from Europe and USA and offers an introduction to the field of comics research. The articles exhibit a great variety of approaches including general discussions of the definition and aesthetics of comics, comparisons of comics with other media, analyses of specific comics and genres, and discussions of the cultural status of comics in society.

Of the contributors, Thierry Groensteen, Roger Sabin, Pascal Lefèvre, Donald Ault and M. Thomas Inge are all recognized and established comic researchers with important publication lists. To this group is added a new generation af comic researchers represented by Hans Christian Christiansen, Christopher Murray, Ole Frahm, Anne Magnussen and James How. As a third group, George Legrady, Jesper Nielsen and Søren Wichmann approach the subject of comics from another, but related field of research. In the case of Legrady from interactive media; Nielsen and Wichmann from Maya sequential art painted on ceramics.