Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2021, American Culture Studies

From 1981-1996, the United States experienced an epidemic of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) that held profound implications for issues ranging from civil rights, public education, and sexual mores, to government accountability, public health, and expressions of heterosexism. Popular comic books that broached the subject of HIV/AIDS during the U.S. epidemic elucidate how America's discourse on the disease evolved in an era when elected officials, religious leaders, legal professionals, medical specialists, and average citizens all struggled to negotiate their way through a period of national crisis. The manner whereby comic book authors, illustrators, and publishers engaged the topic of HIV/AIDS changed over time but, because comic books are an item of popular culture primarily produced for a heterosexual male audience, such changes habitually mirrored the evolution of the nation's mainstream, heteronormative debates regarding the epidemic and its sociocultural and political implications. Through studying depictions of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in popular comic books, alterations in the heterocentric, national discourse emerge revealing how homophobic dismissals of the “gay plague” in the early 1980s gave way to heterosexual panic in the mid-1980s, followed by the epidemic's reinterpretation as a national tragedy in the late-1980s. Ultimately, this study uncovers how, in the early 1990s, HIV/AIDS awareness became a national cause celebre and a fad effectively commoditized by the economic forces of American popular culture until its novelty waned when the epidemic phase of the U.S. HIV/AIDS crisis drew to a close in the mid-1990s. Throughout, representations of HIV/AIDS in popular American comic books show how comic book creators sought to elevate their medium beyond the confines of its perceived juvenile trappings by exploring topical and controversial material that would appeal to the expanding market of adult buyers that blos (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jeffery Brown (Advisor); William Albertini (Committee Member); Timothy Messer-Kruse (Committee Member); Michael Decker (Other) Subjects: American History; American Literature; American Studies; Mass Media; Public Health

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 1950, Curriculum and Teaching

Committee: Herschel Litherland (Advisor) Subjects: Education

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2019, History

This thesis studies the Cincinnati Committee for the Evaluation of Comics, which operated from 1948 until 1979, but performed its most significant work before 1956. The Cincinnati Committee used a system of criteria developed by a University of Cincinnati psychology professor to rate comic books on cultural, moral, and aesthetic grounds. Through a partnership with Parents' Magazine, a popular periodical for postwar families, the Cincinnati Committee's critiques and lists reached an audience of over one million readers. Due to this widespread exposure and perception as a form of effective comic book regulation, congressional investigations of objectionable literature in 1952 and 1954 referenced the committee's work in their hearings. This project is the first to use the Cincinnati Committee's own archival materials in service of a historical narrative and argues that rather than being simply one of many localized responses to comic books, the Committee's work instead decisively shaped the national discussion over kids and comics. This examination of the Cincinnati Committee, which also provides a new history of the American anti-comics movement, helps to provide a path to understanding the Cold War in America by demonstrating its effects on domestic politics and social interactions.

Committee: Stephen Norris Ph.D. (Advisor); Steven Conn Ph.D. (Committee Member); Amanda McVety Ph.D. (Committee Member); Amy Kiste Nyberg Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Media and Communication

The popularity of modern comic books has fluctuated since their creation and mass production in the early 20th century, experiencing periods of growth as well as decline. While commercial success is not always consistent from one decade to the next it is clear that the medium has been and will continue to be a cultural staple in the society of the United States. I have selected this type of popular culture for analysis precisely because of the longevity of the medium and the recent commercial success of film and television adaptations of comic book material. In this project I apply a Critical lens to selected comic book materials and apply Critical theories related to race, class, and gender in order to understand how the materials function as vehicles for ideological messages. For the project I selected five Marvel comic book characters and examined materials featuring those characters in the form of comic books, film, and television adaptations. The selected characters are Steve Rogers/Captain America, Luke Cage, Miles Morales/Spider-Man, Jean Grey, and Raven Darkholme/Mystique. Methodologically I interrogated the selected texts through the application of visual and narrative rhetorical criticism. By using this approach, I was able to answer my guiding research questions centered around how these texts operate to reinforce, subvert, and modify socio-cultural understandings related to the race, gender, and economic class in the United States.

