Hellboy draws upon an incredible lexicon of diverse visual and narrative precursors. Relatively undiscussed amongst inspirations for the cigar-chomping, decades old paranormal detective, however, is another important pop-culture figure: the X-Men’s Magik. #Hellboy 1/9
Despite an aesthetic shift from teenage girl to cigar-chomping demon, the character of Illyana Rasputin has a great deal in common with the character Hellboy, and actually exhibits a lot of the attributes for which Hellboy was praised, years ahead of its release. 2/9

The action scenes in Mike Mignola’s #Hellboy are simultaneously spectacular & contemplative, visceral & sublime. These competing moods enhance each other & reflect the character of Hellboy, a productive monster who straddles multiple worlds & fights to make his own destiny. 1/12 Each of Hellboy’s paranormal investigations typically devolves, at some point, into a violent slugfest between the nigh-indestructible Hellboy and some other type of inhuman monster, who is usually (though not always) very large & very strong, and thus, very hard to kill. 2/12

Early X-Men comics highlight the role that performative masculinity often plays in the character arcs of Silver Age heroes whose potential to subvert masculine norms can be undermined when their success is still modeled and measured by patriarchal standards. #xmen 1/12 From the outset, Kirby and Lee base the X-Men’s internal character conflicts around two forms of patriarchal validation: The first (and most obvious) is the internal competition amongst the male teammates (and even Prof X) for the affection of Jean Grey. 2/12

DC’s #SilverAge comics promote family values & the “American Way” while spotlighting wild transformations & decidedly non-normative family units. In “Superman Family Values: Supersex in the Silver Age,” Matt Yockey discusses the symbolic value of this tension. 1/11 Yockey opens his essay by highlighting “the dialectic of the familiar and the strange” in this pinup of “The Superman Family” drawn by Curt Swan. It originally appeared on the back cover of Superman Annual #6 (1962) and was reprinted multiple times throughout the ’60s. 2/11

In the 1940s comics by William Moulton Marston & Harry Peter, #WonderWoman is an intentional (if complicated) feminist character. Post-WWII & in the wake of the 1954 Comics Code, her world changed, becoming more domestic & romantic. But there are still subversions to be had 1/9 The ways Wonder Woman changed post-WWII partly extend from the emphasis on domesticity & traditional gender roles in Cold War America. Wartime justified WW’s heroism, just like it justified real women working in munitions factories. Postwar, that justification evaporated. 2/9

In the 3x Harvey Award Winning graphic novel “Louis Riel,” Chester Brown’s perspective creates a depiction of the historical Métis leader that drives the resolution of the autobiography, defining the main subject’s relationship to both the reader & history itself. 1/8 #LouisRiel Throughout the first three sections of the book, chronicling Riel’s unlikely rise to power and doomed efforts to lead the Métis people against the Canadian government in a war of independence that led, ultimately, to massacre, Brown uses a wide variety of perspectives. 2/8

Superhero comics didn’t invent retroactive continuity but have become strongly associated with it. Some retcons shock readers or streamline stories. “Alias” offers a critical retcon that self-reflexively comments on its own history and context. 1/12 #JessicaJones #comicsstudies Alias employs a variety of techniques to insert Jessica Jones into the existing fictional history of the Marvel comics universe. The character’s history is initially hinted at through photos of Jessica dressed as a superhero standing next to the Avengers. 2/12

Alias was created – quite specifically – to be something different from mainstream Marvel comics of the time, and those differences create a series of visual challenges for the artwork. #JessicaJones 1/7 Most notably, Jessica Jones is a noir detective story, not a punch-em-up superhero spectacle. The majority of scenes are constructed around tense, rapid-fire dialogue rather than action sequences. 2/7

Because Western culture has historically privileged the male gaze, the act of looking can be gendered. As John Berger famously said of Western art, “Men act and women appear.” But “Alias” deliberately—and self-reflexively—foregrounds a woman who looks. #JessicaJones 1/11 “Alias” emphasizes the gaze of Jessica Jones both narratively and stylistically. At a plot level, her job as a private investigator affords her an active, knowledgeable gaze. She uses experience, technology, and various special skills to see things others don’t. 2/11

“Alias” by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Gaydos with covers by David Mack ran for 28 issues from 2001-2004. It was the first title in Marvel’s MAX imprint for “mature” readers & puts its creative freedom to good use introducing a revolutionary female character—Jessica Jones. 1/9 Jessica is a former superhero & current private investigator who often finds herself embroiled in cases involving fellow supers. Jessica isn’t an antihero; she's committed to justice. But she is selfish, flawed, and unapologetically vulgar. Her comic's first word is “f*ck.” 2/9

