Since at least 1939, when daily-strip caveman Alley Oop time-traveled to the Trojan War, comics have been drawing (on) material from Greek and Roman myth, literature and history. At times the connection is cosmetic-as perhaps with Wonder Woman's Amazonian heritage-and at times it is almost irrelevant-as with Hercules' starfaring adventures in the 1982 Marvel miniseries. But all of these make implicit or explicit claims about the place of classics in modern literary culture. Classics and Comics is the first book to explore the engagement of classics with the epitome of modern popular literature, the comic book. The volume collects sixteen articles, all specially commissioned for this volume, that look at how classical content is deployed in comics and reconfigured for a modern audience. It opens with a detailed historical introduction surveying the role of classical material in comics since the 1930s. Subsequent chapters cover a broad range of topics, including the incorporation of modern theories of myth into the creation and interpretation of comic books, the appropriation of characters from classical literature and myth, and the reconfiguration of motif into a modern literary medium. Among the well-known comics considered in the collection are Frank Miller's 300 and Sin City, DC Comics' Wonder Woman, Jack Kirby's The Eternals, Neil Gaiman's Sandman, and examples of Japanese manga. The volume also includes an original 12-page "comics-essay," drawn and written by Eisner Award-winning Eric Shanower, creator of the graphic novel series Age of Bronze.
Author(s): George Kovacs, C. W. Marshall
Series: Classical Presences
Edition: 1
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Year: 2011
Language: English
Pages: 280
Tags: Искусство и искусствоведение;Изобразительное искусство;Самоучители и пособия по рисованию;Рисование комиксов и карикатур;
Contents......Page 6
Introduction......Page 8
1. Comics and Classics: Establishing a Critical Frame......Page 18
PART ONE: Seeing the Past through Sequential Art......Page 40
2. An Ancient Greek Graphic Novel: P.Oxy. XXII 2331......Page 42
3. Sequential Narrative in the Shield of Achilles......Page 58
4. Declassicizing the Classical in Japanese Comics: Osamu Tezuka’s Apollo’s Song......Page 74
5. Heroes UnLimited: The Theory of the Hero’s Journey and the Limitation of the Superhero Myth......Page 88
PART TWO: Gods and Superheroes......Page 102
6. The Furies, Wonder Woman, and Dream: Mythmaking in DC Comics......Page 104
7. Coming up to Code: Ancient Divinities Revisited......Page 118
8. The Burden of War: From Homer to Oeming......Page 130
9. “Seven Thunders Utter Their Voices”: Morality and Comics History in Kingdom Come......Page 144
PART THREE: Drawing (on) History......Page 158
10. Hard-Boiled Hot Gates: Making the Classical Past Other in Frank Miller’s Sin City......Page 160
11. Persians in Frank Miller’s 300 and Greek Vase Painting......Page 174
12. A Dream of Augustus: Neil Gaiman’s Sandman and Comics Mythology......Page 188
13. Francophone Romes: Antiquity in Les Bandes Dessinées......Page 198
PART FOUR: The Desires of Troy......Page 208
14. Twenty-First-Century Troy......Page 210
15. Eros Conquers All: Sex and Love in Eric Shanower’s Age of Bronze......Page 222
16. Heavy Metal Homer: Countercultural Appropriations of the Odyssey in Graphic Novels......Page 236
A Reading List of Classics in Comics......Page 252
Contributors......Page 262
Bibliography......Page 266
D......Page 278
O......Page 279
Z......Page 280