Committee: Alberto González PhD (Advisor); Eric Worch PhD (Other); Joshua Atkinson PhD (Committee Member); Frederick Busselle PhD (Committee Member); Christina Knopf PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Gender; Mass Media; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Rhetoric

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Theatre

As a child, when I consumed fictional narratives that centered on strong female characters, all I noticed was the enviable power that they exhibited. From my point of view, every performance by a powerful character like Wonder Woman, Daisy Duke, or Princess Leia, served to highlight her drive, ability, and intellect in a wholly uncomplicated way. What I did not notice then was the often-problematic performances of female power that accompanied those narratives. As a performance studies and theatre scholar, with a decades' old love of all things popular culture, I began to ponder the troubling question: Why are there so many popular narratives focused on female characters who are, on a surface level, portrayed as bastions of strength, that fall woefully short of being true representations of empowerment when subjected to close analysis? In an endeavor to answer this question, in this dissertation I examine what I contend are some of the paradoxical performances of female heroism, womanhood, and feminine aggression from the 1960s to the 1990s. To facilitate this investigation, I engage in close readings of several key aesthetic and cultural texts from these decades. While the Wonder Woman comic book universe serves as the centerpiece of this study, I also consider troublesome performances and representations of female power in the television shows Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the film Grease, the stage musical Les Miserables, and the video game Tomb Raider. Allied with my analyses of these cultural texts, I examine the historical context of these final four decades of the twentieth century by focusing on several significant social and political moments and movements, such as the rise of first-and second-wave feminism, Reagan-era conservatism, and the scandals that brought Anita Hill and Monica Lewinsky into the public eye in the 1990s. Throughout my study, I focus on issues including, but not limited to, the performance of femini (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jonathan Chambers PhD (Advisor); Francisco Cabanillas PhD (Committee Member); Bradford Clark MFA (Committee Member); Lesa Lockford PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Mass Media; Motion Pictures; Music; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2017, English

This project contributes to the field of comics studies by extending its range of investigation into the early modern period. If comics are to be defined as sequential art, scholars of comics must contend with a vast historical archive reaching at least to the origins of print. The first chapter argues that there is warrant to study sequential images from early modern England as “comics,” first because historiographical prohibitions against the study of images from early modern England are no longer acceptable, and second because multiple sequential images from early modern English presses exhibit the qualities of “sequential art.” The second chapter considers “sequential art” might mean, other than panels and strips, for the early modern English. Contemporary conventions of sequential images, regulated by existing theories, tend to presume both a black rectilinear panel as well as a linear, non-recursive, non-random strip; whereas early modern English sequential images were organized by naturalistic formats. Chapter two introduces six alternatives to the panel-strip convention of sequential images: processions; steps; wheels, calendars; decks; and curtains. If comics are alternately defined as image-text, then scholars of comics must contend with an even greater archive of early modern art. Chapter three addresses inclusive, integrated, and exclusive criteria for the combination of image and text, and ultimately demonstrates that early modern examples are coherent with the most exclusive standards. Furthermore, sustained attention to the integration of image and text reveals an emergent practice at work during the English republican period. This move to historical relevance invites the analysis of chapter four, which considers the persistent influence of caricature from the early modern period. Specifically, a definite lineage of racial caricature reveals the unbroken aesthetic influence of early modern English caricatures of blackness from that crucial period of r (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Frederick Aldama Dr. (Advisor); Jared Gardner Dr. (Committee Member); Jenny Robb (Committee Member) Subjects: Art History; British and Irish Literature; Comparative Literature; Literature

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Popular Culture

During the over fifty-year history of The X-Men comic books and the numerous stories told within the various series, the mutants have been intentionally written as metaphors for how ethnic, racial, sexual, religious, and cultural minorities are treated in the United States. During that same time, the writers also unintentionally mirror deaf individuals and Deaf Culture in their portrayal of mutants and X-Men. Considering the vast number of stories in existence, I focus on the early works of Stan Lee, Grant Morrison's time as author of New X-Men, Joss Whedon's time as author of Astonishing X-Men, and Matt Fraction's time as author of Uncanny X-Men. In this thesis, I perform a close reading of these four authors' works and compare them to the history of the deaf and Deaf in America. In this close reading, I found three recurring themes within The X-Men comics that paralleled Deaf Culture: Geography, Colonization, and Culture. Both groups' origins lie in the residential schools that were founded to provide a supportive educational environment. From this environment, a culture developed and spread as students graduated. These same schools and cultures came under similar attacks from the dominant culture. They survived the attacks and have grown stronger since. Throughout, I use theorists such as Gramsci and Althusser alongside Deaf Studies scholars such as Lennard Davis and Douglas Baynton to analyze these themes, parallels, and events. These parallels potentially allow readers to be more accepting and understanding of Deaf Culture because they introduce Deaf Culture to the reader in the familiar setting of the superhero comic narrative.

