World Historical Approach(es) to Periodizing Comics

AHA Session 102
World History Association 1
Friday, January 6, 2023: 1:30 PM-3:00 PM
Washington Room B (Loews Philadelphia Hotel, 3rd Floor)
Chair:
Aditi Sen, Queen's University
Papers:
Reconsidering History Comics as a Means of Periodization
Maryanne A. Rhett, Monmouth University
Globalizing Bande Dessinée and the Periodization of the “Ninth Art”
Kaleb Knoblauch, University of California, Davis
The Ages of Content and an Age of Terror: Comics beyond the “Modern Age”
Lawrence Abrams, University of California, Davis

Session Abstract

This panel will examine, and propose solutions to, the US-centric approach to periodization commonly used in comics studies and for underscoring the history of comics and cartooning. Pulling in examples from the global history of comics this panel will look at how focus on the ‘long’ twentieth century and US comics production has largely undermined examination of comics from centuries, even millennia earlier, as well as silencing voices from across the world. A last bastion of American Exceptionalism, the history of comics has largely been centered on either the US comics industry or been built around the Ages (Golden, Silver, etc.) approach to viewing comics. Giving preference to the Superhero genre and the emergence of the comic book (floppy) this approach negates the nuance and exuberance of comics produced outside of this narrow scope of place and time. The integrated nature of comics history is one of a global dialogue among creators and audiences and it belies this traditional narrative. This panel will offer possible new periodization approaches to studying the history of comics taking into account more dynamic datasets.
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