J. Andrew Deman - Böcker

Winner - 2024 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards in Best Academic/Scholarly Work, announced at San Diego Comic-Con International (2024)A data-driven deep dive into a legendary comics author’s subversion of gender norms within the bestselling comic of its time.By the time Chris Claremont’s run as author of Uncanny X-Men ended in 1991, he had changed comic books forever. During his sixteen years writing the series, Claremont revitalized a franchise on the verge of collapse, shaping the X-Men who appear in today’s Hollywood blockbusters. But, more than that, he told a new kind of story, using his growing platform to articulate transgressive ideas about gender nonconformity, toxic masculinity, and female empowerment. J. Andrew Deman’s investigation pairs close reading and quantitative analysis to examine gender representation, content, characters, and story structure. The Claremont Run compares several hundred issues of Uncanny X-Men with a thousand other Marvel comics to provide a comprehensive account of Claremont’s sophisticated and progressive gender politics. Claremont’s X-Men upended gender norms: where female characters historically served as mere eye candy, Claremont’s had leading roles and complex, evolving personalities. Perhaps more surprisingly, his male superheroes defied and complicated standards of masculinity. Groundbreaking in their time, Claremont’s comics challenged readers to see the real world differently and transformed pop culture in the process.

Winner - 2024 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards in Best Academic/Scholarly Work, announced at San Diego Comic-Con International (2024)A data-driven deep dive into a legendary comics author’s subversion of gender norms within the bestselling comic of its time.By the time Chris Claremont’s run as author of Uncanny X-Men ended in 1991, he had changed comic books forever. During his sixteen years writing the series, Claremont revitalized a franchise on the verge of collapse, shaping the X-Men who appear in today’s Hollywood blockbusters. But, more than that, he told a new kind of story, using his growing platform to articulate transgressive ideas about gender nonconformity, toxic masculinity, and female empowerment. J. Andrew Deman’s investigation pairs close reading and quantitative analysis to examine gender representation, content, characters, and story structure. The Claremont Run compares several hundred issues of Uncanny X-Men with a thousand other Marvel comics to provide a comprehensive account of Claremont’s sophisticated and progressive gender politics. Claremont’s X-Men upended gender norms: where female characters historically served as mere eye candy, Claremont’s had leading roles and complex, evolving personalities. Perhaps more surprisingly, his male superheroes defied and complicated standards of masculinity. Groundbreaking in their time, Claremont’s comics challenged readers to see the real world differently and transformed pop culture in the process.

Chris Claremont (b. 1950) is best known for his landmark sixteen-year author run on Uncanny X-Men. This is the longest author run in Marvel comics history, one that saw X-Men go from a title on the verge of cancellation to one of the most popular comics for over a decade and, eventually, a multibillion-dollar film franchise. While Claremont’s influence on popular culture is becoming more widely recognized, this volume offers an in-depth exploration of how his life shaped his work and the deep sources of inspiration behind his iconic characters and storylines. From Britain to Israel to the New York demimonde, Claremont’s relationships, education, upbringing, collaborations, and faith all contribute to his voice and to the creations that he wrought with it.The story of Chris Claremont is the story of a creator who achieved popular success whilst making a significant artistic contribution to his chosen medium, including the first African American superheroine, the first Black superhero team leader, the first canonically Jewish Marvel superhero, extensive queer subtext, extensive BDSM imagery, the first superhero team with a strong female roster, and the best-selling single-issue comic of all time. This volume heralds an impressive career and marvels at how Claremont accomplished all of this within mainstream comics.