Committee: Jeremy Wallach Ph. D. (Advisor); Jeffrey Brown Ph. D. (Committee Member); Katherine Meizel Ph. D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 1978, Graduate School

Committee: Not Provided (Other) Subjects: Journalism

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2016, Theatre and Film

In this dissertation, I argue that comic books are a form of dynamic and performative aesthetic communication as identified by performance studies scholars Ronald Pelias and James VanOosting, among others. Additionally, I use the standards of comic book creation as established by artists Will Eisner and Carl Potts. I seek to discuss and evaluate Western Society's restrictions on feminine agency. Female bodies and identities are actively performed on the page through a combination of comic book structure and the process of narrative activation by the audience. I do so through an exploration of the central effects of the dominant, patriarchal, hegemonic forces that pervade the Detective Comics (i.e., DC) comic book universe—as they pertain to the characters of Wonder Woman, Batgirl, Supergirl, and Power Girl—with the aim of situating these forces in that fictional realm in relation to the expectations of the constitution and performance of gender within our own real-life society. I investigate the important differences between female and male superheroes through a discussion of owned vs. acquired or allowed agency. To accomplish this, I use what I refer to as a critical fan perspective to examine three specific areas over three chapters: acquisition of superhero identity, violence, and hypersexuality. I do so through an analysis of the performance implications of comic book text, image, and sequential narrative. First, in Chapter I, I use the concepts of the origin story and the trial or test of worthiness to investigate the disconnection that exists between male and female superheroes. In sum, within DC comic books, the male superhero is often offered the choice to adopt his heroic status while the female superhero must be chosen or allowed to adopt that identity. Second, in Chapter II, I explore the violence committed against and by women to discuss the ways that hegemony enacts violence against female superheroes and the policing of violent acts that they are fre (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jonathan Chambers Ph.D. (Advisor); Lesa Lockford Ph.D. (Committee Member); Margaret McCubbin MFA (Committee Member); Jane Schoonmaker Rodgers Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: Gender Studies; Performing Arts; Theater Studies

MA, Kent State University, 2015, College of the Arts / School of Art

In the United States, comic books have often been construed as a male medium and social sphere. In fact, comics have been created and enjoyed by artists of any gender since their inception and it was only after the 1950s that current perceptions of comics were formulated. Comics' history begins in the 1890s when men and women were submitting comics to newspapers, including outspoken suffragettes like Rose O'Neill. As comics took off in the early twentieth century, the iconic hero, Superman, kicked off the United States' most popular genre: superhero comics. Superhero comics were read and enjoyed by readers of all genders and ages, leading to the creation of characters like Wonder Woman. After World War II, comics fell victim to government scrutiny and censorship, creating the regulatory Comics Code. In response, during the counter culture of the 1960s, underground comics or comix appeared including feminist anthologies during feminism's second wave. These comics, in turn, led to alternate and indie comics and literary efforts called graphic novels. Graphic novels then influenced the mainstream comics and predominant superhero genre, particularly in the 1980s and forward. In the current era of comic books, more and more readers include young women who wish to see superheroes like themselves. These comics include the works of feminist writers like Kelly Sue DeConnick, Marjorie Liu, and Gail Simone. Japanese comics have also played a huge part in influencing this change for comics in the United States. With multiple genres and a different approach to production, Japanese comics (manga) have become popular, especially where male-oriented comics in the United States may not cater to readers. This has also led to an individualistic movement inspired by both manga and alternative comics: webcomics. These self-published Internet-based comics are often solo efforts in which the artist is in full control of the production. This is also a study of fan culture (fando (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Scillia Diane Ph. D. (Advisor); Medicus Gustav Ph. D. (Committee Member); Smith Fred Ph. D. (Committee Member); Stasiowski Kristin Ph. D. (Other) Subjects: Art History

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2015, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning: Architecture

