SUGAR, SPICE, AND THE NOT SO NICE : comics picturing girlhood

Sugar, Spice, and the Not So Nice offers an innovative, wide-ranging and geographically diverse book-length treatment of girlhood in comics. The various contributing authors and artists provide novel insights into established themes within comic studies, children's comics, graphic medicine and comics by and about refugees and marginalised ethnic or cultural groups. The book enriches traditional historical, narratological and aesthetic approaches to studying girlhood in comics with practice-based research, discussion and conversation. This re-examination of girls, gender and identity in comics connects with contemporary discourse on gender identity politics. Through examples from both within Europe and the anglophone world and beyond, and including visual essays and practice-based research alongside critical theory, the volume furthermore engages with new developments in contemporary comics scholarship. It will therefore appeal to students and scholars of childhood studies, comics scholars and creators, and those interested in addressing gender identity through the prism of comics. Free ebook available at OAPEN Library, JSTOR, Project Muse, and Open Research Library Contributors: Mel Gibson (Northumbria University), Martha Newbigging (Seneca College), María Porras Sánchez (Complutense University of Madrid), JoAnn Purcell (York University and Seneca College), Benoît Glaude (Ghent University/University of Louvain), Sylvain Lesage (University of Lille), Joan Ormrod (Manchester Metropolitan University), Aswathy Senan (The Research Collective Delhi), Michel De Dobbeleer (Ghent University), Sébastien Conard (KASK Ghent School of Arts and LUCA Brussels), Marthine Bertiot (University of Edinburgh), Julia Round (Bournemouth University) Girls, gender and identity in comicsSugar, Spice, and the Not So Nice offers an innovative, wide-ranging and geographically diverse book-length treatment of girlhood in comics. The various contributing authors and artists provide novel insights into established themes within comics studies, children's comics, graphic medicine and comics by and about refugees and marginalised ethnic or cultural groups. The book enriches traditional historical, narratological and aesthetic approaches to studying girlhood in comics with practice-based research, discussion and conversation. This re-examination of girls, gender and identity in comics connects with contemporary discourse on gender identity politics. Through examples from both within Europe, the anglophone world and beyond, and including visual essays alongside critical theory, the volume furthermore engages with new developments in contemporary comics scholarship. It will therefore appeal to students and scholars of childhood studies, comics scholars and creators, and those interested in addressing gender identity through the prism of comics. Contributors: Mel Gibson (Northumbria University), Martha Newbigging (Seneca College), María Porras Sánchez (Complutense University of Madrid), JoAnn Purcell (York University and Seneca College), Benoît Glaude (Ghent University/University of Louvain), Sylvain Lesage (University of Lille), Joan Ormrod (Manchester Metropolitan University), Aswathy Senan (The Research Collective Delhi), Michel De Dobbeleer (Ghent University), Sébastien Conard (KASK Ghent School of Arts and LUCA Brussels), Marthine Bertiot (University of Edinburgh), Julia Round (Bournemouth University) Ebook available in Open Access. This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content) Cover 1 Contents 8 Preface 10 Introduction 12 Chapter 1: ‘It’s the girl!’: Comics, Professional Identity, Affection, Nostalgia and Embarrassment 30 Chapter 2: Looking for Queerness 48 Chapter 3: Harrowing Rites of Passage: Refugee Girlhood in the Wake of Syrian Migrant Crisis 58 Chapter 4: Comics, Caregiving and Crip Time 76 Chapter 5: Discussing Gender in a Communist Comics Magazine: Corinne et Jeannot, 1970 90 Chapter 6: The Ambivalence of Girlhood and Motherhood in A Girl-and-Her-Dog Comics Series: Margot & Oscar Pluche / Sac à Puces 108 Chapter 7: Modernity, Aesthetics and the Active Female Body in Mirabelle (1960–1967) 128 Chapter 8: The Demon Girl of Malayali Comic Strips: The (Im)possibilities of Comic Imagination 150 Chapter 9: Reading Girl- and Womanhood in the Classic Flemish Family Comics Series Jommeke: A Conversation with Katrien De Graeve and Sara De Vuyst 168 Chapter 10: Death and the Maiden: Some Notes Concerning Charlotte Salomon’s Leben? oder Theater? 192 Chapter 11: Developing a Style of Her Own: Mophead by Selina Tusitala Marsh (2019) 200 Conclusion 224 Afterword: Picturin6g Girlhood 230 About the Authors 236 Index 240