How to read superhero comics and why
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
How to read superhero comics and why
Continuum, 2002
- : hbk
- : pbk
Available at 1 libraries
Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 183-198) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
Superhero comic books are traditionally thought to have two distinct periods, two major waves of creativity: the Golden Age and the Silver Age. In simple terms, the Golden Age was the birth of the superhero proper out of the pulp novel characters of the early 1930s, and was primarily associated with the DC Comics Group. Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman are the most famous creations of this period. In the early 1960s, Marvel Comics launched a completely new line of heroes, the primary figures of the Silver Age: the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, and Daredevil. In this book, Geoff Klock presents a study of the Third Movement of superhero comic books. He avoids, at all costs, the temptation to refer to this movement as "Postmodern," "Deconstructionist," or something equally tedious.
Analyzing the works of Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, and Grant Morrison among others, and taking his cue from Harold Bloom, Klock unearths the birth of self-consciousness in the superhero narrative and guides us through an intricate world of traditions, influences, nostalgia and innovations - a world where comic books do indeed become literature.
Table of Contents
- Melancholy and the Infinite Earths
- The Bat and the Watchmen - Introducing the Revisionary Superhero Narrative
- 'It is with considerable difficulty ' - The Revisionary Superhero Narrative, Phase Two
- America's Best Comics - Tracing the (Re)visionary Company
- Pumping up the Volume - The Revisionary Superhero Narrative Approaches the New Age
- The Superhero as Critic - The Birth of the Modern Age
- Epilogue - Pop Comics, Harold Bloom at Harvard, and the Oedipal Fallacy.
by "Nielsen BookData"