Publications & Ressources

Monitor 79: New Publications on Comic Books

Monitor is an irregularly published overview of publications from the previous six months that may be of relevance to comics studies scholars. The introductory texts are the respective publishers’. Do you have suggestions or information on new releases that have been overlooked and should be introduced on our website? Please let us know via email: redaktion@comicgesellschaft.de.
See previous Monitor posts.


BuchcoverOn Black Bandes Dessinées and Transcolonial Power

Studies in Comics and Cartoons

Michelle Bumatay
Ohio State University Press
February 2025
Publisher’s website

On Black Bandes Dessinées and Transcolonial Power is the first book-length study in English about Black francophone cartoonists and their work. Michelle Bumatay decenters Eurocentric conceptions of francophone comic art and foregrounds the ubiquity of Western racial stereotypes encoded in mainstream French and Belgian bandes dessinées as well as the imbalance of power between the Global North and the Global South carried over from the colonial era. By examining a diversity of Black cartoonists’ aesthetic and material responses to the colonially inherited medium of bandes dessinées, she argues that their innovations constitute important reparative work that combats racial stereotypes and challenges transcolonial power imbalances.
Bumatay demonstrates how Barly Baruti, Papa Mfumu’eto, Marguerite Abouet, Japhet Miagotar, and other Black cartoonists throughout the francophone world employ a range of tactics to tell their own stories. Through a balance of historical context and close readings, she shows how these artists represent and comment on their everyday lives in a postcolonial reality, expose and critique racial capitalism and exploitation, and provide new ways of seeing and understanding Black francophone peoples and cultures.”

 

BuchcoverComics, Activism, Feminisms

Anna Nordenstam, Kristy Beers Fägersten, Margareta Wallin Wictorin (eds.)
Routledge
September 2024
Publisher’s website

“Feminist comic art emerged with the second-wave feminist movements. Today, there are comics connected to social activist movements working for change in a variety of areas. Comics artists often respond quickly to political events, making comics on topical issues that take a critical or satirical stance and highlighting the need for change. Comic art can point to problems, present alternatives, and give hope.
Comics artists from all parts of the world engage issues pertaining to feminisms and LGBTQIA+ issues, war and political conflict, climate crisis, the global migrant and refugee situation, and other societal problems. The chapters of this anthology illuminate the aesthetic and thematic aspects of comics, activism, and feminisms globally. Particular attention is given to the work of comics collectives, where Do-it-Ourselves is a strategy among activism-oriented artists, which use a great variety of media, such as fanzines, albums, webcomics, and exhibitions to communicate and disseminate activist comic art.”

 

BuchcoverJapanische Fan-Comics: Transkulturelle Potenziale und lokale Gemeinschaft

Comic-Kulturen

Katharina Hülsmann
Transkript
March 2025
Publisher’s website

“In Japan findet jährlich eine Vielzahl von Amateur-Comic-Events, darunter die größte Comic-Messe weltweit, die Comiket, statt. Entgegen dem globalen Trend zur Digitalisierung im Comic-Bereich wird ein Großteil der dortigen Werke nach wie vor von den Künstler*innen selbst verlegt, gedruckt und herausgegeben. Katharina Hülsmann nimmt die Kultur japanischer Fan-Comics (sog. dōjinshi) in den Blick: Wie entwickelte sich eine solch solide Infrastruktur in Japan und warum hält sie sich bis heute? Welche Anschlussmöglichkeiten haben dōjinshi an ein globales Fandom, wenn sie sich im Internet eher wenig verbreiten? Und was treibt japanische Amateur-Künstler*innen an, ihre Werke mit viel Aufwand herzustellen und mit anderen Fans zu teilen?”

 

BuchcoverDrawn to the Stacks: Essays on Libraries, Librarians and Archives in Comics and Graphic Novels

Studies in Comics and Cartoons

Carrye Kay Syma, Robert G. Weiner, Donell Callender (eds.)
McFarland
March 2025
Publisher’s website

“This is the first academic volume to examine the librarian and archival professional through the lens of sequential art. The portrayal of libraries/librarians in sequential art has a long history from the Golden Age to the present day. Libraries and archives in comics historically are seen as places of important knowledge and information.
Diving deep into a multitude of sources, these new essays show how librarians/archivists and libraries/archives are used within the comic medium to address multiculturalism, LGBTQ issues, archival practice, and even the concept of librarians as “baddies” or stewards of information unwilling to share with others. The wide breadth of material examined here includes Miyazaki’s Nausicaa, Spiegelman’s Maus, Bechdel’s Queer Dykes to Watch Out For, Marvel’s Black Panther, Nono’s Yoake No Toshokan, DC’s Batgirl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics, Gaiman’s The Sandman, webcomics, Marvel’s America Chavez character, Schultz’s Xenozoic Tales and much more.”

 

Buchcover Comics Art in Korea

John A. Lent
University Press of Mississippi
January 2025
Publisher’s website

“In Comics Art in Korea, comics scholar John A. Lent embarks on a comprehensive exploration of the vibrant world of Korean comics, cartoons, comic strips, graphic novels, webcomics, and animation. This meticulously researched work delves deep into the intricate history, cultural significance, and artistic innovations that have shaped the comics landscape in both North and South Korea. Drawing from extensive research, decades of interviews with comics creators and artists, and firsthand study, Lent offers readers a profound understanding of the societal, political, and cultural factors that have played a pivotal role in shaping Korean comics.
Korean comics have a storied tradition that stretches back decades. In this insightful book, Lent not only traces the origins of Korean comics but also places them within the broader context of Asian comics, highlighting the interconnectedness of comic art across the continent. From the early days of Korean comics to their contemporary evolution, Lent unravels the forces that have influenced and shaped the industry and sheds light on the ways in which comics have been used as a medium for social commentary, political expression, and cultural identity in Korea.
Comics Art in Korea is not merely a historical account but a celebration of the art form itself. Lavishly illustrated with examples of Korean comics, this book showcases the incredible talent and creativity of Korean comics artists. Lent’s impeccable attention to detail and his ability to contextualize each work within its cultural and historical framework make this book an invaluable resource for both comics enthusiasts and scholars.”

