I learned so much from this book. From Europe to newspaper comics to comic books, all of it was interesting. The rich history of comic art is fascinating. This should be a must read for anyone wanting to create comic books.

This book wasn't for me, but I suspect I am not the audience for it.

Thank you to Netgalley, University Press of Mississippi, Santiago Garcia and Bruce Campbell for the chance to read and review this ARC;

I come from a background of both a passion for comics and a passion for the greatness of the English Language entwined. I fell in love with my first comic character at the age of 5, worked my way to being a comic store manager at the tender age of 17, and at 34 I still read graphic novels, even running a Graphic Novel Book Club. On the other hand of my body, I am an English Major, with both a Bachelors and Masters in English Language and Literature, which I teach on a daily basis.

What I mean by saying all of those first is that I feel like I come to this book with both of my passions and in-depth knowledge of the struggles of each side to understand the other. Very often the comics sides of people look down on book lovers, while book lovers eschew the existence of comics/graphic novels much in the way even 'trashy romance' and 'pulp novels' are called gold next to. I think it's a very careful line to tread unweaving the expectations of each from the other, and that this book does a masterful job of that breakdown.

Readers from as early at the 40's will recognize the foundations of this work touching on newspaper comics, and being drawn even further back to the tales they came from in far-flung, deeply un-sung, places across the world where their roots truly started out as a seed. I love that we watch how everything changed over time. That we see how much the graphic novel was both lauded, and driven through the streets to be torn apart and burned, both for what it was and for daring to call itself 'a novel' of any kind, when made so much of art mostly looked down upon except in magazine pieces or newspaper pages.

As a fan and supporter of the CBLDF (Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, which supports all people's in conjunction with the work on such comics and graphic novels), I felt my heart soar as I saw this book including opinions, stories, and shoutouts from far more than just the artists and/or writers. There were clear displays of how more people come into this work. Teams of people made up of several artists, writers, publishers, letterers, colorists. That all of their work is just as important and vital to the creation of these pieces, and just as integral to the story of what comics/graphic novels have become in our modern times.

Thank you so for this detailed explanation of this very complicated, but beautiful world.

Not what I thought it was going to be. Really dry. Didn't finish it.

This is a very dense read, but an interesting one. It is essentially an academic treatise on graphic novels and comics. There is a lot of history, as well as some philosophy. Definitely something to take your time with.

I absolutely love comic books and graphic novels, so when I saw this book on Netgalley, I knew that I had to request it. I am also studying media at university and popular culture so to see how graphic novels are placed in society and to read about how much societal value they have was intriguing. Fascinating read!

Interesting erudite history on the graphic novels. Indeed a great book to get knowledge.