #12).

This book explores anime auteur Hayao Miyazaki's films through the lens of the monomyth of the Heroic Quest Cycle. According to Joseph Campbell and other mythology researchers, the Quest is for boys and men, with women acting as either the Hero's mother or the Prize at the end of the journey. Miyazaki nearly exclusively portrays girls and young women as heroes, arguing that we must reassess Campbell's archetype. The text begins with a brief history of animation and anime, followed by Miyazaki's background and rise to prominence. The following chapters look at each of Miyazaki's films from the perspective of the Heroic Quest Cycle, with the last section outlining where Miyazaki and other animators can lead the archetype of the Hero in the future.

Larry Hama (b. 1949) is the writer and cartoonist who helped develop the 1980s G.I. Joe toyline and created a new generation of comic book fans from the tie-in comic book. Through many interviews with Hama, this volume reveals that G.I. Joe is far from his greatest feat as an artist. At different points in his life and career, Hama was mentored by comics' legends Bernard Krigstein, Wallace Wood, and Neal Adams. Though their impact left an impression on his work, Hama has created a unique brand of storytelling that crosses various media. For example, he devised the character Bucky O'Hare, a green rabbit in outer space that was made into a comic book, toy line, video game, and television cartoon-with each medium in mind. Hama also discusses his varied career, from working at Neal Adams and Dick Giordano's legendary Continuity to editing a humor magazine at Marvel, developing G.I. Joe, and enjoying a long run as writer of Wolverine. This volume also explores Hama's life outside of comics. He is an activist in the Asian American community, a musician, and an actor in film and stage. He has also appeared in minor roles on the television shows M*A*S*H and Saturday Night Live and on Broadway. Editor and historian Christopher Irving compiles six of his own interviews with Hama, some of which are unpublished, and compiled others that range through Hama's illustrious career. The first academic volume on the artist, this collection gives a snapshot of Hama's unique character-driven and visual approach to comics' storytelling.

Learn how to reflect the beautifully diverse world around you in the manga-style characters you draw, guided by the talented team of artists at Saturday AM. Saturday AM is the world's leading showcase of diverse anime and manga stories. How to Draw Diverse Manga features the comics brand's most popular artists, who themselves represent racial identities, ethnicities, and cultures from all over the world, as well as diverse gender identities. Our perceptions of the world are shaped by how the media presents it. With this guide, you will be able to tell inclusive stories about heroic, beautiful, strong, intelligent, and courageous heroes from all backgrounds that are relatable to all and represent the true diversity of our world. The reader-friendly, step-by-step presentation, which is accessible even to beginning artists, shares drawing guidance for: Diverse faces, features, and expressions Bodies, proportions, and body positivity Hair, including afros, braids, and waves Developing character design through the language of shape, silhouette, and color schemes Avoiding stereotypes and caricatures Perfect for beginning to intermediate manga and anime artists, character designers, fantasy illustrators, animators, and cartoonists, Saturday AM Presents How to Draw Diverse Manga offers an insider's point of view and expertise on how to design and draw authentic manga characters that reflect the diverse identities and backgrounds of our world. Find even more inspiration for diverse manga characters in Saturday AM TANKS, which collect Saturday AM's comics in graphic novel format. The Saturday AM TANKS series include:Apple Black, Clock Striker, Gunhild, Hammer, Henshin!, The Massively Multiplayer World of Ghosts, Oblivion Rouge, Saigami, Soul Beat, Titan King, Underground, and Yellow Stringer.

