Webcomics

by Sean Kleefeld

**Nominated for the 2021 Eisner Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work**The first critical guide to cover the history, form and key critical issues of the medium, Webcomics helps readers explore the diverse and increasingly popular worlds of online comics. In an accessible and easy-to-navigate format, the book covers such topics ·The history of webcomics and how developments in technology from the 1980s onwards presented new opportunities for comics creators and audiences ·Cultural contexts – from the new financial and business models allowed by digital media to social justice causes in contemporary webcomics ·Key texts – from early examples of the form such as Girl Genius and Penny Arcade to popular current titles such as Questionable Content and Dumbing of Age ·Important theoretical and critical approaches to studying webcomics Webcomics includes a glossary of crucial critical terms, annotated guides to further reading, and online resources and discussion questions to help students and readers develop their understanding of the genre and pursue independent study.

267 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 28, 2020

About the author

Sean Kleefeld is an independent researcher whose work has been used by the likes Marvel Entertainment, Titan Books and 20th Century Fox. He writes the ongoing “Incidental Iconography” column for The Jack Kirby Collector and columns about webcomics and fandoms for FreakSugar. Previously, he spent several years working on the “Kleefeld on Webcomics” and “Kleefeld's Fanthropology” columns for MTV Geek. He’s also contributed to Alter Ego, Back Issue and Comic Book Resources. Kleefeld’s 2009 book, Comic Book Fanthropology, addresses the questions of who and what comic fans are, while his 2012 book, Edward Lear & the Snargetted Flartlethants of Nonsense, examines nonsense poetry and one its earliest practitioners. In 2020, Bloomsbury released the fourth book in its Comics Studies series: Webcomics, which was nominated for an Eisner Award the following year. He blogs daily at KleefeldOnComics.com.