Featured Ebooks
Welcome
One of the most popular areas in the library is the Leisure Reading Section. We aim to foster a love of reading among our students in every way possible. We often receive requests to add comics and manga to this section. Fortunately, we currently have a selection of eBooks focusing on comics and manga, providing a preview of what to expect as we expand our Leisure Reading Section to include more of these genres.
If you have a comic book or manga you would like to recommend, please click the links below. Also, remember to visit the library's Give N Day page; we appreciate donations and recommendations for comics or manga you would like to see in the library.
Library Give N Day Page: https://www.givenday.org/organizations/ellender-memorial-library
Comic Book Recommendation Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe6-9_oYjLX28iPXd4EesLe5bY7R249BXPRrZyJGLvlsdic4Q/viewform?pli=1
Manga Recommendation Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc4zruzpbzS9KO1hGVIuoqpsUh-fJbat16rY4XinzPDpZnNBA/viewform
Contemporary Poetry Books
God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post World War II Manga
An assessment of the worldwide achievement of the man who made manga mainstream
Manga from the floating world comicbook culture and the kibyōshi of Edo, Japan
"The first full-length study in English of the kibyōshi, a genre of woodblock-printed comicbook widely read in late eighteenth-century Japan that became an influential form of political satire. The volume is copiously illustrated with rare prints from Japanese archival collections"--Provided by publisher.
Boys Love Manga and Beyond
Boys Love Manga and Beyond looks at a range of literary, artistic, and other cultural products that celebrate the beauty of adolescent boys and young men. In Japan, the depiction of the "beautiful boy" has long been a romantic and sexualized trope for both sexes and commands a high degree of cultural visibility today across a range of genres, from pop music to animation. In recent decades, "Boys Love" (or simply BL) has emerged as a mainstream genre in manga, anime, and games for girls and young women. This genre was first developed in Japan in the early 1970s by a group of female artists who went on to establish themselves as major figures in Japan's manga industry. By the late 1970s, many amateur women fans were getting involved in the BL phenomenon by creating and self-publishing homoerotic parodies of established male manga characters and popular media figures. The popularity of these fan-made products, sold and circulated at huge conventions, has led to an increase in the number of commercial titles available. Today, a wide range of products produced both by professionals and amateurs are brought together under the general rubric of "boys love," and are rapidly gaining an audience throughout Asia and globally.
Drawing on Tradition
Manga and anime (illustrated serial novels and animated films) are highly influential Japanese entertainment media that boast tremendous domestic consumption as well as worldwide distribution and an international audience. Drawing on Tradition examines religious aspects of the culture of manga and anime production and consumption through a methodological synthesis of narrative and visual analysis, history, and ethnography. Rather than merely describing the incidence of religions such as Buddhism or Shinto in these media, Jolyon Baraka Thomas shows that authors and audiences create and re-create "religious frames of mind" through their imaginative and ritualized interactions with illustrated worlds. Manga and anime, therefore, not only contribute to familiarity with traditional religious doctrines and imagery but also allow authors, directors, and audiences to modify and elaborate upon such traditional tropes, sometimes creating hitherto unforeseen religious ideas and practices. The book takes play seriously by highlighting these recursive relationships between recreation and religion, emphasizing throughout the double sense of play as entertainment and play as adulteration (i.e., the whimsical or parodic representation of religious figures, doctrines, and imagery). Building on recent developments in academic studies of manga and anime--as well as on recent advances in the study of religion as related to art and film--Thomas demonstrates that the specific aesthetic qualities and industrial dispositions of manga and anime invite practices of rendition and reception that can and do influence the ways that religious institutions and lay authors have attempted to captivate new audiences.
Manga
Once upon a time, one had to read Japanese in order to enjoy manga. Today, manga has become a global phenomenon, attracting audiences in North America, Europe, Africa, and Australia. The style has become so popular, in fact, that in the US and UK, publishers are appropriating the manga style in a variety of print material, resulting in the birth of harlequin mangas, which combine popular romance fiction titles with manga aesthetics. Comic publishers such as Dark Horse and DC Comics are translating Japanese "classics," like Akira, into English. And, of course, it wasn't long before Shakespeare received the manga treatment. So, what is manga? Manga roughly translates as "whimsical pictures" and its long history can be traced all the way back to picture books of eighteenth-century Japan. Today, it comes in two basic forms: anthology magazines (such as Shukan Shonen Jampu) that contain several serials and manga 'books' (tankobon) that collect long-running serials from the anthologies and reprint them in one volume. The anthologies contain several serials, generally appear weekly, and are so thick, up to 800 pages, that they are colloquially known as phone books. Sold at newspaper stands and in convenience stores, they often attract crowds of people who gather to read their favorite magazines.
