Comics as a Nexus of Cultures: Essays on the Interplay of Media, Disciplines and International Perspectives (Critical Explorations in Science Fiction and Fantasy)

309 Pages·2010·7.84 MB·English

by  Mark Berninger, Jochen Ecke, Gideon Haberkorn, Donald E. Palumbo, C.W. Sullivan III

Comics as a
Nexus of Cultures
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CRITICAL EXPLORATIONS IN SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY
(a series edited by Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III)

1. Worlds Apart? Dualism and Transgression
in Contemporary Female Dystopias (Dunja M. Mohr, 2005)

2. Tolkien and Shakespeare: Essays on
Shared Themes and Language (ed. Janet Brennan Croft, 2007)

3. Culture, Identities and Technolog y in the Star Wars Films: Essays on
the Two Trilogies (ed. Carl Silvio and Tony M. Vinci, 2007)

4. The Influence of Star Trek on Television, Film and Culture (ed. Lincoln Geraghty, 2008)

5. Hugo Gernsback and the Century of Science Fiction (Gary Westfahl, 2007)

6. One Earth, One People: The Mythopoeic Fantasy Series of Ursula K. Le Guin,
Lloyd Alexander, Madeleine L’Engle and Orson Scott Card (Marek Oziewicz, 2008)

7. The Evolution of Tolkien’s Mytholog y: A Study
of the History of Middle-earth (Elizabeth A. Whittingham, 2008)

8. H. Beam Piper: A Biography ( John F. Carr, 2008)

9. Dreams and Nightmares: Science and Technolog y in Myth and Fiction (Mordecai Roshwald, 2008)

10. Lilith in a New Light: Essays on the
George MacDonald Fantasy Novel (ed. Lucas H. Harriman, 2008)

11. Feminist Narrative and the Supernatural: The Function of
Fantastic Devices in Seven Recent Novels (Katherine J. Weese, 2008)

12. The Science of Fiction and the Fiction of Science: Collected Essays on SF Storytelling
and the Gnostic Imagination (Frank McConnell, ed. Gary Westfahl, 2009)

13. Kim Stanley Robinson Maps the Unimaginable: Critical Essays (ed. William J. Burling, 2009)

14. The Inter-Galactic Playground: A Critical Study
of Children’s and Teens’ Science Fiction (Farah Mendlesohn, 2009)

15. Science Fiction from Québec: A Postcolonial Study (Amy J. Ransom, 2009)

16. Science Fiction and the Two Cultures: Essays on Bridging the Gap Between
the Sciences and the Humanities (ed. Gary Westfahl and George Slusser, 2009)

17. Stephen R. Donaldson and the Modern Epic Vision: A Critical Study
of the “Chronicles of Thomas Covenant” Novels (Christine Barkley, 2009)

18. Ursula K. Le Guin’s Journey to Post-Feminism (Amy M. Clarke, 2010)

19. Portals of Power: Magical Agency and Transformation in Literary Fantasy (Lori M. Campbell, 2010)

20. The Animal Fable in Science Fiction and Fantasy (Bruce Shaw, 2010)

21. Illuminating Torchwood: Essays on Narrative, Character and Sexuality
in the BBC Series (ed. Andrew Ireland, 2010)

22. Comics as a Nexus of Cultures: Essays on the Interplay of Media, Disciplines and
International Perspectives (ed. Mark Berninger, Jochen Ecke and Gideon Haberkorn, 2010)

23. The Anatomy of Utopia: Narration, Estrangement and Ambiguity in
More, Wells, Huxley and Clarke (Károly Pintér, 2010)
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Comics as a
Nexus of Cultures

Essays on the Interplay
of Media, Disciplines and
International Perspectives

Edited by MARK BERNINGER,
JOCHEN ECKE and GIDEON HABERKORN

CRITICAL EXPLORATIONS IN
SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, 22

Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III, series editors

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Comics as a nexus of cultures : essays on the interplay of media,
disciplines and international perspectives / edited by Mark Berninger,
Jochen Ecke, and Gideon Haberkorn.
[Donald Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan III, series editors]
p. cm. — (Critical explorations in science fiction
and fantasy ; 22)
Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-7864-3987-4
softcover : 50# alkaline paper

1. Comic books, strips, etc.— History and criticism.
2. Animated films — History and criticism. I. Berninger, Mark.
II. Ecke, Jochen, 1979– . III. Haberkorn, Gideon, 1976– .
PN6714.C6515 2010
741.5' 9 — dc22 2009051817

British Library cataloguing data are available

©2010 Mark Berninger, Jochen Ecke and Gideon Haberkorn.
All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.

On the cover: (clockwise from top) superhero (©2010 DigitalVision);
single frame from My New York Diary (©2004, Julie Doucet); superhero turtle (©2010 Verena Reinhardt); manga girl (©2010 ATOMix)

Manufactured in the United States of America

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

INTERMEDIAL

1. Spatializing the Movie Screen: How Mainstream Cinema
Is Catching Up on the Formal Potentialities of the
Comic Book Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Jochen Ecke
2. The Marvel Universe on Screen: A New Wave of
Superhero Movies? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Andreas Rauscher
3. From Trauma Victim to Terrorist: Redefining Superheroes
in Post–9/11 Hollywood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Dan A. Hassler-Forest
4. “Picture This”: Disease and Autobiographic Narration in
the Graphic Novels of David B and Julie Doucet . . . . . . . 45
Jonas Engelmann
5. Novel-Based Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Paul Ferstl
6. In the Art of the Beholder: Comics as Political Journalism . . . 70
Dirk Vanderbeke

INTERNATIONAL

7. The Carrefour of Practice: Québec BD in Transition . . . . . . 85
Michel Hardy-Vallée
8. The Use of Allusion in Apitz and Kunkel’s Karl Comics . . . . . 99
Sandra Martina Schwab

vii
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS

9. Cultural Specifics of a Scottish Comic: Oor Wullie
Anne Hoyer . . . . . . 108

10. Memento Mori: A Portuguese Style of Melancholy . . . . . . 116
Mario Gomes and Jan Peuckert

11. Otherness and the European as Villain and Antihero
in American Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Georg Drennig

12. 2000AD: Understanding the “British Invasion” of
American Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Ben Little

13. Whatever Happened to All the Heroes? British
Perspectives on Superheroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Karin Kukkonen and Anja Müller-Wood

14. A Cornerstone of Turkish Fantastic Films:
From Flash Gordon to Baytekin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Meral Özçınar

15. From Capes to Snakes: The Indianization of the
American Superhero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Suchitra Mathur

16. The Roving Eye Meets Traveling Pictures: The Field
of Vision and the Global Rise of Adult Manga . . . . . . . 187
Holger Briel

17. Kawaii vs. Rorikon: The Reinvention of the Term Lolita
in Modern Japanese Manga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Dinah Zank

18. Mangascape Germany: Comics as Intercultural
Neutral Ground . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Paul M. Malone

INTERDISCIPLINARY

19. Workshop I: Toward a Toolbox of Comics Studies . . . . . . 237
Karin Kukkonen and Gideon Haberkorn

20. Workshop II: Comics in School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Mark Berninger
Table of Contents ix

21. Workshop III: Teaching Comics and Literary Studies —
Neil Gaiman and Charles Vess’ “A Midsummer
Night’s Dream” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Mark Berninger

22. Workshop IV: Teaching Comics and Film Studies —
Ang Lee’s The Hulk (USA 2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
Andreas Rauscher

23. Comic Linguistics: Comics and Cartoons in
Academic Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Christina Sanchez

About the Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287