Monstrous Women in Comics

292 Pages·2020·34.631 MB·English

by  Samantha Langsdale, Elizabeth Rae Coody

Monstrous Women in Comics

Monstrous
Wom en
in Com ics
Edited by
Samantha Langsdale
and Elizabeth Rae Coody
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
The University Press of Mississippi is the scholarly publishing agency of
the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning: Alcorn State University,
Delta State University, Jackson State University, Mississippi State University,
Mississippi University for Women, Mississippi Valley State University,
University of Mississippi, and University of Southern Mississippi.
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member
of the Association of University Presses.
Copyright © 2020 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
First printing 2020
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Langsdale, Samantha, editor. | Coody, Elizabeth Rae, editor.
Title: Monstrous women in comics / edited by Samantha Langsdale and
Elizabeth Rae Coody.
Other titles: Horror and monstrosity studies series.
Description: Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2020. | Series:
Horror and monstrosity studies series | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019052202 (print) | LCCN 2019052203 (ebook) | ISBN
9781496827623 (hardback) | ISBN 9781496827630 (trade paperback) | ISBN
9781496827647 (epub) | ISBN 9781496827654 (epub) | ISBN 9781496827661
(pdf) | ISBN 9781496827678 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Comic books, strips, etc.—History and criticism. | Comic
books, strips, etc.—Social aspects. | BISAC: LITERARY CRITICISM /
Comics & Graphic Novels | LCGFT: Essays. | Literary criticism.
Classification: LCC PN6714 .M66 2020 (print) | LCC PN6714 (ebook) | DDC
741.5/3522—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019052202
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019052203
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Samantha Langsdale and Elizabeth Rae Coody
Part 1: The Origins, Agency, and Paradoxes of Monstrous Women
Rewriting to Control: How the Origins of Harley Quinn,
1
Wonder Woman, and Mary Magdalene Matter
to Women’s Perceived Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Elizabeth Rae Coody
Exploring the Monstrous Feminist Frame: Marvel’s She-Hulk
2
as Male-Centric Postfeminist Discourse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
J. Richard Stevens
“There Is More to Me Than Just Hunger”: Female Monsters
3
and Liminal Spaces in Monstress and Pretty Deadly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Ayanni C. H. Cooper
Part 2: The Body as Monstrous
The (Un)Remarkable Fatness of Valiant’s Faith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4
Stefanie Snider
New and Improved? Disability and Monstrosity
5
in Gail Simone’s Batgirl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Charlotte Johanne Fabricius
vi Contents
Horrible Victorians: Interrogating Power, Sex, and Gender in InSEXts . . . . 99
6
Keri Crist-Wagner
Part 3: Childbearing as Monstrous
Kicking Ass in Flip-Flops: Inappropriate/d Generations
7
and Monstrous Pregnancy in Comics Narratives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Jeannie Ludlow
The Monstrous Portrayal of the Maternal Bolivian Chola
8
in Contemporary Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Marcela Murillo
The Monstrous “Mother” in Moto Hagio’s Marginal: The Posthuman,
9
the Human, and the Bioengineered Uterus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Tomoko Kuribayashi
Part 4: Monsters of Childhood
SeDUCKtress! Magica De Spell, Scrooge McDuck, and the Avuncular
10
Anthropomorphism of Carl Barks’s Midcentury Disney Comics . . . . . . . 171
Daniel F. Yezbick
On the Edge of 1990s Japan: Kyoko Okazaki
11
and the Horror of Adolescence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Novia Shih-Shan Chen and Sho Ogawa
Chinese Snake Woman Resurfaces in Comics:
12
Considering the Case Study of Calabash Brothers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Jing Zhang
Part 5: Taking On the Role of Monster
Monochromatic Teats, Teeth, and Tentacles:
13
Monstrous Visual Rhetoric in Stephen L . Stern
and Christopher Steininger’s Beowulf: The Graphic Novel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
Justin Wigard
Beauty and Her B(r)east(s): Monstrosity and College Women
14
in The Jaguar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Pauline J. Reynolds and Sara Durazo-DeMoss
Contents vii
UFO (Unusual Female Other) Sightings in Saucer Country/State:
15
Metaphors of Identity and Presidential Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Christina M. Knopf
About the Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281

Acknowledgments
The origin of this book, like that of so many monsters, begins in conversation
with the sacred. In May 2016, Ken Koltun-Fromm of Haverford College hosted
a two-day symposium that brought together scholars from all disciplines to
analyze “the visual registers of religious expression across a broad spectrum of
religious traditions.” It was here, at the Comics and Sacred Texts symposium,
that the two editors of this volume met and where Sam Langsdale first unleashed
her fascination with monstrous women in comics. The reception of Sam’s
presentation from colleagues was so positive and supportive that she took the
combination of monstrous women and comics back to her home institution, the
University of North Texas, and began to plan an interdisciplinary conference. A
year after Comics and Sacred Texts, Sam—with the support of the Philosophy
and Religion Department at UNT—hosted Monstrous Women in Comics: An
Interdisciplinary Conference on Women in Comics and Graphic Novels. As the
event unfolded, it quickly became apparent that it was not only a conference but
the beginning of a community of scholars committed to exploring sequential
art in new and fascinating ways. By the end of the weekend, Sam, together with
Elizabeth Coody, set to work rallying that community to create a little monster
of their own—this very book. We are so proud of this project, and even prouder
of the monstrous friendships that have been forged in its making.
Sam would like to express her deep gratitude to Ken Koltun-Fromm for his
work on Comics and Sacred Texts, without which she would not have made
lasting friendships with her coeditor Elizabeth, Jeff Richey, Joshua Plencner,
and A. David Lewis. She is also so grateful to Assaf Gamzou for his support,
encouragement, editorial guidance, and sound advice. Thanks are owed to
Doug Anderson for his willingness to imagine philosophy in monstrous ways
such that the Monstrous Women conference was made possible. Sam is also
grateful for the amazing women who served on the conference committee,
and who are her dear friends—Jacqueline Vickery, Raina Joines, Agatha Beins,
and Clarissa Pulley. Many thanks are owed to Michael Thompson and Nancy
ix