Departments

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comics

  • 7/19/2020

    The Hate-Mongers: Characterizing Racism in Comics

    by Patrick L. Hamilton and Allan W. Austin

    The Hate-Monger, a supervillain introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1963, called attention to the destructive power of bigotry, but today readers should resist the idea that defeating any one person, no matter who or how powerful they might be, can eliminate racism. 

  • 3/27/2020

    DC Comics and the American Dilemma of Race

    by Patrick L. Hamilton and Allan W. Austin

    Superhero popular culture has always been embedded within American racial attitudes, reflecting and even contributing to them in ways that reveal goodwill is not sufficient, in and of itself, to fix our problems.

  • SOURCE: The Conversation
    2/13/20

    America’s postwar fling with romance comics

    by Michael C. Weisenburg

    Grounded in artistic and narrative realism, romance comics were remarkably different from their superhero and sci-fi peers. While the post-war popularity of romance comics only lasted a few years, these love stories ended up actually having a strong influence on other genres.

  • SOURCE: The Atlantic
    10-3-2013

    When Anarchy Ruled the Funny Pages

    A new, large-format book captures the dawn of comics, when the medium had no rules and its messages were surprisingly irreverent.

  • SOURCE: University of Illinois
    2-11-13

    '50s anti-comic crusade fudged his data

    CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Behavioral problems among teenagers and preteens can be blamed on the violence, sex and gore portrayed in the media marketed to them – that was the topic of televised public hearings held by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954 to address the scourge of comic books. The hearings, which resulted in the decimation of what was an enormous comic book industry, had been inspired in large part by the book “Seduction of the Innocent,” by psychiatrist Fredric Wertham, based on his own case studies.