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Lecture by Dr. Jason Demers

Dr. Jason Demers
University of Regina

Wednesday, April 1, 2015, 3:30 pm
Arts 101

On Superpowered Politics and Comic Book Mythologies: While America’s superheroes have kept their distance from political office or affiliation, the genre emerged as the United States was about the join the Second World War. Similar to Uncle Sam, who called young men to arms in 1917, superheroes oozed patriotism and recruited young readers into the armed forces. Following an industry-imposed “Comics Code” in 1954, maintaining the status quo became modus operandi, rendering explicit criticisms of the state and authority figures impossible. Publishers began to abandon the code in the 1980s, making room to explore the relationship between superhero mythologies and American foreign and domestic policy. In his consideration of superhero mythology, Dr. Demers will analyze some of these post-code interventions into political questions, including the most promising recent advances in superhero comics on the terrain of identity politics.

All welcome

Please click here to view the poster

for more info. please contact Lindsey Banco