Routledge Studies in Gender, Sexuality, and Comics – serie

This edited collection explores how the relationship between comic art and feminism has been shaped by global, transnational, and local trends, curating analyses of multinational comic art that encompass themes of gender, sexuality, power, vulnerability, assault, abuse, taboo, and trauma.The chapters illuminate in turn the defining features of the aesthetics, materiality, and thematic content of their source material – often expressed with humorous undertones of self-reflection or social criticism – as well as recurring strategies of visualising and narrating female experiences. Broadening the research perspective of feminist comics to include national comics cultures peripheral to the cultural centers of Anglo-American, Franco-Belgian, and Japanese comics, the anthology explores how the dominant narrative or history of canonical works can be challenged or deconstructed by local histories of comics and feminism and their transnational connections, and how local histories complement or challenge the current understanding of the relationship between feminism and comic art.This is an essential collection for scholars and students in comics studies, women and gender studies, media studies, and literature.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book examines the fictional female bodies of four stylistically distinct comics artists in the United States—Chris Ware, Emil Ferris, Ebony Flowers, and Tillie Walden—whose work has attracted significant attention. These bodies showcase how comics and its unique visual language can both critique and re-envision some of the most challenging social issues of our time.The characters analyzed in this book illustrate diverse techniques for projecting the complex humanity and "truth" of U.S. women’s unruly bodies onto a two-dimensional page. All of the protagonists qualify as "outsider" in some way, whether by gender identity, sexuality, ability, religion, race, class, ethnicity, age, or a combination of these and other categories. These bodily expressions of outsider identity both resist traditional categorization and stereotypes, and sometimes harness and employ those stereotypes for the purposes of parody or social critique. The language of comics affords a unique opportunity for complex representation of these disparate women’s bodies, especially when comics artists use the full range of tools at their disposal, such as style, materials, narrative direction, the space of the gutter, and the friction between word and image. This is an a timely and important intervention suitable for researchers and students in comics studies, gender studies, literature and queer studies.

This book examines the fictional female bodies of four stylistically distinct comics artists in the United States—Chris Ware, Emil Ferris, Ebony Flowers, and Tillie Walden—whose work has attracted significant attention. These bodies showcase how comics and its unique visual language can both critique and re-envision some of the most challenging social issues of our time.The characters analyzed in this book illustrate diverse techniques for projecting the complex humanity and "truth" of U.S. women’s unruly bodies onto a two-dimensional page. All of the protagonists qualify as "outsider" in some way, whether by gender identity, sexuality, ability, religion, race, class, ethnicity, age, or a combination of these and other categories. These bodily expressions of outsider identity both resist traditional categorization and stereotypes, and sometimes harness and employ those stereotypes for the purposes of parody or social critique. The language of comics affords a unique opportunity for complex representation of these disparate women’s bodies, especially when comics artists use the full range of tools at their disposal, such as style, materials, narrative direction, the space of the gutter, and the friction between word and image. This is an a timely and important intervention suitable for researchers and students in comics studies, gender studies, literature and queer studies.

This book presents a unique series of graphic narratives which offer a new way to recount the lived experiences and life stories of women involved in transnational organised crime groups, from victims to perpetrators. Based on ethnographic interviews, and police files, academic Felia Allum and artist Anna Mitchell together seek to tell individual stories while also contributing to broader discourses about crime, power relations and victimhood. The four graphic stories cover cutting-edge issues in crime including County lines and British gangs, Nigerian syndicates, Italian Mafias, and Albanian drug gangs, and all stories effectively and forcefully depict the voices of those who are often voiceless and hidden in a more complex social and criminal phenomenon. This book is suitable for students and scholars in criminology, sociology, gender studies and comics studies, as well as for the general reader.

This book presents a unique series of graphic narratives which offer a new way to recount the lived experiences and life stories of women involved in transnational organised crime groups, from victims to perpetrators. Based on ethnographic interviews, and police files, academic Felia Allum and artist Anna Mitchell together seek to tell individual stories while also contributing to broader discourses about crime, power relations and victimhood. The four graphic stories cover cutting-edge issues in crime including County lines and British gangs, Nigerian syndicates, Italian Mafias, and Albanian drug gangs, and all stories effectively and forcefully depict the voices of those who are often voiceless and hidden in a more complex social and criminal phenomenon. This book is suitable for students and scholars in criminology, sociology, gender studies and comics studies, as well as for the general reader.

This book provides an introduction to women cartoonists in the US, reading their work from a feminist, literary and stylistic perspective, which shines a light on their innovative and unique narratives and graphic languages.From rabid feminists to blundering teenagers to dyke avengers and pregnant butches, from political satire to memoirs to troubling sexual tales, from caricature to the clear line, from realism to minimalism and abstraction – they have done it all. This book looks at the work of over thirty authors who have challenged the boys’ club of comics in the US and whose stories shed a revealing light on contemporary society, through countercultural ripostes to the patriarchy, raw or humorous confessions, deconstruction of femininity, stories of vulnerability that offer powerful counterpoints to the "super bodies" of mainstream comics, non-white and queer cartoonists "drawing back" and more.This is a key title for students and scholars in the fields of Comics Studies, Literature and Women and Gender Studies.

