Zap! Bang! Pow! Intellectuals Discover Comics!
There are a few kernels of genuine insight to be found in Paul Buhle's piece, "The New Scholarship of Comics" in the Journal of Higher Education, but after reading the article in total, I must conclude that their presence is merely (co-)incidental. There's a lot of good work being done in exploring the history and aesthetics of sequential art, mostly by folks like R.C. Harvey, Trina Robbins and Scott McCloud, who have some experience in the art and the industry. A lot of so-called fan scholarship is surprisingly good as well, such as the magazines put out by John Morrow and Jon Cooke, or the participants in the Golden and Silver Age mailing list. Most of what has issued from the Academy on this subject, however, has been rehash of completely obvious subjects, worthless blather or both.
9:38:01 PM 
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