"Philosopher David Carrier looks at popular American, European, and Japanese comic strips to identify and solve the aesthetic problems posed by comic strips and to explain the relationship of this artistic genre to other forms of visual art. He traces the use of speech and thought balloons, an identifying feature of comic strips, to early Renaissance art, and claims that the speech balloon defines comics as neither a purely visual nor a strictly verbal art form, but as something radically new. Comics, he claims, are essentially a composite art that, when successful, seamlessly combine verbal and visual elements." "Finally, Carrier relates comics to art history. Carrier's analysis of comics shows why this slight-seeming form of art is worthy of philosophical study, and proves that a better understanding of comics will help us better understand the history of visual art."--BOOK JACKET.