Im Monitor werden in unregelmäßigen Abständen aktuelle Publikationen aus den letzten 6 Monaten vorgestellt, die für die Comicforschung relevant sein könnten. Die kurzen Ankündigungstexte dazu stammen von den jeweiligen Verlagsseiten. Haben Sie Anregungen oder Hinweise auf Neuerscheinungen, die übersehen worden sind und hier erwähnt werden sollten? Das Team freut sich über eine Mail an redaktion@comicgesellschaft.de.
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Lynda Barry: A Critical Guide

Bloomsbury Comics Studies

Maaheen Ahmed
Bloomsbury Academic
Februar 2026
Verlagsseite

„A complete introduction to the comics and graphic narratives of Lynda Barry, this book maps the historical and biographical contexts, key texts, the critical themes and debates surrounding her publications and the lasting impact of her work on the comics medium. With a distinctive body of work that unfolded during key moments in comics history from the much touted and criticized ‚coming-of-age‘ of comics to the rise of underground and alternative comics and the establishment of graphic novels, Barry’s comics reflect the changing status of comics, while unpacking the very constituents of the medium and testing its limits.“

 

Team Up: How Collaboration Powers Superhero Comics

Marie Sartain
UP of Mississippi
Februar 2026
Verlagsseite

„As superhero comics have become increasingly mainstream, so too has the attention given to the creators behind them. Yet, while it is widely known that the majority of superhero comics are produced through collaborative efforts, the ways these partnerships shape creation and reception of such works remain largely unexplored.
Team Up: How Collaboration Powers Superhero Comics addresses this gap as the first book to examine the crucial role collaboration plays in the making and the reception of superhero comics by Marvel and DC. It delves into what collaboration in superhero comics entails, how these partnerships function, and their far-reaching impact on the genre and industry, both past and present.
By exploring various forms of collaboration—from the dynamic interplay between writers, editors, and artists to the passing of projects between successive creative teams and the contributions of fans to the broader media landscape—Team Up reveals that collaboration is not just a part of the superhero comics process; it is the genre’s driving force.“

 

Sinophone Comics: Histories, Identities, Medialities

Comics Studies

Adina Zemanek (Hg.)
De Gruyter
Februar 2026
Verlagsseite

„While comics published in twentieth-century China have enjoyed extensive coverage, this volume showcases recent works from other locations in Asia and beyond: Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Italy and the US. Thus, its Sinophone framing de-centers the hegemony of China in Chinese studies, and that of Japanese manga in comics studies. Non-mangaesque productions take center stage, and a chapter on comics-related cultural exchange with Japan covers reception of Taiwanese comics.
Chapter contributors explore key themes in Sinophone studies: identity-construction and (national or medium-specific) history-writing through positive or negative connections with China as a cultural and political center, contingent on local colonial legacies, nationalist projects and other cultural factors.
At the same time, this volume underscores transnational connections, central to comics throughout this medium’s history, and recent global trends shaping media and cultural production: state support and soft power, the neoliberal emphasis on creativity and self-branding, the rise of digital platforms. Taiwan constitutes a productive site for studying such issues, hence its centrality to this project.“

 

Strange Fruit and Bitter Roots: Black History in Contemporary Graphic Narrative

Daniel Stein
UP of Mississippi
Januar 2026
Verlagsseite

„Since the publication of The Middle Passage: White Ships/Black Cargo by Tom Feelings, more African American creators have used graphic narratives to explore key moments in colonial and US history. These graphic stories address the painful legacies of anti-Black violence and the long history of racial injustice, using the power of comics to both confront the past and offer visions for the future.
From the Middle Passage and slavery to the civil rights movement and today’s fight for Black Lives, these narratives reimagine history and challenge oppressive systems. Through creative artwork and storytelling, they give fresh perspectives on racial violence and racism in US visual culture, developing new visual languages and techniques to express these complex histories.
Strange Fruit and Bitter Roots connects scholarly research on Black history with some of the most impactful African American graphic novels. The book explores works such as King by Ho Che Anderson; The Middle Passage by Tom Feelings; Nat Turner by Kyle Baker; Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Nnedi Okorafor; Bitter Root by David Walker, Chuck Brown, and Sanford Greene; Blue Hand Mojo by John Jennings; Wake: The Hidden History of Women-Led Slave Revolts by Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martínez; and many others, bringing a deeper understanding of how graphic narratives can challenge historical narratives and shape conversations about race and identity today.“

