Four-Color Communism

Sean Eedy holds a doctorate in history from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. His publications include articles and chapters on comic book representations of the Holocaust, animated DEFA adaptations of Brothers Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and time travel and historical representation in the work of Hannes Hegen.  Sean is currently an independent researcher and part-time professor in the Department of History at Trent University.

• List of IllustrationsAcknowledgementsList of Abbreviations and TermsIntroduction: Comics at the Intersection of State Power and ChildhoodChapter 1. Comics and the Crisis of Kultur in the SED StateChapter 2. State Power and the East German ZeitgeistChapter 3. Power, Eigensinn, and the Construction of Space through ComicsChapter 4. Escape, Escapism, and the Cultural Imperialism of Comic Book Travel in Mosaik and AtzeChapter 5. Western Influence, Popular Taste, and the Limitations of the FDJ’s Publishing RegimeConclusionBibliographyIndex

“Eedy’s monograph is extremely successful in providing an account of the role of comics in East German state power. It is an accessible and readable work that requires little prior knowledge of the historical content and yet also offers much to those well versed in its themes and debates. Most beneficial beyond comics scholarship are its additions to the existing scholarship on East Germany and communist and totalitarian regimes more broadly. Scholars working on state power in East Germany and beyond will find much of use here.” • European Comic Art“Four-Color Communism is a solid work of scholarship on east German media studies, and east German comics in particular. Eedy engages with the broader field of GDR studies, always situating his arguments within broader theoretical and historical contexts. This ensures that the book will be of interest to scholars of the GDR who are unfamiliar with, or not primarily concerned with, comics. While Eedy does not present an exhaustive history of east German comics— nor does he claim to—his work is useful within comics studies for making east German comics more accessible to an English-language audience and bringing seminal publications like Mosaik into the larger conversation on international comics.” • The German Quarterly“This is an excellent book that fills a major gap in scholarship on German-language comics history and provides a useful analysis of the East German state’s methods of managing popular culture and leisure time.” • Paul M. Malone, University of Waterloo“Four-Color Communism is a welcome addition to the field of GDR studies, as well as studies on education. It’s well-written, very readable, and compelling.” • Benita Blessing, Oregon State University