Covers over sixty-five well-regarded works of the manga medium, summarizing plots and analyzing the works in terms of their literary integrity and overall contribution to the graphic novel landscape.

The Second Edition of Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: History, Theme & Technique contains over 80 essays covering themes and concepts of graphic novels. It includes genres, time periods, foreign language traditions, social relevance, and craftsmanship such as penciling and inking.

“Among the most masterful storytellers alive today” (Gene Luen Yang), “few creators mine the pathos of a dark midcentury childhood like Small” (Washington Post). Since the publication of Stitches a decade ago, David Small has emerged as one of the seminal authors in the genre of graphic literature. Here, in Home After Dark, a Boston Globe Best Book of 2018, Small provides a “painfully honest” and “haunting work of unfolding surprise” (Jules Feiffer) that renders the brutality of adolescence in the 1950s. Through “gorgeous and expressive drawings” (Roz Chast), Small “recaptures the inchoate chaos of youth” (Jack Gantos), telling the story of thirteen- year- old Russell Pruitt, who, abandoned by his mother, follows his father to the sun- splashed land of California in search of a dream. Suddenly forced to fend for himself, Russell struggles to survive in Marshfield, a dilapidated town haunted by a sadistic animal killer and a ring of malicious boys. Eerily foreboding yet filled with uncanny psychological insights and stray glimmers of hope, Home After Dark confirms Small’s place as a modern master of graphic fiction.

"This new edition of Critical Survey of Graphic Novels: Independents & Underground Classics offers over 215 essays covering graphic novels and core comics series, focusing on the independents and underground genre that form today's canon for academic coursework and library collections. Critical Survey of Graphic Novels series aims to collect the preeminent graphic novels and core comics series that form today's canon for academic coursework and library collection development, offering clear, concise, and accessible analysis of not only the historic and current landscape of the interdisciplinary medium and its consumption, but the wide range of genres, themes, devices, and techniques that the graphic novel medium encompasses."--Provided by publisher.

Offers an examination and analysis of the contemporary graphic novel as literature. Specific attention is paid to the use of narrative genre in the graphic novel. Attention is also be paid to the most important and most frequently discussed graphic novels published during the past three decades.

Heroes and superheroes provides insight into more than 150 of the most popular and studied graphic novels. These essays look beyond the pop culture aspects of the medium to show the wide range of literary themes and artistic styles used to convey beliefs and conflicts, some harking back to ancient times. They challenge the researcher to see beyond the panels of a comic book, and show readers how the themes of ancient literary tradition are still alive in the literature of graphic novels.