WonderCon Anaheim 2019

N. Scott Robinson (San Diego Mesa College) explores fluid transnational representations of American superheroes in comics published in Egypt, India, Indonesia, Japan, Lebanon, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates. James Thompson (Duke University, Comic Book Historians group) looks at how Dracula comics, as imported transnational texts, allow for/demand a reading that can be traced back to Dorfman and Mattelart's How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic and its examination of dominance and passivity in cultural exchange. Sydney Heifler (The University of Oxford) explains how the 1950s romance comics in the UK shed new light on changing perceptions of female and male identity in British post-war society.

Haniyeh Barahouie (University of Virginia) examines how Posy Simmonds' 1999 graphic novel Gemma Bovery destabilizes/redefines the identity of Flaubert's heroine by situating Emma Bovary as still present in modern life. Katelyn McGirr (Carleton University) uses a graphic adaptation of the nineteenth-century diary of British woman Fanny Duberly as a case study to explore historical representation of Victorian gender and class relations. Stephen Connor (Nipissing University) reveal the ways in which Punisher comics reinforce and challenge evolving perceptions about the war in Vietnam and its aftermath.

Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight; The Joker Psychology: Evil Clowns and the Women Who Love Them) conducts a forensic investigation fitting together the three overlapping yet different accounts Jerry Robinson, Bill Finger, and Bob Kane gave regarding how they created the Clown Prince of Crime. Amy DeSuza-Riehm (California State University, Long Beach) takes a look at Jessica Jones, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, the role of trauma in superhero origins, and the psychology of Heroes in Crisis. Kyle A. Hammonds (University of Oklahoma) and Garrett Hammonds (American Choral Directors Association) use "The Anatomy Lesson" to show how Alan Moore's seminal run on Saga of the Swamp Thing reflects broad cultural issues which Moore uniquely addressed in the context of horror.