Super Bodies: Comic Book Illustration, Artistic Styles, and Narrative Impact

Author:   Jeffrey A. Brown
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
ISBN:  

9781477327364


Pages:   256
Publication Date:   01 August 2023
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
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Super Bodies: Comic Book Illustration, Artistic Styles, and Narrative Impact


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Overview

Finalist — San Diego Comic-Con International 2024 Eisner Award in Best Academic/Scholarly Work An examination of the art in superhero comics and how style influences comic narratives. For many, the idea of comic book art implies simplistic four-color renderings of stiff characters slugging it out. In fact, modern superhero comic books showcase a range of complex artistic styles, with diverse connotations. Leading comics scholar Jeffrey A. Brown assesses six distinct approaches to superhero illustration—idealism, realism, cute, retro, grotesque, and noir—examining how each visually represents the superhero as a symbolic construct freighted with meaning. Whereas comic book studies tend to focus on text and narrative, Super Bodies gives overdue credit to the artwork, which is not only a principal source of the appeal of comic books but also central to the values these works embody. Brown argues that superheroes are to be taken not as representations of people but as iconic types, and the art conveys this. Even the most realistic comic illustrations are designed to suggest not persons but ideas—ideas about bodies and societies. Thus the appearance of superheroes both directly and indirectly influences the story being told as well as the opinions readers form concerning justice, authority, gender, puberty, sexuality, ethnicity, violence, and other concepts central to political and cultural life.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jeffrey A. Brown
Publisher:   University of Texas Press
Imprint:   University of Texas Press
Weight:   0.680kg
ISBN:  

9781477327364


ISBN 10:   1477327363
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   01 August 2023
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print   Availability explained
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.

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Not surprisingly, this is exceptionally well illustrated for an academic book. It is an important contribution to comics scholarship and will help anyone appreciate the medium more deeply. * CHOICE *


Author Information

Jeffrey A. Brown is a professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State University. He is the author of Batman and the Multiplicity of Identity: The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero as Cultural Nexus; Love, Sex, Gender, and Superheroes; and other books on comic books and superheroes.

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