Best Comic & Graphic Novel Literary Criticism Books

Here you will get Best Comic & Graphic Novel Literary Criticism Books For you.This is an up-to-date list of recommended books.

1. DC Comics Encyclopedia All-New Edition: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe

Author: by Matthew K. Manning
DK
English

‎ 368 pages

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Revamped, redesigned, and fully updated to include the New 52 and Rebirth storylines, this is the definitive and indispensable guide to the characters and worlds of the DC Comics Universe. Created in full collaboration with DC Comics, this comprehensive reference book has The Washington Post saying, “The DC Comics Encyclopedia is a must.” Formatted in an easy-to use A-to-Z layout, this guide is packed with information and thrilling comic book art and features more than 1,100 characters including Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, and much more.

The DC Comics Encyclopedia All-New Edition brings everything up to date, providing an accessible, compelling, and lavishly illustrated guide to the dynamics of the DC Comics Universe. All DC characters and elements & DC Comics.(s17)


2. F is for FART: A rhyming ABC children's book about farting animals

Author: by J. Heitsch
English
33 pages
1096381117

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This is a book about farts.Yes, farts. It’s also about ABCs, rhymes, and animals – but it’s mostly about farts, and making you and your loved ones laugh about farts. Each letter stands for an animal and is accompanied by a rhyme, which are all short and stinky – much like farts are stinky.

We hope you think this book stinks in all the right ways. What are the right ways?I’m glad you asked. We’ve got farts which smell, farts that BOOM, farts that splat, farts that upset your nose and send you for a tumble.

We’ve even got farts so bad you could use them in a rumble.Was it you?Was it me? No, of course not it was the animals! We’ve got animals from Australia, China, and even Madagascar! We’ve got animals from the east and animals from the west; animals from near and animals from far!

We’ve got animals which fly high in the sky and those that swim deep in the sea! We’ve even got animals which are imaginary and some which are extinct, but keep that between you and me! Some are from rivers, some live in trees!


3. Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels

Author: by Scott McCloud
William Morrow Paperbacks
English
264 pages

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“Magnificent!The best how-to manual ever published.” Kevin Kelly, Cool ToolsThe renowned author of Understanding Comics offers brilliant instruction on how to actually create this widely beloved art form. Scott McCloud tore down the wall between high and low culture in 1993 with Understanding Comics, a massive comic book about comics, linking the medium to such diverse fields as media theory, movie criticism, and web design.

In Reinventing Comics, McCloud took this to the next level, charting twelve different revolutions in how comics are generated, read, and perceived today. Now, in Making Comics, McCloud focuses his analysis on the art form itself, exploring the creation of comics, from the broadest principles to the sharpest details (like how to accentuate a character’s facial muscles in order to form the emotion of disgust rather than the emotion of surprise.

And he does all of it in his inimitable voice and through his cartoon standin narrator, mixing dry humor and legitimate instruction. McCloud shows his reader how to master the human condition through word and image in a brilliantly minimalistic way.


4. Monster Girl Encyclopedia Vol. 1

Author: by Kenkou Cross
Seven Seas
English
240 pages

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The ultimate guide to monster girls that took fandom by storm-for Mature fans only! Monster Girl Encyclopedia Volume 1 is the first in a series of highly detailed illustrated books that contains one hundred profiles of wickedly lascivious monster girls. Considered by many fans to be the definitive source for sexy monster girls and the worlds they inhabit, Monster Girl Encyclopedia is a must-have purchase for fans of Monster Musume, Nurse Hitomi’s Monster Infirmary, and other monster titles.

This deluxe, large-trim hardcover with foil highlights is shrink-wrapped for Mature readers, and includes 240 pages of in-depth bios, one hundred gorgeous full-color illustrations, numerous tantalizing black and white spot illustrations, diagrams, and more. Told from the perspective of a wandering monster girl scholar, these vibrantly illustrated pages teach us about sensual elves, dwarves, succubi, centaurs, mermaids, and much more, like you’ve never seen them before.


5. Manga in Theory and Practice: The Craft of Creating Manga

Author: by Hirohiko Araki
VIZ Media LLC
English
280 pages

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Learn how to create manga from Hirohiko Arakicreator of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure and a master of the medium! Hirohiko Araki is the author of one of the longest-running and most beloved manga of all time, the epic fan favorite JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.

According to him, manga is the ultimate synthesis of all forms of art, and in this book he reveals the secrets behind how to make the magic happen using concrete examples from his own work. Read all about his golden ratio for drawing, the character histories he draws up for each of the characters he creates, his methodology for storytelling inspired by the great Ernest Hemingway, and many more aspects of manga creation in this how-to guide penned by an industry legend.


