A list of book-length, general studies on the history and criticism of the comics form.  Individual book entries may include the book's Table of Contents, on-site reviews, printed or online review citations, links to on-line information, and more. For other general overviews, see Specific Countries .

Reviews and Additional Information:  If you'd like to suggest titles or contribute a review of one of these books, please contact us.

NOTE:  indicates a new or revised entry added since April 1, 2008.

For more information on the relationship between text and image, be sure to visit these other web sites:

• The International Association for Word and Image Studies
• Visual Language Reference Bibliography : Maintained by Neil Cohn.
• Image [&] Narrative : A tri-lingual (English, French, and Spanish) on-line journal devoted to the narrative of the fixed image.

• 75 Years of the Comics. Intro. Maurice Horn. Boston and New York: Boston Book & Art / New York Cultural Center, 1971. SBN 843510102 (hc).
• Baetens, Jan. Formes et politique de la Bande Dessinée. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters, 1998. 151 pp. ISBN 90-429-0709-6 (Peeters Leuven), ISBN 2-877234142 (Peeters France)
• Baetens, Jan, ed. The Graphic Novel. Symbolae Facultatis Litterarum Lovaniensis - Series D - Volume 13. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2001. 212 pp. ISBN 90-5867-109-7 (paper).
  
• Baetens, Jan, and Pascal Lefèvre. Pour une lecture moderne de la bande dessinée (French version) / Strips anders lezen (Dutch version) . Amsterdam: Stichting Sherpa; Bruxelles: Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée, 1993. ISBN 907299566X (French); 9072995651 (Dutch). 
• Baetens, Jan and Mireille Ribière, eds. Time, Narrative & The Fixed Image / Temps, narration & image fixe. Faux Titre collection (Études de langue et littérature françaises). Amsterdam/Atlanta, GA: Rodopi  2001. 226 pp. ISBN 9042013664 (paper). *O* Buy It!
• Barker, Keith, ed.  Graphic Account.  Library Association Youth Libraries Group, 1993.  ISBN 0-946581-16-9.
• Baumgärtner, A.C. Die Welt der Comics. Bochum: Kamp, 1965.
• Bea, Josep Maria. La técnica del comic.
• Bell, Blake.  "I Have to Live with this Guy!"  Raleigh, NC: TwoMorrows, 2002.  208pp.  ISBN 1-893905-16-0 (paper).  [publisher's information]
  
• Bongco, Mila. Reading Comics: Language, Culture, and the Comcept of the Superhero in Comic Books .  Garland Studies in American Popular History and Culture.  New York and London: Garland, 2000.   238 pp.  ISBN 0-8153-3344-7 (hc).
  
• Carrier, David. The Aesthetics of Comics .  University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.  139 pp.  ISBN 0-271-01962-X (hc).
• Clark, Alan & Laurel. Comics: An Illustrated History .
• Clarke, Phil and Mike Higgs.  Nostalgia About Comics .  Assisted by Sue Williams.  Pegasus, 1991.  n.p. ISBN 1-873892-00-4 (paper).
• Comic Iconoclasm .  UK: Institue of Contemporary Art, 1987[?].
• Couperie, Pierre, and Marice C. Horn. A History of the Comic Strip . [Bande Dessinée et Figuration Narrative (France: 1967).] New York: Crown Publishers, 1968.
• Davidson, Steef. The Penguin Book of Political Comics . Trans. Hester and Marianne Velmans. [Beeldeen Storm: De Ontwikkeling van de Politieke Strip (Amsterdam: Van Gennep, 1976).] Harmondsworth and New York: Penguin Books, 1982.
• della Corte, Carlo. I Fumetti . Encyclopedia Popolare Mondadori. Italy: Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1961. (paper)
• Dierick, Charles and Pascal Lefèvre, eds.  Forging a New Medium: The Comic Strip in the Nineteenth Century .  Brussels: VUB University Press, 1998.  214 pp.  ISBN 90-5487-206-3.
• Doetsch [Dretsch?], M. Comics und ihre jugendlichen Leser . Meisenheim am Glan: Hain, 1958.
• Dorfman, Ariel.  The Empire's Old Clothes.  New York: Pantheon, 1983.
• Douglas, Allen, and Fedwa Malti-Douglas. Arab Comic Strips: Politics of an Emerging Mass Culture . Bloomington & Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1994. 263 pp. ISBN 0-253-31814-9 (cloth), 0-253-20831-9 (paper).
• Eisner , Will. Comics and Sequential Art . Expanded Edition. Tamarac, FL: Poorhouse Press, 1985. *P*
• Eisner , Will. Graphic Storytelling. Tamarac, FL: Poorhouse Press, 1996.
• Fern, A. Comics as Serial Fiction. M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1968.
• Gaumer, Patrick, and Claude Moliterni, eds. Dictionaire Mondial de la Bande Dessinée . Paris: Larousse, 1994. ISBN 2-03-523510-3.
• Geipel, John. The Cartoon: A Short History of Graphic Comedy and Satire. South Brunswick and New York: A. S. Barnes and Company, 1972. ISBN 0498011496 (cloth).
• Gifford, Denis. International Book of Comics.
• Goulart, Ron. Comic Book Encyclopedia. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. 378pp. ISBN 0060538163 (hc.) Buy It!
• Goulart, Ron. The Great Comic Book Artists. New York: St. Martin's P, 1986. 128pp. ISBN 0312345577 (paper). Buy It!
• Goulart, Ron.  The Great Comic Book Artists, Volume 2.  New York: St. Martin's P, 1989.  113pp.  ISBN 0-312-01768-5 (paper).
• Groensteen, Thierry (ed.)  Bande Dessinée, Récit et Modernité .  Paris: Futuropolis, 1988. 173 pp. ISBN 2-7376-5689-3.
• Groensteen, Thierry. The System of Comics. Trans. Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007. ISBN 1578069254 (cloth).
• Groensteen, Thierry. Système de la Bande Dessinée. Formes Sémiotiques. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1999.
• Gutjahr, Paul and Megan L. Benton, eds.  Illuminating Letters: Typography and Literary Interpretation .  Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001.  198 pp.  ISBN 1-55849-288-7 (hc).
• Harrison, R.P. The Cartoon--Communication to the Quick. Beverly Hills, CA, 1981.
• Hess, Thomas B. and John Ashbery, eds. Narrative Art. Art News Annual XXXVI. New York: Macmillan, 1970. 166pp.
• Horn. Maurice, ed. The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons .  New York and London: Chelsea House, 1981. *P*
• Horn, Maurice, ed. The World Encyclopedia of Comics. New York: Chelsea House, 1976. ISBN 0-87754-030-6.
• Horn, Maurice, ed. The World Encyclopedia of Comics. Revised and Updated.  New York: Chelsea House, 1998. 1,062 pp.
• Horn, Robert E. Visual Language: Global Communication for the 21st Century .  Bainbridge Island, WA: MacroVU, 1998.  270 pp. ISBN 1-892637-09-X (paper).
• Howe, Sean, ed. and introduction.  Give Our Regards to the Atom Smashers! Writers on Comics. New York: Pantheon, 2004. 228pp. ISBN 0375422560 (hc).
  
