Chris Murray
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496807373
- eISBN:
- 9781496807410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496807373.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This chapter examines the tradition of periodical adventure stories that existed in Britain during the period 1825–1935, focusing on “story papers” and “penny bloods,” also known as “penny ...
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This chapter examines the tradition of periodical adventure stories that existed in Britain during the period 1825–1935, focusing on “story papers” and “penny bloods,” also known as “penny dreadfuls.” It first provides a historical background on the emergence of British comics before discussing “story papers” and “penny dreadfuls,” and especially their relationship with similar publications in America and the characters who, in retrospect, can be seen as protosuperheroes and villains. It also shows how these publications established the market and audience for adventure comics in Britain and influenced the rise of a similar market in America, where dime novels and pulp magazines, along with newspaper strips, would later influence the rise of superhero comics. The chapter concludes with an analysis of three of the early treatments of the superhuman from science-fiction literature: Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871), Philip Wylie's The Gladiator (1930), and Olaf Stapledon's Odd John (1935).Less
This chapter examines the tradition of periodical adventure stories that existed in Britain during the period 1825–1935, focusing on “story papers” and “penny bloods,” also known as “penny dreadfuls.” It first provides a historical background on the emergence of British comics before discussing “story papers” and “penny dreadfuls,” and especially their relationship with similar publications in America and the characters who, in retrospect, can be seen as protosuperheroes and villains. It also shows how these publications established the market and audience for adventure comics in Britain and influenced the rise of a similar market in America, where dime novels and pulp magazines, along with newspaper strips, would later influence the rise of superhero comics. The chapter concludes with an analysis of three of the early treatments of the superhuman from science-fiction literature: Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race (1871), Philip Wylie's The Gladiator (1930), and Olaf Stapledon's Odd John (1935).
Ted Geier
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474424714
- eISBN:
- 9781474434522
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474424714.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Considers mass readership and the ‘tastes’ it produces. Maps the history of criminals and execution spectacles, particularly as addressed by the London ‘public’ voices of Defoe and Dickens. Connects ...
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Considers mass readership and the ‘tastes’ it produces. Maps the history of criminals and execution spectacles, particularly as addressed by the London ‘public’ voices of Defoe and Dickens. Connects these mass events to the new mass print culture and circulation forms, such as the penny dreadfuls and their Newgate novel precursor. This shows the development of the public’s ‘taste for blood’, anxieties at an encroaching nonhumanity, and an infatuation with the inhuman from Jack Sheppard to Sweeney Todd and Dracula.Less
Considers mass readership and the ‘tastes’ it produces. Maps the history of criminals and execution spectacles, particularly as addressed by the London ‘public’ voices of Defoe and Dickens. Connects these mass events to the new mass print culture and circulation forms, such as the penny dreadfuls and their Newgate novel precursor. This shows the development of the public’s ‘taste for blood’, anxieties at an encroaching nonhumanity, and an infatuation with the inhuman from Jack Sheppard to Sweeney Todd and Dracula.
Chris Murray
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781496807373
- eISBN:
- 9781496807410
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781496807373.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Comics Studies
This book 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 this book demonstrates that there ...
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This book 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 this book 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. The book illustrates that the superhero genre is a blend of several influences, and that in British comics these influences were quite different from those in America, resulting in some contrasting approaches to the figure of the superhero. It identifies the origins of the superhero and supervillain in nineteenth-century popular culture such as the penny dreadfuls and boys' weeklies and in science fiction writing of the 1920s and 1930s. The book traces the emergence of British superheroes in the 1940s, the advent of “fake” American comics, and the reformatting of reprinted material. It then chronicles the British Invasion of the 1980s and the pivotal roles in American superhero comics and film production held by British artists today. This book will challenge views about British superheroes and the comics creators who fashioned them.Less
This book 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 this book 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. The book illustrates that the superhero genre is a blend of several influences, and that in British comics these influences were quite different from those in America, resulting in some contrasting approaches to the figure of the superhero. It identifies the origins of the superhero and supervillain in nineteenth-century popular culture such as the penny dreadfuls and boys' weeklies and in science fiction writing of the 1920s and 1930s. The book traces the emergence of British superheroes in the 1940s, the advent of “fake” American comics, and the reformatting of reprinted material. It then chronicles the British Invasion of the 1980s and the pivotal roles in American superhero comics and film production held by British artists today. This book will challenge views about British superheroes and the comics creators who fashioned them.
