HOT TAKE: Quiana Whitted’s EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest
What SOU Communication Professor Erik Palmer is Reading This Summer
After returning from his sabbatical earlier this summer, Associate Professor Erik Palmer has been getting ready for the launch of the Comm Program’s new course in Comic Studies, which means he’s been reading a MOUNTAIN of current scholarly research on the history, interpretation and politics of comics.
Among the best: Quiana Whitted’s Eisner Award-winning EC Comics: Race, Shock, and Social Protest, which takes a fresh look at the racial politics behind the controversial line of war, crime, horror and science fiction comics published by Entertaining Comics in the 1950s.
“With current headlines dominated by racial politics, Whitted’s work on how EC expressed both ethnic stereotypes and egalitarian values reminds us of the endless struggle for social justice,” Palmer said. “Of particular interest, her documentation of readers’ debates about ethnic representations playing out in the letters pages of EC titles is eye-opening. Whitted’s book clearly resonates as we all confront the issues raised by the Black Lives Matter movement today.”
In the 1950s, EC’s realistic depictions of crime and violence prompted national controversy, government oversight and industry regulation at a key turning point in the history of comics:
“The history behind EC is probably a little less known for mainstream comic readers today,” said Palmer, “but when I grew up as a comics fan in the 1970s, EC was passionately celebrated as a high point in the history of graphic storytelling. We sought them out at comic shops and conventions, and especially loved finding worn-out used copies that we could afford.”
SOU students looking to dig deeper into the critical study of comics and fandom should check out the debut of COMM218 — Comics: Culture & Politics in Winter 2021. This course also counts for Strand F in SOU’s University Studies curriculum.
While we are getting ready for a Fall term unlike any other, Communication and Digital Cinema faculty at Southern Oregon University are sharing weekly Hot Takes of things we are reading, watching and doing that get us excited to get back in the (virtual) classroom. Stay connected with whatever got you to this post, and we’ll look forward to bringing you more communications about Communication soon.
