ian hague

books

Comics and the Senses: In Print

Comics and the Senses Cover.jpg

Hello and welcome to www.ianhague.com!

I'll be blogging here about my news and events, along with any other things that spring to mind.

Today I'm excited to announce that my first book, Comics and the Senses is now in print from Routledge. Here's the blurb:

Attempts to define what comics are and explain how they work have not always been successful because they are premised upon the idea that comic strips, comic books and graphic novels are inherently and almost exclusively visual. This book challenges that premise, and asserts that comics is not just a visual medium. The book outlines the multisensory aspects of comics: the visual, audible, tactile, olfactory and gustatory elements of the medium. It rejects a synaesthetic approach (by which all the senses are engaged through visual stimuli) and instead argues for a truly multisensory model by which the direct stimulation of the reader’s physical senses can be understood. A wide range of examples demonstrates how multisensory communication systems work in both commercial and more experimental contexts. The book concludes with a case study that looks at the works of Alan Moore and indicates areas of interest that multisensory analysis can draw out, but which are overlooked by more conventional approaches. 

I've been working on the book for a long time and presented lots of snippets at conferences and other events, and it's very gratifying to know that people will soon be able to read it in full! If you'd like to know more about the book (including abstracts for each chapter) there's extra information on the books page of this site. I'll also be adding some free teaching resources to download from there in the near future (I'll post about them here when I do).

If you'd like to review the book please fill in this request form and Routledge will arrange to have a review copy sent to you. Let me know where your review is and I'll add a link to the books page on this site.

You can buy Comics and the Senses at various retailers, including: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Book Depository, Powell's Books, Saxo, and Waterstones.

I'd be very happy to hear from you if you have thoughts on the book or would like to talk to me about comics and the senses. You can get in touch by email, or by commenting on the blog.

Happy reading!

Ian