Encapsulations: Critical Comics Studies

In the creation of comics or graphic novels, encapsulation refers to the artistic and cognitive process whereby panels, images, words, and page layout create meaning and engage the reader. These connotations of selection and design underpin the aims of Encapsulations. This series of short monographs offers close readings of carefully delineated bodies of comics work with an emphasis on expanding the critical range and depth of comics studies.

By looking at understudied and overlooked texts, artists, and publishers, Encapsulations facilitates a move away from the same “big” and oft-examined texts. Instead the series uses more diverse case studies to explore new and existing critical theories in tune with an interdisciplinary, intersectional, and global approach to comics scholarship. With an eye to breaking established patterns and forging new opportunities for scholarship, books in the series advance the theoretical grounding of comics scholarship and broaden critical knowledge of global comics. By showcasing new interdisciplinary perspectives and addressing emerging conceptual, formal, and methodological problems, Encapsulations promotes new approaches, contributes to the diversity of comics scholarship, and delves into uncharted sections of the comics archive.

Compact, affordable, and accessibly written, books in the Encapsulations series are addressed to the interested general reader as well as scholars and students. These volumes provide teachable, critical texts for comics studies as well as myriad classes beyond including history, literature, cultural studies, semiotics, media studies, and many others, fostering a deeper general understanding of comics’ cultural and historical impact, promoting critical public literacy, and enriching comics-based teaching while expanding notions of what’s worthy of academic study.