Some of the most acclaimed books of the twenty-first century are autobiographical comics by women. Aline Kominsky-Crumb is a pioneer of the autobiographical form, showing women's everyday lives, especially through the lens of the body. Phoebe Gloeckner places teenage sexuality at the center of her work, while Lynda Barry uses collage and the empty spaces between frames to capture the process of memory. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis experiments with visual witness to frame her personal and historical narrative, and Alison Bechdel's Fun Home meticulously incorporates family documents by hand to re-present the author's past.These five cartoonists move the art of autobiography and graphic storytelling in new directions, particularly through the depiction of sex, gender, and lived experience. Hillary L. Chute explores their verbal and visual techniques, which have transformed autobiographical narrative and contemporary comics. Through the interplay of words and images, and the counterpoint of presence and absence, they express difficult, even traumatic stories while engaging with the workings of memory. Intertwining aesthetics and politics, these women both rewrite and redesign the parameters of acceptable discourse.
Never before has graphic storytelling been so prominent or garnered such respect: critics and readers alike agree that contemporary cartoonists are creating some of the most innovative and exciting work in all the arts. For nearly a decade Chute has been sitting down for extensive interviews with the leading figures in comics, and now she offers fans a chance to share her ringside seat. Chute's in-depth discussions reveal a creative community that is richly interconnected yet fiercely independent, its members sharing many interests and approaches while working with wildly different styles and themes
A New York Times Notable Book Filled with beautiful full-color art, dynamic storytelling, and insightful analysis, Hillary Chute reveals what makes one of the most critically acclaimed and popular art forms so unique and appealing, and how it got that way. In her wonderful book, Hillary Chute suggests that we're in a blooming, expanding era of the art ... Chute's often lovely, sensitive discussions of individual expression in independent comics seem so right and true. --New York Times Book Review Over the past century, fans have elevated comics from the back pages of newspapers into one of our most celebrated forms of culture, from Fun Home, the Tony Award-winning musical based on Alison Bechdel's groundbreaking graphic memoir, to the dozens of superhero films that are annual blockbusters worldwide. What is the essence of comics' appeal? What does this art form do that others can't? Whether you've read every comic you can get your hands on or you're just starting your journey, Why Comics? has something for you. Author Hillary Chute chronicles comics culture, explaining underground comics (also known as comix) and graphic novels, analyzing their evolution, and offering fascinating portraits of the creative men and women behind them. Chute reveals why these works--a blend of concise words and striking visuals--are an extraordinarily powerful form of expression that stimulates us intellectually and emotionally. Focusing on ten major themes--disaster, superheroes, sex, the suburbs, cities, punk, illness and disability, girls, war, and queerness--Chute explains how comics get their messages across more effectively than any other form. Why Disaster? explores how comics are uniquely suited to convey the scale and disorientation of calamity, from Art Spiegelman's representation of the Holocaust and 9/11 to Keiji Nakazawa's focus on Hiroshima. Why the Suburbs? examines how the work of Chris Ware and Charles Burns illustrates the quiet joys and struggles of suburban existence; and Why Punk? delves into how comics inspire and reflect the punk movement's DIY aesthetics--giving birth to a democratic medium increasingly embraced by some of today's most significant artists. Featuring full-color reproductions of more than one hundred essential pages and panels, including some famous but never-before-reprinted images from comics legends, Why Comics? is an indispensable guide that offers a deep understanding of this influential art form and its masters
In hard-hitting accounts of Auschwitz, Bosnia, Palestine, and Hiroshima's
Ground Zero, comics have shown a stunning capacity to bear witness to trauma.
Hillary Chute explores the ways graphic narratives by diverse artists,
including Jacques Callot, Francisco Goya, Keiji Nakazawa, Art Spiegelman, and
Joe Sacco, document the disasters of war.
