This collection is welcome because it features essays by researchers new to the field, some with novel ideas. The volume provides a sampling of genres, personalities, stories, and issues in the lifeline of comics--bande dessinée, Mexican educational comics, film adaptations, Wonder Woman, Astérix, Lucky Luke, Dr. Doom, the Fantastic Four, Sin City--and also considers comics relative to nationalism, femininity, masculinity, homosexuality, censorship, containment, conformism, and patriotism. Interesting essays on Mexico and France discuss comic books officially sanctioned for educational purposes, pointing to what they left out, downplayed, or emphasized to serve government interests. An essay on Wonder Woman during WW II shows the duplicitous, confusing roles the superwoman played while representing women generally; another on the containment of comics in the 1950s examines the contributing factors of fear and insecurity, which ultimately led to censorship. The book includes some well-thought-out, decipherable theory--best presented in Lynda Goldstein's excellent chapter on issues and challenges of historical discourse concerning an event, here 9/11. . . .Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.
