Menu
Idea

comics

61
Filter by:

Filter by published date

Painting of the archangel Michael, holding shield, defeating Satan and other angels.

Extremist Pop Culture and the American Evangelical Right

Jack Chick and the origins of the 1980s “Satanic Panic."
by Sean Goodman via Journal of the History of Ideas Blog on December 16, 2024
A drawing of the inside of a printing mill, depicting workers printing art.

The Midnight World

Glenn Fleishman’s history of the comic strip as a technological artifact vividly restores the world of newspaper printing—gamboge, Zip-A-Tone, flongs, and all.
by Michael Chabon via New York Review of Books on November 28, 2024
"Spy vs. Spy" pointy-headed characters facing each other

Rethinking Spy vs. Spy: A Hand From One Page, A Bomb From Another

Like the spies themselves, the image we have of something is often what gets us in trouble.
by Gyasi Hall via Longreads on September 12, 2023
Drawing from "Little Nemo in Slumberland" by Winsor McCay

The Cutting-Edge Cartoons of Winsor McCay

A prolific, meticulous artist, McCay created characters and storyscapes that inspired generations of cartoonists and animators.
by Betsy Golden Kellem via JSTOR Daily on July 26, 2023
Goofus and Gallant characters and quotations.

The Comic Strip That Explains the Evolution of American Parenting

What eight decades of "Goofus and Gallant" illustrate about society’s changing expectations of children.
by Julie Beck via The Atlantic on June 28, 2023
A mold for casting color on a Peanuts comic.

The Sunday Funnies’ Colorful History

Look closely—very closely—at a Sunday comic strip in a printed newspaper.
by Glenn Fleishman via The Nib on May 18, 2023
Comic strip: Bungleton Green and the Mystic Commandos: "Jon Smythe has escaped being lynched by Green Men but is captured by the "Dark Mystery!".

Jay Jackson’s Audacious Comics

Written during World War II, Bungleton Green and the Mystic Commandos imagined a future liberated from racism and inequality.
by Jeet Heer via The Nation on February 23, 2023
Display of banned books in a bookstore.
partner

Today’s Book Bans Echo a Panic Against Comic Books in the 1950s

When a climate of fear exists, people don’t scrutinize the evidence behind claims about children’s reading material.
by Jeremy C. Young via Made By History on October 17, 2022
The first two panels of "Nazi Death Parade," a six-panel comic depicting the mass murder of Jews at a Nazi concentration camp August Maria Froehlich / Arco Publishing Company.

The Holocaust-Era Comic That Brought Americans Into the Nazi Gas Chambers

In early 1945, a six-panel comic in a U.S. pamphlet offered a visceral depiction of the Third Reich's killing machine.
by Esther Bergdahl via Smithsonian on May 24, 2022
Comic of a boy inside an atom structure while a man looks on.

The Surprising History of the Comic Book

Since their initial popularity during World War II, comic books have always been a medium for American counterculture and for nativism and empire. 
by J. Hoberman via The Nation on January 25, 2022
Picture of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of the superhero known as Spider-Man.

The Subversive Spider-Man: How Spidey Broke the Superhero Mold

Once Peter Parker received his miraculous spider powers, the last thing he wanted to do was go out and get a colorful costume and fight crime.
by Ralph Macchio via Literary Hub on January 3, 2022
Cover of an early Superman comic book.

