A comic book is the sum of its parts. Together the artwork, characters, logos, layouts, lettering, covers, and colors that comprise a comic book tell a narrative that none of these elements could accomplish on their own. Comics are often referred to as an art form, and while that's certainly true, they are also deeply tied to the world of design, where the arrangement of visual elements on a page is created to serve an explicit purpose. In the case of comics, that purpose is to tell a story—to excite, engross, and sometimes even enrage readers. In short, a comic is designed to entertain.
Comics do so through a distinctly graphic mode of storytelling. Unlike a novel, which is heavy with text, or a picture book that is mostly devoid of words, comic books combine both image and text to create a unique narrative format whose graphic elements, like onomatopoeia, word balloons, and logo lettering, bring the medium to life. With this book, we're celebrating the publisher's distinct visual language by looking at its vast universe of comic books through a graphic design lens for the first time ever.
Over the years, Marvel has inspired generations of creatives through the design of its comic books. Along the way, its influence has seeped into various facets of visual culture, including fine art, graphic design, advertising, gaming, and digital interfaces. The natural interplay between comics and visual culture at large set the stage for the book you're about to read.

Bibliografía: p. 319