Skip to main content Skip to search Skip to search

Social Science General

Comics Versus Art

Comics in the Art World

by (author) Bart Beaty

Publisher
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division
Initial publish date
Aug 2012
Category
General, General, Popular Culture
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781442643512
    Publish Date
    Aug 2012
    List Price
    $69.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442612044
    Publish Date
    Jul 2012
    List Price
    $44.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442696273
    Publish Date
    Jul 2012
    List Price
    $34.95

Add it to your shelf

Where to buy it

Out of print

This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.

Description

On the surface, the relationship between comics and the ‘high’ arts once seemed simple; comic books and strips could be mined for inspiration, but were not themselves considered legitimate art objects. Though this traditional distinction has begun to erode, the worlds of comics and art continue to occupy vastly different social spaces.

Comics Versus Art examines the relationship between comics and the most important institutions of the art world; including museums, auction houses, and the art press. Bart Beaty's analysis centres around two questions: why were comics excluded from the history of art for most of the twentieth century, and what does it mean that comics production is now more closely aligned with the art world? Approaching this relationship for the first time through the lens of the sociology of culture, Beaty advances a completely novel approach to the comics form.

About the author

Bart Beaty is associate professor of communication and culture at the University of Calgary. His work has been published in the Comics Journal, International Journal of Comic Art, Canadian Journal of Communication, Essays in Canadian Writing, and Canadian Review of American Studies.

Bart Beaty's profile page

Editorial Reviews

“Comics Versus Art is an intriguing text for readers of comics, and an illuminating look at the theoretical underpinnings of what we call – and refuse to call – art.”

Quill and Quire

‘This solid, sound, intriguing book will set the discourse on art and comics for a considerable time. Essential. All readers.’

Choice Magazine vol 50:07:2013

‘Excellent investigation of the world of comics… In writing a history of ways the comic world has been taken up during modern era and beyond through sociology of art perspective, Beaty has made a valuable new contribution to the study of comic form.

Canadian Literature 219, winter 2013

Other titles by

The Origins of Comics

From William Hogarth to Winsor McCay

by (author) Thierry Smolderen
translated by Bart Beaty & Nick Nguyen

Of Comics and Men

A Cultural History of American Comic Books

by (author) Jean-Paul Gabilliet
translated by Bart Beaty & Nick Nguyen

How Canadians Communicate III

Contexts of Canadian Popular Culture

edited by Bart Beaty, Derek Briton, Gloria Filax & Rebecca Sullivan

The System of Comics

by (author) Thierry Groensteen
translated by Bart Beaty & Nick Nguyen

David Cronenberg's A History of Violence

by (author) Bart Beaty

Unpopular Culture

Transforming the European Comic Book in the 1990s

by (author) Bart Beaty

How Canadians Communicate, Vol. 2

Media, Globalization and Identity

contributions by David Taras, Kenneth J. Goldstein, Richard Schultz, Christopher Dornan, Maria Bakardjieva, Bart Beaty, Rebecca Sullivan, Marc Raboy, Michael Keren, Richard Sutherland, Will Straw, Stephen Kline, Graham Longford, Sheryl N. Hamilton, Frits Panekoek, Helen Clark, Andrew Waller & David Mitchell
edited by Frits Pannekoek

How Canadians Communicate, Vol. 2

Media, Globalization and Identity

contributions by David Taras, Kenneth J. Goldstein, Richard Schultz, Christopher Dornan, Maria Bakardjieva, Bart Beaty, Rebecca Sullivan, Marc Raboy, Michael Keren, Richard Sutherland, Will Straw, Stephen Kline, Graham Longford, Sheryl N. Hamilton, Frits Panekoek, Helen Clark, Andrew Waller & David Mitchell
edited by Frits Pannekoek

Unpopular Culture

Transforming the European Comic Book in the 1990s

by (author) Bart Beaty

Canadian Television Today

by (author) Bart Beaty & Rebecca Sullivan