Why Comics?

From Underground to Everywhere

Hillary Chute

• Publisher: Harper
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN:
  9780062957788
• eBook ISBN:
  9780062476814
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Art Techniques
• Index: Literature

New York Times Notable Book: An "engaging" illustrated book full of "valuable insights into the contemporary world of graphic storytelling" ( Los Angeles Review of Books).
Over the past century, fans have elevated comics from the back pages of newspapers into one of our most celebrated forms of culture, from  Fun Home, the Tony Award–winning musical based on Alison Bechdel's groundbreaking graphic memoir to the dozens of superhero films that are annual blockbusters worldwide. What is the essence of comics' appeal? What does this art form do that others can't?
In Why Comics?, Hillary Chute chronicles comics culture, explaining underground comics (also known as "comix") and graphic novels, analyzing their evolution, and offering fascinating portraits of the creative men and women behind them. She reveals why these works—a blend of concise words and striking visuals—are an extraordinarily powerful form of expression that stimulates us intellectually and emotionally.
Focusing on ten major themes—disaster, superheroes, sex, the suburbs, cities, punk, illness and disability, girls, war, and queerness—Chute explains how comics get their messages across more effectively than any other form. "Why Disaster?" explores how comics are uniquely suited to convey the scale and disorientation of calamity, from Art Spiegelman's representation of the Holocaust and 9/11 to Keiji Nakazawa's focus on Hiroshima. "Why the Suburbs?" examines how the work of Chris Ware and Charles Burns illustrates the quiet joys and struggles of suburban existence; and "Why Punk?" delves into how comics inspire and reflect the punk movement's DIY aesthetics—giving birth to a democratic medium increasingly embraced by some of today's most significant artists.
With full-color reproductions of over a hundred essential pages and panels, including some famous but never-before-reprinted images from comics legends,  Why Comics? is an indispensable guide that offers a deep understanding of this influential art form and its masters.
"[A] wonderful book . . . Chute's often lovely, sensitive discussions of individual expression in independent comics seem so right and true." — The New York Times Book Review
"The scholar comics has been waiting for—passionate, eloquent, encyclopedically knowledgeable, and profoundly in sync with the medium." —Lev Grossman, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of the Magicians Trilogy
"A must-read." — Comics Journal

INDEX

The pagination of this electronic edition does not match the edition from which it was created. To locate a specific entry, please use your e-book readerʼs search tools.

Page numbers in italics refer to captions and illustrations.

“Abstract Expressionist Ultra Super Modernistic Comics” (Crumb), 113

Academy Awards, 76, 177, 252

“Ace Hole: Midget Detective” (Spiegelman), 45, 290

Action Comics #1, 2, 71–72

“Adam Bomb” (Garbage Pail Kid), 42

Adams, Jeff, 321

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge (Neufeld), 34–37, 36

Adventures of Jesus, The (Stack), 112

Adventures of Tintin, The (Hergé), 24, 74

Advocate, The, 355, 364

Africa Comics (exhibition), 344

Agony (Beyer), 30

Aja, David, 99, 100–101

Akbar and Jeff (Groening), 208, 352, 353

Alarcón, Daniel, 25–28, 28–29

Alf, Richard, 392

Ali, Naji al, 342, 343

Allen, Brooke, 385

Allen, Woody, 23

All’s Well that Ends Well (Shakespeare), 210

Alphona, Adrian, 96–97

Alters, 99

Alvarado, Sheila, 25, 28–29

Amateur Press Association, 16

Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, The (Chabon), 12

Amazing Spider-Man, #36 (Stracynski and Romita), 69

American Book Awards, 76, 181, 320

American Born Chinese (Yang), 30

American Flagg! (Chaykin), 137

American Psycho (film), 224

American Splendor (Pekar), 176, 178, 180–95, 240

#1 (with Dumm), 180–81, 182–83, 186

#7 (with Crumb), 188–89

#12 (with Shamray), 192–93

film, 177, 194

American Tail, An (film), 48

American Widow (Torres and Choi), 68

Angela: Asgard’s Assassin, 387

Angel Catbird (Atwood), 28

“Angelfood McSpade: She’s Sock-a-Delic” (Crumb), 115–17

Angoulême International Comics Festival, 396–98

Annie Hall (film), 23

Apex Novelties, 13

Apex Treasury of Underground Comix, The, 45

Arab of the Future (Sattouf), 398

2: A Childhood in the Middle East, The, 344–45, 346–47

Aragonés, Sergio, 223

Archie, 141, 204–5, 387

Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama (Bechdel), 358, 381

Artforum, 5, 155, 391

“Art School Confidential” (Clowes), 90–91

Astérix, 278

Atelier des Vosges, 298

Atlantic, 96

“Atom Bomb!” (Kurtzman and Wood), 313

Atomic Comics (Szasz), 68

Atrocity Exhibition, The (Ballard), 131

Attack on Titan (Isayama), 37

Atwood, Margaret, 28

“Audience Participation” (Bechdel), 366–67

Auschwitz, 24, 37, 40–41, 48–54, 50, 52, 65, 314

Avengers, 20

(film), 70, 392–93

Avengers (band), 198

Awkward, Definition, Potential (Schrag), 368

Aydin, Andrew, 396–97, 398

Ayers, Dick, 312–13

Ayroles, François, 159

...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Foreword: One Point of View by Gary Panter
• Introduction: Comics for Grown-ups?
• Why Disaster?
• Why Superheroes?
• Why Sex?
• Why the Suburbs?
• Why Cities?
• Why Punk?
• Why Illness & Disability?
• Why Girls?
• Why War?
• Why Queer?
• Coda: Why Fans?
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author
• Also by Hillary Chute
• Copyright
• About the Publisher