Unstable Masks; Or, The Whiteness of the Superhero (a preview)
A guest post in the form of a preview of the forthcoming anthology, Unstable Masks: Whiteness and American Superhero Comics.
“These Stories Are Out There” – Reclaiming Queer and Trans Histories with Melanie Gillman
Guest contributor, Tiffany Babb, interviews cartoonist Melanie Gillman about their work and the importance of envisioning queer and trans histories.
The Hidden Fortress: No Ivy League and Legacies of Whiteness
Interrogating the complex legacies of racial injustice in Hazel Newlevant’s No Ivy League and Jonathan Lethem’s The Fortress of Solitude.
On Exoskeletons and Assimilation: Revisiting the Latinidad of Marvel’s Araña
Considering the role of Latinidad in Araña’s comics despite a decreasing representation of of its so-called “authentic” markers.
Brief Comic Book Reviews (September 6 through September 25, 2019)
Brief reviews of comics that were released in September 2019, including Agents of Atlas #2, Wonder Twins #7, and Power Pack: Grow Up! #1
WAUGH and On and On #2: Duck Naked
What do Disney and “decency” campaigns have in common? The blandification of culture. Covering Howard the Duck #21.
Reachin’ Not Drowning: Songs in Conversation About Abortion
The personal is political and sometimes – as in the case of abortion – the political is personal.
Epic Disasters: Revisiting Marvel & DC’s 1980s Famine Relief Comics
How well do Marvel and DC’s 1985 comics meant to raise aid for famine relief in Africa tackle the tragic events they are addressing? Short answer? Not well.
Brief Comics Reviews (June 12 through July 3, 2019)
Brief reviews of comics released between June 12 and July 3, 2019, including Monstress #23, Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur #44, and Wonder Twins #5
WAUGH and On and On #1: Neither Fish Nor Fowl
A return to Howard the Duck after a nearly three-year hiatus from the If It WAUGHs Like a Duck series. . .
1001 Variations: Narrative Mutation & Marvel’s Exiles
New and different, but not all-new and all-different, adaptation and change in superhero comics as narrative mutation.,
Seeing Sounds / Hearing Pictures – A Round Table on Sound & Comics (part four)
Part Four in a four-part scholarly round table examining the intersections of sound and comics.
Seeing Sounds / Hearing Pictures – A Round Table on Sound & Comics (part three)
Part Three in a four-part scholarly round table examining the intersections of sound and comics.
Seeing Sounds / Hearing Pictures – A Round Table on Sound & Comics (part two)
Part Two in a four-part scholarly round table examining the intersections of sound and comics.
Seeing Sounds / Hearing Pictures – A Round Table on Sound & Comics (part one)
Part One of a scholarly round table exploring the intersection of sound and comics.
Despite the Genocide: Deconstructed Masculinity and Thanos Fandom
Critiquing Thanos and the limits of deconstruction.
The (re)Collection Agency #11: A Conversation with Marc Singer
In the 11th installment of our series of talks with comics scholars and teachers, we talk with Dr. Marc Singer about his new book Breaking the Frames, the state of comics studies, and which is worse, recommending someone watch Aquaman or read Kingdom Come.
Where Everybody Knows You’re Men: NBC’s Cheers & White American Masculinity
When manhood and nation are synonymous women just become a way for men measure patriotism.
Closing the Comics-Gate: On Recognizing the Politics of Comics
Comicsgaters are wrong because comics have always been political, but those politics weren’t always as great as they are sometimes made out to be by comics’ defenders.
Brief Comic Book Reviews (Dec 19, 2018 to Jan 16, 2019)
Brief review of comics released between (mostly) December 19, 2018 to January 16 – including Runaways #16, Bitter Root #3, and Fantastic Four #5.
Kept in a Jar: Broomhilda and the Representation of Enslaved Women in Reginald Hudlin’s Django Unchained
Does the 2013 comic adaptation of Django Unchained’s inclusion of an unfilmed sequence provide insight into the figure of the black woman slave?