 

Comics is…: Debating the Subject of Comics Studies

Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels

Martin Lund
Palgrave Macmillan
Januar 2026
Verlagsseite

„Taking the contested and contestable meaning of “comics” as its starting point, Comics is… brings together ten comics scholars from different disciplines and with different approaches to what some of us call comics, to debate and discuss the foundations of Comics Studies in a provocative and thought-provoking way.
The book is built around a three-part structure: each contributor writes a sentence or brief statement, starting from the prompt “Comics is…”; a colleague replies to the statement with a reflection, critique, or application of the statement or the position it advances; and, finally, the author of the statement responds to the reply in a brief essay.
Through its dialogical format, the book is likely to spark new conversations in the field; the statement–response–reply format will illustrate that the ways we think as comics scholars are processual, and any reader will find things they agree and disagree with in its pages – and, more importantly, will find occasion to reevaluate their own thinking.
Furthermore, when taken together, the “Comics is…” statements along with the responses and replies provide a barometer of the state of Comics Studies at present, exemplifying current approaches within the field and some of the thinking behind why some of us do our work in certain ways, while others choose sometimes radically different ones.“

 

Visual Metaphor and Drawn Narratives: Embodied Cognition and Expression in Comics

Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels

John Miers
Palgrave Macmillan
Januar 2026
Verlagsseite

„This book contributes to metaphor and comics scholarship by bringing together established theories of metaphor and of depiction and applying the result to the analysis of narrative drawing. Miers synthesizes two strands in recent comics scholarship: the analysis of comics as drawn texts, informed by art history and aesthetic philosophy, and the use of contemporary metaphor theory as a lens to examine how meaning is produced in comics. It aims to enrich and substantiate claims about the metaphorical characteristics of pictorial representations, and develop our understanding of how metaphor use is guided by stylistic features of drawing that are characteristic of the comics form.“

 

The Materiality of Digital Comics

Palgrave Studies in Comics and Graphic Novels

Ian Hague
Palgrave Macmillan
Januar 2026
Verlagsseite

„The Materiality of Digital Comics asks how we can speak meaningfully about digital comics, and how we can do so in a way that remains meaningful as time passes and technology changes. In Part I, the book proposes a model for the study of digital comics that is founded on a material understanding of the form. Across three chapters, the book explores what digital comics are, in physical terms, and how we might structure our understanding of digital comics using six key terms: identifier, file type, software, firmware, hardware, and producers/readers. Each of these elements is explored individually before the relationships between them are discussed. The second part of the book develops this framework across three key areas: economics, histories and geographies. Chapter 5 explores the sales of digital comics and highlights a variety of costs and risks in digital comics that do not apply straightforwardly to print comics. Chapter 6 considers questions of histories as they pertain to digital comics, framing the discussion around four stages in the “life cycle” of a digital comic: creation, maintenance, movement and destruction. Chapter 7 addresses geographies through four topics: localities, nationalities, languages and law. Central to this chapter is the argument that digital comics are physically located things. The book concludes with a discussion of how the model presented here, and the concerns it raises, might be used actively for further scholarship, as well as an outline of other key areas that might be explored through a material analysis of digital comics in future.“

 

Fantastic Adventures in the Comics: Rockets, Genies, and Bug-Eyed Monsters, 1940s-1980s

William Schoell
McFarland
Dezember 2025
Verlagsseite

„Science fiction and fantasy comics present colorful if disparate visions of the future, from post-apocalyptic nightmare scenarios and prophetic explorations of technical advances to startling stories of space colonization. This book analyzes the genre from the 1940s to the 1980s, examining works such as tales of virile adventurers and their space “babes” to more thought-provoking stories of the clash of alien cultures and frightening, ironic looks at the results of outer space travel.
This volume scrutinizes the output of publishers such as DC Comics (Strange Adventures and Tales of the Unexpected, etc.); EC comics (Weird Science and Weird Fantasies); Marvel Comics (various series with monsters and grotesque alien creatures); Charlton (numerous fantasy magazines); American Comics Group (Forbidden Worlds and Adventures into the Unknown); as well as comics from Dell, Gold Key, Avon, Fiction House, and many others. “

 

