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Schell, Logan. "The good old days: Kurt Busiek’s usage of historicization in ‘Old Times’." Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 9. (2018): 49–60. Added by: joachim (5/7/18, 10:49 AM) Last edited by: joachim (5/7/18, 12:35 PM) |
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| Resource type: Journal Article Language: en: English Peer reviewed DOI: 10.1080/21504857.2017.1307237 BibTeX citation key: Schell2018 Email resource to friend View all bibliographic details  |
Categories: General Keywords: "Astro City", Busiek. Kurt, Metaisierung, Superhero, USA Creators: Schell Collection: Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics |
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Superhero comic book history is often separated into several periods known as ages. Broadly speaking, three ages are of particular import: Golden, Silver and Dark. These ages are used as a narrative framework Kurt Busiek’s ‘Old Times’, a story taking place in Busiek’s larger work, Astro City. An analysis of ‘Old Times’ (illustrated by Brent Anderson) reveals that while the surface narrative is about an old superhero trying to have one last adventure, Busiek’s referencing of the superhero comic ages is a story about the entire genre itself. Busiek’s acknowledges the timeless quality of superhero stories while still affirming them in a manner that remembers the past fondly. Therefore, Busiek’s Astro City can be seen as fitting Orion Kidder’s (2010) Historicization model of revisionary comics, as opposed to Geoff Klock’s (2002) assertion that Astro City tries to avoid the Dark Age. This article shows that rather than avoiding the overall history of superhero comics, Busiek’s ‘Old Times’ reconciles the complex histories of superhero comics and synthesises them together so that both nostalgia and maturity are represented.
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