The monograph offered to the reader's attention is the first fundamental study in domestic film science about a special phenomenon of art and media culture - the film comic. The book traces the birth and metamorphosis of the American film comic in its socio-historical and artistic context; the role in its formation of such ideological complexes as the philosophy of the frontier and the "manifesto of fate"; the semantics of the superhero mask and the nature of its "dual identity" are revealed; explores the hybrid genre structure of the film comic and the stylistic influence of camp and noir aesthetics.