This introduction to studying comics and graphic novels is a structured guide to a popular topic. It deploys new cognitive methods of textual analysis and features activities and exercises throughout.

• Deploys novel cognitive approaches to analyze the importance of psychological and physical aspects of reader experience
• Carefully structured to build a sequenced, rounded introduction to the subject
• Includes study activities, writing exercises, and essay topics throughout
• Dedicated chapters cover popular sub-genres such as autobiography and literary adaptation

Karin Kukkonen is Balzan Postdoctoral Research Fellow at St John’s College, University of Oxford, UK. Her research focuses on the emergence and development of comics as a narrative form during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Dr Kukkonen has published work on metaphors, metafiction, and multi-perspective storytelling in comics. Her recent monograph, Contemporary Comics Storytelling (2013) examines how the comics of recent years engage with the legacy of postmodernism.