• Hünig, Wolfgang K.  Strukturen des Comic Strip.  Ansätze zu einer textlinguistisch-semiotischen Analyse narrativer comics .  Hildesheim and New York: Geirg Olms Verlag, 1974.
• Kaukoranta, Heikki and Jukka Kemppinen. Sarjakuvat.  Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtio Otava, 1982. ISBN 951-1-06710-9 (hc).
  
• Kempkes, Wolfgang. Bibliographie der internationalen Literatur über Comics, 2., verbesserte Auflage / International Bibliography of Comics Literature, 2nd revised edition .  Pullach/München, Verlag Dokumentation, 1974. 293 pp. (1st edition, 1971.)
• Kunzle, David. The Early Comic Strip.
• Kunzle, David. The History of the Comic Strip: The Nineteenth Century. Berkeley: University Press of California, 1990.
• Lent, John A., compiler. Comic Art in Africa, Asia, Australia, and Latin America: A Comprehensive, International Bibliography. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1996.
• Lent, John A. Comic Art of Europe: An International, Comprehensive Bibliography. Bibliographies and Indexes in Popular Culture, no. 5. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press, 1994. ISBN 0-313-28212-9 (cloth). *P*
• Magnussen, Anne and Hans-Christian Christiansen, eds.  Comics & Culture: Analytical and Theoretical Approaches to Comics.  Copenhagen, Denmark: Museum Tusculanum P / University of Copenhagen, 2000.  ISBN 87-7289-650-2.
  
• McAllister, Matthew P., Edward H. Sewell, and Ian Gordon, eds. Comics and Ideology. Popular Culture and Everyday Life, Vol. 2. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2001. 320 pages. ISBN: 0820452491.
  
• McCloud, Scott. Reinventing Comics. Font Designed by John Roshell. New York: Paradox Press-DC Comics, 2000. 252 pp. No ISBN (sc).
• McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art . Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press, 1993. *P* *O*
• McCloud, Scott. L'art invisible. Comprendre la bande dessinée. Traduit de l'anglais par Dominique Petitfaux. Éd. Vertige Graphic, 1999[?].
• McLaughlin, Jeff, ed. Comics as Philosophy. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2005. 256pp. ISBN 1578067944 (cloth). Publisher's information. Buy It!
• Metken, G. Comics. Frankfurt: Fischer, 1970.
• Moliterni, Claude, Philippe Mellot, and Michel Denni. Les aventures de la BD. Gallimard, 1996. ISBN 2-07-0533341-7.
• Morgan, Harry & Manuel Hirtz. Le Petit Critique Illustré. France: PLG, 1997. ISBN 2950562833.
• Naepel, Oliver. Auschwitz im Comic- Die Abbildung unvorstellbarer Zeitgeschichte. [i.e.: Auschwitz in Comics - The Depiction of Unimaginable Contemporary History.] Muenster: LIT, 1998. ISBN 3-8258-3703-3.
• Peeters, Benoît. La bande dessinée. Paris: Flammarion, 1993. 127 pp.ISBN 2080351745.
• Peeters, Benoît. Case, planche, récit: lire la bande dessinée. Paris/Tournai: Casterman, 1998. (first published in 1991 with subtitle ‘comment lire une bande dessinée.’) 144 pp. ISBN 2-203-32610-7.
• Perry, George, and Alan Aldridge. The Penguin Book of Comics. 1967. Revised London: Penguin, 1989.
• Pieper, Gail W., with Kenneth D. Nordin and Joseph Ursitti. Understanding the Funnies: Critical Interpretations of Comic Strips. Lisle, IL: Procopian Press, 1997. 180pp.
• Pilcher, Tim and Brad Brooks. The Essential Guide to World Comics. Foreword by Dave Gibbons. London: Collins & Brown, 2005. 320pp. ISBN 1843403005. Buy It!
• Plowright, Frank, ed. The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide. Aurum P, 1997. 448pp. ISBN 1854104861 (paper).
• Plowright, Frank, ed.  The Slings & Arrows Comic Guide.  2nd edition.  Slings & Arrows Ltd., 2003.  787pp.  ISBN 0954458907 (paper).
  
