The very first thing one notices about “Comics and Media,” aside from its unmistakably Robert Crumb-drawn cover (in which a brawny drag queen and an effeminate youth hold hands in application for a marriage license), is its size, its materiality—appropriately enough, considering the collection’s emphasis on the materiality and embodiments of comics and, more broadly, media at large. In the introduction to this collection, editors Hillary Chute and Patrick Jagoda describe the size of this special issue of Critical Inquiry as unprecedented in the journal’s history. Indeed, there is much about “Comics and Media” that is somewhat unprecedented, particularly its unique blend of scholarly essays, panel transcripts and interviews, and original artwork by nine leading cartoonists. What holds these disparate units together is Chute and Jagoda’s editorial emphasis on embodied practices of reading and creating, particularly amid “the intertwining of theory and practice” evident in “Comics and Media” (2014, 2)....

You do not currently have access to this content.