Photo (cc) Flickr user cobalt.

Photo (cc) Flickr user cobalt.

What Were Comics?

What Were Comics? (WWC?) is a research project being conducted by Bart Beaty (Principal Investigator), Nick Sousanis, and Benjamin Woo. Our goal is to develop a data-driven, empirically based history of the American comic book based on a large-scale sample of comics published in the United States over the last eighty years. Rather than starting from unusual and exceptional products of this industry, we want to better understand the way that the “typical” comic book developed over time.

Visit the project web site at whatwerecomics.com. Follow us on Twitter @whatwerecomics.

What Were Comics? is supported by an Insight grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.