 

Buchcover Supervillains: The Significance of Evil in Superhero Comics

Nao Tomabechi
Rutgers University Press
January 2025
Publisher’s website

“Alongside superheroes, supervillains, too, have become one of today’s most popular and globally recognizable figures. However, it is not merely their popularity that marks their significance. Supervillains are also central to superhero storytelling to the extent that the superhero genre cannot survive without supervillains.
Bringing together different approaches and critical perspectives across disciplines, author Nao Tomabechi troubles overly hero-centered works in comics studies to reconsider the modern American myths of the superheroes. Considering the likes of Lex Luthor, the Joker, Catwoman, Harley Quinn, Loki, Venom, and more, Supervillians explores themes such as gender and sexuality, disability, and many forms of Otherness in relation to the notion of evil as it appears in the superhero genre. The book investigates how supervillains uphold and, at times, trouble dominant ideals expressed by the heroism of our superheroes.”

 

Buchcover Analyzing the Marvel Universe: Critical Essays on the Comics and Film Adaptations

Douglas Brode (ed.)
McFarland
December 2024
Publisher’s website

“Marvel, like other media “universes,” is a collection of highly profitable and audience-satisfying products that exist not only as individual items of popular culture but coalesce to form a unique and all-encompassing identity. Within media studies, elements of popular culture once dismissed as low-brow entertainment are now studied with the seriousness that has always been afforded classics like Shakespeare’s plays and ancient myth. Indeed, DC and Marvel might be thought of as competing myth systems.
This book is a collection of diverse essays covering all aspects of the Marvel Universe, from in-print graphic novels to film and television variations. Contributors present in-depth, original and inclusive interpretations of numerous individual elements of Marvel, including analysis of key characters, themes and aesthetic elements. They also offer a vision of the essential “meaning” of Marvel, including aspects that set it apart from the DC Universe and other media. Individual readings apply feminist, ethnic, and queer theory, among others, and deal with the lesser known aspects of Marvel’s offerings in order to provide the definitive collection on this subject. Beginning with an introduction by the editor that provides a complete overview of the Marvel canon, this book offers the broadest and most in-depth collection on the subject to date.”

 

Buchcover Horror Comics and Religion: Essays on Framing the Monstrous and the Divine*

Studies in Comics and Religion

Brandon R. Grafius, John W. Morehead (eds.)
McFarland
December 2024
Publisher’s website

“While many genres offer the potential for theological reflection and exploration of religious issues, the nature of horror provides unique ways to wrestle with these questions. Since EC Comics of the 1950s, horror comics have performed theological work in ways that are sometimes obvious, sometimes subtle, but frequently surprising and provocative.
This collection brings together essays covering the history of horror comics, from the 1950s to the present, with a focus on their engagement with religious and theological issues. Essays explore topics such as the morality of EC Comics, cosmic indifference in the works of Junji Ito, the reincarnated demons of the web-comic The Devil is a Handsome Man, religion and racial horror in comic voodoo, and much more.”

 


*The ComFor editorial board regrets the lack of diversity in this publication. We endeavour to cover the entire spectrum of comics studies, report in a neutral way and keep the editorial selection process to a minimum. But we are also aware of the problematic structures that shape our academic research environment and that frequently lead to a lower visibility of female comics scholars as well as those with marginalised identities in general. We know that this imbalance is often not intended by the editors / organisers and we do not want to imply this in any way. But nonetheless, we would like to draw attention to it to raise awareness for this problem.

“Comparative Aspects in Comics Studies” – New ComFor-Conference Proceedings Published!

Comparative Aspects in Comics Studies:
Translation, Localisation, Imitation, and Adaptation

Juliane Blank, Stephan Packard, and Christian A. Bachmann (eds.)
Christian A. Bachmann Verlag
März 2025
286 pages
36,00 EUR
ISBN 978-3-96234-087-2

Another new edited collection has just been published by Christian A. Bachmann, which ComFor has been looking forward to for a long time. It goes back to the 14th ComFor-Jahrestagung in Schwarzenbach an der Saale brings together not less than 12 essays reflecting translation, localisation, imitation, and adaptation in comics.

Blurbs:
“This volume reflects upon comparative aspects within the study of comics. It explores phenomena that cross boundaries between cultures, languages, economies, and media formats, paying special attention to translations, localisations, imitations, and adaptations that transport some aspects of one given material into a new shape or matter. Topics range from the direct translation of a given comic for a different audience through considerations of claims to translatability and untranslatability to naturalizing or alienating effects of translation, and on to emendations in cases of censorship or broader forms of media control, editorial interventions, revisions by original or new artists, as well as parodies and piracies. The interplay of aemulatio and imitatio, of purely imitative and rival imitation, gives way to the large field of media translation.”

Contributions:

Christian A. BACHMANN, Juliane BLANK, and Stephan PACKARD
Comparative Aspects of Comics Studies: Introduction

Lynn L. WOLFF
Self-Translation in Nora Krug’s Transcultural Graphic Memoir Belonging/Heimat

Yun-Jou CHEN
Popalania, the Perfect Country: Revisiting Bo Yang’s Taiwan Translation of Popeye Comic Strips (1967–1968)

Alexandra HENTSCHEL and Gerhard SEVERIN
Localizing Duckburg: How Translator Erika Fuchs Moved Duckburg to Post-War Germany

Romain BECKER
Possibilities and Strategies of Scanlations: How Fan-made Translations of Manga Contrast with Official Ones (and Inspire Them)

Nathalie MÄLZER
Comic Adaptations as Intersemiotic Translation: Asterix – Der Seher (1975)

Olga KOPYLOVA
Transformations of Style in Manga-To-Anime Adaptations: A Formal Analysis

Elisabeth KRIEBER
Queer Autographics on Broadway

Markus OPPOLZER
Van Gogh’s Pictorial After/life: A Look at Biopic as a Transmedial Genre

Dietrich GRÜNEWALD
The Art of Adaptation: Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray

Marina RAUCHENBACHER
Who (and Where) is *Alice*? Anke Feuchtenberger’s Feminist-Disruptive Identity Criticism

Keren ZDAFEE
Egyptianizing Mickey and Minnie?

Publisher’s Page

“Der Comic und das Populäre” – New ComFor-Conference Proceedings Published!

