Books in the Comics Culture series

Superman is an icon of the American Way. Examining his many appearances over eighty years in comics, films, television series, and other media, Ian Gordon explores the dynamic process of mythmaking surrounding the character. Digging into comics archives, he reveals the prominent roles fans and collectors have played in remembering, interpreting, and reimagining Superman's iconography.

Comics expert Noah Berlatsky takes us on a wild ride through the Wonder Woman comics of the 1940s, vividly illustrating how William Marston's many quirks and contradictions, along with the odd disproportionate composition created by illustrator Harry Peter, produced a comic that was radically ahead of its time in terms of its bold presentation of female power and sexuality.

During its heyday in the early 1950s, EC Comics was an innovator in the so-called ""preachies"", socially conscious stories that challenged the conservatism of Eisenhower-era America. EC Comics examines a selection of these works and explores how they grappled with the civil rights struggle, antisemitism, and other forms of prejudice.

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons's Watchmen has been widely hailed as a landmark in the development of the graphic novel. Demonstrating a keen eye for historical detail, Considering Watchmen gives readers a new appreciation of just how radical Moore and Gibbons's blend of gritty realism and formal experimentation was back in 1986.