Comic Books and Academia

What’s the big deal?

 THREE parts to what we will look at today

1. What exactly are comic books?

2. How can comic books relate to academics?

3. How I am applying comic books to academics?

 Part 1:
What are comic books?
 Start with a question…
 So, if I ask you what comic books are, what would be your
reply?
 Now, when I talk about comic books I am talking in general
about a large grouping of texts

1. Monthly, weekly, etc. regularly published comic books

2. Graphic novels

3. Manga and other pictographic representations

 Definition
 Scott McCloud, in his work
Understanding Comics,
quickly admits that defining a
world so huge and varied is
difficult.
 He ultimately arrives at the
definition that they are
“Juxtaposed pictorial and
other images in deliberate
sequence”
Tim Leong’s Super Graphic helps
a bit to see more…
Here is just a sampling of some of McCloud’s work,
done in the form of a graphic novel aimed to explain
how images work and why we become “so engaged”
 Will Eisner
 Famous comic book artist, writer, and dare say, theorist
believed a great deal in the power of imagery as a
communicator
 He states:
 Comics deal with two fundamental communicating devices:
words and images. Admittedly this is an arbitrary separation.
But, since in the modern world of communication they are
treated as independent disciplines, it seems valid. Actually, they
are derivatives of a single origin and in the skillful employment
of words and images lies the expressive potential of the
medium
 Comic Books are more..
 Comic books are not just Superheroes like Superman, Batman,
Wolverine and Spiderman – this is but one genre within the
medium
 There are, especially at different times and places, all kinds of
comics from horror and western to romance and kids books.
 Comic books, according to Eisner, have the potential for the
greatest forms of human expression – and I agree with him
 Comic books even are divided up by age appropriateness too.
 However…that was not always the case.
 A little History
 Where did they start?
 The modern comic book began in the late 19th century and early
20th century.
 They were color cartoon strips found in Newspapers and often
were designed to reach illiterate individuals and groups.
 Modern “comic book” appeared in around 1935 and developed
into a form popular with children
 It is worth noting that many who were involved in the early comic
book industry, the artists, writers, and many of the editors were
minorities in America: Italians, Jews, African-Americans, and
even women
 Catching on quick
 The superhero comic book took off, drawing upon sources
such as Pulp novels and newspaper strip characters with the
appearance of Superman in Action Comics #1, printed by
National Comics (now DC Comics)
 This created a sensation. Sails of Superman reached
1,250,000 issues a month in 1940.
 Superman’s comic books were quickly duplicated by other
publishing firms and as many 30-40 existed right before,
during, and through the end of WWII
 The War
 Comic books were a highly popular and patriotic method
employed during WWII.
 The U.S. Military bought them and distributed them to the
soldiers.
 This increased both sales and popularity of titles that the
GI’s brought back with them.
 Comic books also served to promote propaganda in support
of the war effort as well.
Propaganda
 Action Comics #58, published
in March, 1943
 Promoted the idea of
Superman promoting kids and
readers to “Slap a Jap”
 Racism?
 Propaganda?
 Prejudice?
 Yes…
 Backlash
 After WWII a rise in juvenile diligence and teenage violence.
 This sparked critics such as the Catholic Church, the
Government, Organizations, and Child Psychologists (such as
Fredric Wertham) to view comic books as the cause of this
problem
 A fantastic and full account of all of this and backlash, in detail,
can be found in David Haidju’s book The Ten- Cent Plague
 Main backlash was against EC Comics “Horror” comics but all
comics were targeted.
 Fredric Wertham
 Prominent child psychologist, author of Seduction of the
Innocent.
 He asserted that “Comic books are definitely harmful to
impressionable people, and most young people are
impressionable” He also noted that he thought “Hitler was a
beginner compared to the comic books”
 Thought they promoted homosexuality (Batman and
Robin), deviance (Wonder Woman), and fascism
(Superman)
 Comic Book Code
 Founded in 1954 after attacks of Wertham and Senate
Subcommittee Hearings into Juvenile Delinquency of 1954.
 The code was a self-regulated attempt to save the medium
 Required approval for strips, limited content, and basically
acted as a form of censorship that ended up putting
companies out of business and turning comic books into the
equivalent of porn
 http://www.comicartville.com/comicscode.htm
 Eventually coming into the
light
 The code simply forced publishers and writers to go
underground a bit.
 Eventually they bounced back and pushed back against the
code
 Many companies abandoned the code and it was declared
dead in 2011.
 Modern Explosion
 The cultural zeitgeist of the early 21st century, the economic
depression of 2007-present could be argued as pushing
comics into the mainstream.

 Superman certainly emerged at the tail end of the Great

Depression.

 Cultural and Economic Crisis = Need for heroes?