Der Comic und das Populäre
Der Comic und das Populäre
Rolf Lohse and Joachim Trinkwitz (eds.)
Christian A. Bachmann Verlag
January 2025
360 pages
39,90 EUR
ISBN 978-3-96234-090-2

A new edited collection has just been published by Christian A. Bachmann, which ComFor has been looking forward to for a long time. It goes back to the 12th ComFor annual conference in Bonn and brings together not less than 14 essays reflecting the difficult tensions between comics and their popularity.

Blurbs:
»Der Comic und das Populäre« klingt für viele Menschen nach dem berühmten ›weißen Schimmel‹. Doch das Verhältnis der Kunstform zu der ihr quasi angeborenen Popularität hat sich im Lauf ihrer Geschichte als spannungsvoll erwiesen. Die Kritik kultureller Institutionen und tonangebender Kreise stieß sich immer wieder auch an der immensen Popularität des Comics. Zum Teil wird das Medium noch heute als minderwärtig betrachtet und ihm eine problematische Wirkungen unterstellt. Erst vor einigen Jahren wurde er als Graphic Novel gesellschaftsfähig, allerdings unter weitgehender Ausschluss seiner populären Anteile. Inwieweit prägt das spannungsgeladene Verhältnis des Comics zwischen high und low nach wie vor seinen Platz in Kultur und Gesellschaft? 14 Aufsätze belichten unterschiedliche Aspekte dieser grundlegenden Fragestellung.”

Table of Content:

Joachim Trinkwitz und Rolf Lohse:
Der Comic und das Populäre – einführende Überlegungen

Jörn Ahrens:
Der Comic ist das Populäre
Zur populärkulturellen Gestalt eines Mediums der Massenkultur

Ole Frahm:
Proletarität statt Popularität
Eine kleine Kritik der Rede über Comics

Mario Zehe:
Das Popula(e)re und das Signifikante
Der Comic als Antwort auf die Krise liberaler Erzählungen?

Joachim Trinkwitz:
»Auteur«-Serien im Comic
Prestigeprobleme eines populären Erzählverfahrens

Daniel Stein:
Batmans queere Popularität
Eine serienpolitische Dialektik

Véronique Sina:
»Comickeit is Jüdischkeit«
Populärkultur, Performativität und kulturelle jüdische Identität(en) in den Comics von Aline Kominsky-Crumb, Harvey Pekar und Art Spiegelman

Lukas R.A. Wilde:
Diesseits und jenseits der Diegese
Populäre, partizipatorische und transfiktionale Facetten der gezeichneten Figur

Dietrich Grünewald:
Grenzgang
Comics zitieren Kunstwerke

Rolf Lohse:
Museum und Magie
Das Populäre des Comics und die Kommunikationsstrategie des Louvre

Kirsten von Hagen:
Tintin und die Recherche
Von der Ligne Claire Hergés zu den synästhetischen Traumsequenzen bei Heuet

Markus Oppolzer:
Der Fluch der Graphic Novel
Ein kritischer Blick aus (sprach)didaktischer Sicht

Daniela Kaufmann:
»A Study in Black and White«
Die Signifikanz der Farben »Schwarz« und »Weiß« in Cartoons und Comics von George Herriman

Zita Hüsing:
Being and Nature
The Significance of the Southern Space of the Swamp in Alan Moore’s The Saga of the Swamp Thing

Publisher’s Page

 


The ComFor editorial board regrets the lack of diversity in this publication. We endeavour to cover the entire spectrum of comics studies, report in a neutral way and keep the editorial selection process to a minimum. But we are also aware of the problematic structures that shape our academic research environment and that frequently lead to a lower visibility of female comics scholars as well as those with marginalised identities in general. We know that this imbalance is often not intended by the editors / organisers and we do not want to imply this in any way. But nonetheless, we would like to draw attention to it to raise awareness for this problem..

“International Public History”-issue on “Teaching History Through Comic Books” published

International Public History: Teaching History Through Comic Books

Einleitung by Amie Wright and Christine Gundermann
De Gruyter
2024
ISSN: 2567-1111

Christine Gundermann and Amie Wright have co-edited this new special issue on “Teaching History Through Comic Books” and have contributed and supervised numerous articles that attempt to present comics research and the use of comics as broadly and interdisciplinarily as possible. Some contributions are already open access, others are yet to be released as such:

 

Introduction by Amie Wright and Christine Gundermann

“The Graphic Anne: Anne Frank Comics as Transnational Lieux de Mémoire” by Christine Gundermann

“Illustrating History: April 25th and Its Legacy in Portuguese Comics” by Alexandra Lourenco Dias

“Teaching History Through Comic Books: New Opportunities for Public and Visual History” by Amie Wright

Visualizing the ‘Godmothers’ of the First World War: About the perks of writing a hybrid theses in image and text” by Aliénor Gandanger

Roundtable Conversation – ‘Making the Invisible and Private Seen and Public: On the Potentials of Graphic Medicine for Public History’, a discussion by Matthew Noe, Ian Williams, Soha Bayoum and Eugenia Garcia Amor

Graphic Collections and Resources

  • Katharina Hülsmann: Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures
  • Barbara Margarethe Eggert: nextcomic Festival (Austria)
  • Felipe Gómez-Gutiérrez: Latin American Comics Archive (LACA) – Carnegie Mellon
  • Felix Giesa: Comic Archive at Goethe-University Frankfurt, Institute of Children’s and Young Adult Literature Research
  • Astrid Böger: The Center for the study of Graphic Literature @ University of Hamburg
  • Graphic Medicine Collection – Harvard Medical (Boston, USA)

Continue to Publisher’s Page

Monitor 78: New Publications on Comic Books

Monitor is an irregularly published overview of publications from the previous six months that may be of relevance to comics studies scholars. The introductory texts are the respective publishers’. Do you have suggestions or information on new releases that have been overlooked and should be introduced on our website? Please let us know via email: redaktion@comicgesellschaft.de.
See previous Monitor posts.


