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Showing 161 - 180 of 212 items
This book offers a critical study of Frank Herbert’s Dune (1965), the world’s bestselling science fiction novel. Kara Kennedy discusses the novel’s exploration of…
politics and religion, its influential ecological messages, the focus on the human mind and consciousness, the complex nature of the archetypal hero, and the depiction of women’s influence and control. In Dune, Herbert demonstrated that sophistication, complexity, and a multi-layered world with three-dimensional characters could sit comfortably within the science fiction genre. Underneath its deceptively simple storyline sits a wealth of historical and philosophical contexts and influences that make it a rich masterpiece open to multiple interpretations. Kennedy’s study shows the continuing relevance of the novel in the 21st century due to its classic themes and its concerns about the future of humanity, as well as the ongoing nature of issues such as ecological disruption and conflicts over resources and religion.By John A. Lent, Wendy Siuyi Wong, Benjamin Wai–ming Ng. 2022
This book explores various aspects of transnationalism and comics art in six East Asian and seven Southeast Asian countries/territories. The…
14 richly illustrated chapters embrace comics, cartoons, and animation relative to offshore production, transnational ownership, multinational collaboration, border crossings of comics art creators and characters, expansion of overseas markets, cartoonists in political exile, colonial underpinnings, adaptation of foreign styles and formats, representation of other cultures, and more. Using case studies, historical accounts, descriptive overviews, individual artists’ profiles, and representational analyses, and fascinatingly told through techniques as document use, interviews, observation, and textual analyses, the end result is a thorough, interesting, and compact volume on transnationalism and comics art in East and Southeast Asia.By Larry Tye. 2012
Seventy-five years after he came to life, Superman remains one of America's most adored and enduring heroes. Now Larry Tye,…
the prize-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Satchel, has written the first full-fledged history not just of the Man of Steel but of the creators, designers, owners, and performers who made him the icon he is today. Legions of fans from Boston to Buenos Aires can recite the story of the child born Kal-El, scion of the doomed planet Krypton, who was rocketed to Earth as an infant, raised by humble Kansas farmers, and rechristened Clark Kent. Known to law-abiders and evildoers alike as Superman, he was destined to become the invincible champion of all that is good and just--and a star in every medium from comic books and comic strips to radio, TV, and film. But behind the high-flying legend lies a true-to-life saga every bit as compelling, one that begins not in the far reaches of outer space but in the middle of America's heartland. During the depths of the Great Depression, Jerry Siegel was a shy, awkward teenager in Cleveland. Raised on adventure tales and robbed of his father at a young age, Jerry dreamed of a hero for a boy and a world that desperately needed one. Together with neighborhood chum and kindred spirit Joe Shuster, young Siegel conjured a human-sized god who was everything his creators yearned to be: handsome, stalwart, and brave, able to protect the innocent, punish the wicked, save the day, and win the girl. It was on Superman's muscle-bound back that the comic book and the very idea of the superhero took flight. Tye chronicles the adventures of the men and women who kept Siegel and Shuster's "Man of Tomorrow" aloft and vitally alive through seven decades and counting. Here are the savvy publishers and visionary writers and artists of comics' Golden Age who ushered the red-and-blue-clad titan through changing eras and evolving incarnations; and the actors--including George Reeves and Christopher Reeve--who brought the Man of Steel to life on screen, only to succumb themselves to all-too-human tragedy in the mortal world. Here too is the poignant and compelling history of Siegel and Shuster's lifelong struggle for the recognition and rewards rightly due to the architects of a genuine cultural phenomenon. From two-fisted crimebuster to über-patriot, social crusader to spiritual savior, Superman--perhaps like no other mythical character before or since--has evolved in a way that offers a Rorschach test of his times and our aspirations. In this deftly realized appreciation, Larry Tye reveals a portrait of America over seventy years through the lens of that otherworldly hero who continues to embody our best selves.By Dominic Davies, Candida Rifkind. 2020
Why are so many contemporary comics and graphic narratives written as memoirs or documentaries of traumatic events? Is there a…
