The Satire Lounge, named after a landmark watering hole in
my hometown, Denver, CO, is a site where I will be posting
links to my comic book scholarship.
Feb 28, 2009: Presentation on Canon Formation in
Comics. Organizer A. David Lewis posed the question
of whether comics remain fan-driven or whether the
comics canon has become the province of academics. I
responded with a presentation arguing that comic book
artists play a vital role in canon formation through
visual references made to earlier works. The script is
posted as a .pdf, and the accompanying
slideshow can be accessed here. You may need to make your
window larger to see the slideshow controls, located
beneath the slides.
April 10, 2010: Presentation on the Übermensch in
the work of Alan Moore. Organizer Joshua Cohen of
the Massachusetts College of Art and Design proposed a
panel focusing on dystopian and apocalyptic graphic novels,
under the title “Images of Prophecy.” I responded with a
presentation exploring a recurrent pattern in Moore’s work,
in which something like a biblical apocalypse is ushered in
by an individual who pointedly steps outside the limits of
the prevailing moral system: and Übermensch, to use
Nietzsche’s term. The script is posted as a .pdf, and the accompanying
slideshow can be accessed here. You may need to make your
window larger to see the slideshow controls, located
beneath the slides.