UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPP
BRITISH SUPERHERO TRACKING SURPRISING RISE SC
(W) Chris Murray (A) N/A (CA) N/A
Chris Murray reveals the largely unknown and rather surprising history of the British superhero. It is often thought that Britain did not have its own superheroes, yet Murray demonstrates that there were a great many in Britain and that they were often used as a way to comment on the relationship between Britain and America. Sometimes they emulated the style of American comics, but they also frequently became sites of resistance to perceived American political and cultural hegemony, drawing upon satire and parody as a means of critique.
COMICS OF JULIE DOUCET & GABRIELLE BELL SC
(W) Brannon Costello (Ed.) (A) Julie Doucet (CA) N/A
In a self-reflexive way, Julie Doucet's and Gabrielle Bell's comics defy easy categorization. In this volume, editors Tahneer Oksman and Seamus O'Malley regard Doucet's and Bell's art as actively feminist, not only because they offer women's perspectives, but because they do so by provocatively bringing up the complicated, multivalent frameworks of such engagements. While each artist has a unique perspective, style, and worldview, the essays in this book investigate their shared investments in formal innovation and experimentation, and in playing with questions of the autobiographical, the fantastic, and the spaces in between.
FUNNY GIRLS GUFFAWS GUTS GENDER IN CLASSIC AMER COMICS
(W) Michelle Ann Abate (A) N/A (CA) N/A
Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, the medium was enjoyed equally by both sexes, and girls were the protagonists of some of the earliest, most successful, and most influential comics. In Funny Girls: Guffaws, Guts, and Gender in Classic American Comics, Michelle Ann Abate examines the important but long-overlooked cadre of young female protagonists in US comics during the first half of the twentieth century. She treats characters ranging from Little Orphan Annie and Nancy to Little Lulu, Little Audrey of the Harvey Girls, and Li'l Tomboy, a group that collectively forms a tradition of funny girls in American comics.
LIFE & TIMES WARD KIMBALL MAVERICK OF DISNEY ANIMATION
(W) Todd James Pierce (A) Ward Kimball (CA) N/A
Besides Walt Disney, no one seemed more key to the development of animation at the Disney Studios than Ward Kimball (1914-2002), Kimball was Disney's friend and confidant. In this engaging, cradle-to-grave biography, award-winning author Todd James Pierce explores the life of Ward Kimball, a lead Disney animator who worked on characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Jiminy Cricket, the Cheshire Cat, and the Mad Hatter. Through unpublished excerpts from Kimball's personal writing, material from unpublished interviews, and new information based on interviews conducted by the author, Pierce defines the life of perhaps the most influential animator of the twentieth century.
PANEL TO SCREEN COMIC BOOKS DURING BLOCKBUSTER ERA
(W) Drew Morton (A) N/A (CA) N/A
Over the past forty years, American film has entered into a formal interaction with the comic book. Such comic book adaptations as Sin City, 300, and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World have adopted components of their source materials' visual style. The screen has been fractured into panels, the photographic has given way to the graphic, and the steady rhythm of cinematic time has evolved into a far more malleable element. In other words, films have begun to look like comics.