Over on Storify, S&S’s own A. David Lewis has curated an online Twitter discussion between himself, S. Brent Plate, and S&S’s Asher J. Klassen, Elizabeth Coody, and Jeffrey Bracket on the materiality of comics in terms of modern religion. Read here.
ReligionLink.com is, by its own description, “a non-partisan service of Religion Newswriters” that is “by journalists, for journalists.” So, it’s understandable that they encourage religion writers to think further on the intersection of the comics-based genre of superheroes and religion in recognition of Superman’s 75th anniversary and new film. Clearly, Rao endorses this viewpoint, too.
However, the “background and expert sources” they claim to provide prove sadly lacking; though lengthy and exhaustive-looking, it reads as the result of Google searching and Amazon browsing rather than an actual, knowledgeable resource. Their list of recommended books leaves out any title that isn’t Judeo-Christian, and, similarly, their article list includes one mention of Islam in regards to coverage of The 99; likewise, their manifest of three dozen experts seems to only include one focusing on Arabs (the esteemed Fedwa Malti-Douglas) and one on occult practices (the weirdly unattributed Christopher Knowles). They even get Professor Malti-Douglas’s URL wrong!
But it’s easy to criticize. What else should have been there? Well… Continue reading ReligionLink Targets Comics, Misses a Lot
Rao has seen this on the Comics Scholars List, the UPenn CFP site, and the H-Net site, but here it is from organizer A. David Lewis’s own blog:
Call for Papers: On the Scholarship of Religion and Comic Books
Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association
April 11-14, 2012
Boston, MAArea: Religion & Culture, Comics & Comic Art (joint session)
Moderator: A. David Lewis (Boston University)Overview: The last half-dozen years have seen an explosion in U.S. publications addressing the intersection of religion and comics, but little has been said on the body of work taken as a whole. Outside of individual reviews, rarely are these works discussed in terms of their applications, their intertextuality, their audiences, their shortcomings, or the new questions they raise. This panel is to act as a forum addressing either portions of these works, entire books, their shared space, or the next steps to which they may all lead. In addition to the print publications recommended below, this panel also invites reflections on some of the websites and blogs conducting similar work, also listed:
Books: Superheroes: Religion and Popular Culture (2005), Up, Up, and Oy Vey (2006), Our Gods Wear Spandex (2007), Superheroes and Gods: A Comparative Study from Babylonia to Batman (2007), Disguised as Clark Kent (2007), Holy Superheroes! Revised and Expanded Edition (2008), From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books (2008), The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches (2008), Jews and American Comics (2008), India’s Immortal Comic Books: Gods, Kings, and Other Heroes (2009), Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels (2010), Supergods (2011), The Seven Spiritual Laws of the Superhero (2011), Do the Gods Wear Capes? (2011)
Online: ComicAttack.net “Comics Are My Religion” columns, ComicBookBin.com “Religion and Comics” columns, By Rao! Religion and Religion site, Jewish Comicsblog, Faith in Four Colors site
Other English-language, U.S. market pieces of scholarship may be considered, but the focus should remain on already-produced analysis, not on works-in-progress nor on the comics themselves. Submissions should be thoughtful reflections on how these pieces function, what opportunities they present, where they may fail, and what has been overlooked.
Abstracts of 100-250 words, a C.V., and brief bio are due by December 1 to ADL at bu dot edu for consideration.
Additional titles for consideration might include Jeffrey John Kripal’s Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred or interviews by The Gnostic with Alan Moore, perhaps.
In the wake of Thor‘s #1 opening weekend, Comics Alliance is reporting that another group is unhappy of its godly portrayals. Whereas the Council of Conservative Citizens previously railed against the casting of Idris Elba, a black man in the role of a Nordic god, (mentioned in a previous entry), this objection is a tad more level-headed. Namely, some modern-day Neopagan practitioners are rumbling over the depiction of their deities in the film.
A follower of Ásatrú (or Germanic Neopaganism, as it is also known), writer Eric Scott of religious discourse magazine Killing the Buddha made the sincere and deeply personal observation whilst inspecting Thor merchandise in a Walmart.
I held that foam hammer in my hand for a long time, which I’m sure only confirmed my weirdness to the nightgaunts of the third shift. With my other hand, I rubbed the Mjolnir necklace I have worn every day since my initiation into my family’s coven. I did not know what to think of it.
The truth is, I looked at the toys in my hands and I saw the result of millions of dollars of development and thousands of hours of manpower, put into something bearing the name of a god, my god, and it had nothing to do with me.
Scott suggests that his fellow practitioners were “too few to matter” to the corporations using this material for their merchandise. Pagan Blogger for Patheos.com Star Foster feels quite the opposite: that Thor will bring attention to active Pagans in a positive manner.
The issue here is not just appropriating a mislabeled “dead religion,” but also how these deities function for real-life worshipers versus storytellers. A sideline discussion over at City-Data.com offers the thought that the word “gods” is misused in various narratives, comic books in particular. Are Thor and his fellow Asgardians distinctly gods in the movie, or are they some other classification? Would calling them, say, onses show a greater sensitivity by storytellers or would it divorce them even more harshly from real-world practitioners?