The Manga Guide to Relativity
Everything's gone screwy at Tagai Academy. When the headmaster forces Minagi's entire class to study Einstein's theory of relativity over summer school, Minagi volunteers to go in their place. There's just one problem: He's never even heard of relativity before! Luckily, Minagi has the plucky Miss Uraga to teach him. Follow along with The Manga Guide to Relativity as Minagi learns about the non-intuitive laws that shape our universe. Before you know it, you'll master difficult concepts like inertial frames of reference, unified spacetime, and the equivalence principle. You'll see how relativity affects modern astronomy and discover why GPS systems and other everyday technologies depend on Einstein's extraordinary discovery. The Manga Guide to Relativity also teaches you how to Understand and use E = mc2, the world's most famous equation; Calculate the effects of time dilation using the Pythagorean theorem; Understand classic thought experiments like the Twin Paradox, and see why length contracts and mass increases at relativistic speeds; Grasp the underpinnings of Einstein's special and general theories of relativity. If the idea of bending space and time really warps your brain, let The Manga Guide to Relativity straighten things out.
Manga Vision
Manga Vision examines cultural and communicative aspects of Japanese comics, drawing together scholars from Japan, Australia, and Europe working in areas as diverse as cultural studies, linguistics, education, music, art, anthropology, and translation to explore the influence of manga in Japan and worldwide via translation, OEL manga, and fan engagement. The volume includes a mix of theoretical, methodological, empirical,l and professional practice-based chapters examining manga from both academic and artistic perspectives. Manga Vision also provides the reader with a multimedia experience featuring original artwork by Australian manga artist Queenie Chan, cosplay photographs, and an online supplement offering musical compositions inspired by manga, as well as downloadable manga-related teaching resources. *** "'Manga Vision' is a diverse collection of fascinating insights into the cultural impact and use of manga both within Japan and overseas. A wide range of accessible and carefully researched contributions cover key aspects of the broader uses of manga by various communities, as well as an in-depth examination of the distinctive language and communication properties of manga and implications for pedagogy, multimodal research, and translation.
Understanding Manga and Anime
Teens love it. Parents hate it. Librarians are confused by it, and patrons are demanding it. Libraries have begun purchasing both manga and anime, particularly for their teen collections. But the sheer number of titles available can be overwhelming, not to mention the diversity and quirky cultural conventions. In order to build a collection, it is important to understand the media and its cultural nuances. Many librarians have been left adrift, struggling to understand this unique medium while trying to meet patron demands as well as protests. In 2003, the manga (Japanese comics) market was the fastest-growing area of pop culture, with 75-100% growth to an estimated market size of $100 million retail. The growth has continued with a 40-50% sales increase in bookstores in recent years. Teens especially love this highly visual, emotionally charged, and action-packed media imported from Japan, and its sister media, anime (Japanese animation), and libraries have begun purchasing both. Chock full of checklists and sidebars highlighting key points, this book includes a brief history of anime and manga in Japan and in the West, a guide to visual styles and cues, a discussion of common themes and genres unique to manga and anime, their intended audiences; cultural differences in format and content; multicultural trends that manga and anime readers embrace and represent; and programming and event ideas.
Marvel's Mutants: The X-Men Comics of Chris Claremont
In 1975, Marvel Comics revived the X-Men, a failed title that hadn't used new material for half a decade. It was a marginal project in an industry that was then in crisis. Five years later, it was the bestseller in a revived comics market. Unusually in the comics world, one man, Chris Claremont, wrote the comic over seventeen years, from 1975 to 1991, developing new characters such as Wolverine and Storm and taking themes from Freudian psychology, Christian temptation narratives, Existentialist philosophy, and the language of sub-cultural identity. Marvel's Mutants is the first book to be devoted to the aesthetics of these comics that laid the foundation for the worldwide X-Men franchise we know today. Miles Booy explores Claremont's recurrent themes, the evolution of his reputation as an auteur within a collaborative medium, the superhero genre, and the input of the artists with whom Claremont worked. Also covered are the successful spin-off projects, which Claremont wrote: solo Wolverine mini-series and whole new teams of mutant superheroes.
Encyclopedia of Black Comics
The Encyclopedia of Black Comics focuses on people of African descent who have published significant works in the United States or have worked across various aspects of the comics industry. The book focuses on creators in the field of comics: inkers, illustrators, artists, writers, editors, Black comic historians, Black comic convention creators, website creators, archivists, and academics--as well as individuals who may not fit into any category but have made notable achievements within and/or across Black comic culture.