Buchcover Medieval Spaces in Comics: Affect and Ideology

Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels

Elizabeth Allyn Woock
Palgrave Macmillan
November 2024
Publisher’s website

“This book proposes a conceptual framework for analyzing and discussing narrative space in comics. Building on Mieke Bal’s phenomenological approach to cultural analysis (2002), Gaston Bachelard’s Poetics of Space (1996), and Geraint D’Arcy’s use of the mise en scène to describe space in the comics format (2020), this book layers in a nuanced approach to the depiction of medieval environments through affect theory and poetics to interrogate the staging of ideas which are associated with the medieval period. Considering the action, setting, and story – as well as affect, atmosphere, and mood – medieval space is contextualized as an ethically complex poetic image. This book also explores the communicative possibilities of the comics format, and seeks to show rather than just tell the methodologies of space in comics-based research through illustrating key sections of the text.”

 

BuchcoverInnovations in Digital Comics: A Popular Revolution

Elements in Publishing and Book Culture

Francesca Benatti
Cambridge University Press
October 2024
Publisher’s website

“Le premier ouvrage scientifique traçant une histoire des créatrices de bandes dessinées pour une (re)valorisation du matrimoine.
Peut-on encore raconter l’histoire de la bande dessinée sans parler des femmes qui y ont contribué ? Pourtant, jusqu’à tout récemment encore, les « Maîtres du neuvième art » étaient des hommes, occultant ainsi l’apport des créatrices.
L’ambition de cet ouvrage est de restituer aux créatrices de BD la place qui leur revient, et de repenser l’histoire du neuvième art en s’attachant à des trajectoires, des sujets et des œuvres silenciés. S’appuyant sur les recherches menées par le groupe de travail « Les Bréchoises » en 2020-2022, le livre offre de multiples ressources permettant de dégager les contours d’un matrimoine de la BD en Europe et dans les Amériques, depuis le XIXe siècle jusqu’à la période contemporaine. Consacré à l’évolution esthétique, discursive, politique et genrée, il met ainsi en lumière le travail des coloristes, dessinatrices, éditrices et scénaristes ayant contribué à ce médium. Leur présence dans le champ professionnel de la BD en France, en Espagne, au Canada, aux États-Unis, en Allemagne, en Argentine, au Mexique, au Brésil et en Belgique constitue un héritage vaste et complexe dont les composantes, contrairement aux idées reçues, se comptent par centaines. Dès lors, l’ouvrage invite à relire l’histoire de cette forme d’expression dans une approche inclusive et transversale qui traverse les siècles et les espaces.”

 

BuchcoverSingular Sensations: A Cultural History of One-Panel Comics in the United States

Michelle Ann Abate
Rutgers University Press
September 2024
Publisher’s website

“What do The Family Circus, Ziggy, and The Far Side have in common? They are all single-panel comics, a seemingly simple form that cartoonists have used in vastly different ways.
Singular Sensations is the first book-length critical study to examine this important but long-neglected mode of cartoon art. Michelle Ann Abate provides an overview of how the American single-panel comic evolved, starting with Thomas Nast’s political cartoons and R.F. Outcault’s groundbreaking Yellow Kid series in the nineteenth century. In subsequent chapters, she explores everything from wry New Yorker cartoons to zany twenty-first-century comics like Bizarro. Offering an important corrective to the canonical definition of comics as “sequential art,” Abate reveals the complexity, artistry, and influence of the single-panel art form.
Engaging with a wide range of historical time periods, sociopolitical subjects, and aesthetic styles, Singular Sensations demonstrates how comics as we know and love them would not be the same without single-panel titles. Abate’s book brings the single-panel comic out of the margins and into the foreground.”

 

BuchcoverBritish Newspaper Strips: A Contextual History

Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels

Adam Twycross
Palgrave Macmillan
August 2024
Publisher’s website

“This book explores the history and development of the British daily newspaper strip. It considers such strips within their political, commercial and societal contexts and fills in a crucial section of publishing history that has been largely overlooked by both comics and newspaper studies to date. Beginning with an examination of the role of the image within British publishing in the final decades of the nineteenth century, the book moves on to explore the arrival and development of the first daily strips. It considers the links that bound these strips to surrounding cultural forms, their relationship to their host newspapers, and their position within the wider structures of the emerging popular press. Subsequent chapters cover a range of topics including the impact of the world wars, the anti-comics campaigns of the 1940s and 50s, and how changes to British publishing and wider society shaped the newspaper strips of the final decades of the twentieth century. Culminating with a discussion of the way in which strips became established within the broadsheet press from the 1960s, the book builds to provide a detailed overview of the twentieth century development of this most neglected cultural form.”

 

BuchcoverCritical Approaches to Horror Comic Books: Red Ink in the Gutter

Routledge Advances in Comics Studies

By John Darowski, Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns (Hgs.)
Routledge
August 2024
Publisher’s website

“This volume explores how horror comic books have negotiated with the social and cultural anxieties framing a specific era and geographical space.
Paying attention to academic gaps in comics’ scholarship, these chapters engage with the study of comics from varying interdisciplinary perspectives, such as Marxism; posthumanism; and theories of adaptation, sociology, existentialism, and psychology. Without neglecting the classical era, the book presents case studies ranging from the mainstream comics to the independents, simultaneously offering new critical insights on zones of vacancy within the study of horror comic books while examining a global selection of horror comics from countries such as India (City of Sorrows), France (Zombillénium), Spain (Creepy), Italy (Dylan Dog), and Japan (Tanabe Gou’s Manga Adaptations of H.P. Lovecraft), as well as the United States.
One of the first books centered exclusively on close readings of an under-studied field, this collection will have an appeal to scholars and students of horror comics studies, visual rhetoric, philosophy, sociology, media studies, pop culture, and film studies. It will also appeal to anyone interested in comic books in general and to those interested in investigating intricacies of the horror genre.”

 

BuchcoverPetrochemical Fantasies: The Art and Energy of American Comics

Daniel Worden
Ohio State University Press
August 2024
Publisher’s website

“In Petrochemical Fantasies, Daniel Worden reveals the entwined history of comics and fossil fuels in the United States. From the 1840s to the present, comics have depicted the power, pollution, and rapid expansion of energy systems—especially the explosive growth of coal and oil. In the 1930s, some of the first comic books were the gas station giveaways Gulf Funny Weekly and Standard Oil Comics. And in recent years, comics have become one of the major sites for visualizing life after oil, a striking reversal of the medium’s early boosterism.
Surveying the work of acclaimed artists such as Nell Brinkley, George Herriman, Jack Kirby, Winsor McCay, and R. F. Outcault and recovering little-known works, Worden advances a new history of American comics in the Anthropocene. From late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century editorial cartoons and superhero comics that visualize our modern energy culture to contemporary comics grappling with climate crises, Petrochemical Fantasies places comics, environmental humanities, and energy studies in conversation with each other to unearth the crucial but overlooked history of comics’ place in US energy culture.”

