The American comic book: A cultural history
Abstract
This is a cultural history of American comic books. It explores how political, international, economic, social, and ideological changes have shaped the products of the comic-book industry from the 1930s to the 1990s. With their consistent presence on the fringes of the American entertainment industry, comic books have historically been a filter and repository for values from below. Fashioned for a mostly adolescent audience by creators often little older, comic books are valuable historical documents for discerning how commercialized youth culture has mediated the personal concerns of young people while addressing important social and political issues. This study examines in detail how the comic-book industry has approached topics of concern during the Great Depression, World War II, the postwar years, the Cold War, the Kennedy years, the sixties, the post-Watergate years, the Reagan era, and at the end of the twentieth century. The history of the comic-book industry also traces the dynamic growth of youth culture as a major market force. Many adults initially regarded comic books with confusion and hostility. A concerted effort from critics led in 1954 to a U.S. Senate investigation of the comic-book industry and the publishers' institution of a strict Comics Code to govern standards. But the subsequent reevaluation of youth culture as an increasingly potent consumer base has helped to fuel the industry's expansion over the past several decades.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Roberts, Purdue University.
Subject Area
American history|History|American studies|American literature
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