Autobiographical Comics by Andrew Kunka (review)

Texts that comprise the Bloomsbury Comics Studies Series work as introductions to different topics in Comics Studies; books in the series include titles that discuss the "power of comics," superhero comics, webcomics, children's and young adult comics, and, with Andrew Kunka's new volume, autobiographical comics. Series editor Derek Parker Royal notes that the series is conceived of as presenting a "democratic approach" to the study of comics: envisioned as "an exploratory bridge between specialist and student," the content of each book "is structured to include an historical overview of its subject matter, a survey of its key texts, a discussion of the topic's social and cultural impact, recommendations for critical and classroom uses, a list of resources for further study, and a glossary reflecting the text's specific focus." It is important to note, then, that both the audience and the organization of Kunka's Autobiographical Comics are prescriptive and that, in addition to tackling an ever-expanding and complex field, he strives to present this information to an audience of specialists and nonspecialists alike. As such, at the end of the first chapter, Kunka provides a section titled "This Book and How to Use It," explaining that he hopes readers can draw on the book in different ways, perhaps looking solely at one section or another for specific information or reading the book through and thereby moving from the general to the particular. That said, and as he notes, the sections are purposefully repetitive and extensively cross-referenced.

Autobiographical Comics is ambitious in its scope. It condenses scholarship and primary sources about 1) the history of graphic narrative (including many early and proto-autobiographical works as well as a comprehensive discussion of underground comix); 2) the crucial role of autobiography in comics—especially in the United States; 3) the negotiation of critical issues in autobiographical graphic narrative (including sections on trauma, adolescence, the confessional, gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, graphic medicine, censorship and controversy, and web comics); 4) an in-depth discussion of key texts in the field; 5) appendices which provide primary documents that serve to bolster his observations throughout; 6) a glossary; 7) a section on primary resources; and 8) a section on critical resources. The four appendices include a 2012 panel discussion on comics and autobiography with Justin Green, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Carol Tyler, moderated by Deborah Nelson; Derek Parker Royal's interview with Jennifer Hayden, author of The Story of My Tits (2015), a breast cancer narrative which was originally released on the Comics Alternative podcast in 2015; and two excerpts from graphic narratives that show the authors explicitly negotiate issues of representation and self-representation.

The key texts Kunka details include those that comprise what many consider canonical works in the form: Art Spiegelman's Maus (1986, 1991) and In the Shadow of No Towers (2004); Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis (Story of a Childhood [2004], Story of a Return [2005], and Complete Persepolis [2007]); and Alison Bechdel's Fun Home (2006). Unsurprisingly, it is this trio to which he returns again and again, citing their popularity both in classrooms and in academic scholarship. In this section, he also includes discussions of some early influential works, like Justin Green's Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary (1972); profiles of Robert Crumb and Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Harvey Pekar's American Splendor (1976–1991); and Keiji Nakazawa's Barefoot Gen: A Cartoon Story of Hiroshima (original manga series: 1972–1985). Finally, he provides analyses of more contemporary works by Phoebe Gloeckner, (A Child's Life [1998] and The Diary of a Teenage Girl [2002]); Joe Matt, Chester Brown, Seth, Lynda Barry (One Hundred Demons [2002]); and Craig Thompson (Blankets [2003]), including details about the works' publication and briefly characterizing the critical conversation about each. Kunka is keenly interested in the production of many of these texts, not solely in their reception and analysis, but also in their creation and marketing, which distinguishes his book from others that consider the relationship...