specific relationship between the comics form and the documentation and reportage of trauma? How do the interpretive demands made on comics readers shape their relationships with traumatic events? And how does comics’ documentation of traumatic pasts operate across national borders and in different cultural, political, and politicised contexts? The sixteen chapters and three comics included in Documenting Trauma in Comics set out to answer exactly these questions. Drawing on a range of historically and geographically expansive examples, the contributors bring their different perspectives to bear on the tangled and often fraught intersections between trauma studies, comics studies, and theories of documentary practices and processes. The result is a collection that shows how comics is not simply related to trauma, but a generative force that has become central to its remembrance, documentation, and study.By Damien K. Picariello. 2020
The Politics of Horror features contributions from scholars in a variety of fields—political science, English, communication studies, and others—that explore…
the connections between horror and politics. How might resources drawn from the study of politics inform our readings of, and conversations about, horror? In what ways might horror provide a useful lens through which to consider enduring questions in politics and political thought? And what insights might be drawn from horror as we consider contemporary political issues? In turning to horror, the contributors to this volume offer fresh provocations to inform a broad range of discussions of politics.By Paul Fisher Davies. 2019
This book explores how comics function to make meanings in the manner of a language. It outlines a framework for…
describing the resources and practices of comics creation and readership, using an approach that is compatible with similar descriptions of linguistic and multimodal communication. The approach is based largely on the work of Michael Halliday, drawing also on the pragmatics of Paul Grice, the Text World Theory of Paul Werth and Joanna Gavins, and ideas from art theory, psychology and narratology. This brings a broad Hallidayan framework of multimodal analysis to comics scholarship, and plays a part in extending that tradition of multimodal linguistics to graphic narrative.This book argues that Ann Leckie’s novel Ancillary Justice offers a devastating rebuke to the political, social, cultural, and economic injustices of…
American imperialism in the post 9/11 era. Following an introductory overview, the study offers four chapters that examine key themes central to the novel: gender, imperial economics, race, and revolutionary agency. Ancillary Justice’s exploration of these four themes, and the way it reveals how these issues are all fundamentally entangled with the problem of contemporary imperial power, warrants its status as a canonical work of science fiction for the twenty-first century. The book concludes with a brief interview with Leckie herself touching on each of the topics examined during the preceding chapters.By Vanessa Ossa. 2022
This book examines the figure of the sleeper agent as part of post-9/11 political, journalistic and fictional discourse. There is…
a tendency to discuss the terroristic threat after 9/11 as either a faraway enemy to be hunted down by military force or, on the other hand, as a ubiquitous, intangible threat that required constant alertness at home. The missing link between these two is the sleeper agent – the foreign enemy hiding among US citizens. By analyzing popular television shows, several US comic books, and a broad variety of Hollywood films that depict sleeper agents direct or allegorically, this book explores how a shift in perspective—from terrorist to sleeper agent—brings new insights into our understanding of post-9/11 representations of terrorism. The book’s interdisciplinary focus between media studies, cultural studies, and American studies, suggests that it will find an audience in a variety of fields, including historical research, narratology, popular culture, as well as media and terrorism studies.Superhero phenomena exploded into 20th- and 21st-century popular culture by way of the visual medium of comic books. In an…
increasingly secular (yet spiritual) culture that has largely renounced “the gods” (and even religion), what does the return of the superhero through our own pop cultural mythologies say to us—or even about us? This collection of essays from leading and up-and-coming scholars in the fields of comparative mythology and depth psychology considers the return of the superhero as representative of our own unique emergent modern mythology: a wildly diverse pantheon that reflects back to us our most far-reaching hopes and (im)possible (super)human desires. In placing the interpretive tools of comparative mythology and depth psychology alongside the comic book phenomenon, a super-powered palette emerges that unveils the hidden potential of modern readers’ own heightened imaginations. The essays in this anthology examine select comic book and superhero characters from the “Silver Age” 1960s through contemporary 21st-century adaptations and innovations, as readers are invited to discover and uncover what the (re)emergence of these perennial gods and goddesses have to say about our own secret super selves today.In France, comics are commonly referred to as the "ninth art". What does it mean to see comics as art?…
