Out of the gutters : obscenity, censorship, and transgression in American comics / edited by Jorge J. Santos Jr. and Patrick S. Lawrence.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Santos, Jorge J., editor.

Lawrence, Patrick S., editor.

Series:

World Comics and Graphic Nonfiction Series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Comic books, strips, etc--United States--History and criticism.

Comic books, strips, etc.

Comic books, strips, etc--Social aspects--United States.

Graphic novels--United States--History and criticism.

Graphic novels.

Erotic comic books, strips, etc--History and criticism.

Erotic comic books, strips, etc.

Obscenity (Law)--United States--History.

Obscenity (Law).

Censorship--United States.

Censorship.

Challenged books--United States.

Challenged books.

Genre:

Essays.

Comics criticism.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xiii, 288 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, 2025.

Summary:

"Following the recent banning of Art Spiegelman's award-winning graphic novel Maus by a Tennessee school board and attempts to ban other books, often graphic novels, in schools and libraries across the country, the topic of obscenity in comics is ripe for study. The inclusion of illustrations often serve to make comics be considered even more obscene than text alone would and therefore call more negative attention to the presentation of taboo material. Lawrence and Santos have assembled this volume with scholars from diverse disciplines, including comic studies, philosophy, religion, political science, and literary studies to examine various aspects of the subject. The essays focus on comics, graphic novels, and cartooning that have been challenged as obscene or whose depictions of taboo sex, sexuality, or violence bring important issues to light. Cartoonists covered include such well-known underground figures as Robert Crumb, Howard Cruse, and Charles Burns, newcomers like C. Spike Trotman and Trenton Doyle Hancock, and mainstream creators such as Chris Claremont, Archie Goodwin, and Robert Kirkman. Topics include the 1980s' battle against pornography, war and historical representations of violence, sex-positive comics by BIPOC creators, disability as obscenity, queer sexuality in X-Men and The Walking Dead, and racial violence"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyright

Contents

List of Illustrations

Foreword. Your Obscene is Not Mine: A Defense of the Art of Comics

Introduction: "A Cultural Slaughter of the innocents"

Timeline of Significant Events

Part One. Out of the Gutters: Comics' History of Obscenity

1. Why Sex?

2. "Wise Up, Old Hags! Th' Weak One is a Valuable Possession to Us": R. Crumb's Bible of Filth and Obscenity as Artificial Scarcity

3. Howard Cruse's War on the War on Obscenity

4. Obscene Histories: Indexing the Racial Phantasms of Blazing Combat

Part Two. Obscenity in the Gutters and at the Margins

5. Graphic Storytelling, Book Challengers, and Obscenity

6. Big-Boned Sapphic Smut: The Reading Pleasure of Comics by and about Black Women

7. Robert Kirkman's Gays in the Gutter: Anti-Queer Censorship, Obscenity, and the Walking Dead

Part Three. Theorizing the Obscene, Seeing Obscenity

8. Planet Xeno: Obscenity as Erotic Alienation in Charles Burns's Black Hole

9. Seen, Unseen, and Obscene: Historical Violence in Comic Books

10. Obscene Empathy: Kink and the Comics Code Authority in X-Men's "Dark Phoenix Saga"

11. Boobs + Monsters: Emil Ferris's My Favorite Thing is Monsters, Horror Comics, and the Fate of Disciplinary Normalization in the Twenty-First Century

Afterword. A Conversation about Community with Marinaomi

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Other Format:

Print version :

ISBN:

9781477331811

1477331816

9781477331828

1477331824

OCLC:

1505868329