Jeffrey Kahan is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in California. The late Stanley Stewart was a distinguished professor in the English Department of the University of California at Riverside.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Introduction: Why Comics Can Save Us from Illiteracy     1. Black Heroes for Hire: Serializing Social Construction in the Comics      2. Comic Books, Cold Wars, and Desert Storms      3. Spider-Man and Corporate Responsibility      4. The Comic Book Code and American F-agg      5. Dr. Strange, or, How I Learned to Love Metaphysics      6. 9/11 and the Man Without Fear      7. Comics and the Prison System      8. Killing Off the Hero      Coda: Our Heroes, Ourselves      Chapter Notes      Index

Reviews of the first edition: “highly recommended, valuable”—SFRA Review; “this book needs to be on every comic book collector’s book shelves...detailed...a great read, an essential comic...highly recommend[ed]”—Jaxma Online; “interesting and worthwhile”—The Compulsive Reader; “an amazing piece of analysis”—Curledup.com.

Jeffrey Kahan is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in California. The late Stanley Stewart was a distinguished professor in the English Department of the University of California at Riverside.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Introduction: Why Comics Can Save Us from Illiteracy     1. Black Heroes for Hire: Serializing Social Construction in the Comics      2. Comic Books, Cold Wars, and Desert Storms      3. Spider-Man and Corporate Responsibility      4. The Comic Book Code and American F-agg      5. Dr. Strange, or, How I Learned to Love Metaphysics      6. 9/11 and the Man Without Fear      7. Comics and the Prison System      8. Killing Off the Hero      Coda: Our Heroes, Ourselves      Chapter Notes      Index

Reviews of the first edition: “highly recommended, valuable”—SFRA Review; “this book needs to be on every comic book collector’s book shelves...detailed...a great read, an essential comic...highly recommend[ed]”—Jaxma Online; “interesting and worthwhile”—The Compulsive Reader; “an amazing piece of analysis”—Curledup.com.

Jeffrey Kahan is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in California. The late Stanley Stewart was a distinguished professor in the English Department of the University of California at Riverside.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Introduction: Why Comics Can Save Us from Illiteracy     1. Black Heroes for Hire: Serializing Social Construction in the Comics      2. Comic Books, Cold Wars, and Desert Storms      3. Spider-Man and Corporate Responsibility      4. The Comic Book Code and American F-agg      5. Dr. Strange, or, How I Learned to Love Metaphysics      6. 9/11 and the Man Without Fear      7. Comics and the Prison System      8. Killing Off the Hero      Coda: Our Heroes, Ourselves      Chapter Notes      Index

Reviews of the first edition: “highly recommended, valuable”—SFRA Review; “this book needs to be on every comic book collector’s book shelves...detailed...a great read, an essential comic...highly recommend[ed]”—Jaxma Online; “interesting and worthwhile”—The Compulsive Reader; “an amazing piece of analysis”—Curledup.com.