The Code of the Superhero: Morality and Citizenship in the Comics

Ryan L. Johnson
McFarland
November 2025
Verlagsseite

„Since their inception, superheroes in comic books and other media have endeavored to guide the nation’s children and adults. But what have superheroes been teaching, and how has that curriculum changed from generation to generation? This examination of American superhero history investigates the transforming landscape of the so-called Superhero Code. It discusses the history of the costumed crusaders across more than eight decades, then dives into a case study of a comic-book hero and a transmedial adaptation. Over the course of 6 eras and 12 characters, the book explores the responses of each new generation of characters to contemporary political and social concerns as well as the superheroes’ timeless moral messages for readers young and old.“

 

Rezeptionsprozesse zu erzählenden Comics: Eine rekonstruktive Studie in der Sekundarstufe I

Didaktik der deutschen Sprache und Literatur

Stefanie Granzow
Waxmann Verlag
Oktober 2025
Verlagsseite

„Comics vereinen visuelle, sprachliche und narrative Elemente, sodass die deutschdidaktischen Perspektiven auf den Gegenstand vielfältig sind. Welche konkreten Potenziale das multimodale Medium Comic für literarisches und ästhetisches Lernen birgt, wird von dieser Studie in den Blick gefasst. Es wird untersucht, wie Schüler:innen der Sekundarstufe I an Schulen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Hamburg zwei erzählende Comics lesen, besprechen und deuten. Aus videografisch aufgezeichneten Kleingruppendiskussionen werden unterschiedliche Rezeptionsmodi herausgearbeitet: vom detektivischen Detailblick bis zum intensiven Eintauchen in die Erzählung. Die fachdidaktische Reflexion und praxisnahe Impulse für den Literaturunterricht runden die Untersuchung ab. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, wie die Erzählkraft von Comics literarästhetische Lern- und Bildungsprozesse stimulieren kann – und welche Herausforderungen sie bereithalten.“

 

The Look of the 1960s: Barbarella and Pulp Pop Comics

World Comics and Graphic Nonfiction

Jan Baetens, Hugo Frey
U of Texas P
Oktober 2025
Verlagsseite

„As a form of visual art, comic books rely on a distinct and eye-catching aesthetic. This is especially true of the iconic comics, graphic novels, and illustrations of the 1960s and 1970s. The Look of the 1960s explores the sources of inspiration that influenced the world of comics, beginning with the well-known French comics series Barbarella.
Noted comics scholars Jan Baetens and Hugo Frey analyze the impacts of the often-provocative images featured in the comics of the 1960s, which pushed back against French censorship in a politically tense time, and detail how women resisted their objectification in the comic book industry. Barbarella left its mark on the world and gained international attention, inspiring a movie adaptation and changing the look and content of other popular comics. The “Pulp Pop” movement remains relevant today, continuing to influence the art and political world. With new information about artists and an astute analysis of sociopolitical influence, The Look of the 1960s offers deep insights, making it a must read for comics fans all over the world.“

 

Manga: A New History of Japanese Comics

Eike Exner
Yale UP
August 2025
Verlagsseite

„The immensely popular art form of manga, or Japanese comics, has made its mark across global pop culture, influencing film, visual art, video games, and more. This book is the first to tell the history of comics in Japan as a single, continuous story, focusing on manga as multipanel cartoons that show stories rather than narrate them. Eike Exner traces these cartoons’ gradual evolution from the 1890s until today, culminating in manga’s explosion in global popularity in the 2000s and the current shift from print periodicals to digital media and smartphone apps.
Over the course of this 130-year history, Exner answers questions about the origins of Japanese comics, the establishment of their distinctive visuals, and how they became such a fundamental part of the Japanese publishing industry, incorporating well-known examples such as Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon, as well as historical manga little known outside of Japan. The book pays special attention to manga’s structural development, examining the roles played not only by star creators but also by editors and major publishers such as Kōdansha that embraced comics as a way of selling magazines to different, often gendered, readerships. This engaging narrative presents extensive new research, making it an essential read for enthusiasts and experts alike.“

Im Monitor werden in unregelmäßigen Abständen aktuelle Publikationen aus den letzten 6 Monaten vorgestellt, die für die Comicforschung relevant sein könnten. Die kurzen Ankündigungstexte dazu stammen von den jeweiligen Verlagsseiten. Haben Sie Anregungen oder Hinweise auf Neuerscheinungen, die übersehen worden sind und hier erwähnt werden sollten? Das Team freut sich über eine Mail an redaktion@comicgesellschaft.de.
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On Black Bandes Dessinées and Transcolonial Power

