'Nuff Said: American Graphic Media

The Passing of a Giant: Roy Doty, 1922-2015 | The Comics Journal

   The link between New York and Marvel Comics is historic and practical.  While it is possible to film the series elsewhere, the publicity (as the press conference suggest) makes this decision a good one. The superhero comic relies on the urban environment to provide the grist for the adventure mill.   Marvel more so than DC Comic has always relied on New York as the central staging point of its adventures.  So much so, I believe we can argue the state of the comic book city has more than a slight indicator of the real urban experience. 

I'm presenting at Doctor Who: Walking in Eternity , the 50th Anniversary conference exploring the impact of this iconic science fiction franchise.  I'm drawn to Doctor Who as an extension of my research into superheroes. As you probably know, the superhero is a uniquely U.S. contribution to the comic medium. Created in 1938, comics as a medium were well established around the world, but the superhero genre was something new.  Created at a time of U.S. global ascendency, the genre evolved and expanded rapidly.   As John Shelton Lawrence and Robert Jewett argue in The Myth of the American Superhero the American mono myth derives from “tales of redemption” that secularise Judaeo-Christian dramas of community redemption that have arisen in the United States. For U.S. audiences, Doctor Who could be understood as a hero whose adventures and outlook corresponded to the struggle of communal redemption associated with the superhero tradition, but relat...

I'm sorry that Static Shock isn't going to continue within the New 52 .  While diversity has been one of the themes of DC Comics relaunch event, it hasn't been successful on all fronts.  Should we dismissed the overall focus on expanding the narrative universe?  I don't think that would be fair. While Scott McDaniel has spoken of classic problems associated with Static Shock's overall placement within the New 52, there is no question the editorial mandate at DC has been to broaden representation. Even with criticism associated with sexism and lack of female creators , in a medium heavily dependent on the visual, there are more characters of color and greater emphasis on diverse sexual orientation for the audience, which remains primarily male and white, to see and reconcile within their worldview. The disappointment in the failure of Static Shock has everything to do with the historic nature of the character. One of Milestone Media's original titles...

The costumed crime fighter returned to primetime television Sunday with NBC’s midseason debut of The Cape . For all the emphases on superheroes in popular media, those heroes, at least on television, have shied away from costumes. They provided the function associated with superheroes, but not colorful form. Why then, the return to the costumed hero on the small screen? The Cape is a family friendly show about a wrongfully accused cop who takes on the persona of his son’s favorite comic book hero to clear his name and save “Palm City.” A genre show that draws on familiar themes, The Cape offers a fight for justice and an individual’s struggle against societal corruption. As with its big screen counterpart, The Green Hornet , The Cape returns places the pulp hero in the spotlight at a time when the value of individual agency is in question. This neo-pulp moment is both stimulated by and a reaction to social upheaval and economic uncertainty. Like superheroes, pulp character...

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...