Comic Books in Law and Literature Scholarship

I was perusing Amazon to see if there were any law and literature books focused on comic books.  I haven’t done much reading in law and literature and I thought I might like some scholarship discussing comics.  And there is a new book that looks pretty interesting entitled The Law of Superheroes that will come out soon.  The writers of the book also have a blog, Law and the
Multiverse: Superhores, supervillains, and the law.

 

Comments

[Charles Paul Hoffman]

Interesting, but looks like more of a "how might the law apply to these sorts of issues?" book than a "how is the law represented in this work?" type book. I've been meaning to look into this area myself, but haven't found the time yet, so do let us know if you end up finding good works in the latter category. (I have noticed, though, that a lot of the journals publishing academic work on comics are not readily available—they are often not online and are much less likely to be purchased by strapped-for-cash libraries.)

[Alfred Brophy]

Well, there's the "Road to Serfdom" in cartoons: http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2008/06/the-road-to-ser.html

[Brando Simeo Starkey]

Yes, you're indeed right. I was looking for the latter as well. What journals publish academic work on comics?

[Matt]

It's probably not exactly what you're looking for, but there's a lot of discussion of legally relevant issues in comic books in the various "philosophy and popular culture" books. I haven't read any of these, so can't say if the discussion is any good. (I've heard mixed things on the quality of the articles.) But the "Batman and Philosophy" volume, for example, has articles on whether Batman should kill the joker, Batman and the rule of law, whether the Joker is morally or legally responsible for his actions, and so on. (A very brief look seems to indicate that there is no volume on Daredevil, which is too bad, as that might have been especially interesting for lawyers, since Daredevil's alter ego is a lawyer.)

[Brando Simeo Starkey]

Sounds interesting Matt. I'll have to take a look at that.

[Mark D. White]

True, there is no philosophy-and-pop-culture"book on Daredevil, but a more scholarly book on him is being prepared by Sequart: http://www.sequart.org/books/13/the-devil-is-in-the-details-examining-matt-murdock-and-daredevil/

As for other legal topics, a volume dedicated to "The Good Wife" is in preparation at Open Court: http://www.popularcultureandphilosophy.com/?p=375