The Routledge Companion to Gender and Sexuality in Comic Book Studies
London; New York: Routledge (2021), xxiv, 569 pp.
Contains illustrations, index
ISBN 9780367505295 (pbk); 9780429554834 (pdf)
"A diverse range of international and interdisciplinary scholars take a closer look at how gender and sexuality have been essential in the evolution of comics, and how gender and sexuality in comics demand that we re-frame and re-view comics history. Essays cover a wide array of intersectional topics including Queer Underground and Alternative comics, Feminist Autobiography, Re-drawing disability, Latina testimony, and re-evaluating the critical whiteness and masculinity of superheroes in this first truly global reference text to gender and sexuality in comics." (Publisher description)
Gender and sexuality in comics: the told, untold stories / Frederick Luis Aldama, 1
I. INTERROGATING RESTRICTIVE FRAMES
1 Translating masculinity: the significance of the frontier in American superheroes / Patrick L. Hamilton, 15
2 Black boys and black girls in comics: an affective and historical mapping of intertwined stereotypes / Maaheen Ahmed, 28
3 Pocket-sized pornography: representations of sexual violence and masculinity in Tijuana Bibles / Erin Barry, 42
4 The comic strip in advertising: persuasion, gender, sexuality / Constance de Silva, 54
5 Real men choose vasectomy: questioning and redefining Mexican national masculinity in Los supermachos, from Rius to anonymous authors / Annick Pellegrin, 66
6 Marriage, domesticity and superheroes (for better or worse) / Jeffrey A. Brown, 78
7 “Is that a monster between your legs or are ya just happy to see me?”: sex, subjectivity, and the superbody in the Marvel Swimsuit Special / Anna F. Peppard, 90
II. ETHNORACIAL QUEER AND FEMINIST SPACE CLEARING GESTURES
8 Life out loud in the closet: the grotesque as Latinx imagination in Cristy C. Road’s Spit and Passion / Jennifer Caroccio Maldonado, 109
9 Graphic (narrative) presentations of violence against Indigenous women: responses to the MMIW crisis in North America / James J. Donahue, 119
10 From "accidental" autobiography to comics activism: tracing the development of an Andalusian-Chinese feminism in the work of comics artist Quan Zhou / Jennifer Nagtegaal, 134
11 Plea deal compounds: black women’s anger in "the system" of Bitch Planet / Katlin Marisol Sweeney, 149
III. BACK TO THE FUTURE
12 Panels of innocence and experience: reading sexual subjectivity through horror comics / Sara Austin, 169
13 Teenage biology 101: serializing a queer girlhood in Ariel Schrag's Potential / Rachel R. Miller, 181
14 Genre, gender, sexual, textual and visual, and real representations in Bande Dessinée / C(h)ris Reyns-Chikuma, 196
15 A comics Écriture Féminine: Anke Feuchtenberger’s feminist graphic expression / Elizabeth "Biz" Nijdam, 213
16 “I’m trapped in here!”: Gender performativity and a ffect in Emma Ríos’s I.D. / Mikel Bermello Isusi, 228
17 Empirical looking: situating the multiple elements of Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout as vehicles for articulating a place for women in science / Lisa DeTora, 240
IV. COUNTERPUBLICS
18 From anodyne a nimals to filthy beasts: defying and defiling safety, sanctity, and sexual suppression in underground animal comics / Daniel F. Yezbick, 257
19 Wonder Woman’s complicated relationship with feminism / George Thomas, 274
20 “Part of something bigger”: Ms. Captain Marvel / Carolyn Cocca, 285
21 Higher, further, faster baby!: The feminist evolution of Carol Danvers from comics to film / Sam Langsdale, 297
22 Female fans, female creators, and female superheroes: the semiotics of changing gender dynamics / Angela Ndalianis, 310
23 Public-facing feminisms: subverting the lettercol in Bitch Planet / Brenna Clarke Gray, 329
24 “I’d like everything that’s bad for me!”: Tank Girl’s cracks in patriarchal pop culture / Susan Kerns, 341
25 Falling in or stepping out: little red formation as agentic gender construction in Lumberjanes / Karly Marie Grice, 352
V. WORLDLY INTERVENTIONS
26 “A revelation not of the flesh, but of the mind”: performing queer textuality Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home / Maite Urcaregui, 365
27 BLOOD, or: gender and nation in the contemporary Polish comic / Kalina Kupczynska, 375
28 My grandmother collects memories: gender and remembrance in Hispanic graphic narratives / Radmila (Lale) Stefkova, 390
29 Feminist riots and gay giants: the Mayo Feminista and cultural context of contemporary Queer Chilean comics / Sam Cannon, 403
30 Questioning obscenity: the place of “pussy” in manga and the world / Lindsey Stirek, 418
31 See him, see her, see Xir: LGBTQ visibility in shönen manga at the turn of the century / Zachary Michael Lewis Dean, 429
32 An age of sparkle and drama: exploring gender identities and cultural narratives in 1970s shojo manga / Lorna Piatti-Farnell, 441
VI. QUEER AND FEMINIST INTERMEDIAL TEXTURES
33 Representing the extreme end-point of sexual violence: ethical strategies in Phoebe Gloeckner’s La Tristeza / Rebecca Scherr, 459
34 The people upstairs: space, memory, and the queered family in My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris / Shiamin Kwa, 469
