BOBC

Table of Contents

Preface (6)
Introduction (10)

I. 1968–1978

1. THE UNDERGROUNDS AND AFTER (22)
Robert Crumb • Underground Diversity • The End? • The Post-Underground and Non-Fiction Comics

2. AMERICAN MAINSTREAM COMICS (44)
Dawn of the 1970s: The Superhero Trap • Breaking the Mold: Neil Adams • Striving for Creative Freedom: Kirky’s Free Reign • Toward the Graphic Novel: Gil Kane’s “Pictorial Fiction”

3. AMERICAN MAINSTREAM COMICS: A NEW GENERATlON (52)
The Brash Traditionalists: Old Sources, New Attitudes • Ground Level Comics: Where Mainstream and Underground Meet

4. Mainstream Manga (62)
Shōnen Manga • Seinen Manga • Shōjo Manga

5. GARO AND ALTERNATIVE MANGA (78)
Garo and Watakushi Manga

6. TEZUKA (88)

7. L’AGE ADULTE IN BANDE DESSINÉE AND OTHER EUROPEAN COMICS (92)
L’age adulte: Pilote and Comics Scholarship • Fantasy and Formal Play • Fumetti d’autore • The Argentinian Connection

8. THE NEW EUROPEAN PUBLISHING (110)
L’Écho des Savannes • Moebius, Science Fiction and Screaming Metal • European and British Undergrounds • People of the Book: Futuropolis • Comics as High Art: Outliers and Harbingers

II. 1978–1990

9. À SUIVRE AND THE WILD lNVASION (130)
Bande dessinée Romanesque: Literary Models and Tranches de la vie • Cerebral Absurdism and Whimsical Noir • Nouveau réalisme • The Return of Ligne claire: “La fin de la bande dessinée adulte”

10. NEW TRENDS IN ITALIAN AND SPANISH COMICS (154)
Italy: The New Adult Fumetti • Spain: Linea chunga and Neotebeo

11. MAINSTREAM REBELS IN THE U.S. AND U.K. (164)
2000AD and the Rebirth of Science Fiction • From Chris Claremont to Frank Miller: Longer Stories, Darker Themes • The British Invasion, First Wave

12. THE DAWN OF THE GRAPHIC NOVEL, THE RAW GENERATION AND PUNK COMIX (180)
Dawn of the Graphic Novel • RAW and the New Alternative Comics • Subversive Self-Publishers and Newave Mini Comix • Alternative Newspaper Comics

13. THE GROWTH OF REALISM IN MANGA (198)
Dystopian Stories, Realistic Imagery • Taboo Love, Adult Romance and the Birth of Josei • Alternative Manga: Garo 1978–1990

III. 1990 ONWARD

14. AMERICAN MAINSTREAM COMICS IN THE 1990s (214)
The Sandman and the Birth of Vertigo • Alternative Interprets Mainstream • Superstar Artists and the Spectacular Boom • Challenges for the Mainstream: Dark Horse and Image • Decompressed Comics, Stylized Nostalgia and Cinematic Aspirations

15. AMERICAN ALTERNATIVE COMICS OF THE 1990s (228)
Selfpublishing and the Black-and-White Boom • Nineties Alternatives: Autobiography and Melancholy Nostalgia • Fort Thunder, Highwater Books and the Comic as Art Object

16. EUROPEAN COMICS IN THE 1990s (246)
Strapazin and the German-Swiss Avant Garde • Mainstream Bande dessinée: Bright Points in a Monotone Landscape • Alternative and Avant-garde Bande dessinée: L’Association • Similar Ventures across the Continent

17. THE QUEST FOR “RESPECTABLE” MANGA (266)
An Increased Creative Role for Editors • Resurgence and Reinvention in Flagging Genres • The Last Days of Garo

18. COMICS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: AN INTERNATIONAL ART FORM (276)

19. NEW FORMS, NEW TECHNOLOGIES, NEW AUDIENCES (292)

NOTES (310)
BIBLIOGRAPHY (311)
INDEX OF CREATORS (313)
INDEX OF COMICS (316)
IMAGE CREDITS (319)