Comics and Ideology

by Matthew P. McAllister (Editor), Edward H. Sewell Jr. (Editor), Ian Gordon (Editor)

Superman's role in romanticizing commercialism; sexual violence in Japanese manga comics; Wonder Woman as Americanized immigrant; reader's reactions to the gay superhero Northstar; Dilbert as a workplace revolutionary; the Punisher's invasion of Vietnam - these are a few of the issues that Comics & Ideology addresses. Focusing on the intersection of social power and comic art, essays in this book explore how images and narratives in comic books and comic strips may portray social groups and social issues. As a scholarly examination of a form known as �the funnies� or �funny books, � this book argues that the themes and characterizations in comic art are often quite serious. Essays take diverse theoretical perspectives such as cultural studies, political economy, feminist criticism, queer studies, and mythic analysis, all focusing on the relationship of comics to issues of social division.

Genres: Comics, Nonfiction, Graphic Novels Comics

303 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2001

Reviews

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quando eu estava no doutorado este era um livro que eu queria muito ler por causa da temática, cheguei até a cogitar em comprar numa loja de usados por muitos reais. Ainda bem que não fiz. Não que este livro não seja um esforço louvável, ele inclusive traz outras visões ideológicas a partir de países asiáticos e europeus, e traz um bom aporte com artigos envolvendo estudos de gênero. Mas livros dessa levada, final dos anos 1990 e início dos 2000 ainda trazem artigos que choviam muito no molhado, traziam coisas que os leitores queriam ouvir, poucas novidades, pouca profundidade. O resultado é que eu já tinha lido algumas destas análises em outros locais de outras formas, por mais que alguns destes artigos tenham trazido essas ideias primeiro neste livro. Além disso, antologias sempre trazem misturas de sentimentos porque trazem artigo muito diferentes uns dos outros. Não foi uma perda de tempo ler esse livro, mas se não tivesse sido por xerox, certamente teria sido uma perda enorme de dinheiro.

[Christian Lipski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of essays on various aspects of comics, from Dilbert to manga, and how they reflect/are affected by ideology. Some good insight into women's issues, as well as those of the GLBT community. There's a piece on how accurately the series "The 'Nam" reflected the war it described, which was interesting.

[Whitney Borup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some essays were better than others, obviously, but most of them were a bit simple. I would have seen a lot of the more survey-type essays look at things from a analytical perspective.

[Yanathorn Jiararattanakul · Rating 5 out of 5]

comic around the world

[Heather Clitheroe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Worth it for the introduction, but there seems to be a lack of direction with the collected articles.