The first serious, readable, provocative, canon-smashing book of comics theory and criticism by the leading critic in the field. Suddenly, comics are everywhere: a newly matured art form, filling bookshelves with brilliant, innovative work and shaping the ideas and images of the rest of contemporary culture. In Reading Comics , critic Douglas Wolk shows us why and how. Wolk illuminates the most dazzling creators of modern comics--from Alan Moore to Alison Bechdel to Chris Ware--and explains their roots, influences, and where they fit into the pantheon of art. As accessible to the hardcore fan as to the curious newcomer, Reading Comics is the first book for people who want to know not just which comics are worth reading, but ways to think and talk and argue about them.