The Vigilante World of Comic Books

A sweeping new history traces the rise of characters caught in a Manichaean struggle between good and evil.
by Scott Bradfield via The New Republic on December 16, 2021
Comic book cover

The Propaganda of World War II Comic Books 

A government-funded group called the Writers' War Board got writers and illustrators to portray the United States positively—and its enemies as evil.
by Paul Hirsch, Livia Gershon via JSTOR Daily on July 3, 2021

The Complex Origins of Little Orphan Annie

"No one story can completely explain Annie."
by Jeet Heer via Literary Hub on August 3, 2020

Panel Mania

An excerpt from a new graphic biography of Jack Kirby, the "King of Comics."
by Tom Scioli, Calvin Reid via The Millions on June 26, 2020

Foolish Questions

Screwball comics wage a gleeful war on civilization and its discontents—armed mostly with water-pistols, stink bombs, and laughing gas.
by Art Spiegelman via New York Review of Books on February 25, 2020

The Debt That All Cartoonists Owe to "Peanuts"

How Charles Schulz's classic strip shaped the comic medium.
by Chris Ware via The New Yorker on September 24, 2019

When “Peanuts” Went All-In on Vaccinations

Charles Schulz used his culturally monolithic comic strip to advocate for public health. But his approach had some serious shortcomings.
by Maki Naro, Matthew Francis via The Nib on September 9, 2019

Golden Age Superheroes Were Shaped by the Rise of Fascism

Created in New York by Jewish immigrants, the first comic book superheroes were mythic saviors who could combat the Nazi threat.
by Art Spiegelman via The Guardian on August 17, 2019
Soldiers burning books.

How We Roasted Donald Duck, Disney's Agent of Imperialism

Why a 47-year old anti-colonialist critique by Chilean dissidents may be newly relevant in the Trump era.
by Ariel Dorfman via The Guardian on October 5, 2018

We’re the Good Guys, Right?

Marvel's heroes are back again, but with little of the subversive aura that once surrounded them.
by Daniel Immerwahr via n+1 on April 26, 2018

The 100 Pages That Shaped Comics

From Mickey to Maus, tracing the evolution of the pictures, panels, and text that brought comic books to life.
by Jeet Heer, Abraham Josephine Riesman, Sarah Boxer, Heidi MacDonald, Fred Van Lente, Brian Cronin, Charles Hatfield, Christopher Spaide, Joshua Rivera, Klaus Janson, Mark Morales, Richard Starkings via Vulture on April 16, 2018

The Man Who Made Black Panther Cool

Christopher Priest broke Marvel's color barrier and reinvented a classic character. Why was he nearly written out of comics history?
by Abraham Josephine Riesman via Vulture on January 22, 2018
Magazine comic image of soldiers in Vietnam.

Comics Captured America's Growing Ambivalence About the Vietnam War

Comics were able to reflect changing views on the conflict in a way few other popular culture forms could.
by Cathy Schlund-Vials via The Conversation on September 20, 2017

The Corrupted American Innocence of Archie Comics

Behind the veil of middle-class acceptability, Archie comics shaped the conception of virtue in postwar America.
by Emma Cline via The New Yorker on July 7, 2016

The Surprising Origin Story of Wonder Woman

The history of the comic-book superhero's creation seven decades ago has been hidden away — until now.
by Jill Lepore via Smithsonian on October 1, 2014
Advertisement for a "Little Orphan Annie" comic book collection. The protagonist, Annie and her dog are in the foreground of the advertisement.

Little Ideological Annie

How a cartoon gamine midwifed the graphic novel—and the modern conservative movement.
by Ben Schwartz via Bookforum on November 30, 2008
Four Black Marvel villains.

Marvel's Black Villain Era

The question of villainy has always been a complicated issue for African Americans in film.
by Brandon David Wilson via RogerEbert.com on June 21, 2024
A drawing of Magneto wearing a kippah over his helmet.

The Judgment Of Magneto

From villain to antihero, nationalist to freedom fighter, the comic book character has always been a reflection of the Jewish cultural identity.
by Asher Elbein via Defector on April 24, 2024
Marijuana leaves superimposed over photo of two men.

The Dank Underground

In the late Sixties, countercultural media was distributed by the Underground Press Syndicate and bankrolled by marijuana.
by J. Hoberman via New York Review of Books on May 26, 2023
View More
30 of
61

Filter Results:

Suggested Filters:

Idea

Person

brought to you by
© Bunk History