Category: Comics Studies
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Squirrel Girl and Feminism
I created this video for DePaul’s Pop Culture Conference in 2021 on superheroes. For the first time, it was an entirely online conference with asynchronous, video presentations for academic work. The ideas in this piece come from a chapter I wrote for an anthology being produced by Bryan Carr and Meta G. Carstarphen. That chapter…
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San Diego Comic Con
In a first, the forty-eighth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast finds friend of the podcast Joan Miller (@a_wild_acafan) joining Christopher Olson and myself to discuss the importance of the grand-daddy fan convention, San Diego Comic Con. In this episode, the trio discuss how SDCC came to be the pop cultural juggernaut that it…
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Academic Thoughts on Hentai
And hentai texts serve as ways to reaffirm this dominion of man. Hentai women are created for the sole purpose of male survey. They are true fantasy, existing nowhere but in the imagination of man and his subsequent depictions of his imagination – she is simulacrum. Being man’s creations, they are to serve man’s desires,…
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CfC for Book on Mental Illness in Entertainment Media
Call for Chapters for Book Proposal The editors are seeking chapter proposals for a collection of essays that examine positive, healthy, and accurate portrayals of mental illness in entertainment media. Proposed Title: Quieting the Madness: Entertainment Media’s Shift into More Accurate Depictions of Mental Illness Editors: Malynnda A. Johnson (Indiana State University) and Christopher J.…
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Customer-Fans and the Happily Exploited
Time for another story (I appear to have a lot to tell!); this time, about the experiences I had at the biggest comic book convention in the world, San Diego Comic Con International. When I graduated college, I moved to Los Angeles and ended up working at an agency that represents writers, directors and producers.…
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V for Vendetta and Resisting Fascism
In the thirty-ninth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and I present a special episode as they compare and contrast the graphic novel V for Vendetta and its film adaptation. In this episode, we discussed how the two versions of the story reflected on the social, cultural, and historical periods in which…
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Convergent Wrestling: The Nature of Professional Wrestling
Professional wrestling has been criticized for its emphasis on the fiction of its entertainment rather than the reality of its sport. My partner, Christopher Olson (Seems Obvious to Me), and I argue that professional wrestling functions as a convergent media product, representing a vital text for examining the media landscape of the 21st century. The…
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The Pop Culture Lens on The Dark Knight Returns
In the thirteenth episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and I welcome friend of the podcast, and unofficial third co-host, Joe Belfeuil to discuss the lasting impact of Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. We were all fans of the comic book / graphic novel at some point in the past, but…
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The Pop Culture Lens Episode 11: Captain Midnight
In the eleventh episode of The Pop Culture Lens podcast, Christopher Olson and I welcome friend of the podcast Blair Davis of DePaul University to discuss a pulp hero from the radio era, Captain Midnight. Captain Midnight began as a radio serial in 1938 (which you can listen to here), at the dawn of the…
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Categorizing Fractured Fandom
Defining Fractured Fandom According to the discipline of fan studies, at this point in history, being a fan is considered a positive for any individual. Being a fan helps people discover their identities, and to determine what they like and do not like. Being a fan helps people find friends, establish communities, and develop a…
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