Studies in Comics and Cartoons

Michelle Bumatay
Ohio State University Press
Februar 2025
Verlagsseite

„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.“

 

Comics, Activism, Feminisms

Anna Nordenstam, Kristy Beers Fägersten, Margareta Wallin Wictorin (Hgs.)
Routledge
September 2024
Verlagsseite

„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.“

 

Japanische Fan-Comics: Transkulturelle Potenziale und lokale Gemeinschaft

Comic-Kulturen

Katharina Hülsmann
Transkript
März 2025
Verlagsseite

„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?“

 

Drawn 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 (Hgs.)
McFarland
März 2025
Verlagsseite

„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.“

 

Comics Art in Korea

John A. Lent
University Press of Mississippi
Januar 2025
Verlagsseite

„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.“

 

Supervillains: The Significance of Evil in Superhero Comics

Nao Tomabechi
Rutgers University Press
Januar 2025
Verlagsseite

„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.“

 

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

Douglas Brode (Hg.)
McFarland
Dezember 2024
Verlagsseite

„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.“

 

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

Studies in Comics and Religion

Brandon R. Grafius, John W. Morehead (Hgs.)
McFarland
Dezember 2024
Verlagsseite

„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.“

 

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*Die ComFor-Redaktion bedauert den Mangel an Diversität in dieser Publikation. Wir sind bestrebt, möglichst neutral über das Feld der Comicforschung in all seiner Breite zu informieren und redaktionelle Selektionsprozesse auf ein Minimum zu beschränken. Gleichzeitig sind wir uns jedoch auch der problematischen Strukturen des Wissenschaftsbetriebs bewusst, die häufig dazu führen, dass insbesondere Comicforscherinnen sowie jene mit marginalisierten Identitäten weniger sichtbar sind. Wir wissen, dass dieses Ungleichgewicht oft nicht der Intention der Herausgeber_innen / Veranstalter_innen entspricht und möchten dies auch nicht unterstellen, wollen aber dennoch darauf aufmerksam machen, um ein Bewusstsein für dieses Problem zu schaffen.

Im Monitor werden in unregelmäßigen Abständen aktuelle Publikationen aus den letzten 6 Monaten vorgestellt, die für die Comicforschung relevant sein könnten. Die kurzen Ankündigungstexte dazu stammen von den jeweiligen Verlagsseiten. Haben Sie Anregungen oder Hinweise auf Neuerscheinungen, die übersehen worden sind und hier erwähnt werden sollten? Das Team freut sich über eine Mail an redaktion@comicgesellschaft.de.
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Drawing (in) the Feminine: Bande Dessinée and Women

Studies in Comics and Cartoons

Margaret C. Flinn (Hg.)
Ohio State University Press
Februar 2024
Verlagsseite

„Drawing (in) the Feminine celebrates and examines the richness of contemporary women’s production in French and Francophone comics art and considers the history of representations made by both dominant and marginalized creators. Bridging historical and contemporary comics output, these essays illuminate the interfaces among genre, gender, and cultural history. Contributors from both sides of the Atlantic, and across a variety of methodologies and disciplinary orientations, challenge prevailing claims about the absence of women creators, characters, and readers in bande dessinée, arguing that women have always been part of its history. While still far from achieving parity with their male counterparts, female creators are occupying an increasingly significant portion of the French-language comics publishing industry, and creators of all genders are putting forth stories that reflect on the diversity and richness of women’s and gender-nonconforming people’s experiences. In the essays collected here, contributors push back against the ways in which the marginalization of women within bande dessinée history has overshadowed their significant contributions, extending avenues for further exploring the true diversity of a flourishing contemporary production.“

 

