**Nominated for the 2021 Eisner Award for Best Academic/Scholarly Work**

The first critical guide to cover the history, form and key critical issues of the medium, Webcomics helps readers explore the diverse and increasingly popular worlds of online comics.

In an accessible and easy-to-navigate format, the book covers such topics as:

·The history of webcomics and how developments in technology from the 1980s onwards presented new opportunities for comics creators and audiences
·Cultural contexts - from the new financial and business models allowed by digital media to social justice causes in contemporary webcomics
·Key texts - from early examples of the form such as Girl Genius and Penny Arcade to popular current titles such as Questionable Content and Dumbing of Age
·Important theoretical and critical approaches to studying webcomics

Webcomics includes a glossary of crucial critical terms, annotated guides to further reading, and online resources and discussion questions to help students and readers develop their understanding of the genre and pursue independent study.

Stephen Message is one of the UK's foremost bird artists as well as an experienced birdwatcher. He studied Graphic Design, then specialised in natural history illustration at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art and has worked as a freelance artist ever since. Stephen has twice been runner up for the Bird Illustrator of the Year, and he was also the runner up for the Birdwatch Artist of the Year in 2017. Stephen has illustrated many books in his career, including Waders of Europe, Asia and North America, Bill Oddie's Birds of Britain and Ireland and the Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia.

Marianne Taylor is a freelance writer, illustrator, photographer and editor. Marianne worked in publishing for seven years before taking the plunge as a freelancer in 2007. Since then, she has written more than 25 books for adults and children on a range of natural history subjects, including RSPB Garden Birds, RSPB British Birds of Prey, RSPB Seabirds and The Way of the Hare. A passion for all wildlife, but especially birds, has always been a driving force in Marianne's life.

Bloomsbury Wildlife is the proud home of many of the best and most passionate nature writers around. With books on everything from mushrooms to marine animals and ducks to dinosaurs, readers of all levels and interests are sure to find something engaging among our extensive range of natural history titles.