1st Edition
Comics, Activism, Feminisms
Comics, Activism, Feminisms explores from both historical and contemporary perspectives how comic art, activism, and feminisms are intertwined, and how comic art itself can be a form of activism.
Feminist comic art emerged with the second-wave feminist movements. Today, there are comics connected to social activist movements working for change in a variety of areas. Comics artists often respond quickly to political events, making comics on topical issues that take a critical or satirical stance and highlighting the need for change. Comic art can point to problems, present alternatives, and give hope.
Comics artists from all parts of the world engage issues pertaining to feminisms and LGBTQIA+ issues, war and political conflict, climate crisis, the global migrant and refugee situation, and other societal problems. The chapters of this anthology illuminate the aesthetic and thematic aspects of comics, activism, and feminisms globally. Particular attention is given to the work of comics collectives, where Do-it-Ourselves is a strategy among activism-oriented artists, which use a great variety of media, such as fanzines, albums, webcomics, and exhibitions to communicate and disseminate activist comic art.
Comics, Activism, Feminisms essential anthology for scholars and students of comics studies, literary studies, art history, media studies, and gender studies.
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
Acknowledgements
1. Feminist comics activism: A global phenomenon
Anna Nordenstam and Margareta Wallin Wictorin
Part I: Activism in comics
2. The role of performativity in comics as activism. Meaning-making in comic art by Amalia Alvarez and Sara Granér
Mia Liinason
3. Becoming an activist in the late 1970s – Tandem artists Gunna Grähs & Eva Lindström as pioneers of Swedish feminist comics
Kristina Arnerud Mejhammar
4. “It’s the same story every morning”: Urban Tails, queerness, and the subtle activism of the weekly comic strip
Kevin Haworth
5. Exploring ARTivism: Artistic activism and subversion in George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat”
Daniela Kaufmann
6. The frontlines of feminist activism in Ukraine: Feminism and the City
Iryna Pinich and Kristy Beers Fägersten
Part II: Comics as political space
7. The female body politic and beyond: Feminist utopias and dystopias in American women’s comix from the 1970s
Małgorzata Olsza
8. Reimagining gender in Webtoon – queer utopianism in H-P Lehkonen’s Immortal Nerd and its reader-response
Leena Romu
9. Comics as art practice: Directly drawing on the wall in a museological context
Meichen Lu
10. Feminist comics in circulation. Pénélope Bagieu’s inscription on the Swedish comics landscape
Ylva Lindberg
Part III: Comics collectives
11. Women’s cartoons, comics, and graphic novels through the feminist lenses of DIO and friendship
Nicola Streeten
12. Distant Connections: Connecting to the public through a zine on the gendered pandemic
Renée B. Adams
13. Moments of wonder and armies of care: Feminist attachments in Drawing the Line, Indian Women Fight Back!
Nafiseh Mousavi
14. Refugee comics and activism as comics work: The collaborative production of comics in the “Illustrating Me” project
Ralf Kauranen
Index
Biography
Anna Nordenstam is Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Gothenburg.
Kristy Beers Fägersten is Professor of English Linguistics at Södertörn University.
Margareta Wallin Wictorin is Reader in Art History and Visual Studies affiliated with Karlstad University.