Indigenous Comics and Graphic Novels: Studies in Genre

James J. Donahue
University Press of Mississippi
März 2024
Verlagsseite

„In recent years, studios like Marvel and DC have seen enormous success transforming comics into major motion pictures. At the same time, bookstores such as Barnes & Noble in the US and Indigo in Canada have made more room for comic books and graphic novels on their shelves. Yet despite the sustained popular appeal and the heightened availability of these media, Indigenous artists continue to find their work given little attention by mainstream publishers, booksellers, production houses, and academics. Nevertheless, Indigenous artists are increasingly turning to graphic narratives, with publishers like Native Realities LLC and Highwater Press carving out ever more space for Indigenous creators.
In Indigenous Comics and Graphic Novels: Studies in Genre, James J. Donahue aims to interrogate and unravel the disparities of representation in the fields of comics studies and comics publishing. Donahue documents and analyzes the works of several Indigenous artists, including Theo Tso, Todd Houseman, and Arigon Starr. Through topically arranged chapters, the author explores a wide array of content produced by Indigenous creators, from superhero and science fiction comics to graphic novels and experimental narratives. While noting the importance of examining how Indigenous works are analyzed, Donahue emphasizes that the creation of artistic and critical spaces for Indigenous comics and graphic novels should be an essential concern for the comics studies field.“

 

Comics and Modernism: History, Form, and Culture

Tom Inge Series on Comics Artists

Jonathan Najarian (Hg.)
University Press of Mississippi
Januar 2024
Verlagsseite

„Since the early 1990s, cartoonist Art Spiegelman has made the case that comics are the natural inheritor of the aesthetic tradition associated with the modernist movement of the early twentieth century. In recent years, scholars have begun to place greater import on the shared historical circumstances of early comics and literary and artistic modernism. Comics and Modernism: History, Form, and Culture is an interdisciplinary consideration of myriad social, cultural, and aesthetic connections.
Filling a gap in current scholarship, an impressively diverse group of scholars approaches the topic from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds and methodologies. Drawing on work in literary studies, art history, film studies, philosophy, and material culture studies, contributors attend to the dynamic relationship between avant-garde art, literature, and comics. Essays by both established and emerging voices examine topics as divergent as early twentieth-century film, museum exhibitions, newspaper journalism, magazine illustration, and transnational literary circulation.
In presenting varied critical approaches, this book highlights important interpretive questions for the field. Contributors sometimes arrive at thoughtful consensus and at other times settle on productive disagreements. Ultimately, this collection aims to extend traditional lines of inquiry in both comics studies and modernist studies and to reveal overlaps between ostensibly disparate artistic practices and movements.“

 

Lost Literacies: Experiments in the Nineteenth-Century US Comic Strip

Studies in Comics and Cartoons

Alex Beringer
Ohio State University Press
Januar 2024
Verlagsseite

„Lost Literacies is the first full-length study of US comic strips from the period prior to the rise of Sunday newspaper comics. Where current histories assume that nineteenth-century US comics consisted solely of single-panel political cartoons or simple “proto-comics,” Lost Literacies introduces readers to an ambitious group of artists and editors who were intent on experimenting with the storytelling possibilities of the sequential strip, resulting in playful comics whose existence upends prevailing narratives about the evolution of comic strips.
Over the course of the nineteenth century, figures such as artist Frank Bellew and editor T. W. Strong introduced sequential comic strips into humor magazines and precursors to graphic novels known as “graphic albums.” These early works reached audiences in the tens of thousands. Their influences ranged from Walt Whitman’s poetry to Mark Twain’s travel writings to the bawdy stage comedies of the Bowery Theatre. Most importantly, they featured new approaches to graphic storytelling that went far beyond the speech bubbles and panel grids familiar to us today. As readers of Lost Literacies will see, these little-known early US comic strips rival even the most innovative modern comics for their diversity and ambition.“

 

BOOM! SPLAT! Comics and Violence

Jim Coby, Joanna Davis-McElligatt (Hgs.)
University Press of Mississippi
März 2024
Verlagsseite