This edited collection explores how the relationship between comic art and feminism has been shaped by global, transnational, and local trends, curating analyses of multinational comic art that encompass themes of gender, sexuality, power, vulnerability, assault, abuse, taboo, and trauma.The chapters illuminate in turn the defining features of the aesthetics, materiality, and thematic content of their source material – often expressed with humorous undertones of self-reflection or social criticism – as well as recurring strategies of visualising and narrating female experiences. Broadening the research perspective of feminist comics to include national comics cultures peripheral to the cultural centers of Anglo-American, Franco-Belgian, and Japanese comics, the anthology explores how the dominant narrative or history of canonical works can be challenged or deconstructed by local histories of comics and feminism and their transnational connections, and how local histories complement or challenge the current understanding of the relationship between feminism and comic art.This is an essential collection for scholars and students in comics studies, women and gender studies, media studies, and literature.The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

This book provides an introduction to women cartoonists in the US, reading their work from a feminist, literary and stylistic perspective, which shines a light on their innovative and unique narratives and graphic languages.From rabid feminists to blundering teenagers to dyke avengers and pregnant butches, from political satire to memoirs to troubling sexual tales, from caricature to the clear line, from realism to minimalism and abstraction – they have done it all. This book looks at the work of over thirty authors who have challenged the boys’ club of comics in the US and whose stories shed a revealing light on contemporary society, through countercultural ripostes to the patriarchy, raw or humorous confessions, deconstruction of femininity, stories of vulnerability that offer powerful counterpoints to the "super bodies" of mainstream comics, non-white and queer cartoonists "drawing back" and more.This is a key title for students and scholars in the fields of Comics Studies, Literature and Women and Gender Studies.

Super-Girls of the Future: Girlhood and Agency in Contemporary Superhero Comics investigates girl superheroes published by DC and Marvel Comics in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, asking who the new-and-improved super-girls are and what potentials they hold for imagining girls as agents of change, in the genre as well as its socio-cultural context. As super-girls have grown increasingly numerous and diverse since the turn of the millennium, they provide an opportunity for reconsidering representations of gender and power in the superhero genre. This book offers the term agentic embodiment as an analytical tool for critiquing the body politics of superhero comics, particularly concerning youth, femininity, whiteness, and violence. Grounded in comics studies and informed by feminist cultural studies, the book contributes a critical and hopeful perspective on the diversification of a genre often written off as irredeemably conservative and patriarchal.Super-Girls of the Future is a key title for students and scholars of comics studies, visual culture, US popular culture, and feminist criticism.

Super-Girls of the Future: Girlhood and Agency in Contemporary Superhero Comics investigates girl superheroes published by DC and Marvel Comics in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, asking who the new-and-improved super-girls are and what potentials they hold for imagining girls as agents of change, in the genre as well as its socio-cultural context. As super-girls have grown increasingly numerous and diverse since the turn of the millennium, they provide an opportunity for reconsidering representations of gender and power in the superhero genre. This book offers the term agentic embodiment as an analytical tool for critiquing the body politics of superhero comics, particularly concerning youth, femininity, whiteness, and violence. Grounded in comics studies and informed by feminist cultural studies, the book contributes a critical and hopeful perspective on the diversification of a genre often written off as irredeemably conservative and patriarchal.Super-Girls of the Future is a key title for students and scholars of comics studies, visual culture, US popular culture, and feminist criticism.

Comics, Activism, Feminisms explores from both historical and contemporary perspectives how comic art, activism, and feminisms are intertwined, and how comic art itself can be a form of activism.Feminist comic art emerged with the second-wave feminist movements. Today, there are comics connected to social activist movements working for change in a variety of areas. Comics artists often respond quickly to political events, making comics on topical issues that take a critical or satirical stance and highlighting the need for change. Comic art can point to problems, present alternatives, and give hope.Comics artists from all parts of the world engage issues pertaining to feminisms and LGBTQIA+ issues, war and political conflict, climate crisis, the global migrant and refugee situation, and other societal problems. The chapters of this anthology illuminate the aesthetic and thematic aspects of comics, activism, and feminisms globally. Particular attention is given to the work of comics collectives, where Do-it-Ourselves is a strategy among activism-oriented artists, which use a great variety of media, such as fanzines, albums, webcomics, and exhibitions to communicate and disseminate activist comic art.Comics, Activism, Feminisms is an essential anthology for scholars and students of comics studies, literary studies, art history, media studies, and gender studies.

Comics, Activism, Feminisms explores from both historical and contemporary perspectives how comic art, activism, and feminisms are intertwined, and how comic art itself can be a form of activism.Feminist comic art emerged with the second-wave feminist movements. Today, there are comics connected to social activist movements working for change in a variety of areas. Comics artists often respond quickly to political events, making comics on topical issues that take a critical or satirical stance and highlighting the need for change. Comic art can point to problems, present alternatives, and give hope.Comics artists from all parts of the world engage issues pertaining to feminisms and LGBTQIA+ issues, war and political conflict, climate crisis, the global migrant and refugee situation, and other societal problems. The chapters of this anthology illuminate the aesthetic and thematic aspects of comics, activism, and feminisms globally. Particular attention is given to the work of comics collectives, where Do-it-Ourselves is a strategy among activism-oriented artists, which use a great variety of media, such as fanzines, albums, webcomics, and exhibitions to communicate and disseminate activist comic art.Comics, Activism, Feminisms is an essential anthology for scholars and students of comics studies, literary studies, art history, media studies, and gender studies.

Queer Narratives in Contemporary American Comics: Gutter Smut examines how comics reveal evolving perspectives on gender, sex and sexuality in the United States. Tracing moral panics from the mid-20th century to present-day radical cartoonists, this volume analyzes works from established creators like Alison Bechdel and Kelly Sue DeConnick alongside emerging cartoonists such as Laura Gao and Isabella Rotman. Through various feminist theoretical lenses, the book provides timely cultural criticism of both fiction and nonfiction comics, revealing how social mores related to gender have—and haven’t—shifted over time. Queer Narratives in Contemporary American Comics: Gutter Smut serves as an invaluable resource for students of gender studies, cultural studies, media studies and other many other disciplines.