This book looks at the singular status of comics in the French cultural landscape. Bandes dessinées have long been published in French newspapers and magazines. In the early 1960s, a new standard format emerged: large hardback books, called albums. Albums played a key role in the emergence of the ninth art and its acceptance among other forms of literary narrative. From Barbarella in 1964 to La Ballade de la mer salée in 1975, from Astérix and its million copies to Tintin and its screen versions, within the space of just a few years the comics landscape underwent a deep transformation.The album opened up new ways of creating, distributing, and reading bandes dessinées. This shift upended the market, transformed readership, initiated new transmedia adaptations, generated critical discourse, and gave birth to new kinds of comics fandom. These transformations are analysed through a series of case studies, each focusing on a noteworthy album. By retracing the publishing and critical history of these classic bandes dessinées, this book questions the blind spots of a canon based on the album format and uncovers the legitimisation processes that turned bande dessinée into the ninth art.By Max Brand. 2015
A no-good thief takes on a job with a huge payout that he can’t possibly resist!Steven Train is a thief…
who knows a thing or two about how to handle a firearm. One day he’s approached by another crook named John Rainier to go on a manhunt. Train is wary at first, but when Rainier tells him there’s a huge payout, he decides to take on the job.Rainier works for Patrick Comstock, a rich rancher looking for an honest man to go on a dangerous mission in hopes of finding his long lost friend. Comstock’s friend disappeared after losing all his earnings in oil stock investments that went bad. However, as luck would have it, one of the oil stocks bounced back and is now worth $50,000! Comstock needs Train to find his long lost friend and give him his earnings.Train takes on the job with the intent of stealing the cash and splitting it with the no-good Rainier, but a snooping detective investigating a number of older crimes Train committed could ruin their best-laid plans. And to top it off, Train has an odd change of heart and decides that if Comstock enlists his help, he will double-cross Rainier and will instead faithfully carry out his mission to find the missing person and return to him his money.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns-books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians-are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Zane Grey. 2017
From the bestselling author of Riders of the Purple Sage, comes another classic Western tale.The sun set across the purple…
sky over the Don Carlos Rancho while the warm Santa Fe breeze rustled through the grazing fields just off the trail. The Colonel sat on his porch, staring over the whole scene, pondering the seemingly-doomed future of his prized cattle ranch. "Another spell with my heart like this last one will kill me,” he said nervously to his right-hand man, Britt.Afraid it would break her, the Colonel kept his condition from his alienated daughter, Holly-who was shipped off to boarding school in the East at the tender age of eight. The Colonel would settle for nothing less than the best education for his daughter. Not to mention, the West-crawling with outlaws, thieves, and greed-was no place for a naïve, young woman.However, in the wake of the Colonel’s death, Holly is forced to return and take the reins of her father’s beloved cattle empire. In the midst of hordes of outlaws ransacking the ranch and antagonizing their stock, the heiress must learn the ways of the West alongside the Captain Britt, in an attempt to salvage what’s left of her father’s dream.In the spirit and glory of a classic Western, and published exactly as the author originally intended, Knights of the Range, is one of Zane Grey’s swiftest and most exciting novels.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns-books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians-are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Max Brand. 2010
"Brand practices his art to something like perfection.” -The New York Times"Max Brand is the Shakespeare of the Western range.”…