Contributions by Dorian Alexander, Janine Coleman, Gabriel Gianola, Mel Gibson, Michael Goodrum, Tim Hanley, Vanessa Hemovich, Christina Knopf, Christopher McGunnigle, Samira Nadkarni, Ryan North, Lisa Perdigao, Tara Prescott, Philip Smith, and Maite Ucaregui The explosive popularity of San Diego's Comic-Con, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One, and Netflix's Jessica Jones and Luke Cage all signal the tidal change in superhero narratives and mainstreaming of what were once considered niche interests. Yet just as these areas have become more openly inclusive to an audience beyond heterosexual white men, there has also been an intense backlash, most famously in 2015's Gamergate controversy, when the tension between feminist bloggers, misogynistic gamers, and internet journalists came to a head. The place for gender in superhero narratives now represents a sort of battleground, with important changes in the industry at stake. These seismic shifts-both in the creation of superhero media and in their critical and reader reception-need reassessment not only of the role of women in comics, but also of how American society conceives of masculinity. Gender and the Superhero Narrative launches ten essays that explore the point where social justice meets the Justice League. Ranging from comics such as Ms. Marvel, Batwoman: Elegy, and Bitch Planet to video games, Netflix, and cosplay, this volume builds a platform for important voices in comics research, engaging with controversy and community to provide deeper insight and thus inspire change.

Draw, narrate, and create your own manga adventure with this interactive workbook featuring blank fill-in panels so you can set up your very own comic.

What’s behind those big, bright eyes? Why is the student attacking the master? What’s inside that box? That’s up for you to decide with Make Your Own Manga!

Featuring six fully illustrated stories from two acclaimed artists along with blank template panels to create your own drawings and dialogue, Make Your Own Manga will inspire you to inject your own imagination into the storyline of each manga comic. Now you can create your own heroes and villains, heartbreaks and desires instead of just reading about them on the page. All you need is a healthy imagination to complete the manga within these pages. The power to create is in your hands!

The Comics of Charles Schulz collects new essays on the work of the creator of the immensely popular Peanuts comic strip. Despite Schulz's celebrity, few scholarly books on his work and career have been published. This collection serves as a foundation for future study not only of Charles Schulz (1922-2000) but, more broadly, of the understudied medium of newspaper comics. Schulz's Peanuts ran for a half century, during which time he drew the strip and its characters to express keen observations on postwar American life and culture. As Peanuts' popularity grew, Schulz had opportunities to shape the iconography, style, andphilosophy of modern life in ways he never could have imagined when he began the strip in 1950. Edited by leading scholars Jared Gardner and Ian Gordon, this volume ranges over a spectrum of Schulz's accomplishments and influence, touching on everything from cartoon aesthetics to the marketing of global fast food. Philosophy, ethics, and cultural history all come into play. Indeed, the book even highlights Snoopy's global reach as American soft power. As the broad interdisciplinary range of this volume makes clear, Peanuts offers countless possibilities for study and analysis. From many perspectives-including childhood studies, ethnic studies, health and exercise studies, as well as sociology-The Comics of Charles Schulz offers the most comprehensive and diverse study of the most influential cartoonist during the second half of the twentieth century. With contributions by: Leonie Brialey, MJ Clarke, Roy T. Cook, Joseph J. Darowski, Ian Gordon, Gene Kannenberg Jr., Christopher P. Lehman, Anne C. McCarthy, Ben Owen, Lara Saguisag, Ben Saunders, Jeffrey O. Segrave, and Michael Tisserand.

They're back and more popular than ever! The Simpsons continues to be the longest-running prime-time program still on the air, and fans and collectors are still trying to keep up with the incredible variety of toys and collectibles they've inspired. Having discovered a little extra room in his attic for stashing new acquisitions, the author of the world's first guide to Simpsons stuff, The Unauthorized Guide to the Simpsons Collectibles (of which the Copley News Service said, A book worthy of these characters...appropriately witty and well-written.), returns with more. Featuring over 460 brand new, full-color photographs of dolls, figurines, glasses, games, music, comics, promos, and much more, this slightly irreverent and totally engaging book pays homage to those endearing residents of Springfield, USA ,and is, like its predecessor, pure entertainment (Antique Week).

It's never been easier to attack Attack on Titan than with these new, giant-sized 3-in-1 omnibus editions! If you've been waiting for the final anime season to check out the do-or-die shonen adventure that defined a decade, now's your chance. These new books tuck almost 600 pages of manga behind a specially-embossed cover, all in a larger size than the regular version. Includes Vol. 33-34 of Attack on Titan. Eren's titanic Rumbling claims thousands of lives beyond the walls of Paradis, and the boy who once lived in fear of the Titans becomes the world's most feared man. Determined to stop the destruction wrought by their childhood friend, Armin, Mikasa, and their surviving comrades reach the Attack Titan and decide to face him head on in an ultimate showdown. Will humanity finally be set free from the cycle of fear, oppression, and destruction, or will the Titans outlive their victims?

