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                                             COMIX/MANGA/ANIME/CARTOONS

Comics or comix have long played a role in popular culture, going back at least to the 1930s when figures like Batman and Superman arose. Walt Disney, beginning in the 1940s, created a revolution in filmic animation. In the 1950s, television boosted the availability of cartoons and comics-derived characters. In more recent years, the influx of Japanese forms, especially manga and anime have expanded and added diverse styles to the genre. Japan also pioneering the graphic novel, a hybrid genre that has brought great literary sophistication to the field. In today's film market, both Marvel and DC have established major presences through series featuring some of their iconic characters.                        

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                      Superheroes get real for bulimia.com

Featured Book:

Black Women in Sequence Re-inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime, by Deborah Elizabeth Whaley. University of Washington Press, 2015.

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Few topics on popular culture can be adequately researched on the web alone. These reading suggestions are designed as beginning points for further offline study.

Chute, Hilary. Graphic Women: Life Narrative and Contemporary Comics. NY: Columbia UP, 2010.
Important work on the under-studied topic of women and gender in comics.
Heer, Jeet, and Kent Worcester. A Comic Studies Reader. Jackson: U Press of Mississippi, 2009
Wide-ranging collection of scholarly articles dealing with history, form and social meanings of the comic medium.
Lefèvre, Pascal and Dierick Charles, eds. Forging a New Medium: The Comic Strip in the Nineteenth Century. Brussels: Vub Brussels U P, 1999.
Establishes the historical background necessary to understand the origin and nature of the modern comic strip. Includes essays on rise of comics in particular countries, among them England, Spain, Germany, and the US, essays from prominent artists in the genre, as well as a useful timeline on the development of the comic strip.
McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. New York: Harper Perennial, 1993.
Very lucid, rich introduction to the history and visual and verbal meaning making processes of comic books. The book itself is done in brilliant comic book form.
Ndalias, Angela, ed. The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero. NY: Routledge, 2010.
Wide-ranging, international collection of essays comic superheroes, including some that also deal with superheroes in film and TV.
Pustz, Matthew. Comic Book Culture: Fanboys and True Believers. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1999.
Study of contemporary comic strip fans, from the casual to the nearly pathologically devoted. The subtitle refers to the author’s distinction between mainstream “fanboys” and “true believers” devoted to alternative comix culture.
Robinson, Lillian. Wonder Women: Feminism and Superheroes. Routledge, 2004.
A prominent feminist critic takes on superheroines.
Smith, Matthew J. and Randy Duncan, eds. Critical Approaches to Comics. Routledge, 2011.
Textbook that introduces a variety of methods for studying comics.
Whaley, Deborah Elizabeth. Black Women in Sequence Re-inking Comics, Graphic Novels, and Anime. University of Washington Press, 2015.
Stellar study of a long-neglected topic.
Wright, Bradford W. Comic Book Nation: The Transformation of Youth Culture in America. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001.
Offers a social history of US comic books that shows how changing trends in comic books, from Superman’s debut in 1938 up to the late 20th century, both reflected and contributed to changing political and cultural values.