-Kirkus ReviewsAfter Andrew Lanning's father dies, his Uncle Jasper takes him under his wing and raises him for the next fifteen years. Jasper wants his nephew to be the kind of man who rightly belongs to the Lanning clan: good with horses, and even better with guns. But the results prove disappointing-Andrew becomes the town’s mild-mannered blacksmith.However, something soon happens that changes all that in a single day. When the belligerent Buck Heath confronts Andrew, Andrew fights back with a single punch, knocking Heath down, and probably killing him. Assaulted with feelings of guilt and terror, Andrew flees into the wilderness of the hills where he turns outlaw, and is relentlessly pursued by Deputy Sheriff Bill Dozier and a posse. When Andrew is finally within the sights of their long guns, he stops them by means of a fabulous long-distance shot, killing Bill Dozier.Now, with the killing of an officer of the law, Andrew is outlawed for sure. Only one thing keeps him going-the love he has for Anne Withero, the fiancée of rich Charles Merchant who financed Bill Dozier’s pursuit of Andrew. Anne is terrified of Andrew yet drawn to him at the same time, and now, more than ever, Merchant wants Andrew dead. Remaining free has suddenly become more dangerous for Andrew than it has ever been.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns-books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians-are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Peter Dawson. 2011
Can Frank Rivers clear his name of his father’s murder?Frank Rivers had served four years in the penitentiary for the…
murder of his father in the commission of a stagecoach robbery. There had been a witness that could not be found at the time of the trial but whose testimony four years later was sufficient for Rivers to receive a full pardon.But for Rivers the matter is scarcely ended. He wants to find the real culprits behind the crime. His search leads him to Ute Springs where he immediately comes to the notice of Sheriff Jim Echols, who believes that Rivers committed the crime and that he bribed his way into being granted a pardon. When Rivers witnesses the murder of his prime suspect, he has a tough decision to make. Flee and be blamed or stay and be blamed.Rider on the Buckskin once again shows off Dawson’s writing chops, justifying his reputation as one of the most respected Western writers of all time.By Zane Grey. 2017
In the days of the frontier West, it was not unusual for desperadoes and fugitives from justice to seemingly disappear…
from the face of the earth. Shadow on the Trail by Zane Grey, one of the bestselling authors of all-time, is the story of one such man who returned to reestablish himself in a law-abiding society. In Texas, young bank robber Wade Holden, once the toughest, fastest triggerman in the notorious Simm Bell gang, makes a promise to his dying mentor that he will go straight. He is tired of shooting, riding, and fighting. All he wants now is to settle down on the ranch for a nice peaceful life. But with the Rangers on his tail, he struggles to find sanctuary. With the help of a young woman and her family, he attempts to turn his life around in Arizona.By Max Brand. 2010
"Brand practices his art to something like perfection.” -The New York Times"Max Brand is the Shakespeare of the Western range.”…
-Kirkus ReviewsIn "When Iron Turns to Gold," the sequel to Brand’s novel Iron Dust, a pardon exonerates Andrew Lanning of any crime he may have committed during his time as an outlaw. Marshal Hal Dozier, instrumental in obtaining that pardon, has urged Andy to return to Martindale and his former life there as a blacksmith. However, the residents of Martindale will not accept Andy back, fearing that he’ll break the law again. To make things worse, Larry la Roche and the members of the Allister gang are prepared to commit a bold robbery in Martindale and frame Andy for the crime if he refuses to rejoin them.Jimmy Bristol is the titular character in "The Two-Handed Man," with a reputation of being able to fire a six-gun accurately using either hand. Bristol is on the dodge when he stops briefly at the Graney Ranch to rest his horse. There, he meets Joe Graney and his daughter, Margaret, who tell Bristol about the thefts they have suffered at the hands of Dirk van Wey and his gang. Despite being pursued by the law himself, Bristol decides he will take a hand against van Wey.On a stormy night in "The Black Muldoon," a notorious outlaw shows up at the home of the storekeeper, Jefferson Peters. The Black Muldoon has a strange cargo, an infant boy whom he wants to leave with Peters so that he can be raised by Peters and his wife as their son. As young Jerry Peters grows up, he turns out to be exceptional at everything he tries, and as an adult manhunter, it is Jerry who takes to the trail to capture the Black Muldoon.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns-books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians-are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Zane Grey. 2015
A soldier returns home to find his parents displaced and their property stolen in this classic Western. "He leaned propped…
