From gutter business to art form, an engaging, provocative look at all things comic book.

That rumbling youÕre hearing is the arrival ofÊThunder!, the new comic-sized magazine devoted exclusively to comic book heroes brought to life on film, television, and in animation.ÊOur premiere issue features a complete guide to the animated seriesÊThe Avengers: EarthÕs Mightiest Heroes, going behind the scenes on every episode of the first season and featuring the comments of Jeph Loeb, story editor Chris Yost, and supervising producer Josh Fine. From there we have exclusive new interviews with Avengers writer/director Joss Whedon and producer Kevin Feige in time for the DVD release. It also features an episode guide to Walking Dead!

A detailed study of the history and long-lasting influence of Marvel Comics, this book explores the ways Marvel’s truly unique comic book world reflects real world issues and controversies alongside believable, psychologically-motivated characters. The book examines a decades-long dual focus on both tight-knit continuity and real-world fidelity that makes the Marvel Universe a unique entity amongst imaginary worlds. Although there have been many books and articles that analyze each of these aspects of the Marvel Universe, the unique focus of this book is on how those two aspects have interwoven over the course of Marvel’s history, and the ways in which both have been used as storytelling engines that have fueled the entire imaginary world of Marvel Comics. Andrew J. Friedenthal has crafted a groundbreaking, engaging, and thoughtful examination of how this particular story world combines intricate world-building with responsiveness to real world events, which will be of interest to scholars and enthusiasts of not just comics studies, but also the fields of transmedia studies and imaginary worlds.

A fascinating illustrated look at various forms of Japanese popular culture: pop song, jazz, enka (a popular ballad genre of music), karaoke, comics, animated cartoons, video games, television dramas, films and "idols" -- teenage singers and actors. As pop culture not only entertains but is also a reflection of society, the book is also about Japan itself -- its similarities and differences with the rest of the world, and how Japan is changing. The book features 32 pages of manga plus 50 additional photos, illustrations, and shorter comic samples.

Celebration of the book drawing on the collections of the State Library of Victoria.

The world of contemporary American infants and young children is saturated with inappropriate images of American Indians. American Indian Stereotypes in the World of Children reveals and discusses these images and cultural stereotypes through writings like Kathy Kerner's previously unpublished essay on Thanksgiving and an essay by Dr. Cornell Pewewardy on Disney's Pocahontas film. This edition incorporates new writings and recent developments, such as a chronology documenting changes associated with the mascot issue, along with information on state legislation. Other new material incorporates powerful commentary by Native American veterans, who speak to the issue of stereotyping against their people in the military. Also includes a new expanded annotated bibliography.

The first sustained study of the DC Comics Multiverse, this book explores its history, meanings, and lasting influence. The multiverse is a unique exercise in world-building: a series of parallel and interactive worlds with a cohesive cosmology, developed by various creators over more than 50 years. In examining DC's unique worlds and characters, the book illustrates the expansive potential of a multiverse, full of characters, histories, geographies, religions, ethnographies, and more, and allowing for expressions of legacy, multiplicity, and play that have defined much of DC Comics' output. It shows how a multiverse can be a vital, energizing part of any imaginary world, and argues that students and creators of such worlds would do well to explore the implications and complexities of this world-building technique. Andrew J. Friedenthal has crafted a groundbreaking, engaging, and thoughtful examination of the multiverse, of interest to scholars and enthusiasts of not just comics studies, but also the fields of media studies and imaginary world studies.

Mention Shaft and most people think of Gordon Parks' seminal 1971 film starring Richard Roundtree in a leather coat, walking the streets of Manhattan to Isaac Hayes' iconic theme music. But the black private dick who inspired the blaxploitation film genre actually made his debut on the printed page as the creation of a white novelist. Ernest Tidyman was a seasoned journalist down on his luck when he decided to try his hand at fiction. Shaft was the result, giving Tidyman the break he was looking for. He went on to become an Academy Award winning screenwriter and respected film producer. Based on extensive research of Tidyman's personal papers, this book tells the story of Shaft from the perspective of his creator. The author provides new insight and analysis of the writing of the Shaft novels, as well as the production of the films and TV series. First-ever coverage of the forgotten Shaft newspaper comic strip includes previously unseen artwork. Also included is Shaft's recent reappearance on the printed page, in both comic book and prose form.

In Colonel Weird: Cosmagog, sanity-challenged space adventurer Colonel Weird embarks on a strange journey through space and time for something that he's long forgotten with his sanity and life at stake! In Barbalien: Red Planet, the shape-shifting superhero Barbalien struggles to find his place in the world during the AIDS crisis - something made all the more difficult when a Martian enemy from the past follows him to earth to take him back, dead or alive.

This book gives an overview of the key issues related to books and reading within the field of cultural economics and identifies additional lacunae in this area of research. The field of cultural economics is surprisingly short on research on the book market and on the activity of reading compared with other more recently invented media such as films and musical recordings. In addition, books and reading are strongly impacted by the disruptive innovations of digital technology and the use of online distribution platforms that fuel much of the research on the more recently invented cultural media. This book shows that the area of books and reading has had contributions in historically established areas of cultural economics and those currently exciting attention - chiefly with respect to digital disruption. Finally, it explains how books and reading are a fully developed rational addition model rather than something just based on the addition of past behaviour. Previously published in Journal of Cultural Economics Volume 43, issue 4, December 2019