Charles Hatfield

The Superhero Reader Charles Hatfield

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Review Quotes:"The introduction provides a superb analysis (and diagnosis) of the current state of the field, while the anthology itself gathers some of the most influential and intelligent critical writing on superhero comics into one place. "The Superhero Reader" is an essential volume for any comics scholar."--Ben Saunders, author of "Do the Gods Wear Capes? Spirituality, Fantasy, and Superheroes"Table of Contents: Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- I. Historical Considerations -- Comics Predecessors / Peter Coogan -- Men of Tomorrow / Gerard Jones -- Gladiator / Philip Wylie -- The Great Comic Book Heroes / Jules Feiffer -- The Comics and the Super State / Walter Ong -- The Superman Conceit / Fredric Wertham -- The Great Women Superheroes / Trina Robbins -- Fandom and Authorship / Will Brooker -- II. Theory and Genre -- Literary Formulas / John G. Cawelti -- Crowds of Superheroes / Robert Jewett, John Shelton Lawrence -- The Epic Hero and Pop Culture / Roger B. Rollin -- Masked Heroes / Richard Reynolds -- The Revisionary Superhero Narrative / Geoff Klock -- Jack Kirby and the Marvel Aesthetic / Charles Hatfield -- Navigating Infinite Earths / Karin Kukkonen -- A Song of the Urban Superhero / Scott Bukatman -- III. Culture and Identity -- Wonder Woman / Gloria Steinem -- Invisible Girl / Lillian Robinson -- Love Will Bring You to Your Gift / Jennifer Stuller -- Batman, Deviance and Camp / Andy Medhurst -- Color Them Black / Adilifu Nama -- Comic Book Masculinity / Jeffrey Brown -- The Punisher as Revisionist Superhero Western / Lorrie Palmer -- Death-Defying Heroes / Henry Jenkins -- List of Contributors -- Index. Publisher Marketing: Despite their commercial appeal and cross-media reach, superheroes are only recently starting to attract sustained scholarly attention. This groundbreaking collection brings together essays and book excerpts by major writers on comics and popular culture. While superhero comics are a distinct and sometimes disdained branch of comics creation, they are integral to the development of the North American comic book and the history of the medium. For the past half-century they have also been the one overwhelmingly dominant market genre. The sheer volume of superhero comics that have been published over the years is staggering. Major superhero universes constitute one of the most expansive storytelling canvases ever fashioned. Moreover, characters inhabiting these fictional universes are immensely influential, having achieved iconic recognition around the globe. Their images and adventures have shaped many other media, such as film, videogames, and even prose fiction. The primary aim of this reader is twofold: first, to collect in a single volume a sampling of the most sophisticated commentary on superheroes, and second, to bring into sharper focus the ways in which superheroes connect with larger social, cultural, literary, aesthetic, and historical themes that are of interest to a great many readers both in the academy and beyond.

