Comics and the U.S. South

This class offers an overview on the history of American comics from the late 19th century to the present day. Discussing key works form various periods alongside comics studies research, the class considers the diverse forms and formats (from the tableau to the strip, the comic book, and the graphic novel to digital comics) that have defined the medium at different points in time. In particular, we will zoom in on the relationship between formal and medial changes and the shifting cultural status of comics—which have, at different times, been enjoyed by readers of all ages, been dismissed as mindless and ephemeral drivel, been condemned as corrupting the minds of young readers, and been lauded as a vehicle for serious literary expression. Combining media studies and cultural studies perspectives, the class considers comics both as a distinct and evolving medium of cultural expression and as commercial products that engage readers in unique ways and inspire attendant cultural practices on the part of consumers. To do so, the seminar addresses basic definitional and conceptual questions and examines long-running titles and figures from the first five decades of the 20th century—like the Yellow Kid (Hogan's Alley/McFadden's Row of Flats, since 1893), Little Nemo In Slumberland (1905-1926), Dick Tracy (since 1931) or Superman (Action Comics and other titles, since 1938), for example—whose popularity allowed them to conquer media beyond comics. Later in the semester, we will furthermore explore the rise of the comic book as a distinct format, consider genres popular between the 1950s and 1970s (like romance, horror, and super-hero comics), discuss the emergence of the graphic novel as more 'literary' type of comics, and eventually turn to the place of the medium within digital-era popular culture.

Oxford Handbook of Comic Book Studies, 2020

Comics studies is an emerging field of scholarship. Some scholars in the field have even started to think of it in disciplinary terms. There are, however, no graduate programs of study in the field or anything yet established that can be considered a canon of works. Indeed comics studies at times seems to consist of fiefdoms grouped around objects of study like graphic novels, superhero comic books, comic strips and extreme ouliers like editorial cartoons. This chapter offers some initial observations on works that have shaped the field to date through a small study of citation rates of authors working in the field.

2016

2010

The course focuses on the reconstruction of comic books’ role in American culture. Comics as well as graphic novels are often seen as purely American medium and thus it important to discuss its uniqueness and well as its place among other art-forms. The definition of comic book as a specific form of art will be the starting point. During the first part of the course several schools of American comic books in historical perspective will be analysed from the popular superhero stories to underground ones. Our attention will be directed to the analysis of the evolution of the medium and its main genres. During the second part of the course selected important comics and graphic novel will be thoroughly analysed. Special attention will be devoted to European, especially British authors who created their main works in US and became the force that revolutionised the medium (Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Garth Ennis).

Journal of Graphic Novels & Comics, 2010

Inks, 2017

Using Walt Kelly's work as a focus, this article explores facets of the complex and controversial history of how African American character types and folk forms were represented in early to mid-twentieth century comics. Pushing past reductive treatments that posit a melioristic arc (racist uses progressing into fully sanitized or deracialized texts), the author makes two key points: that early twentieth century comics within this genre were varied and conflicted in their meanings and uses, with their key characters often embodying a number of sympathetic roles beyond the denigrated scapegoat (the trickster figure, carnival clown, wise fool and downtrodden everyman); and that even when outward markers of ethnic identity were eliminated from comic texts-most often in response to public pressure-the essential identity and comedic functions of those African American types often persisted in reracialized animal figures. Walt Kelly's track record in this genre, as traced through three fields-animation, comic books, and comic books-provides a useful case study because he found creative ways to push past crude appropriations, racist typing, and condescending tributes to engage in syncretic fusions in his most mature work, Pogo, that were harnessed to topical satire and progressive politics.

American Literature, 2015

It is widely assumed that the American comic strip “begins” in 1890s with the multipanel sequences appearing in Sunday newspapers. This essay challenges this periodization by looking to an archive of humor magazines from the 1850s and 60s. As early as 1852, artists including Frank Bellew, John McLenan, and Augustus Hoppin experimented with the multipanel sequences they encountered in the Francophone “picture story.” However, rather than replicating the Francophone genre, these artists sought to adapt it in ways that conveyed the rhythms and cadences of everyday American life. What emerges from this study is a newly coherent picture of recurring forms, conventions, and themes that constitute a distinctively American style of comic strip. From one perspective, this is a record of visual conventions that would dominate twentieth- and twenty-first-century comics. But it is also a history of visual languages that failed to take hold—lost literacies and potential trajectories in American comics.

Feminist Media Histories , 2018

Set in the fictitious African nation of Wakanda, the six volumes of the Black Panther comic book weave plots that are faithful to superhero tropes and aware of Black nationalist discourses. The storylines focus on deterring white dominance, tribal warfare, and mineral exploitation. Creating characters conscious of the threats to their autonomy is an opportunity to reframe the "Black power" trope. This photo essay explores how iterations of raced and gen-dered figures in mainstream and independent comics are used to mediate and meditate on certain social anxieties. The images and their associated captions explore how Afrofuturism in "Black" comics not only provides illustrative cases of actual Black social life and political crossings engaged with cultural Black archives, but stimulates complex engagements with Black feminist thought in order to advance the liberation struggles of mutant, racialized, and gendered bodies seeking empowerment and social justice.