 Part 2:
Comic Books and
Academia
 Oxford University
 I have had the pleasure of TWICE attending a Global
Conference of the Graphic Novel at Mansfield College of
Oxford University in the UK.
 While there I have witnessed many presentations and
applications of people who are doing research, looking for
applications, and analyzing the value of graphic narratives
such as comic books and their larger cousins, graphic
novels
 Here is just a few…
 Nursing
 I have not only heard of imagery used to help prepare and
train nurses…
 Also, graphic novels have served as ways for nurses to
build community among patients, help disabled find self-
expression, and serve as an outlet for them to promote ideas
 If you want a strong mode of communication that gets
someone’s attention, this is one.
 History
 Who can recall their favorite part of History book?
 For me it was the maps, the pictures that brought the
narrative to life. Made me feel like I was there in the
events.
 I love history, but the idea of incorporating visuals along
with text seems to serve the strong purpose of drawing in
the audience and retention of what is there by making one
feel as if they are there.
Philosophy and
Theory

www.introducingbooks.com
 Psychology
 Fredric Wertham would spin in his grave…
 Psychoanalysis and the exploration of the mind often relies
on finding forms of expression that help communicate one’s
inner thoughts and feelings.
 The creation of a comic book can be used to help patients
not only cope with issues but find constructive outlets that
can lead them towards productive resolutions as well
 Literature
Many classic texts from the
Odyssey to Dante’s Divine Comedy
to Shakespeare have been
converted into graphic narratives
The Graphic Canon

Three volumes out so far

covering examples from all
across literature.
 What it all boils down to…
 There is far more to all of it than one might initially assume
 I have only attempted to list but a few examples and fields
but the ideas are near limitless.
 The medium of comics is like TV, movies, books, etc…if
you can think of it, there is a form to express it (in fact,
probably several).
 Part 3:
Graduate Research
 Sir Ken Robinson
 In an RSA whiteboard video of his lecture “Changing
Educational Paradigms,” Robinson notes (as it is
illustrated) that “the arts especially address the idea of
aesthetic experience . . . one in which your senses are
operating at their peak. When you are present in the
moment, resonating with the excitement of this thing you
are experiencing. When you are fully alive”
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&safet
y_mode=true&persist_safety_mode=
1
From the video
 My Research…
 I believe that comic books embody the power of Robinson’s
“aesthetic experience” by engaging one in the visual process
of both reading and experiencing images in a comic book.
 Particularly, my current work is focusing on how Superman,
via his presence and position as identifiable to America and
American culture, operates as a model of behavior that one
would wish to emulate. Not emulate with his powers, we
can’t fly, but by his character and choices…
 The following here is a sampling of some of what I am
working on.
Narrative RetCon & Re-
Accentuation
Recovering Arête in All-Star Superman
 What is re-accentuation
 For the word is, after all, not a dead material object in the
hands of an artist equipped with it; it is a living word and is
therefore in all things true to itself . . . but its meaning-once
realized-can never he completely extinguished. And under
changed conditions this meaning may emit bright new rays,
burning away the reifying crust that had grown up around it
and thus removing any real ground for a parodic
accentuation, dimming or completely extinguishing such re-
accentuation. (419)
 RetCon
 According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term retro-
continuity serves as both a noun and a verb.
 As a noun, it is commonly seen as “a piece of new
information that imposes a different interpretation on
previously described events, typically used to facilitate a
dramatic plot shift or account for an inconsistency”
 Coming Together
 One way to recapture or explore elements of Superman’s
long 75-year history requires an understanding of how the
narrative has been altered via RetCon and just how more
contemporary devotes of Superman have allowed and made
use of re-accentuation of lost and sometimes altered aspects
of the heroes narrative to achieve recognizable and
identifiable symbolic responses through this process.
 Two Examples

1. Superman’s original origin found in Action Comics #1

(1938) and its re-accentuated version found in the opening
of All-Star Superman #1(2006).

2. Depictions of Superman’s power to save lives (and social

attitudes towards mental illness) found in Action Comics #9
(1939) and All-Star Superman #10.
 Works Cited
Bakhtin, Mikhail. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. Trans. Michael Holquist and Caryl
Emerson. Austin: U of Texas P., 1982. Print.

Eisner, Will. Comics and Sequential Art: Principles and Practices from the Legendary Cartoonist.
New York: W. W. Norton & Co, 2008. Print.

Hajdu, David. The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic-Book Scare and How It Changed America.
New York: Picador. 2008. Print

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperPerennial, 1994. Print.

Morrison, Grant- and Frank Quitely. All-Star Superman. New York: DC Comics, 2010. Print.

---. Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and A Sun God from Smallville Can
Teach Us About Being Human. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2012. Print.

Perelman, Chaim and L. Olbrechts-Tyteca. The New Rhetoric: A Treatise on Argumentation. Tran.
John Wilkinson and Purcell Weaver. Notre Dame: U of Notre Dame P. 1969. Print.

Siegel, Jerry and Joe Shuster. “Superman, Champion of the Oppressed .” The Superman Chronicles,
Vol. 1. New York: DC Comics, 2006. Print.

---. “Wanted: Superman.” The Superman Chronicles, Vol. 1. New York: DC Comics, 2006. Print.
 Questions?
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