against the rail of the great ship, in an obscure place aft, shadowed by the life-boats. It was the second night out of Cherbourg and the first time for him to be on deck. The ridged and waved Atlantic, but for its turbulence, looked like the desert undulating away to the uneven horizon. The roar of the wind in the rigging bore faint resemblance to the wind in the cottonwoods at home--a sound that had haunted him for all the long years of his absence. There was the same mystery in the black hollows of the sea as from boyhood he had seen and feared in the gloomy gulches of the foothills. ” So begins Zane Grey’s The Shepherd of Guadaloupe. After surviving the brutality of the First World War, Clifton Forrest returns home to find that his childhood home was stolen from his family. With his parents robbed of their property and the area under the firm control of his old acquaintance, Lundeen, Cliff must fight both his enemy and his ailing body to regain the right to a peaceful life on the land he once called home. The Shepherd of Guadaloupe tells Cliff’s heroic journey as he battles Lundeen while juggling his love for his parents and the love of Lundeen’s daughter, Virginia.By Robert J. Horton. 2015
A smart, suspenseful Western full of gamblers, gunmen, and enough double-crosses to bring an entire town to its knees.Sunrise, despite…
its name, is a wicked town. It is the only wide-open town in the Crazy Butte country. It attracts gamblers like Dan Farlin, who works in the Red Arrow, the most prosperous saloon in Sunrise.Sheriff Mills rarely comes to Sunrise, in part because of a tacit agreement he has with a gang of outlaws, who in exchange for legal immunity for him has never committed a robbery of any kind in the Crazy Butte country. So when Sheriff Mills does show up in Sunrise, walks into the hostile atmosphere of the Red Arrow, and warns that a man named Bovert is heading for the town and that Bovert is to be left alone, Farlin knows something’s not right.The gang, loaded with money from a recent robbery, arrives in Sunrise looking for a game with Farlin and finds far more than it bargained for. Could all this be Sheriff Mills’s strategy to bring the law back to Sunrise? Will the arrival of the fearsome Bovert ignite a conflict with Sunrise’s gangs? Will anyone be left standing after the final showdown? Rollicking, action-packed, and complex, Bullets in the Sun will delight readers of classic and modern Westerns alike.Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns-books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians-are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L’Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.By Max Brand. 2010
Notorious outlaw Lawrence Grey has been captured near El Paso. Marshal Neilan has a proposal for him. Neilan will set…
Grey free if he tries to locate John Ray, a man who was last known to be living in San Vicente, Mexico. The men Neilan sent previously have disappeared or quit the job. Brick Forbes of Pittsburgh is worth millions. Ray once did him a kindness. Now that Forbes is desperately ill, he wants to leave his fortune to Ray rather than to his own relatives. Grey agrees to Neilan’s proposal and goes to San Vicente, where he promptly saves the life of Mexican general Miguel O’Riley during a bombing attempt. The general makes inquiries and learns that the stranger who saved his life is called John Lawrence and that he is studying Spanish. Another American named Dickson Jarvis, employed by Forbes’s relatives, informs O’Riley that Lawrence is actually a wanted outlaw on both sides of the border. Later, Jarvis is murdered. Lawrence has his own audience with General O’Riley and asks him for a guide into the mountains. O’Riley sends for Oliver Slade, a man who strangely resembles the one who killed Jarvis. This proves only the beginning of an intrigue in which Lawrence’s life is threatened continually from all sides.By Veronica Alvarado. 2018
The fires of America's fascination with the Wild West are stoked in this new compilation of the best and most…
exciting cowboy stories out there. Sit around a campfire and join authors like Theodore Roosevelt and Mark Twain as they flesh out the America that they knew intimately. For some of these writers, the West was a place of dreams, for others, of nightmares, but for us, they represent the freedom and delight of a lawless land. Boasting a diverse set of authors and perspectives, this collection of stories ensures every reader will get a nuanced and full sense of what the life of a cowboy was like. Each story and author evokes a different aspect of what it really meant to live in the old Wild West. Some tales depict dramatic standoffs and moments of ultimate danger, while others brilliantly capture thrilling adventures, the immensity of the Wild West, and the pure pride and joy of being a cowboy.Incredible Cowboy Stories, brought to life by more than three dozen color illustrations, is a must have for anyone who has ever dreamt of the hot deserts of Texas, the frigid cold of the Rocky Mountain peaks, or the wide and wild range of the old West.