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York, Chris and Rafiel York, eds. Comic Books and the Cold War, 1946–1962: Essays on Graphic Treatment of Communism, the Code and Social Concerns. Jefferson, London: McFarland, 2012. 
Added by: joachim (07/08/2012, 14:42)   
Resource type: Book
Language: en: English
ID no. (ISBN etc.): 0786449810
BibTeX citation key: York2012
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Categories: General
Keywords: Cold War, Collection of essays, USA
Creators: York, York
Publisher: McFarland (Jefferson, London)
Views: 16/591
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Abstract
Conventional wisdom holds that comic books of the post-World War II era are poorly drawn and poorly written publications, notable only for the furor they raised. Contributors to this thoughtful collection, however, demonstrate that these comics constitute complex cultural documents that create a dialogue between mainstream values and alternative beliefs that question or complicate the grand narratives of the era. Close analysis of individual titles, including EC comics, Superman, romance comics, and other, more obscure works, reveals the ways Cold War culture—from atomic anxieties and the nuclear family to communist hysteria and social inequalities—manifests itself in the comic books of the era. By illuminating the complexities of mid-century graphic novels, this study demonstrates that postwar popular culture was far from monolithic in its representation of American values and beliefs.

Table of Contents

Preface (1)
Chris York and Rafiel York: Introduction: Frederic Wertham, Containment, and Comic Books (5)

I. Containing Communism, Controlling the Atom
1. Nathan Atkinson: Lights, Camera, Action 101: A Brief Lesson on How to See an Atomic Bomb (19)
2. Peter Lee: Decrypting Espionage Comic Books in 1950s America (30)
3. Christopher B. Field: “He Was a Living Breathing Human Being”: Harvey Kurtzman’s War Comics and the “Yellow Peril” in 1950s Containment Culture (45)
4. Frederick A. Wright: “I Can Pass Right Through Solid Matter!”: How the Flash Upheld American Values While Breaking the Speed Limit (55)
5. Phillip Payne and Paul J. Spaeth: Jack Kirby’s Challengers of the Unknown: Establishing Order in an Age of Anxiety (68)
6. John Donovan: Red Menace on the Moon: Containment in Space as Depicted in Comics of the 1950s (79)

II. Containing Sexuality in the Cold War
7. Jeanne Gardner: Girls Who Sinned in Secret and Paid in Public: Romance Comics, 1949–1954 (92)
8. Rafiel York: Rebellion in Riverdale (103)
9. Ruth McClelland-Nugent: The Amazon Mystique: Subverting Cold War Domesticity in Wonder Woman Comics, 1948–1965 (115)
10. Christopher J. Hayton and Sheila Hayton: The Girls in White: Nurse Images in Early Cold War Era Romance and War Comics (129)
11. Diana Green: Horror Camp: Homoerotic Subtext in EC Comics (146)

III. The Problem of Consensus
12. Chris York: “Dedicated to the Youth of America”: Deviant Narration in Crime Does Not Pay (156)
13. Lawrence Rodman: MAD’s Guest Writers (169)
14. Chris York: Beyond the Frontier: Turok, Son of Stone and the Native American in Cold War America (179)
15. Alexander Maxwell: East Europeans in the Cold War Comic This Godless Communism (190)
16. Rafiel York: The Fantastic Four: A Mirror of Cold War America (204)

About the Contributors (217)
Index (219)
Added by: joachim  
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