Art History for Comics

This book looks at comics through the lens of Art History, examining the past influence of art-historical methodologies on comics scholarship to scope how they can be applied to Comics Studies in the present and future. It unearths how early comics scholars deployed art-historical approaches, including stylistic analysis, iconography, Cultural History and the social history of art, and proposes how such methodologies, updated in light of disciplinary developments within Art History, could be usefully adopted in the study of comics today. Through a series of indicative case studies of British and American comics like Eagle, The Mighty Thor, 2000AD, Escape and Heartbreak Hotel, it argues that art-historical methods better address overlooked aspects of visual and material form. Bringing Art History back into the interdisciplinary nexus of comics scholarship raises some fundamental questions about the categories, frameworks and values underlying contemporary Comics Studies.

“Art History for Comics offers indispensable insights for the advancement of interdisciplinarity in Comics Studies. By mapping the largely unsung influence of Art History on the development of the field and applying its methods to case studies in a variety of formats, Horton and Gray both convincingly redress the dominance of literary methods in Comics Studies research and offer invaluable entry points for future analyses attentive to the graphic, material, and aesthetic aspects of the medium.” (Erin La Cour, Assistant Professor of English Literature and Visual Culture, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)

“Often viewed from purely literary, historical, or sociological viewpoints, comics are now finally getting the art historical treatment for which they have been crying out. This volume presents the theory of the subject and a thorough overview of developments and approaches, as well as providing masterclasses in specific case studies. A beautifully written and illustrated must for students, scholars or indeed anyone with a general interest in seeing comics from a long overlooked methodological viewpoint.” (Laurence Grove, Professor of French and Text/Image Studies, University of Glasgow, UK)

“A provoking contribution to the mutual enrichment of art history and comics and a very welcome invitation to mutually challenge gaps and biases, with the help of a mix of theoretical reflections and excellent close-readings.” (Jan Baetens, Professor of Cultural Studies/Literary Studies, University of Leuven, Belgium)

Ian Horton is Reader in Graphic Communication and a founder member of the Comics Research Hub (CoRH!!) at the University of the Arts London, UK. He is associate editor of the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics and his research focuses on comic books, graphic design and illustration.

Maggie Gray is Senior Lecturer in Critical & Historical Studies at Kingston University, UK, specializing in comics, cartooning, and visual narrative. She is author of Alan Moore, Out from the Underground: Cartooning, Performance and Dissent (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).