Bringing digital methods to the study of comics, this book traces the emergence of the graphic novel at the intersection of popular and literary culture. Based on a collection of 250 titles, it shows how the genre builds on the style of popular comics while adapting selected features of the novel.

Following Art Spiegelman's declaration that 'the future of comics is in the past,' this book considers comics memory in the contemporary North American graphic novel. Cartoonists such as Chris Ware, Seth, Charles Burns, Daniel Clowes, and others have not only produced some of the most important graphic novels, they have also turned to the history of comics as a common visual heritage to pass on to new readers. This book is a full-length study of contemporary cartoonists when they are at work as historians: it offers a detailed description of how they draw from the archives of comics history,...