Robert C. Harvey
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781628461428
- eISBN:
- 9781626740778
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781628461428.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter presents a timeline of the history of comics. “Comics” denote both comic books and newspaper comic strips. Until the mid-1960s, no one cared much about the ancient history of comic ...
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This chapter presents a timeline of the history of comics. “Comics” denote both comic books and newspaper comic strips. Until the mid-1960s, no one cared much about the ancient history of comic books. Histories of comic strips that came along did not reach back much further than Winsor McCay's Little Nemo (c. 1905–11). However, the discovery of the 1890s Yellow Kid in the mid-1990s provoked comic-strip historians to examine nineteenth-century comics and several of its predecessors. The first “sequential comic book” in the U.S. is The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck, which was originally published in Europe in 1937 as The Loves of Mr. Vieux Bois, and was reprinted on September 14, 1842. In 2011, Brian Walker produced the first comprehensive illustrated history of American newspaper comic strips, The Comics: The Complete Collection.Less
This chapter presents a timeline of the history of comics. “Comics” denote both comic books and newspaper comic strips. Until the mid-1960s, no one cared much about the ancient history of comic books. Histories of comic strips that came along did not reach back much further than Winsor McCay's Little Nemo (c. 1905–11). However, the discovery of the 1890s Yellow Kid in the mid-1990s provoked comic-strip historians to examine nineteenth-century comics and several of its predecessors. The first “sequential comic book” in the U.S. is The Adventures of Mr. Obadiah Oldbuck, which was originally published in Europe in 1937 as The Loves of Mr. Vieux Bois, and was reprinted on September 14, 1842. In 2011, Brian Walker produced the first comprehensive illustrated history of American newspaper comic strips, The Comics: The Complete Collection.
Michelle Ann Abate
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781496820730
- eISBN:
- 9781496820785
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496820730.003.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
The Introduction provides necessary historical background information. It gives an overview of the book's overall aims and argument, and it also summarizes the project's methodology and ...
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The Introduction provides necessary historical background information. It gives an overview of the book's overall aims and argument, and it also summarizes the project's methodology and organizational plan.When critics, scholars, and fans think about major developments in American comics from the first half of the twentieth century, they commonly think of events like the advent of the Sunday newspaper supplement, the rise of the comic book, and the backlash against the industry by individuals like Fredric Wertham. The Introduction to this project makes a case for adding another phenomenon to this history: the popularity of young female protagonists.As it explains, examining figures like Little Lulu, Nancy, and Little Orphan Annie-both individually and as part of a larger tradition-yields compelling new insights about the industry during the first half of the twentieth century. Remembering and recouping the cadre of Funny Girls who played such a significant role in the popular appeal and commercial success of American comics during the first half of the twentieth century challenges longstanding perceptions about the gender dynamics operating during this era.Less
The Introduction provides necessary historical background information. It gives an overview of the book's overall aims and argument, and it also summarizes the project's methodology and organizational plan.When critics, scholars, and fans think about major developments in American comics from the first half of the twentieth century, they commonly think of events like the advent of the Sunday newspaper supplement, the rise of the comic book, and the backlash against the industry by individuals like Fredric Wertham. The Introduction to this project makes a case for adding another phenomenon to this history: the popularity of young female protagonists.As it explains, examining figures like Little Lulu, Nancy, and Little Orphan Annie-both individually and as part of a larger tradition-yields compelling new insights about the industry during the first half of the twentieth century. Remembering and recouping the cadre of Funny Girls who played such a significant role in the popular appeal and commercial success of American comics during the first half of the twentieth century challenges longstanding perceptions about the gender dynamics operating during this era.
Brannon Costello and Qiana J. Whitted (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617030185
- eISBN:
- 9781621032212
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617030185.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This book offers a wide-ranging assessment of how life and culture in the United States South is represented in serial comics, graphic novels, newspaper comic strips, and webcomics. Diverting the ...
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This book offers a wide-ranging assessment of how life and culture in the United States South is represented in serial comics, graphic novels, newspaper comic strips, and webcomics. Diverting the lens of comics studies from the skyscrapers of Superman’s Metropolis or Chris Ware’s Chicago to the swamps, back roads, small towns, and cities of the U.S. South, it critically examines the pulp genres associated with mainstream comic books alongside independent and alternative comics. Some chapters seek to discover what Captain America can reveal about southern regionalism and how slave narratives can help us reread Swamp Thing; others examine how creators such as Walt Kelly (Pogo), Howard Cruse (Stuck Rubber Baby), Kyle Baker (Nat Turner), and Josh Neufeld (A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge) draw upon the unique formal properties of the comics to question and revise familiar narratives of race, class, and sexuality; and another considers how southern writer Randall Kenan adapted elements of the comics form to prose fiction. With essays from an interdisciplinary group of scholars, the book contributes to and also productively reorients the most significant and compelling conversations in both comics scholarship and southern studies.Less
This book offers a wide-ranging assessment of how life and culture in the United States South is represented in serial comics, graphic novels, newspaper comic strips, and webcomics. Diverting the lens of comics studies from the skyscrapers of Superman’s Metropolis or Chris Ware’s Chicago to the swamps, back roads, small towns, and cities of the U.S. South, it critically examines the pulp genres associated with mainstream comic books alongside independent and alternative comics. Some chapters seek to discover what Captain America can reveal about southern regionalism and how slave narratives can help us reread Swamp Thing; others examine how creators such as Walt Kelly (Pogo), Howard Cruse (Stuck Rubber Baby), Kyle Baker (Nat Turner), and Josh Neufeld (A.D.: New Orleans after the Deluge) draw upon the unique formal properties of the comics to question and revise familiar narratives of race, class, and sexuality; and another considers how southern writer Randall Kenan adapted elements of the comics form to prose fiction. With essays from an interdisciplinary group of scholars, the book contributes to and also productively reorients the most significant and compelling conversations in both comics scholarship and southern studies.