• Poliester 2:6, Summer 1993.
• Print XLII:VI, November/December 1988.
• Reitberger, Reinhold and Wolfgang Fuchs. Comics: Anatomy of a Mass Medium . Little, Brown, 1972. English-language edition of Comics: Anatomie eines Massenmediums. *P*
• Renard, J. Bruno. Clefs pour la bande dessinée . Seghers, 1978.
• Rey, Alain. Les Spectres de la bande dessinée . Ed. de Minuit, 1979.
• Riha, K. Zok roarr wumm, Zur Geschichte der Comics Literature . Steinbach: Anabas, 1970.
• Rothschild, D. Aviva. Graphic Novels: A Bibliographic Guide to Full-Length Comics. Libraries Unlimited, 1995. 245 p. ISBN 1-56308-086-9 (cloth).
• Sabin, Roger. Adult Comics: An Introduction. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.
• Sabin, Roger. Comics, Comix, & Graphic Novels: A History of Comic Art . London: Phaidon P, 1996. ISBN 0714830089
• Sadoul, Jacques. 93 ans de BD . Paris: J'ai Lu, 1989. ISBN 2227225614 (paper).
• Saraceni, Mario. The Language of Comics. Intertext. London and New York: Routledge, 2003. 110pp. ISBN 0-415-28670-0 (hc); 041521422X (paper).
  
• Scott, Randall W. The Comic Art Collection Catalog: An Author, Artist, Title, and Subject Catalog of the Comic Art Collection, Special Collections Division, Michigan State University. Westport, CT and London: Greenwood Press.
• Silbermann, Alphons and H.-D. Dyroff, eds. Comics and Visual Culture: Research Studies from Ten Countries / La BD et la culture visuelle: Traveaux de recherche réalisés dans dix pays / Comics und visuelle Kultur: Forschungsbeiträge aus zehn Ländern . München, New York, London, Paris: K.G. Saur, 1986  ISBN 3-598-10604-1 (hc). 264pp.
• Spaulding, Amy. The Page as a Stage Set: Storyboard Picture Books. Metuchen, NJ & London: The Scarecrow Press, 1995. 281pp. ISBN 0810828928 (cloth).
  
• Sternberg, J, Caen, M., Lob, J. Le chefs-d'oeuvre de la bande dessinée . Paris: Anthologie Planête, 1967.
• Szabo, Joe and John A. Lent. Cartoonometer: Taking the Pulse of the World's Cartoonists. North Wales, PA: WittyWorld, 1994. 124pp. ISBN 0-9631600-6-0 (paper).
  
• Szenarien des Comic: Helden und Historien im Medium der Schriftbildlichkeit. Herausgegeben von Stefanie Diekmann und Matthias Schneider. SuKuLTuR, 2006. 222pp. ISBN 393773788X.
• Varnum, Robin, and Christina T. Gibbons, eds. The Language of Comics: Word and Image . Studies in Popular Culture. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2002. 222 pp. ISBN 1578064139 (cloth), 157806-4147 (paper).
  
• Vidal-Folch, Ignacio, and Ramón de España. El Canon de los Comics . Glénat, 199?. 152pp.
• Walker, Mort. The Lexicon of Comicana. Port Chester, N.Y.: Museum of Cartoon Art, c1980. rpt: Backinprint.com, 2000. 108pp. ISBN 059508902X. Buy it!
• Welke, M. Die Sprache der Comics. Frankfurt: dipa, 1958.
• Wertham, Fredric. The World of Fanzines . Southern Illinois UP, 1974[?].
• Wetemke, J., ed. Comics und Religion . Munich, 1976.
• Yoe, Craig. Weird but True Toon Factoids. NY: Random House, 1999. 128pp. ISBN 0517201704 (hc). Buy It!
• Zimmermann, H.D. ed. Comic Strips . Berlin: Gebrüder Mann, 1970.
• WebLink: The Grand Comic Database Public Site: an ambitious project to assemble complete information on every comic book ever published.
• WebLink: Il fumetto: dalle origini al Primo Novecento: First page of an Italian-language history of comics.