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The Vigilante World of Comic Books

Scott Bradfield The New Republic
A sweeping new history of American comics traces the rise of characters caught in a Manichaean struggle between good and evil.

Media Bits and Bytes - July 27, 2021

Portside
Will Pegasus spyware take surveillance to a new level? Also the big comics rip-off, Forbes predicts next year's social media, and more

books

Golden Age Superheroes Were Shaped By the Rise of Fascism

Art Spiegelman The Guardian
When Art Spiegelman wrote the introduction (below) to a collection of vintage Marvel super-heroes, a passing negative reference to Trump was enough for the publishers to jettison the quality introduction.

books

Comic Art in the Academy

Paul Buhle New Politics
Once the provenance of teens, counterculturalists or authors who were fans, comics are now entrenched in academic discourse in what the essayist calls, "the theorizing of a kind of artistic poetics." The book under review ably looks at nonfiction comics as apt reflections on modern social ills.

books

Love Control: The Hidden History of Wonder Woman

Kent Worcester New Politics
The study of comic books has emerged in the last decade or so as a serious academic discipline. And it's about time. It's not news to many people that the stories and art found in these little magazines are not only entertaining; they also contain interesting, and sometimes profound, social content. Kent Worcester looks at three new books on Wonder Woman, the comic that emerged during World War II and was an early harbinger of feminist ideas.
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