Authorizing Superhero Comics On the Evolution of a Popular Serial Genre - Studies in Comics and Cartoons

Authorizing Superhero Comics examines the comic book superhero as a lasting phenomenon of US popular serial storytelling. Moving beyond linear- or creator-centered models of genre development, Daniel Stein identifies authorization conflicts that have driven the genre's evolution from the late 1930s to the present. These conflicts include paratextually mediated exchanges between officially authorized comic book producers and, alternatively, authorized fans that trouble the distinction between production and its reception; storyworld-building processes that subsume producers and fans into a collective rooted in a common style; parodies that ensure the genre's longevity by deflating criticism through self-reflexive humor; and collecting and archiving as forms of memory management that align the genre's past with the demands of the present. Taking seriously the serial agencies of the superhero comic book as a material artifact with a particular mediality, the study analyzes letter columns, editorial commentary, fanzines, encyclopedias, and other forms of comic book communication as critical frameworks for understanding the evolution of the genre-assessing rarely covered archival sources alongside some of the most treasured figures from the superhero's multi-decade history, from Batman and Spider-Man to Wonder Woman and Captain America.

ISBN:	9780814258026
Publisher:	Ohio State University Press
Imprint:	The Ohio State University Press
Published date:	31 Aug 2021
DEWEY:	741.5973
DEWEY edition:	23
Language:	English
Number of pages:	306 .
Weight:	476g
Height:	230mm
Width:	152mm
Spine width:	24mm

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