„In 1954, the culture, distribution, and content of comics forever changed. Long a mainstay of America’s reading diet, comic books began to fall under the scrutiny of parent groups, church leaders, and politicians. The bright colors and cheaply printed pulp pages of comic books that had once provided an escape were suddenly presumed to house something lascivious, insidious, and morally corrosive. While anxieties about representations of violence in comics have largely fallen to the wayside since the moral panic of the 1950s, thematic and symbolic visual depictions of violence remain central to the comics form. BOOM! SPLAT! Comics and Violence examines violence in every iteration—physical violence enacted between people and their environments, formal and structural violence embedded in the comics language itself, representations of historical violence, and ways of reading and seeing violence.
BOOM! SPLAT! is composed of fifteen essays from renowned comics scholars and is organized thematically into four sections, including an examination of histories of violence, forms of violence, modes and systems of violence, and political and social violence. Chapters focus on well-known comics and comics creators, such as Steve Ditko, Hulk, X-Men, and the Marvel universe, to newspaper cartoon strips, postwar graphic novels, revolution, civil rights, trauma, #blacklivesmatter, and more. BOOM! SPLAT! serves as a resource to scholars and comics enthusiasts who wish to contemplate and confront the permutations, forms, structures, and discourses of violence that have always animated cartoons.
Through this interrogation, our understanding of violence moves beyond the immediately physical and interpersonal into modes of ephemeral, psychological, and ideological violence. Contributors fill critical gaps by offering sustained explorations of the function of manifold violences in the comics language—those seen, felt, and imagined. The essays in this collection are critically necessary for understanding the current and historical role that violence has played in comics and will help recognize how cartooning imbricates, resists, and expands our thinking about and experiences of violence.“

 

Captain America and the American Journey, 1940-2022

Richard A. Hall
McFarland
Februar 2024
Verlagsseite

„Captain America made his debut in 1940, just two years behind the first comic book superheroes and five years before the United States’ emergence as the world’s primary superpower at the end of World War II. His journey has been intertwined with America’s progress throughout the decades. Known as the “Sentinel of Liberty,” he has frequently provided socio-political commentary on current events as well as inspiration and warnings concerning the future.
This work explores the interconnected histories of the United States and Captain America, decade-by-decade, from the character’s origins to Chris Evans’ portrayal of him in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It examines how Captain America’s story provides a guide through America’s tenure as a global superpower, holds a mirror up to American society, and acts as a constant reminder of what America can and should be.“

 

Superheroes Beyond

Cormac McGarry, Liam Burke, Ian Gordon, Angela Ndalianis (Hgs.)
University Press of Mississippi
März 2024
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„In recent years, superheroes on the page and screen have garnered increasing research and wider interest. Nonetheless, many works fall back on familiar examples before arriving at predictable conclusions. Superheroes Beyond moves superhero research beyond expected models. In this innovative collection, contributors unmask international crimefighters, track superheroes outside of the comic book page, and explore heroes whose secret identities are not cisgender men. Superheroes Beyond responds to the growing interest in understanding the unique appeal of superheroes by reveling in the diversity of this heroic type.
Superheroes Beyond explores the complexity and cultural reach of the superhero in three sections. The first, “Beyond Men of Steel,” examines how the archetype has moved beyond simply recapitulating the “man of steel” figure to include broader representations of race, gender, sexuality, and ableness. The second section, “Beyond Comic Books,” discusses how the superhero has become a transmedia phenomenon, moving from comic books to toys to cinema screens and beyond. The final section, “Beyond the United States,” highlights the vibrant but often overlooked history of global superhero figures. Together, the essays in this collection form important starting points for taking stock of the superhero’s far-reaching appeal, contributing the critical conversations required to bring scholarship into the present moment and beyond.“

 

Christianity and Comics: Stories We Tell about Heaven and Hell

Blair Davis
Rutgers University Press
März 2024
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„The Bible has inspired Western art and literature for centuries, so it is no surprise that Christian iconography, characters, and stories have also appeared in many comic books. Yet the sheer stylistic range of these comics is stunning. They include books from Christian publishers, as well as underground comix with religious themes and a vast array of DC, Marvel, and Dark Horse titles, from Hellboy to Preacher.
Christianity and Comics presents an 80-year history of the various ways that the comics industry has drawn from biblical source material. It explores how some publishers specifically targeted Christian audiences with titles like Catholic Comics, books featuring heroic versions of Oral Roberts and Billy Graham, and special religious-themed editions of Archie. But it also considers how popular mainstream comics like Daredevil, The Sandman, Ghost Rider, and Batman are infused with Christian themes and imagery.
Comics scholar Blair Davis pays special attention to how the medium’s unique use of panels, word balloons, captions, and serialized storytelling have provided vehicles for telling familiar biblical tales in new ways. Spanning the Golden Age of comics to the present day, this book charts how comics have both reflected and influenced Americans’ changing attitudes towards religion.“