Teen Titans #50 marks the end of the illustrious first Wolfman/Pérez run on the series and features a brilliant character scene between Nightwing and Batman that showcases the incredible talent that made the Wolfman/Pérez work so special in the first place. #TeenTitans 1/11 Robin’s transition to Nightwing is built up slowly throughout the course of the Titans franchise as the story of a young man seeking to escape the shadow of his beloved but emotionally distant father-figure, a perfect vehicle for exploring “Teen” self-discovery. 2/11

In just the second issue of The New Teen Titans, Wolfman and Pérez created what would become the defining antagonist for the series, as well as one of the most popular and boundary-pushing villains in DC history: Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke. #TeenTitans #Deathstroke. 1/10 At a time when the bronze age of comics was transitioning its depictions of villainy from a focus on mad scientists to personifications of free-market capitalism run amok, Deathstroke was, objectively and obviously, neither of those things. 2/10

Dick Grayson has been singled out as a rare (and highly prominent) example of a queer-coded male character in North American comics. This reading extends throughout the character’s history, but takes a new permutation in his relationship with Starfire. #TeenTitans 1/9 The first thing to note is the counter-intuitive nature of this relationship. Dick/Kory (DicKory) is (canonically) a committed, monogamous relationship between two consenting young adults. Yet within that seemingly-nuclear structure, queer elements might still emerge. 2/9

At a time when Black superheroes were rare, and disabled superheroes rarer, Victor Stone, aka Cyborg, presented as both (and transhuman to boot) - a hero with a rare capacity to produce intersectional commentary on three forms of Otherness. #TeenTitans 1/11 Intersectionality is defined by Patrick R. Grzanka as explorations of how different categories “of identity and inequality shape the contours of social life & structures” - understanding that these categories overlap & juxtapose, producing different experiences accordingly. 2/11

Teen Titans is widely regarded as DC’s answer to Chris Claremont’s X-Men. But when the new TT debuted, X-Men was basically the Phoenix/Dark Phoenix Saga, and thus we can narrow our focus quite a bit and see how that story is the specific link between UXM/TT. #Titans #xmen 1/9

The New Teen Titans debuted the same month that the final chapter of the Dark Phoenix Saga was published. As such it is interesting to consider how that particular character arc might be read parallel to key character elements in each of the Titans. 2/9

Though later iterations across media would lose touch with it, one of the most unique and compelling aspects of Marv Wolfman and George Pérez’s founding take on the character Raven is her commitment to pacifism and non-violence as categorical imperatives. #TeenTitans #Raven 1/8 After the team’s first encounter with Deathstroke, Starfire chastises Raven: “You’re letting them go? But they attacked us – they tried to kill us.” Raven responds: “If there is a difference between his kind and ours, it must be in our compassion for an enemy.” 2/8

In “George Pérez and the Classical Narrative Style” scholar Marc Singer breaks down the genius of Pérez’s style and seeks to account for the critical neglect that the legendary illustrator has received from comics scholars, despite a legendary career output. #TeenTitans 1/7 According to Singer, Pérez has been critically overlooked. “The reasons for this neglect aren’t obscure. His work is rooted squarely in the tropes of heroic fantasy rather than the realistic self-expression that has commanded the most attention in comics studies” 2/7

The New #TeenTitans began in 1980, revitalizing previous attempts at a Teen Titans franchise that traced back all the way to the 1960s, with mixed results. The Wolfman-Pérez run of Titans, however, was an unequivocal triumph, both financially and creatively. 1/9 The relaunched title was co-created by writer Marv Wolfman and penciller George Pérez (overseen by Len Wein) and launched its number one issue with finishes by Romeo Tanghal, letters by Ben Oda, and colours by Adrienne Roy. 2/9

The “gag strip,” a short comic strip common in newspapers, is sometimes viewed as a simplistic form of humor. Yet gag strips are considerably more complex than they’re often given credit for, due in part to comics’ unique representations of space & time. 1/12 #ComicsStudies Many gag strips employ slapstick, defined as “a style of humor involving exaggerated physical activity that exceeds the boundaries of normal physical comedy” (Wikipedia). Comic strips use juxtaposition to generate slapstick and amplify punchlines. 2/12

Where some comic strips read like nothing that came before them, Bill Watterson’s “Calvin & Hobbes” can be read like everything that came before it, all at once – a work of pastiche that mines earlier comics greats for influence and inspiration. #CalvinandHobbes 1/7 There’s no question that Watterson’s strip is both innovative and distinctive, but Watterson himself was a student of the comic strip and simply having a great eye for imitable masters can be seen as one of the more fundamental skills in Watterson’s toolbox. 2/7

Comics historians have suggested that early American comic strips would often make use of broad racial caricatures as the subject of specific punchlines, entire comedic premises or even iconic characters. #ComicStrips #ComicsStudies 1/8 Wildly popular figures such as Happy Hooligan (1900-1930) and Abie the Agent (1914-1940) were premised on racial caricature of Irish and Jewish people, respectively, finding a large audience with the potential to mass-disseminate and normalize grotesque portrayals. 2/8