This edited volume brings together work in the field of empirical comics research. Drawing on computer and cognitive science, psychology and art history, linguistics and literary studies, each chapter presents innovative methods and establishes the practical and theoretical moti…
In the fall of 1996, the U.S. government, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and DC Comics produced a landmine awareness comic book for distribution during peacekeeping operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Superman – Deadly Legacy became the first of several comic books d…
Illustration has been an integral part of human history. Particularly before the advent of media such as photography, film, television, and now the Internet, illustrations in all their variety have been the primary visual way to convey history. The comic book, which emerged in i…
The 1954 Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings in response to a moral panic about comic books and the subsequent creation of the Comics Code Authority as the self-censorship organ of the American comic book industry drastically contracted the comic book market and…
This research examines the experiences of Indigenous comic creators when making comic books, and I aim to investigate the individual and communal motivations for creating comics. Representations of Indigenous characters and storylines have primarily been told through a white len…
Esta tesis aborda, desde la Historia cultural, las manifestaciones de algunos miedos de la Guerra Fría durante la década de 1960 en Estados Unidos en los medios de entretenimiento, especialmente en los cómics. La fuente principal de esta investigación son los cómics de la editor…
This collection of papers explores different elements of popular culture and how they reflect our world. The first is about the history of the comic medium as it relates to the development of New York in the late 19th to the 20th century. Attention is paid to the idea of moderni…
Graphic novels have long been associated with the crime fighting superheroes who are closely followed by their fans in the solace of their homes or comic bookstores; however, these texts have much potential to grab the attention of students within classroom settings. A graphic n…
Although the superhero film became a dominant force in Hollywood early in the 21st century, the formation of the superhero genre can be attributed to a relatively small temporal window beginning in 1989 and ending in 2008. This dissertation argues that a specific group of superh…
Throughout history, women in comics have played subordinate or lesser roles compared to males and were stereotyped. Today, representations have improved in comic-based tv shows. This thesis is answering three research questions: How does one define a “strong female character” wi…
This thesis project argues that war has been the greatest catalyst for the American comic book medium to become a socio-political change agent within western society. Comic books have become one of the most pervasive influences to global popular culture, with superheroes dominat…
This dissertation maps a history of Cuban comic production, analyzes hero characters in comics, and uses comics as a lens to discern both the reconstructing of memory and new imaginings of the future. Iconography and visual culture have played a formative role in negotiations ov…
Created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-Men property has extended beyond comic books over the last 30 years into television and film among other mediums. The initial premise of the canon, that mutants gifted with inherent superpowers were feared and hated by normal hum…