Panels is an attempt to create a literary journal dealing with comics. A fine idea, and it seems like nice enough people trying to get it started, although two undergrads starting a literary journal may not give it the weight in the academic community it deserves. I guess the proof will be in the quality of the articles that they publish.

Of course, I have been impressed with the level of discussion on the web recently.

Dave Fiore gives some analysis of How to Read Super-Hero Comics and Why, including some nice context on its place with respect to other types of media criticism.

J.W. Hastings gives his analysis as well, bringing up the point that literary analysis pays too much attention to writing and not enough attention to the art.

And while I think this level of analysis is interesting and important for the medium (and is often served well by The Comics Journal), I also think there is a little bit more accessible level of discussion that should be going on, more along the lines of discussing flaws in popular storylines.

Kind of unfortunate all of these examples are relating to superhero comics, though.