A dramatic shift is taking place in the retail industry: the monumental rise of e-commerce has decreased the validity of and need for brick-and-mortar retail stores. As online shopping continues to proliferate, how can retail architecture survive? This thesis will explore retail typology, the digital age of shopping, and “brandscaping,” through a cycle of research, literature, and precedent analysis. Applicable principles will be exercised in the design of a DC Comics flagship retail store, while also utilizing comic book methodology. Focus will be placed on analysis of the current state of the shopping type, the needs of the next generation of shoppers, the relationship between technology and retail stores, a study of the client's brand and culture, and the relationship between comic books and architecture. The retail store will be reinvented as a place for something greater than fulfilling a need; it will evolve into a space that emphasizes the development of a personal relationship between the brand and the customer. Pieces of shopping architecture have the potential to become zones of action and play where a user can become a superhero, harness their powers, and learn to fly. Retail architecture must evolve into an experience-based destination, creating an emotional relationship with the user through an engaging manifestation of the brand's narrative.

Committee: John Eliot Hancock M.Arch. (Committee Chair); Michael McInturf M.Arch. (Committee Member) Subjects: Architecture

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2015, Popular Culture

This thesis examines the process of adapting comic book properties into other visual media. I focus on the DC Animated Universe, the popular adaptation of DC Comics characters and concepts into all-ages programming. This adapted universe started with Batman: The Animated Series and comprised several shows on multiple networks, all of which fit into a shared universe based on their comic book counterparts. The adaptation of these properties is heavily reliant to intertextuality across DC Comics media. The shared universe developed within the television medium acted as an early example of comic book media adapting the idea of shared universes, a process that has been replicated with extreme financial success by DC and Marvel (in various stages of fruition). I address the process of adapting DC Comics properties in television, dividing it into “strict” or “loose” adaptations, as well as derivative adaptations that add new material to the comic book canon. This process was initially slow, exploding after the first series (Batman: The Animated Series) changed networks and Saturday morning cartoons flourished, allowing for more opportunities for producers to create content. References, crossover episodes, and the later series Justice League Unlimited allowed producers to utilize this shared universe to develop otherwise impossible adaptations that often became lasting additions to DC Comics publishing. Concepts developed in this paratextual universe became popular enough to see recursive adaptation in DC Comics ongoing comic book universe and other media, emphasizing the importance of cross-media connections. The continued popularity and success of comic book media is reliant on cross-media synergy and shared universes.

Committee: Jeffrey Brown PhD (Advisor); Becca Cragin PhD (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: American Literature; American Studies; Comparative Literature; Fine Arts; Literature; Mass Media; Modern History; Modern Literature; Multimedia Communications

MLIS, Kent State University, 2014, College of Communication and Information / School of Information

Information about the various resources, concepts, and entities in the world of comics can be found in a wide range of systems, including those of libraries, archives, and museums, as well as the records of independent research projects. Semantic Web technologies and standards represent an opportunity to connect these resources using Linked Data. In an attempt to realize this opportunity, this thesis presents a case study for the development of a domain ontology for comic books and comic book collections. In the initial phase, reference resources and example materials were collected and consulted to develop a representative domain model and core schema. A workflow was then developed to convert common CSV data to XML and RDF/XML, replacing common values with LOD URIs using XSLT. The second phase of the study then focused on publishing Linked Data using HTML/RDFa. A review of existing information systems and an analysis of their content was conducted in order to address the usability of the vocabulary, and inform the design of a series of modularized metadata application profiles using the core schema as a base. Examples were tested for their ability to produce valid, meaningful RDF data from HTML content that was consistent with the ontology. The final result is an RDFS/OWL Web vocabulary for comics, titled the Comic Book Ontology (CBO). It is an open and extensible semantic model that identifies comics using two components: (a) the form and (b) the container. This approach allows the Ontology's conceptualization of comics to include comic books, comic strips, web comics, graphic novels, manga, or original artwork, with the potential for further describing other aspects of comics culture and scholarship, or connecting, community created data to Semantic Web applications, such as next-generation library catalogs.

