ABSTRACT

Multiculturalism, and its representation, has long presented challenges for the medium of comics. This book presents a wide ranging survey of the ways in which comics have dealt with the diversity of creators and characters and the (lack of) visibility for characters who don’t conform to particular cultural stereotypes. Contributors engage with ethnicity and other cultural forms from Israel, Romania, North America, South Africa, Germany, Spain, U.S. Latino and Canada and consider the ways in which comics are able to represent multiculturalism through a focus on the formal elements of the medium. Discussion themes include education, countercultures, monstrosity, the quotidian, the notion of the ‘other," anthropomorphism, and colonialism. Taking a truly international perspective, the book brings into dialogue a broad range of comics traditions.

chapter |16 pages

Introduction

Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels

part I|50 pages

Histories and Contexts

chapter 1|15 pages

Multiculturalism Meets the Counterculture

Representing Racial Difference in Robert Crumb's Underground Comix

chapter 3|18 pages

The Presidential Penis

Questions of Race and Representation in South African Comic and Satirical Art

part II|44 pages

Depicting Difference

part III|50 pages

Monstrosity and Otherness

chapter 7|17 pages

The Monster Within and Without

Spanish Comics, Monstrosity, Religion, and Alterity

chapter 8|16 pages

Colonialist Heroes and Monstrous Others

Stereotype and Narrative Form in British Adventure Comic Books

chapter 9|15 pages

Set Pieces

Cultural Appropriation and the Search for Contemporary Identities in Shōnen Manga

part IV|34 pages

Challenging Assumptions

chapter 10|14 pages

Narrative Exploration against Mentality Issues

Indirect Education for Multiculturalism in Tintin

chapter 11|18 pages

Embracing Childish Perspective

Rutu Modan's A Royal Banquet with the Queen

part V|61 pages

Case Studies

chapter 12|15 pages

An Innocent at Home

Scott Pilgrim and His Canadian Multicultural Contexts

chapter 15|16 pages

Tulips and Roses in a Global Garden

Speaking Local Identities in Persepolis and Tekkon Kinkreet