Ian Cooper
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780993071737
- eISBN:
- 9781800341937
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9780993071737.003.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses how British horror films reveal the British national psyche as the heritage film or the social realist drama. It describes the British horror film as the site where high- and ...
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This chapter discusses how British horror films reveal the British national psyche as the heritage film or the social realist drama. It describes the British horror film as the site where high- and low-culture converge. It also talks about real-life horror and how it is easily transformed into generic fantasy. The chapter discusses the English fascination with murder. It talks about the importance of the gothic novel of the late eighteenth century as a kind of anti-Enlightenment vision of the spooky, and its influence to the cheap mass-market publications or 'Penny Dreadfuls'. It also talks about the influence of this low-brow popular literature that can be observed in the pulp fiction and horror comics which would cause a moral panic in the 1950s. The chapter discusses serial killers and 'Ripperology', the small industry that sprung up around Jack the Ripper that has cast a remarkable shadow over the British horror cinema.Less
This chapter discusses how British horror films reveal the British national psyche as the heritage film or the social realist drama. It describes the British horror film as the site where high- and low-culture converge. It also talks about real-life horror and how it is easily transformed into generic fantasy. The chapter discusses the English fascination with murder. It talks about the importance of the gothic novel of the late eighteenth century as a kind of anti-Enlightenment vision of the spooky, and its influence to the cheap mass-market publications or 'Penny Dreadfuls'. It also talks about the influence of this low-brow popular literature that can be observed in the pulp fiction and horror comics which would cause a moral panic in the 1950s. The chapter discusses serial killers and 'Ripperology', the small industry that sprung up around Jack the Ripper that has cast a remarkable shadow over the British horror cinema.
Wheeler Winston Dixon
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781911325345
- eISBN:
- 9781800342279
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781911325345.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter analyses how Terrence Fisher's and Hammer Studios's use of a mechanistic medium to distribute film mirrors the use of the printing press to first publish the “Penny Dreadfuls” in ...
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This chapter analyses how Terrence Fisher's and Hammer Studios's use of a mechanistic medium to distribute film mirrors the use of the printing press to first publish the “Penny Dreadfuls” in Victorian England. It mentions James B. Twitchell, who notes in his study Dreadful Pleasures that the key to the central elements of the Gothic mythos for the public is “repeatable image-making”. It also notes Fisher as the first Gothicist to have precisely the right censorial climate and the sensibility to be able to translate the term “implicit” to the screen. The chapter discusses how Fisher adamantly stated in a 1975 interview that he had not originated either Dracula or The Curse of Frankenstein as a project. It looks at Fisher's insistence to have very little input on casting in Dracula, which was subordinate to his interests in the narrative.Less
This chapter analyses how Terrence Fisher's and Hammer Studios's use of a mechanistic medium to distribute film mirrors the use of the printing press to first publish the “Penny Dreadfuls” in Victorian England. It mentions James B. Twitchell, who notes in his study Dreadful Pleasures that the key to the central elements of the Gothic mythos for the public is “repeatable image-making”. It also notes Fisher as the first Gothicist to have precisely the right censorial climate and the sensibility to be able to translate the term “implicit” to the screen. The chapter discusses how Fisher adamantly stated in a 1975 interview that he had not originated either Dracula or The Curse of Frankenstein as a project. It looks at Fisher's insistence to have very little input on casting in Dracula, which was subordinate to his interests in the narrative.