Michael Goodrum, Philip Smith

Printing Terror

American Horror Comics as Cold War Commentary and Critique

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Printing terror places horror comics of the Cold War in dialogue with the historical trauma of World War II and Vietnam, the rise of feminism, and the growth of the Civil Rights Movement. It rejects the narrative, prevalent throughout scholarship to date, of horror comics as inherently, and necessarily, subversive. Horror comics attracted serious and sustained criticism from censorious forces, but this book demonstrates how these texts were part of the symptoms rather than the cause of broader socio-political tensions. Printing terror explores, instead, the ways in which horror comics manifest white male fears over the changing sociological landscape of the US. It examines two booms in horror comics: the pre-Comics Code Authority period of the 1940s up to 1954, and the period following the revision of the Code in 1971, which made the return of horror comics possible and led to a brief spike in publications and popularity. The authors examine each of these periods through the lenses of trauma, gender and race, demonstrating that horror comics at this time were centred on white male victimhood and the monstrosity of the gendered and/or racialised other. These readings are grounded not only in the works themselves, but in their historio-cultural context, the events and texts that informed the creation and reception of horror comics.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Lund University Press
• Seitenzahl: 328
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. Juli 2024
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781526179005
• ISBN-10: 1526179008
• Artikelnr.: 69730281

Autorenporträt

Michael Goodrum is Reader in Cultural History at Canterbury Christ Church University Philip Smith is Associate Chair of Liberal Arts at Savannah College of Art and Design

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction 1 "The dead
the slain
the unavenged."
trauma in the 1940s and 1950s 2 "Men are beasts! Wild beasts! Wild Beasts Must Be Destroyed!"
gender in the 1940s and 1950s 3 "Confusion turns to fear"
race in the 1940s and 1950s 4 Monster kids: bridging the pre
and post
CCA eras 5 "The war has done strange things to you"
trauma in the 1960s and 1970s 6 "This isn't a dream! This is really happening!"
gender in the 1960s and 1970s 7 "We are a species that fears itself most of all"
race in the 1960s and 1970s 8 Conclusion: appropriating white male fear Bibliography Index