 

BuchcoverConstruire un Matrimoine de la BD: Créations, mobilisations et transmissions des femmes dans le neuvième art, en Europe et en Amérique

Marys Renné Hertiman, Camille de Singly (Hgs.)
Les presses du réel
June 2024
Publisher’s website

“Le premier ouvrage scientifique traçant une histoire des créatrices de bandes dessinées pour une (re)valorisation du matrimoine.
Peut-on encore raconter l’histoire de la bande dessinée sans parler des femmes qui y ont contribué ? Pourtant, jusqu’à tout récemment encore, les « Maîtres du neuvième art » étaient des hommes, occultant ainsi l’apport des créatrices.
L’ambition de cet ouvrage est de restituer aux créatrices de BD la place qui leur revient, et de repenser l’histoire du neuvième art en s’attachant à des trajectoires, des sujets et des œuvres silenciés. S’appuyant sur les recherches menées par le groupe de travail « Les Bréchoises » en 2020-2022, le livre offre de multiples ressources permettant de dégager les contours d’un matrimoine de la BD en Europe et dans les Amériques, depuis le XIXe siècle jusqu’à la période contemporaine. Consacré à l’évolution esthétique, discursive, politique et genrée, il met ainsi en lumière le travail des coloristes, dessinatrices, éditrices et scénaristes ayant contribué à ce médium. Leur présence dans le champ professionnel de la BD en France, en Espagne, au Canada, aux États-Unis, en Allemagne, en Argentine, au Mexique, au Brésil et en Belgique constitue un héritage vaste et complexe dont les composantes, contrairement aux idées reçues, se comptent par centaines. Dès lors, l’ouvrage invite à relire l’histoire de cette forme d’expression dans une approche inclusive et transversale qui traverse les siècles et les espaces.”

 

BuchcoverFrom Gum Wrappers to Richie Rich: The Materiality of Cheap Comics

Neale Barnholden
University Press of Mississippi
June 2024
Publisher’s website

“Between the 1930s and the invention of the internet, American comics reached readers in a few distinct physical forms: the familiar monthly stapled pamphlet, the newspaper comics section, bubblegum wrappers, and bound books. From Gum Wrappers to Richie Rich: The Materiality of Cheap Comics places the history of four representative comics—Watchmen, Uncle Scrooge, Richie Rich, and Fleer Funnies—in the larger contexts of book history, children’s culture, and consumerism to understand the roles that comics have played as very specific kinds of books. While comics have received increasing amounts of scholarly attention over the past several decades, their material form is a neglected aspect of how creators, corporations, and readers have constructed meaning inside and around narratives.
Neale Barnholden traces the unusual and surprising histories of comics ranging from the most acclaimed works to literal garbage, analyzing how the physical objects containing comics change the meaning of those comics. For example, Carl Barks’s Uncle Scrooge comics were gradually salvaged by a fan-driven project, an evolution that is evident when considering their increasingly expensive forms. Similarly, Watchmen has been physically made into the epitome of “prestigious graphic novel” by the DC Comics corporation. On the other hand, Harvey Comics’ Richie Rich is typically misunderstood as a result of its own branding, while Fleer Funnies uses its inextricable association with bubblegum to offer unexpectedly sophisticated meanings. Examining the bibliographical histories of each title, Barnholden demonstrates how the materiality of consumer culture suggests meanings to comics texts beyond the narratives.”

 

BuchcoverCartoons and Antisemitism: Visual Politics of Interwar Poland

Ewa Stańczyk
University Press of Mississippi
June 2024
Publisher’s website

“Antisemitic caricatures had existed in Polish society since at least the mid-nineteenth century. But never had the devastating impacts of this imagery been fully realized or so blatantly apparent than on the eve of the Second World War. In Cartoons and Antisemitism: Visual Politics of Interwar Poland, scholar Ewa Stańczyk explores how illustrators conceived of Jewish people in satirical drawing and reflected on the burning political questions of the day. Incorporating hundreds of cartoons, satirical texts, and newspaper articles from the 1930s, Stańczyk investigates how a visual culture that was essentially hostile to Jews penetrated deep and wide into Polish print media. In her sensitive analysis of these sources, the first of this kind in English, the author examines how major satirical magazines intervened in the ongoing events and contributed to the racialized political climate of the time.
Paying close attention to the antisemitic tropes that were both local and global, Stańczyk reflects on the role of pictorial humor in the transmission of visual antisemitism across historical and geographical borders. As she discusses the communities of artists, publishers, and political commentators who made up the visual culture of the day, Stańczyk tells a captivating story of people who served the antisemitic cause, and those who chose to oppose it.”

BuchcoverÉcouter la bande dessinée

Benoît Glaude
Les Impressions Nouvelles
May 2024
Publisher’s website

“Lire une bande dessinée c’est tout à la fois la regarder, la manipuler, la sentir… et l’entendre, même dans une soi-disant « lecture silencieuse ».
Mais avez-vous déjà entendu raconter une bande dessinée à voix haute ? Ceux qui lisent parfois des livres à des enfants se douteront qu’il ne s’agit pas d’une expérience hors du commun. À côté de la lecture partagée, on connaît des fictions sonores jouées à plusieurs voix, avec musiques et bruitages, adaptées de bandes dessinées. Du 78 tours à la Lunii, en passant par le livre-disque, un certain nombre d’objets de la culture enfantine rendent ces expériences audio réitérables à volonté.
Aujourd’hui, les séries audio en streaming et les dramatiques radio en podcasts, comme les lectures publiques lors de festivals, performent la bande dessinée pour des publics de tout âge. Tandis que le son cherche sa place dans la bande dessinée numérique, la bande dessinée trouve la sienne dans l’offre florissante des livres et séries audio.
Cet ouvrage propose d’écouter ces mises en voix, en se plongeant dans leur histoire, des années 1930 à nos jours.”

