ABSTRACT
Traditionally, comics have been dominated by hypermasculine values and male characters. As Bradford W. Wright’s Comic Book Nation, Charles Hatfield’s Alternative Comics, and Geoff Klock’s How to Read Superhero Comics and Why all show, from the mainstream superheroes and superhero teams to even the subversive tradition of the Undergrounds, the more prominent comics’ characters and values are masculine. In Reading Comics Mila Bongco goes further, explaining that women in comics were not afforded as prominent a place as either heroines or villains, and instead were delegated to the positions of superhero girlfriends or damsels in distress (108–111). Even when the characters are younger adults and teens, and even when the characters are women, the masculine values come across through the visual portrayal of hypermuscular or hypersexualized bodies as well as masculine narratives. However, because comics are a full medium, the values and norms presented vary greatly. Yet, comics overall have presented masculine values and male characters. Many comics deviate from this norm, including Adrian Tomine’s Summer Blonde, the Action Girl comics, and the Underground Wimmin’s Comix. Each of these represents an individual exception to the larger hypermasculine tradition, rather than a larger shift ing of focus for comics as a whole or for any particular comic’s genre. While many comics do feature women and children as characters, these characters are most oft en othered within a comic’s tradition that focuses more heavily on adult male characters. Goth comics more often subvert typical comic art styles and worldviews by focusing most often on child characters, and child characters who are more mature and reliable than their parental counterparts. In doing so, Gothic comics present a rupture in the traditional history of comics, a rupture which allows for a new space for children, girls, and women in comics.
