Bodies and Boundaries in Graphic Fiction: Reading Female and Nonbinary Characters

This book explores the fictional female bodies of four stylistically distinct comics artists in the United States, showcasing how comics can critique and re-envision social issues. The protagonists are outsiders by gender identity, sexuality, ability, religion, race, class, ethnicity, age, or a combination of these categories, and their bodily expressions resist traditional categorization and stereotypes. Comics offer a unique opportunity for complex representation of these bodies.

Format: Hardback
Length: 156 pages
Publication date: 29 July 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This captivating book delves into the fictional female bodies of four distinct comic artists in the United States, namely Chris Ware, Emil Ferris, Ebony Flowers, and Tillie Walden. Their work has garnered significant attention, showcasing the unique power of comics to critique and re-envision challenging social issues of our time. Through the analysis of these characters, the book explores diverse techniques employed by the artists to convey the complex humanity and truth of American women's unruly bodies on a two-dimensional canvas.

Each protagonist in the book qualifies as an outsider in one way or another, whether it be through their gender identity, sexuality, ability, religion, race, class, ethnicity, age, or a combination of these and other categories. These bodily expressions of outsider identity defy traditional categorization and stereotypes, often subverting and employing them for parody or social critique. The language of comics provides a unique platform for the intricate representation of these diverse womens bodies, particularly when artists utilize a range of artistic tools, including style, materials, narrative direction, gutter space, and the interplay between word and image.

This book is a timely and significant contribution to the fields of comics studies, gender studies, literature, and queer studies. It offers valuable insights for researchers and students alike, shedding light on the ways in which comics can challenge and transform our understanding of gender, identity, and society. By exploring the fictional female bodies of these four artists, the book encourages us to reimagine the possibilities of representation and storytelling in the medium of comics.

Weight: 470g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367679477