Im Monitor werden in unregelmäßigen Abständen aktuelle Publikationen aus den letzten 6 Monaten vorgestellt, die für die Comicforschung relevant sein könnten. Die kurzen Ankündigungstexte dazu stammen von den jeweiligen Verlagsseiten. Haben Sie Anregungen oder Hinweise auf Neuerscheinungen, die übersehen worden sind und hier erwähnt werden sollten? Das Team freut sich über eine Mail an redaktion@comicgesellschaft.de.
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Bildung im Comic: Die pädagogischen Elemente des Bildungsromans in Keiji Nakazawas Barfuß durch Hiroshima

Kieler Berichte, Bd. 26

Erik Rading
Universitätsverlag Kiel
August 2023
Verlagsseite

„In den vergangenen Jahren wurden immer wieder Untersuchungen veröffentlicht, die sich der Frage widmeten, ob bestimmte Comics als Bildungsromane verstanden werden können. Trotz vermeintlich naheliegender Anschlusspunkte, z. B. der (literarischen) Auseinandersetzung mit lebensweltlichen Vorstellungen von Bildung, sucht man dabei eine pädagogische Perspektive weitestgehend vergebens. Dieser Leerstelle versucht sich der vorliegende Beitrag anzunehmen, indem er die Übertragung der pädagogischen Elemente des Bildungsromans auf den Comic untersucht. Dabei folgt er der Annahme, dass sich schon im Bildungsroman wie auch im Comic lebensweltliche, gesellschaftliche und historische Verständnisse pädagogische relevanter Themen und Intentionen, wie z. B. Bildung, Entwicklung oder Erziehung, artikulieren können, ohne dass diese Ansprüchen an explizit wissenschaftlich-pädagogische Theorien genügen müssen. Wie in den genannten Untersuchungen üblich, wird zur Bearbeitung dieses Forschungsanliegens ein Comic – hier die ersten vier Bände von Barfuß durch Hiroshima des japanischen Mangaka Keiji Nakazawa – als exemplarischer Forschungsgegenstand herangezogen und hermeneutisch nach den pädagogisch relevanten Elementen des Bildungsromans analysiert. Im Zuge dessen werden – entsprechend dem methodischen Vorgehen – Überlegungen zu einer spezifischen Hermeneutik des Comics präsentiert, der bisher als Erzählform kaum Berücksichtigung in methodologisch-hermeneutischen Überlegungen fand.“

 

Secondary Action Heroes of Golden Age Comics

Lou Mougin
McFarland
August 2023
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„The 1940s saw the birth of many enduring superheroes like Superman, Batman, Captain America and Captain Marvel. Outside of the superhero genre, the golden age of comics also featured a host of lesser-known, evil-fighting action figures, and this book contains a wealth of information about these heroes without capes. Covered here are jungle heroines like Sheena, Rulah and Princess Pantha; science fiction stalwarts including Spacehawk, Hunt Bowman and Futura; adventurers such as Kayo Kirby, Werewolf Hunter and Senorita Rio; and Western heroes ranging from Tom Mix to the Ghost Rider.“

 

Comics and Migration: Representation and Other Practices

Global Perspectives in Comics Studies

Ralf Kauranen, Olli Löytty, Aura Nikkilä, Anna Vuorinne (Hgs.)
Routledge
2023
Verlagsseite

„Comics and human mobility have a long history of connections. This volume explores these entanglements with a focus on both how comics represent migration and what applied uses comics have in relation to migration. The volume examines both individual works of comic art and examples of practical applications of comics from across the world.
Comics are well-suited to create understanding, highlight truthful information, and engender empathy in their audiences, but are also an art form that is preconditioned or even limited by its representational and practical conventions. Through analyses of various practices and representations, this book questions the uncritical belief in the capacity of comics, assesses their potential to represent stories of exile and immigration with compassion, and discusses how xenophobia and nationalism are both reinforced and questioned in comics. The book includes essays by both researchers and practitioners such as activists and journalists whose work has combined a focus on comics and migration. It predominantly scrutinises comics and activities from more peripheral areas such as the Nordic region, the German-language countries, Latin America, and southern Asia to analyse the treatment and visual representation of migration in these regions.“

 