35 Fat bats, postpunks, and ice witches: Afrogoth and the undead music of Militia Vox and the comix of Calyn Pickens Rich / Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, 483
36 Catherine Meurisse and the gender of art / Margaret C. Flinn, 503
37 My life with toys: an academic Esai into the queer multipurposing of toys as interrupted by the author’s life / Jonathan Alexandratos, 516
38 “Bobby…you’re gay”: Marvel’s Iceman, performativity, continuity, and queer visibility / Bryan Bove, 525
I. INTERROGATING RESTRICTIVE FRAMES
1 Translating masculinity: the significance of the frontier in American superheroes / Patrick L. Hamilton, 15
2 Black boys and black girls in comics: an affective and historical mapping of intertwined stereotypes / Maaheen Ahmed, 28
3 Pocket-sized pornography: representations of sexual violence and masculinity in Tijuana Bibles / Erin Barry, 42
4 The comic strip in advertising: persuasion, gender, sexuality / Constance de Silva, 54
5 Real men choose vasectomy: questioning and redefining Mexican national masculinity in Los supermachos, from Rius to anonymous authors / Annick Pellegrin, 66
6 Marriage, domesticity and superheroes (for better or worse) / Jeffrey A. Brown, 78
7 “Is that a monster between your legs or are ya just happy to see me?”: sex, subjectivity, and the superbody in the Marvel Swimsuit Special / Anna F. Peppard, 90
II. ETHNORACIAL QUEER AND FEMINIST SPACE CLEARING GESTURES
8 Life out loud in the closet: the grotesque as Latinx imagination in Cristy C. Road’s Spit and Passion / Jennifer Caroccio Maldonado, 109
9 Graphic (narrative) presentations of violence against Indigenous women: responses to the MMIW crisis in North America / James J. Donahue, 119
10 From "accidental" autobiography to comics activism: tracing the development of an Andalusian-Chinese feminism in the work of comics artist Quan Zhou / Jennifer Nagtegaal, 134
11 Plea deal compounds: black women’s anger in "the system" of Bitch Planet / Katlin Marisol Sweeney, 149
III. BACK TO THE FUTURE
12 Panels of innocence and experience: reading sexual subjectivity through horror comics / Sara Austin, 169
13 Teenage biology 101: serializing a queer girlhood in Ariel Schrag's Potential / Rachel R. Miller, 181
14 Genre, gender, sexual, textual and visual, and real representations in Bande Dessinée / C(h)ris Reyns-Chikuma, 196
15 A comics Écriture Féminine: Anke Feuchtenberger’s feminist graphic expression / Elizabeth "Biz" Nijdam, 213
16 “I’m trapped in here!”: Gender performativity and a ffect in Emma Ríos’s I.D. / Mikel Bermello Isusi, 228
17 Empirical looking: situating the multiple elements of Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout as vehicles for articulating a place for women in science / Lisa DeTora, 240
IV. COUNTERPUBLICS
18 From anodyne a nimals to filthy beasts: defying and defiling safety, sanctity, and sexual suppression in underground animal comics / Daniel F. Yezbick, 257
19 Wonder Woman’s complicated relationship with feminism / George Thomas, 274
20 “Part of something bigger”: Ms. Captain Marvel / Carolyn Cocca, 285
21 Higher, further, faster baby!: The feminist evolution of Carol Danvers from comics to film / Sam Langsdale, 297
22 Female fans, female creators, and female superheroes: the semiotics of changing gender dynamics / Angela Ndalianis, 310
23 Public-facing feminisms: subverting the lettercol in Bitch Planet / Brenna Clarke Gray, 329
24 “I’d like everything that’s bad for me!”: Tank Girl’s cracks in patriarchal pop culture / Susan Kerns, 341
25 Falling in or stepping out: little red formation as agentic gender construction in Lumberjanes / Karly Marie Grice, 352
V. WORLDLY INTERVENTIONS
26 “A revelation not of the flesh, but of the mind”: performing queer textuality Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home / Maite Urcaregui, 365
27 BLOOD, or: gender and nation in the contemporary Polish comic / Kalina Kupczynska, 375
28 My grandmother collects memories: gender and remembrance in Hispanic graphic narratives / Radmila (Lale) Stefkova, 390
29 Feminist riots and gay giants: the Mayo Feminista and cultural context of contemporary Queer Chilean comics / Sam Cannon, 403
30 Questioning obscenity: the place of “pussy” in manga and the world / Lindsey Stirek, 418
31 See him, see her, see Xir: LGBTQ visibility in shönen manga at the turn of the century / Zachary Michael Lewis Dean, 429
32 An age of sparkle and drama: exploring gender identities and cultural narratives in 1970s shojo manga / Lorna Piatti-Farnell, 441
VI. QUEER AND FEMINIST INTERMEDIAL TEXTURES
33 Representing the extreme end-point of sexual violence: ethical strategies in Phoebe Gloeckner’s La Tristeza / Rebecca Scherr, 459
34 The people upstairs: space, memory, and the queered family in My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris / Shiamin Kwa, 469
35 Fat bats, postpunks, and ice witches: Afrogoth and the undead music of Militia Vox and the comix of Calyn Pickens Rich / Deborah Elizabeth Whaley, 483
36 Catherine Meurisse and the gender of art / Margaret C. Flinn, 503
37 My life with toys: an academic Esai into the queer multipurposing of toys as interrupted by the author’s life / Jonathan Alexandratos, 516
38 “Bobby…you’re gay”: Marvel’s Iceman, performativity, continuity, and queer visibility / Bryan Bove, 525
