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The League of Regrettable Sidekicks : heroic helpers and malicious minions from comic book history!
\"Being a superhero is hard work, which is why so many comics characters rely on a sidekick for help. Someone who can watch the hero's back, help search for clues, or, if nothing else, give the hero someone to talk to. But just as not every superhero achieves the glory of Batman, not all sidekicks are as capable as the Boy Wonder. In The League of Regrettable Sidekicks, author Jon Morris discusses some of the strangest iterations of the sidekick phenomenon, and in the process explores how important these characters were to comic book storytelling. You'll meet plucky but forgotten helpers like Thunderfoot (explosive-soled assistant to the Human Bomb), heroic super-pets (like Frosting, polar bear pal of space hero Norge Benson), fan favorites (say hello to Rick Jones, sidekick to half of the Marvel Universe), and obscure partners of iconic heroes (Superman Junior's career barely got off the ground). Plus: pernicious profiles of regrettable henchmen and minions, the sidekicks of the supervillain world. Vintage art from the comics completes the experience. Drawing on the entire history of the medium, The League of Regrettable Sidekicks celebrates characters and stories that haven't seen the light of day in decades, pulling from defunct and long-forgotten comics publishers as well as DC and Marvel. In this third volume of his Regrettable series (The League of Regrettable Superheroes, The Legion of Regrettable Supervillains) Jon Morris provides insight and context, as well as his signature mockery of and affection for these overlooked treasures from comic book history.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Comic Book Women
The history of comics has centered almost exclusively on men.
Comics historians largely describe the medium as one built by men
telling tales about male protagonists, neglecting the many ways in
which women fought for legitimacy on the page and in publishers'
studios. Despite this male-dominated focus, women played vital
roles in the early history of comics. The story of how comic books
were born and how they evolved changes dramatically when women like
June Tarpé Mills and Lily Renée are placed at the center rather
than at the margins of this history, and when characters such as
the Black Cat, Patsy Walker, and Señorita Rio are analyzed.
Comic Book Women offers a feminist history of the
golden age of comics, revising our understanding of how numerous
genres emerged and upending narratives of how male auteurs built
their careers. Considering issues of race, gender, and sexuality,
the authors examine crime, horror, jungle, romance, science
fiction, superhero, and Western comics to unpack the cultural and
industrial consequences of how women were represented across a wide
range of titles by publishers like DC, Timely, Fiction House, and
others. This revisionist history reclaims the forgotten work done
by women in the comics industry and reinserts female creators and
characters into the canon of comics history.
eBook
Legion of Super-Heroes, the Silver Age omnibus
\"Now collected in an oversize omnibus edition for the first time, DC proudly presents the LEGION OF SUPERH-HEROES: THE SILVER AGE OMNIBUS! Originally introduced in 1958, the Legion of Super-Heroes is a team of super-powered teenagers from the disparate worlds of the 30th century's United Planets. Each hero had his or her own powers, unique to their planets of origin; together, they stood against evil across the galaxy. Together with 20th century hero Superboy, this team--originally made up of Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad and Cosmic Boy, but soon numbering in the dozens--fought for justice as they dealt with adolescent insecurities.\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Fan phenomena
Few could have predicted the enduring fascination with the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. From the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the recent BBC series that has made aheart-throb out of Benedict Cumberbatch, the sleuth has been much a part of the British and global cultural legacy from the moment of his first appearance in 1887. The contributors to this book discuss the ways in which various fan cultures have sprung up around the stories and how they have proved to be a strong cultural paradigm for the ways in which these phenomena function in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Essays explore the numerous adaptations, rewritings, rip-offs, role-playing, wiki and crowd sourced texts, virtual realities and faux scholarship Sherlock Holmes has inspired. Though fervid fan behaviour is often mis-characterized as a modern phenomenon, the historical roots of fan manifestation that have been largely forgotten are revived in this thrilling book. Complete with interviews with writers who have famously brought the character of Holmes back to life, the collection benefits from the vast knowledge of its contributors, including academics who teach in the field, archivists and a number of writers who have been involved in the enactment of Holmes stories on stage, screen and radio. The release of Fan Phenomena: Sherlock Holmes coincides with Holmes's 160th birthday, so it is no mystery that it will make a welcome addition to the burgeoning scholarship on this timeless detective.
eBook
Ms. Marvel. Vol. 8, Mecca
\"An enemy from Ms. Marvel's past resurfaces and begins targeting those closest to Kamala. As the world around her is spinning out of control, it becomes clear that this time there's something more sinister at work. Kamala's no stranger to fighting for what's right, but in facing down this challenge, everything she is will be called into question\"--Amazon.com.