6. Monster Girl Encyclopedia Vol. 2

Author: by Kenkou Cross
Seven Seas
English
240 pages


Monster Girl Encyclopedia Vol. 2 Cover

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The second volume of the ultimate guide to monster girls that took fandom by storm-for Mature fans only! The definitive source guide for the sexy monster girl genre! Told from the perspective of a wandering scholar of monsters, this tantalizing tome includes 100 gorgeous full-color illustrations of seductively dangerous monster girls.

Replete with fascinating lore, elaborate bios, and intricate descriptions, this book has everything you ever wanted to know about monster girls, and more. From centaurs to succubi, from mermaids to slimes-if it’s a monster girl you seek, you will find her within these pages!

This deluxe, large-trim hardcover with foil highlights is shrink-wrapped for Mature readers.


7. The Wakanda Files: A Technological Exploration of the Avengers and Beyond – Includes Content from 22 Movies of MARVEL Studios

Author: by Mr. Troy Benjamin
becker&mayer! Books
English
160 pages

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An in-world book from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Wakanda Filescompiled by request of Shuri (Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War) as part of her quest to improve the future for all peopleis a collection of papers, articles, blueprints, and notes amassed throughout history by Wakanda’s War Dogs.

Within the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), Wakanda has been on the forefront of what is technologically possible. Their ability to stay ahead of the rest of the world is second only to their ability to keep themselves hidden. As the architect behind many of Wakanda’s great advancements, Shuri is constantly seeking ways to improve what has come before.

To aid in her search, she researches the past for context, reference, and inspiration by compiling The Wakanda Files. Organized into areas of study, including human enhancement, transportation, weapons, artificial intelligence, and more, The Wakanda Files traces the world’s technological achievements from the era of Howard Stark and early Hydra studies to modern discoveries in quantum tunneling and nanotechnology, weaving together the stories, personalities, and technology that are the fabric of the MCU.


8. True Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee

Author: by Abraham Riesman
Crown (February 16, 2021)
English
416 pages

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The definitive, revelatory biography of Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee, a writer and entrepreneur who reshaped global pop cultureat a steep personal cost A biography that reads like a thriller or a whodunit … Scrupulously honest, deeply damning, and sometimes even heartbreaking.

Neil GaimanStan Leeborn Stanley Martin Lieber in 1922was one of the most beloved and influential entertainers to emerge from the twentieth century. He served as head editor of Marvel for three decades and, in that time, launched more pieces of internationally recognizable intellectual property than anyone other than Walt Disney: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the X-Men, Black Panther, the Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Thor …

The list seems to never end. On top of that, his carnival-barker marketing prowess more or less single-handedly saved the comic-book industry and superhero fiction. Without him, the global entertainment industry would be wildly differentand a great deal poorer. But Lee’s unprecedented career was also filled with spectacular failures, controversy, and bitter disputes.


9. Berserk: With Darkness Ink

Author: by Quentin "Alt 236" Boeton
English
240 pages
2377842763

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Berserk is a manga which stands out for its rich, twisted and dark universe. It is a clever alchemy between the stories of Elric of Melnibone, Hieronymus Bosch’s paintings and Gustave Dore’s engravings. This book reviews Berserk’s story and all aspects of Kentaro Miura’s life, the manga’s author.

It also deciphers the work’s entire dark fantasy world.

10. Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight

Author: by Travis Langley
John Wiley & Sons
English
337 pages

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A journey behind the mask and into the mind of Gotham City’s Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight who inspires fear in evildoers everywhere. Batman is one of the most compelling and enduring characters to come from the Golden Age of Comics, and interest in his story has only increased through countless incarnations since his first appearance in Detective Comics #27 in 1939.

Why does this superhero without superpowers fascinate us? What does that fascination say about us? Batman and Psychology explores these and other intriguing questions about the masked vigilante, including: Does Batman have PTSD? Why does he fight crime?Why as a vigilante?

Why the mask, the bat, and the underage partner? Why are his most intimate relationships with “bad girls” he ought to lock up? And why won’t he kill that homicidal, green-haired clown? Gives you fresh insights into the complex inner world of Batman and Bruce Wayne and the life and characters of Gotham City.

Explains psychological theory and concepts through the lens of one of the world’s most popular comic book characters. Written by a psychology professor and “Superherologist” (scholar of superheroes).

11. The Secret History of Wonder Woman

Author: by Jill Lepore
Vintage
English
464 pages

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Within the origin of one of the world’s most iconic superheroes hides a fascinating family storyand a crucial history of feminism in the twentieth-century. Everything you might want in a page-turner skeletons in the closet, a believe-it-or-not weirdness in its biographical details, and something else that secretly powers even the most serious feminist historyfun.

