Ian Gordon

Block Buster Art House: Meets Superhero Comic, or Meets Graphic Novel?: The Contradictory Relationship between Film and Comic Art

This article explores the often contradictory relationship between films and comic book art. Adaptations of superhero comics have reinforced a commercialistic blockbuster mentality among the Hollywood studios. Adaptations of graphic novels have explored alternate visions of visual style and representation. Complications of these polarized effects and subsequent implications will be discussed.

Refiguring media: Tee shirts as a site of audience engagement with superheroes

ABSTRACT In the last 20 years or so, new forms of media have resulted in new forms of engagement with media in general. The production and distribution of older forms of media have also undergone a transformation. Sales of the superhero genre of comic books have waned considerably even as advances in computer-generated imagery (CGI) have helped carry the spectacular imaginative events from their worlds to the screen. In this environment tee shirts have become an important medium through which audiences engage with superheroes. This article offers a historical account of that process.

The moral world of Superman and the American war in Vietnam

In Superman #216 (1969), Superman intervened in the Vietnam War. Until this point, DC Comics had kept Superman away from any of America’s wars in comic books. During the Second World War, Superman urged Americans to buy war bonds on the cover of comic books, but within the comics the closest he came to fighting was breaking up a spy network. DC had Superman go to Vietnam in part as a response to servicemen’s letters requesting his presence and indeed used this as a plot point within the story, with servicemen writing to the Daily Planet asking why Superman was not helping. Superman’s intervention occurred at a time when American public opinion had turned against the war, especially after the Tet Offensive in early 1968. The article discusses how DC handled these ethical and moral issues and the reaction of readers. The Vietnam War, the social upheaval of the 1960s and a shift in audience to slightly older readers which made the comic less of a children’s medium forced DC to break out of the small moral world they had created for Superman in which stasis and charity defined his character.

Comics Scholarship and Comparative Studies

This chapter offers a brief overview of other ways to approach comparative studies of comics.

America and France: Perry Winkle and Bicot

This chapter examines what happened when an American comic was translated into French. It notes what was lost and added in translation. It points to the way that translating the words of a medium that mixes words and images to create meaning leaves traces of that original meaning in the images. In this and other ways, Bicot could be both French and American at the same time.

America and Britain: Dennis the Menace (s)

This chapter compares the British and American Dennis the Menace comic strips arguing that despite so many similarities and a common genre the different history of the form in those countries led to two very different comics. These two comics are more distinct from each other than, for instance, Skippy and Ginger Meggs. Yet, in both comics, race is mostly absent from the content, and yet present by its very absence.

America and Australia: Skippy and Ginger Meggs

This chapter compares and contrasts the way artists James Bancks and Percy Crosbie used similar humor tropes, such as broken window gags, in their respective comic strips Ginger Meggs and Skippy. It also examines the different styles needed in a daily and a Sunday comic strip. The two strips shared much and yet each had a distinctive type of humor that requires some familiarity with the culture of origin to fully comprehend.

Why Kid Comics

The chapter argues that by comparing comics from different countries it is possible to understand just what features American comic strips have contributed to the international form of comic art. The chapter offers a brief account of the passage of American comics to France, Italy and Brazil and a slight history of comics in Britain and Australia.

Academic Computing in Asia

Academic computing in Asia is marked by a process of uneven development with the National University of Singapore clearly on the leading edge. This article provides a short overview of the use of information technology in Asian academic institutions and then a case study of its use at the National University of Singapore with a particular emphasis given to computer-mediated discussions.