North Carolina fiddler and banjo player Jim Scancarelli's extensive career as a string band musician began in the early 1960s. A founding member of the Kilocycle Kowboys, one of Charlotte's longest-lived bluegrass bands, he played banjo with the Mole Hill Highlanders, and in the 1980s formed Sanitary Cafe with fiddler Tommy Malboeuf. Through the 1970s, his annual recordings at the Union Grove Fiddlers Convention captured superlative music and performer interviews. Scancarelli also had a successful career as a freelance magazine artist and collaborated on the syndicated comic strips "Mutt and Jeff" and "Gasoline Alley," eventually taking over authorship of the latter in 1986. This biography traces his creative trajectory in music, art, radio and television, and the cartooning industry.

A wide-ranging introductory guide for readers making their first steps into the world of manga, this book helps readers move beyond manga available in translation to more fully explore the incredible diversity of Japanese comics styles, forms and traditions from its earliest texts to the internationally popular comics of the 21st century. In an accessible and easy-to-navigate format, the book covers: * A history of Japanese comics, from their emergence within modern print culture, through their astounding growth as an industry and diversification in form in the second half of the 20th century, and on to the present * Case studies of texts reflecting the range of themes, genres, forms and creators, including Osamu Tezuka, Machiko Hasegawa and Katsuhiro Otomo * Key themes and contexts - from gender and sexuality, to history and censorship * Critical approaches to manga, including definitions, biography and reception and global publishing contexts The book includes a bibliography of essential critical writing on manga, discussion questions for classroom use and a glossary of key critical terms.

A comprehensive practical guide to digital manga and anime, suitable for both complete beginners and experienced digital artists. An informative introduction covers all the equipment you will need, with step-by-step guides to using the tools of Adobe Photoshop to create different effects. It also covers the translation of manga characters to the screen in the creation of anime, including the software you will need, pre-production and animation.

From bed head to battle hair, the way you style your manga character's hair can make or break their look. In this guide, discover hundreds of styles to transform your sketches into amazing illustrations. How to Draw Hairstyles for Manga includes: Detailed information on how hair influences characters and scenes, how it grows and moves, common male and female hairstyles, and more! Step-by-step instruction for sectioning and drawing hair to achieve more realistic looks. Plus, learn tips and tricks for taking styles up a notch. 600+ illustrations showing hundreds of hairstyles from multiple angles. From French braids and ponytails to defying gravity with underwater looks and epic battle scene styles, this book has it all! With step-by-step guidance and hundreds of sample illustrations, this is your must-have guide to drawing hairstyles for your manga characters. What are you waiting for? Grab your supplies and get started drawing with style!

Take your manga drawings to the next level with amazing outfits and creative costumes. It just takes two details-wrinkles and shadows. In How to Draw Clothing for Manga, you'll discover how adding a tuck here, a gather there, and hiding some areas in shadow will take your drawings from flat sketches to fantastic illustrations. What you'll find inside: Basic techniques for drawing a variety of fabric details, including pulled wrinkles, gathered folds, tucked shapes, and more! Plus, learn how to express the differences between stiff, thick fabric and soft fabric with drape. 35+ outfits shown side by side with modeled photos to easily break down exactly what to draw for a realistic finished look. From slim-fit tees to skirts that twirl, every style is covered across all genders. Practice line art to get you started mastering wrinkles and shadows before adding details to your own work. With hundreds of sample illustrations and step-by-step guidance, this is your must-have guide to drawing clothes and costumes for your manga characters. What are you waiting for? Grab your supplies and get started drawing with style!

