Demanding Respect: The Evolution of the American Comic Book (review)

One of the most recent additions to the field of comics studies, Demanding Respect: The Evolution of the American Comic Book (2009) offers readers a useful new interpretation of the history of comic books in America. Author Paul Lopes is a sociologist from Colgate University who has previously written about the world of jazz, and this background gives him a unique perspective on comic book history.

We see this most prominently in Lopes's rejection of the traditional fan method of dividing comic book history into "ages" that emphasize superheroes and their publishers. In his version, Lopes utilizes the work of Pierre Bourdeau and splits the history of comic books into two periods, the Industrial Age (the 1930s through the 1970s) and the Heroic Age (1980 to the present). The Industrial Age is characterized by the establishment of the economic and aesthetic "rules of art" for the comic book industry. This period, Lopes writes, reveals the connections between comic books and the pulp magazines of the 1930s, giving mainstream comics their focus on "recombinant" culture that resulted in the constant recycling of old stories and genres. Other scholars have written about the influence of pulp fiction on the early days of the comic book industry, but Lopes goes beyond them to use this connection to explain why mainstream publishers like Marvel and DC have been more or less "locked" into publishing the same basic type of stories for the last seventy years.

The Heroic Age, on the other hand, is characterized by breaking the industry's "rules of art." Lopes explains that this rebellion comes from writers and artists working in the traditional pulp style as well as those creators coming from a more oppositional, fine art perspective. Although they are often working across purposes, both of these rebel groups are struggling to return the comic book industry to the mass market while also working toward gaining mainstream institutional recognition for the publishing format. In fact, he argues, the industry is on the verge of achieving both of these goals.

Working in contrast to the book's critical tone, this almost fannish optimism seems to come out of left-field. But it is important to remember that Lopes was writing this book in a particular moment in the history of comics when it looked like the popularity of Japanese manga would help to bring comic books back to the mass market. At the same time, he explains, teachers and librarians had begun to give the medium more institutional respect than ever before. The industry seemed more stable than it had been in a long time—that is, until the recent recession which, combined with an increasing popularity of e-books and digital publishing, has many people involved with comic book culture nervous. Despite this problem, Demanding Respect is still a well-written book with clear explanations of complex ideas and events. Demanding Respect will be valuable for comics scholars looking for new interpretations of familiar stories as well as students and historians in search of a clear, concise yet rigorous introduction to the medium's history.