Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature #[nn]

Charles Hatfield's *Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature* makes a compelling case for the comics medium as a serious literary form, arriving from the University Press of Mississippi in 2005. The cover itself is a confident statement of purpose — sample comic panels in stark black and white fan out against a white background accented with pink pop-art bursts, showcasing contrasting styles: a brooding, introspective figure musing "If I lived a different life I could still write about it," alongside a kinetic action sequence and a tense exchange between two bespectacled figures debating whether their audience will understand. It's a smart visual argument that alternative comics contain multitudes, and this book promises to explore exactly that.