Written in straightforward, jargon-free language, A Concise Dictionary of Comics guides students, researchers, readers, and educators of all ages and at all levels of comics expertise. It provides them with a dictionary that doubles as a compendium of comics scholarship. A Concise Dictionary of Comics provides clear and informative definitions for each term. It includes twenty-five witty illustrations, and pairs most defined terms with references to books, articles, book chapters, and other relevant critical sources. All references are dated and listed in an extensive, up-to-date bibliography of comics scholarship. Each term is also categorized according to type in an index of thematic groupings. This organization serves as a pedagogical aid for teachers and students learning about a specific facet of comics studies and as a research tool for scholars who are unfamiliar with a particular term but know what category it falls into. These features make A Concise Dictionary of Comics especially useful for critics, students, teachers, and researchers, and a vital reference to anyone else who wants to learn more about comics.

This book looks at the humor that artists and editors believed would have appeal in four different countries. Ian Gordon explains how similar humor played out in comic strips across different cultures and humor styles. By examining Skippy and Ginger Meggs, the book shows a good deal of similarities between American and Australian humor while establishing some distinct differences. In examining the French translation of Perry Winkle, the book explores questions of language and culture. By shifting focus to a later period and looking at the American and British comics entitled Dennis the Menace, two very different comics bearing the same name, Kid Comic Strips details both differences in culture and traditions and the importance of the type of reader imagined by the artist.

Never before have comics seemed so popular or diversified, proliferating across a broad spectrum of genres, experimenting with a variety of techniques, and gaining recognition as a legitimate, rich form of art. Maaheen Ahmed examines this trend by taking up philosopher Umberto Eco's notion of the open work of art, whereby the reader - or listener or viewer, as the case may be - is offered several possibilities of interpretation in a cohesive narrative and aesthetic structure. Ahmed delineates the visual, literary, and other medium-specific features used by comics to form open rather than closed works, methods by which comics generate or limit meaning as well as increase and structure the scope of reading into a work. Ahmed analyzes a diverse group of British, American, and European (Franco-Belgian, German, Finnish) comics. She treats examples from the key genre categories of fictionalized memoirs and biographies, adventure and superhero, noir, black comedy and crime, science fiction and fantasy. Her analyses demonstrate the ways in which comics generate openness by concentrating on the gaps essential to the very medium of comics, the range of meaning ensconced within words and images as well as their interaction with each other. The analyzed comics, extending from famous to lesser known works, include Will Eisner's The Contract with God Trilogy, Jacques Tardi's It Was the War of the Trenches, Hugo Pratt's The Ballad of the Salty Sea, Edmond Baudoin's The Voyage, Grant Morrison and Dave McKean's Arkham Asylum, Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's From Hell, Moebius's Arzach, Yslaire's Cloud 99 series, and Jarmo Makila's Taxi Ride to Van Gogh's Ear.

Theology and Spider-Man provides a look at the religious themes present in one of the most popular heroes of the past half-century, Spider-Man. In order to create a systematic theology of Spider-Man, the contributors delve into themes of sin, salvation, and creedal theology, while also addressing liberation theology, Black theology, bioethics, and hermeneutics. This volume balances theological depth with discussion of the comics and films, which makes it a perfect collection for those interested in theology, Spider-Man, or both.

Ken Gill was one of the leading lights of the trade union movement in the 1970s and 1980s, becoming the first communist elected to the TUC General Council. However Ken was renowned in trade union circles not just for his politics and commitment to working people, but for his perceptive caricatures of fellow union leadersand politicians with whom he negotiated. This book offers a small segment of history as seen from the perspective of a leading trade unionist through the medium of caricature. The texts and anecdotes accompanying them are only intended as laconic complements.

A deluxe art book showcasing the complete color art of the Fullmetal Alchemist manga series. This massive hardcover collection contains all the Fullmetal Alchemist color artwork by manga artist Hiromu Arakawa from 2001 to 2017; including the series' entire run and beyond! The Complete Art of Fullmetal Alchemist contains over 280 pages of gorgeous full-color illustrations, including all the original chapter title pages, the graphic novel covers for the single-volume and collected editions, portraits of the main characters and promotional artwork. Includes an exclusive interview and a special step-by-step illustration creation discussion with Hiromu Arakawa. Hardcover artbook collection of 300+ illustrations from best-selling series Fullmetal Alchemist.