Marvel Comics
A behind-the-scenes chronicle of a beloved American media empire and the men behind it, including Martin Goodman, Stan Lee, and Jack Kirby. A New York Times-Bestseller"A definitive portrait of comics in American culture." --The Wall Street JournalIn the early 1960s, a struggling company called Marvel Comics presented a cast of brightly costumed characters distinguished by smart banter and compellingly human flaws: Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men. Over the course of half a century, Marvel's epic universe would become the most elaborate fiction narrative in history and serve as a modern American mythology for millions of readers. For the first time, Marvel Comics reveals the outsized personalities behind the scenes, including Martin Goodman, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and generations of editors, artists, and writers who struggled with commercial mandates, a fickle audience, and--over matters of credit and control--one another. Marvel Comics is a story of fertile imaginations, lifelong friendships, action-packed fistfights, and third-act betrayals--a narrative of one of the most extraordinary, beloved, and beleaguered pop-culture entities in America's history."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 world . That it's all true is just frosting on the cake." --Jonathan Lethem
Hellboy's World
Hellboy, Mike Mignola's famed comic book demon hunter, wanders through a haunting and horrific world steeped in the history of weird fiction and wide-ranging folklore. Hellboy's World shows how our engagement with Hellboy's world is a highly aestheticized encounter with comics and their materiality. Scott Bukatman's dynamic study explores how comics produce a heightened "adventure of reading" in which syntheses of image and word, image sequences, and serial narratives create compelling worlds for the reader's imagination to inhabit. Drawing upon other media--including children's books, sculpture, pulp fiction, cinema, graphic design, painting, and illuminated manuscripts--Bukatman reveals the mechanics of creating a world on the page. He also demonstrates the pleasurable and multiple complexities of the reader's experience, invoking the riotous colors of comics that elude rationality and control and delving into shared fictional universes and occult detection, the horror genre and the evocation of the sublime, and the place of abstraction in Mignola's art. Monsters populate the world of Hellboy comics, but Bukatman argues that comics are themselves little monsters, unruly sites of sensory and cognitive pleasures that exist happily on the margins. The book is not only a treat for Hellboy fans, but it will entice anyone interested in the medium of comics and the art of reading.
Comics
Comics: An Introduction provides a clear and detailed introduction to the Comics form - including graphic narratives and a range of other genres - explaining key terms, history, theories, and major themes. The book uses a variety of examples to show the rich history as well as the current cultural relevance and significance of Comics. Taking a broadly global approach, Harriet Earle discusses the history and development of the form internationally, as well as how to navigate comics as a new way of reading. Earle also pushes beyond the book to lay out the ways that fans engage with their comics of choice - and how this can impact the industry. She also analyses how Comics can work for social change and political comment. Discussing journalism and life writing, she examines how the coming together of word and image gives us new ways to discuss our world and ourselves. A glossary and further reading section help those new to Comics solidify their understanding and further their exploration of this dynamic and growing field.
Comics versus art
Introduction: Out of the historical dustbin: comics and the hierarchy of genres -- What if comics were art? Defining a comics art world -- Roy Lichtenstein's tears: Ressentiment and exclusion in the world of pop art -- Searching for artists in the entertainment empire -- Cartoons as masterpieces: an essay on illustrated classics -- Highbrow comics and lowbrow art? the shifting contexts of the comics art object -- On junk, investments, and junk investments: the evolution of comic book collectibles -- Crumbs from the table: the place of comics in art museums -- By way of conclusion: Chris Ware's Comics about art.
Classics and Comics
Since at least 1939, when daily-strip caveman Alley Oop time-traveled to the Trojan War, comics have been drawing (on) material from Greek and Roman myth, literature, and history. At times, the connection is cosmetic, perhaps with Wonder Woman's Amazonian heritage, and at times, it is almost irrelevant, as with Hercules' starfaring adventures in the 1982 Marvel miniseries. But all of these make implicit or explicit claims about the place of classics in modern literary culture. Classics and Comics is the first book to explore the engagement of classics with the epitome of modern popular literature, the comic book. This volume collects sixteen articles, all specially commissioned for this volume, that look at how classical content is deployed in comics and reconfigured for a modern audience. It opens with a detailed historical introduction surveying the role of classical material in comics since the 1930s. Subsequent chapters cover a broad range of topics, including the incorporation of modern theories of myth into the creation and interpretation of comic books, the appropriation of characters from classical literature and myth, and the reconfiguration of motifs into a modern literary medium.
Superhero Comics
A complete guide to the history, form, and contexts of the genre, Superhero Comics helps readers explore the most successful and familiar comic book genres. In an accessible and easy-to-navigate format, the book reveals The history of superhero comics-from mythic influences to 21st-century evolutions·Cultural contexts-from the formative politics of colonialism, eugenics, and WWII fascism to the Cold War's transformative threat of mutually assured destruction to the on-going revolutions in African American and sexual representation·Key texts-from the earliest pre-Comics-Code Superman and Batman to the latest post-Code Ms. Marvel and Black Panther·Approaches to visual analysis-from layout norms to narrative structure to styles of abstraction.