BuchcoverShaolin Brew: Race, Comics, and the Evolution of the Superhero

Troy D. Smith
University Press of Mississippi
May 2024
Publisher’s website

Shaolin Brew: Race, Comics, and the Evolution of the Superhero looks at how the comic book industry developed from a white perspective and how minority characters were and are viewed through a stereotypical white gaze. Further, the book explores how voices of color have launched a shift in the industry, taking nonwhite characters who were originally viewed through a white lens and situating them outside the framework of whiteness. The financial success of Blaxploitation and Kung Fu films in the early 1970s led to major comics publishers creating, for the first time, Black and Asian superhero characters who headlined their own comics. The introduction of Black and Asian main characters, who previously only served as guest stars or sidekicks, launched a new kind of engagement between comics companies and minority characters and readers. However, scripted as they were by white writers, these characters were mired in stereotypes.
Author Troy D. Smith focuses on Asian, Black, and Latinx representation in the comic industry and how it has evolved over the years. Smith explores topics that include Orientalism, whitewashing, Black respectability politics, the model minority myth, and political controversies facing fandoms. In particular, Smith examines how fans take the superheroes they grew up with—such as Luke Cage, Black Lightning, and Shang Chi—and turn them into the characters they wished they had as children. Shaolin Brew delves into the efforts of fans of color who urged creators to make these characters more realistic. This refining process increased as more writers and artists of color broke into the industry, bringing their own perspectives to the characters. As many of these characters transitioned from page to screen, a new generation of writers, artists, and readers have cooperated to evolve one-dimensional stereotypes into multifaceted, dynamic heroes.”

“Das kleine Handbuch der Comicreportage” published

Das kleine Handbuch der Comicreportage

Augusto Paim
Christian A. Bachmann Verlag
September 2024
112 pages
ISBN 978-3-96234-092-6

Following from Augusto Paim’s dissertation published in 2022, Die Comicreportage: Journalistische Erzählung in Comicform (also with Bachmann), this ‘spin-off’ offers a kind of practical guide to journalistic approaches in comic form.

Blurbs:
“Eingängig, berührend und einfühlsam: Die Comicreportage ist eine neue und faszinierende Form der journalistischen Arbeit. An konkreten Beispielen und mit vielen Tipps aus der Praxis führt Augusto Paim in die Comicreportage ein. Schritt für Schritt erklärt er, wie sie entsteht und was bei der Arbeit zu beachten ist. Dabei wendet er sich nicht nur an die Schreibenden, sondern denkt auch immer an die Zeichnung. Drei komplette Comicreportagen machen die Erläuterungen noch anschaulicher.”

Publisher’s page

“What Was, Is, Will Be Comic Studies – to Us?” (ComFor’s 18th Annual Conference Proceedings)

Christina Meyer, Vanessa Ossa & Lukas R.A. Wilde (eds.):
Was war, ist, wird Comicforschung – für uns? 10 Jahre ComFor e.V. als eingetragener Verein

Gesellschaft für Comicforschung (ComFor),
1. ed., Oktober 2024
240 pages, 109 figures
open access
ISBN 978-3-9826707-0-6
DOI  10.17605/OSF.IO/PDWFH

 

 

Edited by Christina Meyer, Vanessa Ossa, and Lukas R.A. Wilde, with contributions by Daniel Stein, Jaqueline Berndt, Stephan Packard, Andreas Veits, Myriam Macé, Daniela Kuschel, Arnold Bärtschi, Lukas R.A. Wilde, Martin Wambsganß, Dietrich Grünewald, Barbara M. Eggert, Ralf Palandt, Christine Vogt, and Iris Haist.

See the Conference Program of the 18th Annual ComFor-Conference (2023)

The (German) Society for Comic Studies (ComFor) has been established on February 11, 2005, in Koblenz. Its purpose was and still is the promotion and networking of interdisciplinary research on the medium of comics in German-speaking countries, on German-language comics and other forms of graphic narrative, on works originating from German-speaking countries or translated into German and, more generally, all scholarship on comics at German, Austrian and Swiss universities and other educational institutions. On April 11, 2014, ComFor was reconstituted as “ComFor e.V.” at Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main. In 2024 we, i.e. the members of ComFor, can therefore look back on the tenth anniversary as a legally registered association. With currently about 167 active members from various countries (from Italy, Austria, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the US, amongst other) and different subject areas and disciplines such as Literary Studies, Art History, Media Studies, Sociology, Japanese Studies, and many more, the society has grown since 2014 to one of the largest, internationally recognized institutions of interdisciplinary comics research. Over these past ten years, the field has become very diversified, professionalized, and evolved. Comics Studies often utilizes the strengths of these institutionally barely anchored, but, all the more, lively interdisciplinary and international fields in order to focus – and reflect – on the diversity of the specific perspectives involved.

To mark the tenth anniversary of our society as a registered organization, we have dedicated ourselves to a critical (self-)reflection of this period of comic research. The preparatory 18th ComFor annual conference, which was intended as a kind of ‚think tank‘ for the members of our society, took place from December 11–13, 2023 at the Waldschlösschen Academy Foundation, Gleichen, which is near Göttingen. Such reflections must necessarily remain highly selective and deliberately avoid any claim to completeness or representativeness. “What Was, Is, Will Be Comic Studies – to Us?” is therefore not meant exclusionary, in the sense of a linguistically, geographically, or nationally constructed ‘we,’ but addresses quite literally the members of our Society for Comics Research, with their personal, often interdisciplinary, meandering research biographies, interests, and focal points.

The first part of our collection, “Reflection Papers,” offers three spotlights from esteemed colleagues who have been working in the field for several decades and who were asked for their personal reflections on their individual ‘research biography’ – with freely chosen focal points. The main section, “Current Research Perspectives,” offers insights into contemporary questions, topics, and concerns that are motivating newer members and early career scholars of our society in particular within their current research projects. The next section “Focus on Comic Exhibitions” sheds light on the often-neglected issue of comic book exhibitions and their means of communication. Our anthology is rounded off by 80 pages of documentation from the republished ComFor-ComicForum.org-columns, published between 2014 and 2023, a total of 36 texts by 9 authors, which record and narrate the past ten years.