Entertainment Weekly The Secret History of Wonder Woman is a tour de force of intellectual and cultural history. Wonder Woman, Jill Lepore argues, is the missing link in the history of the struggle for women’s rightsa chain of events that begins with the women’s suffrage campaigns of the early 1900s and ends with the troubled place of feminism a century later.

Lepore, a Harvard historian and New Yorker staff writer, has uncovered an astonishing trove of documents, including the never-before-seen private papers of Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston. The Marston family story is a tale of drama, intrigue, and irony.

12. The Psychology of Final Fantasy: Surpassing The Limit Break

Author: by Anthony Bean PhD (Author)
Leyline Publishing
English
232 pages

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“No matter how dark the night, morning always comes, and our journey begins anew.” – Lulu, Final Fantasy X. From its initial release in 1987, Final Fantasy has gone on to become one of the most beloved series of role-playing games in history.

With narratives revolving around grandiose stories of good versus evil, Final Fantasy has allowed us, as players, to witness heroic battles, experience hard-won victories, and create treasured friendships for almost 40 years. The Psychology of Final Fantasy guides gamers on a real-world quest of self-discovery so that they can surpass their own limit break.

And, as part of this examination, psychologists, clinicians, video game researchers, professors, and enthusiasts who love this franchise ask:How does the storyline in Final Fantasy grab and keep our attention for so many hours of gameplay? Why do the symbols in the game, such as crystals, magic, and weapons, hold meaning about our own psychological inner workings?

What are the feminine warrior and archetypes found in the game and how are they living in all of our everyday lives? How does playing Final Fantasy connect us with a larger sense of spiritual guidance as to who we are?

13. Crumb's World

Author: by Robert Crumb
English
192 pages
1644230437

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R.Crumb’s obsessionsfrom sex to the Bible, music, politics, and the vicissitudes and obscenities of daily lifeare chronicled in this comprehensive book of work by the illustrious American comic artist. Instrumental in the formation of the underground comics scene in San Francisco during the 1960s and 1970s, Crumb has ruptured and expanded the boundaries of the graphic arts, redefining comics and cartoons as countercultural art forms.

Presenting a slice of Crumb’s unique universe, this book features a wide array of printed matter culled from the artist’s five-decade careertear sheets of drawings and comics taken directly from the publications where the works first appeared, comic book covers, broadsides from the 1960s and 1970s, and tabloids from Haight-Ashbury, Oakland, the Lower East Side, and other counterculture enclaves, as well as exhibition ephemera.

Complementing this volume are historical works from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that have inspired Crumb and pages from his rarely seen sketchbooks from the 1970s and 1980s that reveal his exemplary skill as a draftsman. Documenting the critically acclaimed exhibition Drawing for Print: Mind Fucks, Kultur Klashes, Pulp Fiction & Pulp Fact by the Illustrious R.

14. Asterix Omnibus 9

Author: by Rene Goscinny
1444009664
Asterix
English

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This special collector’s edition features books 25 to 27 in one fabulous volume, in paperback for the first time. In ASTERIX AND THE GREAT DIVIDE, can Asterix, Obelix and Getafix ensure a happy ending for star-crossed lovers Melodrama and Histrionix, whose fathers are rival chieftains?

Watch out for some interesting new magic potions… Asterix and Obelix must go prospecting in the Middle East in ASTERIX AND THE BLACK GOLD. Can they outwit the Roman secret agent Dubbelosix and his amazing folding chariot? In ASTERIX AND SON, who can have dumped a baby outside Asterix’s hut?

Why are the Romans after the baby – and just what plot is the treacherous Brutus hatching against Julius Caesar? There is no better way to enjoy the antics of our indomitable hero and his friends.

15. Marvel Comics: The Untold Story

Author: by Sean Howe
0061992119
Harper Perennial
English

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The defining, behind-the-scenes chronicle of one of the most extraordinary, beloved, and dominant pop cultural entities in America’s history – Marvel Comics and the outsized personalities who made Marvel including Martin Goodman, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby. Sean Howe’s history of Marvel makes a compulsively readable, riotous and heartbreaking version of my favorite story, that of how a bunch of weirdoes changed the worldThat it’s all true is just frosting on the cake.

Jonathan LethemFor the first time, Marvel Comics tells the stories of the men who made Marvel: Martin Goodman, the self-made publisher who forayed into comics after a get-rich-quick tip in 1939, Stan Lee, the energetic editor who would shepherd the company through thick and thin for decades and Jack Kirby, the WWII veteran who would co-create Captain America in 1940 and, twenty years later, developed with Lee the bulk of the company’s marquee characters in a three-year frenzy.

Incorporating more than one hundred original interviews with those who worked behind the scenes at Marvel over a seventy-year-span, Marvel Comics packs anecdotes and analysis into a gripping narrative of how a small group of people on the cusp of failure created one of the most enduring pop cultural forces in contemporary America.