Committee: Marcia Lei Zeng Ph.D. (Advisor); Karen F. Gracy Ph.D. (Committee Member); David B. Robins Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Information Science; Information Systems; Library Science; Web Studies

PHD, Kent State University, 2014, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

JOHNSON, SETH WILLIAM, Ph.D., May 2014 ENGLISH HISTORY, MYTH AND SECULARISM ACROSS THE BORDERLANDS: THE WORK OF MICHAEL CHABON (317 PP.) Director of Dissertation: Lewis Fried From the publication of his Master's thesis turned first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon has enjoyed immense critical and commercial success. Yet, to date, scholarship has remained in its infancy. This study traces two common and related themes as they evolve throughout his career: his celebration of genre fiction and his exploration of the intersection between the secular--Jewish, American-Jewish and unhyphenated American culture--and the sacred. The blending of often ghettoized genres, such as science fiction, mystery, comic books and horror, with sacred texts, stories and folklore both elevates the so-called "lower" art forms and reengages history, myth and sacred stories as merely literary genres with an enhanced cultural significance. In addition, this dissertation seeks to illuminate Chabon's representation of Jewishness in America, throughout his body of work. Chabon consistently raises questions regarding the nature of Judaism in America, asking whether one's Jewishness can be largely cultural or whether it is necessarily defined by religious adherence. Though many of Chabon's characters may not be overtly religious, they have not forgotten their roots. Chabon depicts a generation of American Jews who are more comfortable with their place in America, than many of the American-Jewish writers who came before him. He sees contemporary American Jewish culture as one that maintains its traditions and celebrates its history, but can exist outside of religion, in which American Jews can be both Jewish and largely secular. This project aims to show that Chabon is part of a continuum that is constantly reassessing American Judaism, and in good company with his many American-Jewish literary predecessors (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lewis Fried Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Babacar M'Baye Ph.D. (Committee Member); Yoshinobu Hakutani Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sara Newman Ph.D. (Committee Member); Carol Salus Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Literature; American Studies; Bible; Literature; Religion

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2013, Journalism (Communication)

This thesis examines persuasive differences between the same fictional narrative, presented as a comic book or as text-only short story. In an experiment, the two conditions delivered a series of persuasive messages embedded within the fictional narrative. Participants were tested on strength of belief for the persuasive messages and several indicators of narrative transportation including character identification, personal relevance, perceived vividness, and counter-arguing. Results indicated character identification was most pronounced in the text-only condition. Differences within gender and age groups were identified in character identification, experience taking, and counter-arguing. The relevance of digital design principles in the creation of persuasive communication for electronic devices is also discussed.

Committee: Jatin Srivastava (Committee Chair); Craig Davis (Committee Member); Keith Markman (Committee Member) Subjects: Experimental Psychology; Mass Communications; Multimedia Communications; Social Psychology

Master of Arts in American Studies, Youngstown State University, 2009, American Studies Program

Comic books, as items of mass culture, are designed to sell, designed to be profitable. To generate profit, they have to be popular. Comic book titles that Americans could not relate to did not sell and were then canceled. Some of the most popular and long-standing comic books are ones that star superheroes. Superheroes represent idealized American heroes. Their superpowers give them the ability to protect Americans in a way that older pulp magazine and dime novel heroes could not. By looking at superheroes during different points in time, we can see what Americans during those times valued and what they feared. American hopes, fears, and dreams can all be found in comic books. The first chapter in this thesis discusses dime novels and pulp magazines as contributing to the development of comic books. As works of popular fiction, aimed at the working class, dime novels and pulp magazines are very much like comic books. The following chapters outline periods in American history and provide insight into how comic books reflect the popular attitudes and beliefs of Americans during these periods using two well-known superheroes, Batman and Spider-Man. The willingness of Americans to accept super-powered heroes reflects their belief in an all-powerful government and a super-powered nation. In a world where America was all-powerful, Americans needed heroes that were just as powerful to show them how to use that power responsibly. This thesis ends with a discussion of how the concept of superheroes helps Americans deal with the disparate division of power in a republican democracy and with the repercussions of being part of a superpower nation.

