Comics and the College Course: A Comic Book Studies Reading List

One of our script writers, Travis B. Hill, is also a PhD candidate in the History of Ideas at the University of Texas at Dallas. His three fields of study are American Religious History, The Long Civil Right Movement, and Comic Book Studies. He has also gotten approval from his committee to write his dissertation as a graphic novel. Included here is the reading list for his Comic Book Studies field. The reading list also encompasses his other fields of study such as Black Comix Returns and Incognegro, as well as graphic novels that critically argue a thesis such as Unflattening. If you are someone who enjoys thinking about comics on a critical level, or an academic thinking about adding comics to your course syllabi, or just someone looking for more comic book reading suggestions, then check out this reading list!

monographs

Sheena C. Howard & Ronald L. Jackson, ed., Black Comics: The Politics of Race and Representation (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013).

Adilifu Nama, Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes (Texas, 2011).

Francis Gateward & John Jennings, The Blacker the Ink: Constructions of Black Identity in Comics and Sequential Art (Rutgers, 2015).

Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, Black Women in Sequence: Re-inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime (Washington, 2015).

Marc DiPaolo, War, Politics, and Superheroes: Ethics and Propaganda in Comics and Film (McFarland & Company, 2011).

Ramzi Fawaz, The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics (NYU, 2016).

Tatiana Prorokova & Nimrod Tal, ed., Cultures of War in Graphic Novels: Violence, Trauma, & Memory (Rutgers, 2016).

Mila Bongco. Reading Comics: Language, Culture, and the Concept of the Superhero in Comic Books (Routledge, 2000).

Jörn Ahrens & Arno Meteling, ed., Comics and the City: Urban Space in Print, Picture, and Sequence (Contiuum, 2010).

Frederick Luis Aldama. Your Brain on Latino Comics: From Gus Arriola to Los Bros Hernandez (Chicago, 2009).

Jean-Paul Gabilliet, Of Comics and Men: A Cultural History of American Comic Books (Mississippi, 2009).

Greg Garrett, Holy Superheroes! Exploring the Sacred in Comics, Graphic Novels, and Film (John Knox, 2008).

John Jennings & Damian Duffy, Black Comix Returns (Lion Forge, 2018).

Julian C. Chambliss and Thomas Donaldson, Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men: Superheroes and the American Experience (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013).

Randy Duncan & Matthew J. Smith, The Power of Comics: History, Form, & Culture (Bloomsbury Academic, 2009).

Randy Duncan & Matthew J. Smith, ed., Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods (Routledge, 2011).

Randy Duncan, Matthew J. Smith, & Matthew J. Brown, ed., More Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods (Routledge, 2019).

Jeet Heer & Kent Worcester, ed., A Comics Studies Reader (Mississippi, 2008).

Will Eisner, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative (Norton, 2008).

Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art (William Morrow, 1994).

Robert C. Harvey, The Art of the Comic Book: An Aesthetic History (Mississippi, 1996).

Thierry Groensteen, The System of Comics (Mississippi, 2009).

Peter Coogan, Superhero: The Secret Origins of a Genre (UNKNO, 2006).

Hillary L. Chute, Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics (Columbia, 2010).

Charles Hatfield, Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature (Mississippi, 2005).

Bradford W. Wright, Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America (Johns Hopkins, 2003).

Ben Saunders, Do the Gods Wear Capes? Spirituality, Fantasy, and Superheroes (Continuum, 2011).

graphic novels

Nick Sousanis, Unflattening (Harvard, 2015).

Art Spiegelman, The Complete Maus: A Survivor’s Tale (Pantheon, 1996).

Jack Johnson, Los Tejanos and Lost Cause (Fantagraphics, 2012).

Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece, Incognegro: A Graphic Mystery (Berger, 2018).

John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, L. Fury, Nate Powell, Run: Book One (Harry N. Abrams, 2021).

Jim Ottaviani, Janine Johnston, Steve Lieber, Vince Locke, Bernie Mireault, Jeff Parker, and Jeffery Jones, Fallout: J. Robert Oppenheimer, Leo Szilard, and the Political Science of the Atomic Bomb (G.T. Labs, 2013).

Jim Ottaviani, Zander Cannon, and Kevin Cannon, T-Minus: The Race to the Moon (Aladdin, 2009).

Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks, Primates: The Fearless Science of Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté Galdikas (Square Fish, 2015).

Jim Ottaviani and Maris Wicks, Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier (First Second, 2020).

Jim Ottaviani and Leland Purvis, The Imitation Game: Alan Turning Decoded (Abrams, 2019).

George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steve Scott, and Harmony Becker, They Called Us Enemy (Top Shelf, 2019).

Kyle Baker, Nat Turner (Abrams, 2008).

Octavia E. Butler, Damian Duffy, & John Jennings, Kindred: A Graphic Adaptation (Abrams, 2018).

Joe Sacco, Palestine (Fantagraphics, 2001).

Joe Sacco, Footnotes in Gaza (Jonathan Cape, 2019).

Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood (Pantheon, 2004).

Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic (Mariner, 2007).

Grant Morrison & Frank Quietly, Flex Mentallo (DC Comics, 1996).

Grant Morrison & Frank Quietly, We3 (Vertigo, 2004).

Grant Morrison & Dan Mora, Klaus (Boom Studios, 2015)

Frank Miller, Ronin (DC Comics, 1983).