Comic-Con 2013

Five years after the Siegel heirs won a historic victory and regained a share of the Superman copyright, a higher court has set aside the verdict and shut down the Shuster estate's claim. As we face the final chapter of the Superman copyright dispute, this panel will explain what is really happening. What crucial details were overlooked or misinterpreted? Is there still hope for other creators? Or does Superman's 75th anniversary mark the end of truth, justice, and the American dream? Moderated by The Beat's Heidi MacDonald, with commentary by Siegel and Shuster biographer Brad Ricca (Case Western Reserve University), this panel features the legal analysis of Jeff Trexler (Fordham Law School), whose influential commentary on the Superman lawsuits set a new standard for comics-related legal analysis and also became part of the case.

This panel examines the intersection of religion and comics in two ways: the presentation of religion in comics and comics' influence on religion and society. Toby Braden Johnson (University of California, Riverside) discusses depictions of Islam in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, considering both the comics' creators and the analysis of the comics themselves and bringing to light comics' role as a source of social and religious commentary. Sean Sagan (University of California, Riverside) analyzes the True Komix religious tracts published by new religious movement Family International during the 1970s-1980s and asks how this group's sexualized theologies manifest in comic exegesis. Cori Knight (University of California, Riverside) considers acts of creation present in the webcomic Girl Genius. Set in a scientific world, the way the comic's characters create freely or undertake acts of self-creation merits investigation.

Comics have long had a connection with subculture. In the punk movement, comics found an aesthetic that could help preach a message to the counterculture. This panel examines how both mainstream and underground comics have borrowed and used the punk aesthetic for their own means. Christopher B. Field (Southern Illinois University-Carbondale) discusses OMAC by Jack Kirby and how the underappreciated work uses the punk aesthetic. Michael MacBride (Minnesota State University) examines how punk music and Justin Green's Binky Brown react differently to male sexuality. Christopher Douglas (Southern Illinois University) compares the aesthetic of the Japanese cyberpunk manga Akira to the bosozoku motorcycle gangs of the 1980s. Keegan Lannon (Aberystwyth University) discusses Grant Morrison's The Invisibles as a punk manifesto.

Comic-Con offers students of popular culture an amazing venue to study how culture is marketed to and practiced by its fans. Alissa Butler (University of Massachusetts-Boston), Krystal Dean (Wittenberg University), Charity Fowler (Virginia Commonwealth University), Regina Gasser (Wittenberg University), Kenneth J. Garrett (Lynchburg College), Kenley Hoover (Lynchburg College), Nathan Knoebber (Wittenberg University), Sarah Lavinder (Lynchburg College), Lauren Levitt (New York University Steinhardt), and Jessica Stephenson (University of Nebraska-Lincoln) present initial findings from a week-long ethnographic field study of the intersection of fan practice at the nexus of cultural marketing and fan culture that is Comic-Con 2013. Matthew J. Smith (Wittenberg University) moderates.