Muslim Comics and Warscape Witnessing

Studies in Comics and Cartoons

Esra Mirze Santesso
Ohio State University Press
September 2023
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„Recent decades have seen an unprecedented number of comics by and about Muslim people enter the global market. Now, Muslim Comics and Warscape Witnessing offers the first major study of these works. Esra Mirze Santesso assesses Muslim comics to illustrate the multifaceted nature of seeing and representing daily lives within and outside of the homeland. Focusing on contemporary graphic narratives that are primarily but not exclusively from the Middle East—from blockbusters like Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis to more local efforts such as Leila Abdelrazaq’s Baddawi—Santesso explores why the graphic form has become a popular and useful medium for articulating Muslim subjectivities. Further, she shows how Muslim comics “bear witness” to a range of faith-based positions that complicate discussions of global ummah or community, contest monolithic depictions of Muslims, and question the Islamist valorization of the shaheed, the “martyr” figure regarded as the ideal religious witness. By presenting varied depictions of everyday lives of Muslims navigating violence and militarization, this book reveals the connections between religious rituals and existence in warscapes and invites us to more deeply consider the nature of witnessing itself.“

 

The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel

Cambridge Companions to Literature

Jan Baetens, Hugo Frey, Fabrice Leroy (Hgs.)
Cambridge University Press
September 2023
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„The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel explores the important role of the graphic novel in reflecting American society and in the shaping of the American imagination. Using key examples, this volume reviews the historical development of various subgenres within the graphic novel tradition and examines how graphic novelists have created multiple and different accounts of the American experience, including that of African American, Asian American, Jewish, Latinx, and LGBTQ+ communities. Reading the American graphic novel opens a debate on how major works have changed the idea of America from that once found in the quintessential action or superhero comics to show new, different, intimate accounts of historical change as well as social and individual, personal experience. It guides readers through the theoretical text-image scholarship to explain the meaning of the complex borderlines between graphic novels, comics, newspaper strips, caricature, literature, and art.“

 

Ilan Manouach in Review: Critical Approaches to his Conceptual Comics

Pedro Moura (Hg.)
Routledge
September 2023
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„This book takes an interdisciplinary and diverse critical look at the work of comic artist Ilan Manouach, situating it within the avant-garde movement more broadly.
An international team of authors engages with the topic from diverse theoretical approaches, from traditional narratology and aesthetic close readings of some of Manouach’s books, engaging with comics‘ own distinctive history, modes of production, circulation and reception, to perspectives from disability studies, post-colonial studies, technological criticism, media ecology, ontography, posthumanist philosophy, and issues of materiality and media specificity.
This innovative and timely volume will interest students and scholars of comic studies, media studies, media ecology, literature, cultural studies, and visual studies.“

 

Batman’s Villains and Villainesses: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Arkham’s Souls*

Justin F. Martin, Marco Favaro (Hgs.)
Lexington Books
September 2023
Verlagsseite

„While much of the scholarship on superhero narratives has focused on the heroes themselves, Batman’s Villains and Villainesses: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Arkham’s Souls takes into view the depiction of the villains and their lives, arguing that they often function as proxies for larger societal and philosophical themes. Approaching Gotham’s villains from a number of disciplinary backgrounds, the essays in this collection highlight how the villains’ multifaceted backgrounds, experiences, motivations, and behaviors allow for in-depth character analysis across varying levels of social life. Through investigating their cultural and scholarly relevance across the humanities and social sciences, the volume encourages both thoughtful reflection on the relationship between individuals and their social contexts and the use of villains (inside and outside of Gotham) as subjects of pedagogical and scholarly inquiry.“

 

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*Die ComFor-Redaktion bedauert den Mangel an Diversität in dieser Publikation. Wir sind bestrebt, möglichst neutral über das Feld der Comicforschung in all seiner Breite zu informieren und redaktionelle Selektionsprozesse auf ein Minimum zu beschränken. Gleichzeitig sind wir uns jedoch auch der problematischen Strukturen des Wissenschaftsbetriebs bewusst, die häufig dazu führen, dass insbesondere Comicforscherinnen sowie jene mit marginalisierten Identitäten weniger sichtbar sind. Wir wissen, dass dieses Ungleichgewicht oft nicht der Intention der Herausgeber_innen / Veranstalter_innen entspricht und möchten dies auch nicht unterstellen, wollen aber dennoch darauf aufmerksam machen, um ein Bewusstsein für dieses Problem zu schaffen.