Comic Books and American Cultural History : An Anthology

297 Pages·2012·2.65 MB·English

by  Pustz

Comic Books
and American
Cultural History
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Comic Books
and American
Cultural History
An Anthology
MATTHEW PUSTZ

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Continuum International Publishing Group
80 Maiden Lane, Suite 704, New York, NY 10038
The Tower Building, 11 York Road, London SE1 7NX
www.continuumbooks.com
© Matthew Pustz and Contributors, 2012
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the permission of the publishers.
EISBN: 978-1-4411-9757-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Typeset by Newgen Imaging Systems Pvt Ltd, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in the United States of America

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To my teachers, for making me a better student .
To my students, for making me a better teacher

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CONTENTS
List of Figures x
Notes on Contributors xii
Introduction C omic Books as History Teachers 1
Matthew Pustz
PART ONE Doing Cultural History through
Comic Books
9
1 How Wonder Woman Helped My Students
“Join the Conversation”: Comic Books as Teaching Tools
in a History Methodology Course 1 1
Jessamyn Neuhaus
2 Comics as Primary Sources: The Case of Journey into
Mohawk Country 2 6
Bridget M. Marshall
3 Transcending the Frontier Myth: Dime Novel
Narration and (Jesse) Custer’s Last Stand in P reacher 40
William Grady
4 “Duel. I’ll Give You a DUEL”: Intimacy and History
in Megan Kelso’s A lexander Hamilton Trilogy 5 9
Alison Mandaville
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viii CONTENTS
PART TWO Comic Books as Cultural Artifacts
77
5 A merican Golem: Reading America through
Super-New Dealers and the “Melting Pot” 79
Martin Lund
6 “ Dreams May End, But Love Never Does”:
Marriage and Materialism in American Romance
Comics, 1947–1954 94
Jeanne Emerson Gardner
7 P arody and Propaganda: Fighting American and
the Battle against Crime and Communism in the
1950s 110
John Donovan
8 G rasping for Identity: The Hands of Shang-Chi,
Master of Kung Fu 120
Peter Lee
9 “ Paralysis and Stagnation and Drift”: America’s Malaise
as Demonstrated in Comic Books of the 1970s 136
Matthew Pustz
10 T he Shopping Malls of Empire: Cultural
Fragmentation, the New Media, and Consumerism
in Howard Chaykin’s A merican Flagg! 152
Matthew J. Costello
PART THREE Comic Books and Historical Identity
169
11 T ransformers and Monkey Kings: Gene Yang’s
American Born Chinese and the Quest for Identity 1 71
Todd S. Munson
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CONTENTS ix
12 A gent of Change: The Evolution and Enculturation
of Nick Fury 184
Philip G. Payne and Paul J. Spaeth
13 T he U.S. HIV/AIDS Crisis and the Negotiation of
Queer Identity in Superhero Comics, or, Is Northstar
Still a Fairy? 202
Ben Bolling
PART FOUR Comic Books and Contemporary
History
221
14 The Militarism of American Superheroes after 9/11 223
A. David Lewis
15 September 11, 2001: Witnessing History,
Demythifying the Story in American Widow 2 37
Yves Davo
16 “The Great Machine Doesn’t Wear a Cape!”:
American Cultural Anxiety and the Post-9/11
Superhero 250
Jeff Geers
Index 2 63
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