Contributor Bio:  Hatfield, Charles Charles Hatfield is an associate professor of English at California State University, Northridge, and is the author of "Alternative Comics: An Emerging Literature" and "Hand of Fire: The Comic Art of Jack Kirby", both published by University Press of Mississippi. Contributor Bio:  Heer, Jeet Jeet Heer, a former columnist for the "National Post" (Canada), has been published in "Slate", the "Boston Globe", the "Guardian", the "Comics Journal", and many other venues. He is also the coeditor (with Kent Worcester) of "Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium" and "A Comics Studies Reader", both published by University Press of Mississippi. Contributor Bio:  Worcester, Kent Kent Worchester, Bronx, New York, is professor of political science at Marymount Manhattan College. His most recent books are "The Superhero Reader" (coedited with Charles Hatfield and Jeet Heer), "A Comics Studies Reader" (coedited with Jeet Heer), and "Arguing Comics: Literary Masters on a Popular Medium" (coedited with Jeet Heer), all published by University Press of Mississippi. Contributor Bio:  Brown, Jeffrey Jeffrey Brown is the author and illustrator of Darth Vader and Son, Vader's Little Princess, Cat Getting Out of a Bag, and Cats are Weird. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two sons. Contributor Bio:  Bukatman, Scott Scott Bukatman is Professor of Film and Media Studies at Stanford University. He is the author of many books, including "Terminal Identity" and, most recently, "Matters of Gravity: Special Effects and Supermen in the Twentieth Century". Contributor Bio:  Cawelti, John G John G. Cawelti, professor of English at the University of Kentucky, is the author of "Adventure, Mystery, and Romance," also published by the University of Chicago Press. Bruce A. Rosenberg is professor of American Civilization and English at Brown University. Contributor Bio:  Feiffer, Jules Jules Feiffer is a cartoonist, playwright, children s book author and illustrator, and member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He teaches a humor writing class at Stony Brook Southampton College and lives in Southampton, New York. Contributor Bio:  Jenkins, Henry Henry Jenkins is Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism and Cinematic Arts at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. He is the coeditor of "From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games" (MIT Press, 1998). Contributor Bio:  Jewett, Robert Robert Jewett is Visiting Professor of New Testament at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Contributor Bio:  Lawrence, John Shelton Lawrence is professor emeritus of philosophy at Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa. He is a writer, consultant, and Senior Coonservation Fellow at the Sierra Club in San Francisco. Contributor Bio:  Jones, Gerard Will Jacobs runs an on-line bookstore out of Stockton, California and has written a few comics for DC. Gerard Jones has written many comics for DC, along with Marvel and other publishers, and is the author of four books, Honey I'm Home, Killing Monsters, Men of Tomorrow, and, coming soon, The Undressing of America. Contributor Bio:  Klock, Geoff Geoff Klock has a doctorate from Oxford. He wrote How to Read Superhero Comics and Why in 2002 and he wrote another book that no one read cause it was a 100K-word study of seven poems and was only available in a ferociously expensive hardcover. He spoke about Fashion and Superheroes at the Met, got a grant to study Kill Bill, and made a Hamlet super-cut that got like 38,000 views on YouTube, which is a lot for a 15-minute video about Shakespeare. He rides a fixed gear bicycle to the Borough of Manhattan Community College. He teaches composition, old school British literature, and film. His arm has a titanium plate in it. One time he was in the circus, and another time he was in a play with Christopher Lloyd, and once he was in a conga line with Rebekah del Rio. He is pretty good at Twitter and Facebook and Tumblr?Contributor Bio:  Medhurst, Andy Medhurst is a Lecturer in Media at the University of Sussex. Contributor Bio:  Nama, Adilifu Adilifu Nama is Associate Professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University. He is the author of the award-winning books Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes and Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film. Contributor Bio:  Reynolds, Richard Richard Reynolds' first illegal cultivation was at college, where he planted windowsills with boxes of Busy Lizzies. He became a guerrilla gardener in earnest in 2004 when he moved into a council block with dilapidated communal flowerbeds in London's Elephant & Castle. Contributor Bio:  Robbins, Trina Retired underground cartoonist and current comics historian Trina Robbins has been writing graphic novels, comics, and books for more than thirty years. Her subjects have ranged from Wonder Woman and The Powerpuff Girls to her own teenage superheroine, GoGirl!, and from women cartoonists and superheroines to women who kill. She's won an Inkpot Award and was inducted in the Will Eisner Hall of Fame at the San Diego Comic-Con. She lives in a moldering 103 year-old house in San Francisco with her cats, shoes, and dust bunnies. Contributor Bio:  Steinem, Gloria Gloria Steinem is best known for her outspoken advocacy on behalf of women. She is the author of four best-selling books, including "Revolution from Within" and "Moving Beyond Words". She was a founding editor of, and political commentator for, "New York Magazine", and a founding editor of "Ms.", which she continues to write for today. Contributor Bio:  Wertham, Fredric Senior psychicatrist for Department of Hospitals for NYC from 1932 to 1952, directed the mental hygience clinics at Bellevue Hospital and Queens Hospital Center and was in charge of the Court of General Sessions Psychiatric Clinic. Contributor Bio:  Wylie, Philip Philip Wylie sought a diagnosis of Asperger Syndrome at the age of 51 after reading an article about autism in an accountancy magazine and having a "Eureka" moment! He previously worked as Finance Director and Company Secretary of a British offshore bank, before relocating to Thailand where he began personal study of psychology and complementary healing practices on his path to self-realisation. Before and since receiving his diagnosis he has researched autism extensively and undertaken a survey into late diagnosis with Autonomy Autism Services and writing projects for the NAS, UK.