Comics have conquered America. From our multiplexes, where Marvel and DC movies reign supreme, to our television screens, where comics-based shows likeThe Walking Deadhave become among the most popular in cable history, to convention halls, best-seller lists, Pulitzer Prize-winning titles, and MacArthur Fellowship recipients,comics shape American culture, in ways high and low,superficial,and deeply profound.

InAmerican Comics, Columbia professor Jeremy Dauber takes readers through theirincredible but little-knownhistory, starting with the Civil War and cartoonist Thomas Nast, creator of the lasting and iconic images of Uncle Sam and Santa Claus; the golden age of newspaper comic stripsand the first great superhero boom; the moral panic of the Eisenhower era, the Marvel Comics revolution, and the underground comix movement of the 1960s and ‘70s; andfinally into the twenty-first century, taking in the grim and gritty Dark Knights andWatchmen alongside the brilliant rise of the graphic novel byacclaimedpractitioners like Art Spiegelman and Alison Bechdel.

Dauber’s story shows not only how comics have changed over the decades but how American politics and culture have changed them. Throughout, he describes the origins of beloved comics, champions neglected masterpieces, and argues that we can understand how America sees itself throughwhosestories comics tell. Striking and revelatory, American Comics is a rich chronicle of the last 150 years of American history through the lens of its comic strips, political cartoons, superheroes, graphic novels, and more. FEATURING

American Splendor
Archie
The Avengers
Kyle Baker
Batman
C. C. Beck
Black Panther
Captain America
RozChast
Walt Disney
Will Eisner
NeilGaiman
BillGaines
Bill Griffith
Harley Quinn
Jack Kirby
Denis Kitchen
KrazyKat
Harvey Kurtzman
Stan Lee
Little Orphan Annie
Maus
Frank Miller
Alan Moore
Mutt and Jeff
GaryPanter
Peanuts
DavPilkey
Gail Simone
Spider-Man
Superman
Dick Tracy
WonderWart-Hog
Wonder Woman
The Yellow Kid
Zap Comix

ANDMANY MORE OFYOURFAVORITES!