Download Full Publication (40 MB)

Continue Reading: Table of Contents and Individual Contributions

“Comics | Histories” published in open access as the first volume of the new series

Comics | HistoriesComics | Histories: Texts, Methods, Resources

Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto, Felix Giesa, Christina Meyer (eds.)
Rombach
September 2024
259 pages
eBook ISBN 978-3-98858-056-6 (Open Access)
Print ISBN 978-3-98858-055-9

The first volume of Rombach’s new comic studies research series “Comics | Histories” has just been published under the same cover title, edited by Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto, Felix Giesa, and Christina Meyer. The publication with a total of 10 articles in the sections “Re-Reading Punch Magazine”, “(Re-)Productions”, “War [in] Comics”, and “Periodization, Canonization, Digitization” can now be ordered free of charge as an open access download.

Blurbs:

“This edited study is the first book in a new series of publications which aims to revise the wide spectrum of what are now regarded as comics (including caricatures, cartoons, graphic novels, etc.), broadening the view of Comics Studies, not only retrospectively but also prospectively at a time when modern media identities are dissolving. While there are already significant numbers of publications that foreground representations of history in comics, our edited study (and the new series) seeks to highlight contributions to history by comics in particular. In addition to that, the book (and the series) aims to address comics from a transnational, yet culturally situated, perspective, without privileging national histories of the medium in the narrower sense, i.e., as confined to the North American, Franco-Belgian or Japanese publication markets. The contributions to this first book in the series not only address questions relating to practices of canonisation, periodisation and digitisation, but also provide historical perspectives on a variety of humorous magazines and newspapers and deal with issues relating to adapting and revising comics in different parts of the world and in different cultures. The contributors to this book include a number of international scholars working in different areas and disciplines, such as literary and cultural studies, me-dia studies, history, children’s and youth literature research, computational studies and digital humani-ties. The book is divided into four parts, entitled ‘Re-Reading Punch Magazines’, ‘(Re-)Productions’, ‘War [in] Comics’ and ‘Periodization, Canonization, Digitization’ respectively. The editors of the book hope that the collection of (ongoing) research projects will spark readers’ curiosity and ignite their ambition to ex-plore comics|histories in multifarious ways. The newly launched series is looking for future projects that will also focus on the historiography of Comics Studies, in other words, inter- and transdisciplinary research on comics as objects of analysis in themselves. Multidisciplinary assessments of the field and its practices in terms of research and publishing and author- and editorship promise new insights into processes of knowledge formation, as well as the power relations involved.”

Publisher’s page

Collection “Comics & Intersektionalität” published as vol. 3 of Comicstudien (De Gruyter)

Comics und IntersektionalitätComics & Intersektionalität

Anna Beckmann, Kalina Kupczyńska, Marie Schröer, and Véronique Sina (eds.)
De Gruyter
September 2024
337 pages
eBook ISBN 9783110799385
gebunden ISBN 9783110799293

Volume 3 of De Gruyter’s new Comic Studies series has just been published under the title “Comics & Intersectionality” [Comics & Intersectionality], fortunately also directly as open access. The editors are Anna Beckmann, Kalina Kupczyńska, Marie Schröer, and Véronique Sina. The contributors include also many other ComFor members such as Daniel Stein, Sylvia Kesper-Biermann, Ole Frahm, Marina Rauchenbacher, Katharina Serles, Dorothee Marx, Annemarie Klimke, and Katharina Hülsmann.

Blurbs:
“This volume expands on existing approaches in German-language comics studies by taking a deliberate intersectional perspective. The thematic core of the volume is a scholarly, interdisciplinary exploration of various forms of multidimensional discrimination and exclusion in the comic medium..”

Publisher’s page

Journal Monitor 18: New Publications on Comic Books

The Journal Monitor is a subcategory of the regular Monitor. It is an irregularly published overview of issues of international journals on comics studies as well as special issues on corresponding topics. The introductory texts and/or tables of contents come from the respective websites.
Do you have suggestions or information on new releases that have been overlooked and should be introduced on our website? Please let us know via email: redaktion@comicgesellschaft.de.
See previous Monitor posts.


Comicalités:
Dessins d’enfance dans la bande dessinée

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  • Benoît Crucifix et Maaheen Ahmed: “Logiques d’interaction entre le dessin d’enfant et la bande dessinée”
  • Dragana Radanović, Roel Vande Winkel, Nancy Vansieleghem: “You Draw Like a Child! Interrogating Aetonormative Tendencies in Imitations of Children’s Drawings in Graphic Narratives”
  • Carol Tilley: “The Open Road for Boys Cartooning Contests: A Prosopography”
  • Aleksandar Zograf: “Dečije Novine. From School Magazine to Major Comics Publisher”
  • Breixo Harguindey: “Les premiers psychopédagogues et la bande dessinée. L’expérience de Hanns Guck-in-Die-Luft aux États-Unis et en Allemagne”
  • Véronique Blanchard et Mathias Gardet: “« Dessinez votre vie en 6-8 cases ». La bande dessinée expertisée par la justice des enfants (1945-1960)”
  • Xavier Girard: “Norbert Moutier, Collection Aventures. L’enfance et la sérialité à l’œuvre”
  • Johanna Schipper: “Venir aux mondes : mes premières héroïnes de bande dessinée”
  • Maël Rannou: “Bande-dessiner avant de savoir lire, une exploration d’archives personnelles”

 

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics  15.4

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  • Dimitris Asimakoulas: “Your translated memory or mine? Re-membering graphic novels in performed audio descriptions for The Cartoon Museum, London”
  • Fadhlan Muchlas Abrori, Theodosia Prodromou, Mara Alagic, Reka Livits, Houssam Kasti, Zsolt Lavicza, Branko Anđić: “Integrating mathematics and science to explain socioscientific issues in educational comics for elementary school students”
  • Eleftheria Karagianni: “On the distinction between creative and non-creative labour and on making comics in Guy Delisle’s graphic memoirs. From “travelogues” to “laborlogs”
  • Melissa Eriko Poulsen: “Life is a long exorcism: horror as mixed race resistance in Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda’s Monstress
  • Patrycja Pichnicka-Trivedi: “Imagining Eastern Europe – representations of Eastern Europe in 21st century French Vampire bandes dessinées”
  • Zohreh Baghban, Susan Poursanati: “Respect the power of the beast: an ecocritical analysis into interspecies relationships in Shaun Tan’s Tales from the Inner City
  • Sathyaraj Venkatesan, Maureen Burdock: “Politics of extractivism, grassroot justice and crude
  • Fátima Susana Mota Roboredo Amante: “In her hands: navigating [sexual] identity and gender roles in a Portuguese graphic novel for young adults by Joana Estrela”

