"This book advances the field of comics studies by attending to some of its most notable problems. It begins with what comics are: a treatment of the history of comics, the contrast between comics and cartoons, the tenuous place of comics in the art world, and what it is to be a comic in the first place. It turns next to how comics work: what the fundamental media that compose comics are, how they push comics towards specific kinds of representation and expression; how comics are related to film, non-graphic literature, and theatre; and what those relations tell us about the possibility of adapting comics into other media. Finally, it takes up why comics matter: what the value of particular comics is and what makes some comics better than others; why comics have been the objects of longstanding cultural condemnation and censorship; and lastly, whether the treatment that comics have received is merited"--