f Comics art and urban cultural studies method through Chris Ware’s Building Stories (2012)

This concise editorial explores the current disciplinary gaps between geographical and humanities analyses of cultural production through consideration of a specific example. American comics artist Chris Ware’s Building Stories, considered a masterpiece of comics art, has attracted attention from both humanists and geographers on account of its urban theme and its intriguing architectural form. This interest raises two sets of questions for a proper cultural studies analysis. First, to what degree are humanities scholars approaching the work without attending to geographical issues of space/place that inevitably figure into its architectural form? And second, to what degree are geographers approaching the work without addressing the humanities issues of artistry and representation that figure into its comics form? Surveying the criticism on this work may provide some initial answers to these questions and in the process speak to larger issues of interdisciplinary research in urban cultural studies.