Superhero Comics

Chris Gavaler

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781474226349
• eBook ISBN: 9781474226363
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Popular Culture in Art
• Index: Literature

A complete guide to the history, form and contexts of the genre, Superhero Comics helps readers explore the most successful and familiar of comic book genres. In an accessible and easy-to-navigate format, the book reveals: ·The history of superhero comics-from mythic influences to 21st century evolutions
·Cultural contexts-from the formative politics of colonialism, eugenics, KKK vigilantism, and WWII fascism to the Cold War's transformative threat of mutually assured destruction to the on-going revolutions in African American and sexual representation
·Key texts-from the earliest pre-Comics-Code Superman and Batman to the latest post-Code Ms. Marvel and Black Panther
·Approaches to visual analysis-from layout norms to narrative structure to styles of abstraction

Table of contents

• Bloomsbury Comics Studies
• Dedication
• Title
• Contents 
• Series Editor’s Preface
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Historical Overview, Part 1: Pre-Comic Origins
• I The Mythic Superhero
• II The Imperial Superhero
• III The Wellborn Superhero
• IV The Vigilante Superhero
• 3 Historical Overview, Part 2: Pre-Code and First Code Origins
• I The Fascist Superhero
• II The MAD Superhero
• 4 Social and Cultural Impact
• I The Black Superhero
• II The Gendered Superhero
• 5 Critical Uses
• I The Visual Superhero
• 6 Key Texts
• I The Authorial Superhero
• Glossary
• Resources
• Works Cited
• Index
• Copyright