 

European Comic Art 17.1

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  • Per Esben Svelstad: “The Graphic Novel as Mediation of the Anthropocene: Allegory, Ignorability, and Pedagogy in Javi Rey’s Adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People
  • Robert Rozema: “Not With but Instead: A New Framework for Teaching Graphic Adaptations in Secondary Contexts”
  • Callum D. Smith: “Low Art, ‘Skits’, and ‘Pot-boilers’?: Re-examining the Political Caricatures of Thomas Rowlandson, 1780–1827”
  • Pierre Fresnault-Deruelle and translated by Ann Miller: “The Posed and the Transposed: Wilhelm Schulz’s Guardian Angel

 

ImageTexT 15.1

Cover des Journalsonline, open access
Website

  • Weihsin Gui: “Covidity and Comics: Graphic Medicine from Singapore”
  • Amy Matthewson: “George Du Maurier’s Visual Degeneration: Chinamaniacs and China in the British Imagination”
  • Sohini Naiya, Smriti Singh: “Deciphering the Forest: A Journey from an Intellectual Concern to a Lived Experience”
  • Jenny Robb: “Preserving the Legacy of Black Press Cartoonists”

 

Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society 8.1

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Website

  • Marcos Gonsalez: “In Defense of the Effete Superhero: Theorizing the First Queer Latinx Superhero, Extraño/Gregorio de la Vega”
  • Jake Zawlacki: “Unintended Consequences: Spawn as “Superman Black””
  • Derek Lee: “Is Psylocke Asian? The Racial Fantasy and Ambiguity of an Uncanny Oriental”
  • Chris Gavaler: “Formal Metacomics: Practice as Theory”

 

Comics and Culture 8

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  • Mel Gibson: “Of Saints and Scientists: Biographies of famous women in the periodical Girl
  • Barbara Friedlander: “The Accidental Profession”
  • Lily Gould: “The Perfect Pastiche: Lily Renée and Fiction House’s Comic Book Women, 1942-1948”
  • Ioana Atanassova: “Women in Manga: Artists, Portrayal, Themes, Style, and Cultural Heritage”
  • Tiffany Babb: “Media as Memoir in Kate Beaton’s Ducks

 

Sane  2.8

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  • Matt Reingold: “Illustrating Thoughts & Feelings: Student-Produced Political Cartoons About Israel”
  • Genç Osman İlhan, Maide Şin: “Reflections of “Use of Comics in Social Studies Education” Course: The Opinion and Experiences of Teachers”
  • Stewart Brower, Toni Hoberecht, Zane Ratcliffe, Bethie Seay: “Developing and Sustaining a Graphic Scholarship Collection for Academic Libraries”
  • Andrea Tosti: “From Panels to Shelves: The Evolving Intersection of Comics And Italian Libraries. History, Issues, Perspectives”

 

Studies in Comics  14.1

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  • Giorgio Busi Rizzi, Lorenzo Di Paola, Nicoletta Mandolini: “Comics Strike Back! Digital Forms, Digital Practices, Digital Audiences”
  • Lorenzo Di Paola, Mario Tirino: “A cyberpunk symphony of dystopian nightmares: Towards an archaeology of early digital comics”
  • Giorgio Busi Rizzi, Lorenzo Di Paola: “Remediation processes and reading protocols: A genealogy of digital comics”
  • Lukas R. A. Wilde: “Webcomics as mediation”
  • Margarita Molina Fernández: “Understanding digital comics for creation: From conception to reception”
  • Daniel Merlin Goodbrey: “From digital display to printed page: An exploration of the use of digital comic adaptations and hybridizations in print comic formats”
  • Marco d’Alessandro: “Continuity: Inside the frame and behind the screen”
  • Lisa Maya Quaianni Manuzzato: “Promoting comics in digital landscapes: Comics artists as content creators”
  • Gaëlle Kovaliv: “Internet, the Paradise Lost of comics? Observations on the constraints behind publishing webcomics, based on interviews with francophone authors”
  • Nicolle Lamerichs, Vanessa Ossa : “Fandom, algorithm, prompting: Reconsidering webcomics”

 

Images du travail, travail des images:
Bandes dessinées et romans graphiques au travail

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    • Jean-Paul Géhin, Françoise F. Laot, Pierre Nocérino: “De l’œuf et de la poule : le travail mis au jour par le récit dessiné… et inversement ”
    • Sylvain Aquatias et Alain François: “Les débuts professionnels des auteurs et des autrices de bande dessinée”
    • Maëlys Tirehote-Corbin et Léandre Ackermann: “Une lecture critique de l’histoire de la bande dessinée entre invisibilisation et exclusion : le cas des autrices en France”
    • Marc Loriol: “La bande dessinée comme moyen de saisir le geste ouvrier à l’usine”
    • Nicolas Verschueren: “Les « petits dessins » de Persepolis : images du travail dans la fabrique de l’animation”
    • Isabelle Rivoal, Marc Armspach: “L’atelier de Marko. Énergie, intention, ambiance et technique(s) : un dessinateur de bande dessinée à l’œuvre”
    • Claire Marc, Verena Richardier: “Mettre en dessins le travail scientifique”

 

The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship  14

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  • Diego Labra: “Caught Between Manga and the Graphic Novel: Two Cartoonists’ Trajectories in Contemporary Argentinian “National Comics””
  • Jordi Giner-Monfort: “The Bureau of Applied Social Research and Comics Studies in the 1940s”
  • Nicolas Verstappen: “U Ba Kyi’s Neo-Traditionalist Comics Style: At The Crossroads of Myanmar’s Buddhism, Arts and Colonial History”
  • Zuzana Fonioková: “Identity Construction in Graphic Life Narratives by Aline Kominsky Crumb and Katie Green”