'Nuff Said: American Graphic Media

Comics - News - Paul Cornell: 'Lex Luthor almost Tony Stark' - Digital Spy Paul Cornell's run on Action Comic has been great. His comment that Lex Luthor is similar to Tony Stark is true, but also points to the subtle shifts in the characterization of Luthor in comics. I'm co-teaching HIS 235 American Graphic Media in the Fall with my colleague William Svitavsky , so I have begun the process of thinking through the course yet again. Luthor is great example of how comic characters link to historical context. First introduced in the 1940s, Luthor was a "mad scientist" that easily reflected concerns about technological innovation creating chaos. A common concern since the mid-nineteenth century as U.S. citizens realized rapid industrial and urban change was driven by technological innovation. In this atmosphere critics charged that technology, then as now, was "de-humanizing." You need only reflect on how the public believed the telephone would le...

The Fantastic Four is coming to an end to be replaced with....The Future Foundation! The recent death of Johnny Storm sets up a new direction for Reed Richards and the other former members of the Fantastic Four. The Future Foundation seem to be a larger group. In addition, the roster has some superstar characters. I think the new title will bring a lot of attention to classic and new characters alike. I know that many people questioned the value of killing Johnny Storm. Fantastic Four 587 was the best selling comic in the last six month, so Marvel got exactly what it wanted. Still, fans and critics had every right to gripe. The value of any death (whether the character stays dead or not) is reflected in those characters left behind and the where the story goes in the future. I was curious how FF writer Jonathan Hickman would set up the death and who would die. Anyone familiar with Hickman's work knows that he is a careful plotter with fantastic scope that draws on art, lit...

From Comic Book To Small Screen Jessica Jones Series In The Works I'm intrigued by the idea of a Jessica Jones series because of three things. First, the idea of female character linked to Marvel's superhero universe, but not in costume would work well on television. For the most part, that has been the successful model for shows like Smallville and Heroes. Despite NBC's The Cape coming to the small screen in January, the usually approach is to avoid the costume even if the hero has superpowers. Second, a female character has a better chance of picking up a big audience on television, especially if they follow Brian Michael Bendis great characterization. Finally, and most importantly, Jessica Jone is married to Luke Cage in the current Marvel Universe. If the series is successful, even a modest success, more people will get a chance to see Bendis' revamped and modernize version of Luke Cage on television. This would open the door to getting the character into a ...

Brenda Starr, the groundbreaking female reporter created in 1940 by Dalia (Dale) Messick, is coming to an end. Starr was a standout female character in the Golden Age of comics. Yet, her success was the result of her popularity as a syndicated newspaper cartoon strip, not as comic book property. Messick created the character for the Chicago Tribune Syndicate and despite resistance from the editors, the character resonated with readers. While initially not appearing in the Chicago Tribune, it was relegated to a Sunday supplement, by 1945 Brenda Starr had a daily strip and was one of the most popular characters in the Sunday paper. In that same year, the character made its first cross media appearance in a movie serial, Brenda Starr, Reporter starring Joan Woodbury. By the 1950s the character appeared in over 200 newspapers nationwide. The character's popularity is noteworthy because in an era where women were expected to suppress their career aspiration and return home after Wo...

Ok, I saw Tron Legacy. It is not a bad movie, nor especially great movie, so it is similar to a lot of mass entertainment. Still, thinking about its release for a few weeks and seeing the pop culture landscape react to it, I gotta take a stab of contextualizing it. Tron Legacy is the perfect example of major corporate entity (Disney) trying to exploit a legacy property they know (or have been told) is cool, but they don't quite understand why it is cool. The original 1982 TRON was a financial disaster for Disney, but the movie became a cult classic because it foreshadowed our modern cyber culture. The idea of world inside the computer (the GIRD), the struggle to bring "freedom" to the digital world and the fate of the "user" all resonate with an emerging computer culture shifting from industrial computing to desktop/personal computing affecting everyone. TRON spoke to the implication of living in a world shaped by the computer--good and bad. For kid...

The run up to TEDx Orlando got me thinking about the origin of the superhero and the link to the American experience. At some point in the future, you will be able to check out my talk online, but I continue to observe the intersection of graphic media and the American experience. Consider the announcement and speculation over the casting of the new Superman film . It comes to no surprise to me that this re-reboot (coming after the less than stellar Superman Returns in 2006) will be an origin story. Interest is strong in part because the names behind the camera have had big success with other comic properties. Christopher Nolan is producing, David Goyer is scripting and Zack Snider is directing and together these innovative creative types have decided to go with an origin story!?! Some diehard comic fans I know have already asked why, but they are missing the point. The success the collective creators have experience with Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, 300, and the Watchmen all...

I'm gearing up for a presentation on the U.S. experience and Superhero for TEDx Orlando . TED talks are about ideas worth sharing and if you know anything about me you know I am a fan of comic books. I'm a fan of many things, but comics are easy for people to understand. Honestly, given the marginalizing nature of academic endeavors, having something to talk about that people understand is not a bad thing. Despite my confused appearance, I have a pretty focused approach to scholarship . Yet, regardless of my focus, the vast majority of people dismiss academia. The old saying of "Those that can-do and those that cannot-teach" makes a lot of sense to people. It is wrong, thus proving the need for an education. Still, the United States puts a lot of stock in going out and "doing" as better than the learning and understanding achieved through intense study. Given this popular sentiment, you would think Rollins would be more well-known to the wider publi...

I recently completed a piece on No Ordinary Family for popmatters.com My goal for this piece is of course to push beyond the surface to explore the symbolism associated with comics and superheroes in the United States.

Professor John Donovan did me the great favor of checking out comic book shops in his area on Free Comic Book Day. Professor Donovan writes about the anti-communist message in comic for Ages of Heroes, Era of Men , yet he recently shared some new research at the Imagined Power Symposium at Rollins exploring depictions of President Obama in comics . John's take on FCBD is in sharp contrast to my own. As he explains: “ I had the opportunity to enjoy FCBD by visiting the Boulder area (one hour north of my home in Colorado Springs). From experience, I knew that the best way to celebrate the day would be to visit Time Warp Comics, Cards and Collectibles in Boulder. I was not disappointed. The owner, Wayne Winsett, goes all-out every FCBD. He puts out balloons for the kids, has artists on hand to talk with fans, and has people in costume to entertain the customers. This year he had a batmobile in front of the store (on loan from a private collector), with a Batgirl to pose by ...

I recently got feedback on Ages of Heroes, Eras of Men from a prospective publisher. It a tough process, getting feedback from someone who doesn't know all the work you have put into something. It is honest feedback and I will take it and make sure the final product answer the editor's questions. We have done a lot of great work on the book, but publishers are a cold and objective bunch slow to hand out praise (and contracts). As I scramble to reply to the press, I realize I have not done much with one of the chapters I am writing for the book. My chapter looks at the introduction of African-American superheroes to the Marvel Universe in the 1960s and 1970s. The decision to introduce minority characters to a fictional universe may seem petty compared to the titanic struggles occurring over Civil Rights during the 1960s, but those struggles drove the decision to incorporate minorities into comics. The question for me is what does the Marvel Comic experience integrating per...