Book
Comics and Conflict
Illustration has been an integral part of human history. Particularly before the advent of media such as photography, film, television, and now the Internet, illustrations in all their variety had been the primary visual way to convey history. The comic book, which emerged in its modern form in the 1930s, was another form of visual entertainment that gave readers, especially children, a form of escape. As World War II began, however, comic books became a part of propaganda as well, providing information and education for both children and adults. This book looks at how specific comic books of the war genre have been used to display patriotism, adventure through war stories, and eventually to tell of the horrors of combatfrom World War II through the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan in the first decade of the twenty-first century. This book also examines how war- and patriotically-themed comics evolved from soldier-drawn reflections of society, eventually developing along with the broader comic book medium into a mirror of American society during times of conflict. These comic books generally reflected patriotic fervor, but sometimes they advanced a specific cause. As war comic books evolved along with American society, many also served as a form of protest against United States foreign and military policy. During the country's most recent wars, however, patriotism has made a comeback, at the same time that the grim realities of combat are depicted more realistically than ever before. The focus of the book is not only on the development of the comic book medium, but also as a bell-weather of society at the same time. How did they approach the news of the war? Were people in favor or against the fighting? Did the writers of comics promote a perception of combat or did they try to convey the horrors of war? All of these questions were
important to the research, and serve as a focal point for what has been researched only in limited form previously. The conclusions of the book show that comic books are more than mere forms of entertainment. Comic books were also a way of political protest against war, or what the writers felt were wider examples of governmental abuse. In the post 9/11 era, the comic books have returned to their propagandistic/patriotic roots.
eBook
A-Force. Vol. 0, Warzones!
\"In a secluded corner of the Battleworld, an island nation is fiercely protected by a team of Avengers the likes of which has only ever been glimpsed before. Fighting to protect the small sliver of their world that's left, the Amazing A-FORCE stands shoulder to shoulder, ready to take on the horde!\"--Amazon.com.
Book
Bending Steel
“Faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound . . . It’s Superman!” Bending Steel examines the historical origins and cultural significance of Superman and his fellow American crusaders. Cultural historian Aldo J. Regalado asserts that the superhero seems a direct response to modernity, often fighting the interrelated processes of industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and capitalism that transformed the United States from the early nineteenth century to the present. Reeling from these exciting but rapid and destabilizing forces, Americans turned to heroic fiction as a means of explaining national and personal identities to themselves and to the world. In so doing, they created characters and stories that sometimes affirmed, but other times subverted conventional notions of race, class, gender, and nationalism.
The cultural conversation articulated through the nation’s early heroic fiction eventually led to a new heroic type—the brightly clad, super-powered, pro-social action heroes that first appeared in American comic books starting in the late 1930s. Although indelibly shaped by the Great Depression and World War II sensibilities of the second-generation immigrants most responsible for their creation, comic book superheroes remain a mainstay of American popular culture.
Tracing superhero fiction all the way back to the nineteenth century, Regalado firmly bases his analysis of dime novels, pulp fiction, and comics in historical, biographical, and reader response sources. He explores the roles played by creators, producers, and consumers in crafting superhero fiction, ultimately concluding that these narratives are essential for understanding vital trajectories in American culture.
eBook
Watchmen
\"Considered the greatest graphic novel in the history of the medium, the Hugo Award-winning story chronicles the fall from grace of a group of superheroes plagued by all-too-human failings. Along the way, the concept of the superhero is dissected as an unknown assassin stalks the erstwhile heroes.\"--Publisher.
Book