Committee: Stephanie Tingley PhD (Advisor); Donna DeBlasio PhD (Committee Member); Martha Pallante PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies

MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2009, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

All buildings contain two main channels of experience: diachronic experience, the linear way we see and experience space over a period of time; and synchronic experience, where each moment of the diachronic experience exists simultaneously. Only when one channel is particularly active over the other do we become directly aware of it, but this is rarely a conscious decision on the part of the designer. How can a building, once built, create moments displacing users in time and space yet maintaining their involvement in the narratives of its creation and existence? This thesis examines how we perceive and conceive time and space in architecture, using comic books as an important structural corollary. Comics typically progress panel to panel, page to page; yet while each panel exists as a singular, self-contained point, collectively they comprise a non-linear continuum wherein every point exists simultaneously with every other point. Connecting events requires a “closure” process of conceptual input from the reader to fill in the gaps, thus directly involving the reader in the progression of the story and outcome of events and accommodating infinite different subjective experiences within a set of fixed conditions. An examination of two chapters from the comic book Watchmen, by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, will serve to illustrate this concept. The goal is to merge synchronic and diachronic, so the readers becomes aware of their role in conceiving architecture. The outcome will be a design process for a building in which readers can conceive the synchronic plan from their diachronic perceptions and vice versa, applied to the design of a self-contained graduate school of architecture for the University of Cincinnati. Louis Kahn's Phillips Exeter Library, containing equally active synchronic and diachronic channels, serves as the primary point of departure for design.

Committee: George Thomas Bible (Committee Chair); Gerald Larson (Committee Co-Chair) Subjects: Architecture

Bachelor of Science of Media Arts and Studies (BSC), Ohio University, 2009, Media Arts and Studies

Comic book superheroes have been a part of the media landscape for decades now, from Depression-era comics to brightly colored television shows of the 1960s to the brooding graphic novels of the 1980s. Walking a fine line between escapist fun and serious social commentary, superheroes have captured the minds of readers young and old, none more so than the Dark Knight of Gotham City - the Batman. Batman has been at the backbone of the genre from its outset and continues to be as superhero movies become more important to Hollywood, in terms of content, characterization and capital gain. This paper traces the history of Batman's crossover from page to screen to see how his character has changed over time, what themes have remained central to his story and how each filmmaker has told the same story time and again while still making it fresh and "original." First, this research studies the different research methods that have been used to analyze superheroes and comic books in the past. Next, this study compares and contrasts some of the most important Batman comics and films to find what elements make the character so appealing to a mass audience. This research includes analysis and comparisons of the films Batman, Batman Begins , and The Dark Knight, as well as several well-known graphic novels like The Long Halloween, The Dark Knight Returns and Batman: Year One. Finally, this paper shows how Batman has affected other works in the comic book movie genre, particularly the adaptation of the seminal graphic novel Watchmen.

Committee: Dr. Jenny Nelson (Advisor); Dr. Arthur Cromwell (Other) Subjects: American Literature; Communication; Fine Arts; Mass Media; Motion Pictures; Personality

MA, Kent State University, 2012, College of Communication and Information / School of Media and Journalism

More than 30 live-action superhero movies (based on comic book heroes) starring A-list celebrities have been released by Hollywood since the attack on the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001. Captain America, created during times of war to rally support, is among these. Comic book superheroes have almost always reflected American popular culture in a way that everyone can understand. The entertainment medium provides parallels of social issues within the superheroes' storylines through character dialogue, distinctive art and reader perspective. Symbolic Interaction Theory explains how people create meaning from their surroundings and from their relationships with others. Through symbolic interaction, this paper explores how readers define the American Dream through Captain America's interpersonal battles, interactions with other characters and physical appearance as presented by the comic book authors. The textual analysis reveals that Captain America is important in exploring the evolution of the American Dream.

Committee: Bob Batchelor PhD (Advisor); Tim Smith PhD (Committee Member); Willie Harrell PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Master of Arts, Case Western Reserve University, 2010, History

In the twentieth century, social scientists criticized both the motion picture and comic book industries for their impact on the young. In Our Movie Made Children (1933) Henry Forman summarized studies by the Motion Picture Research Council and the Payne Fund that explored the sometimes harmful influence of popular films on children. Similarly, in Seduction of the Innocent (1954) psychiatrist Fredric Wertham drew on his own clinical work with troubled youth to link comic books to juvenile delinquency. The two books shared many similarities in tone, style, method, intent, and content, but received divergent responses from reviewers, academics, policymakers, and general readers. Those disparities resulted from various factors, including differences in age composition (and political power) of the audiences for movies and comic books, the varying effectiveness of each industry's own pre-existing self-censorship organization, and broad changes in American society and culture between the 1920s and 1950s.

Committee: Daniel Cohen PhD (Advisor); Renee Sentilles PhD (Committee Member); John Grabowski PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; American Studies; History; Mass Media; Motion Pictures