Sugar, Spice, and the Not So Nice

Girls, gender and identity in comics.

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 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), Marine Berthiot (University of Edinburgh), Julia Round (Bournemouth University)

Ebook available in Open Access.
This publication is GPRC-labeled (Guaranteed Peer-Reviewed Content).

Preface
Introduction Dona Pursall and Eva Van de Wiele
Chapter 1. ‘It’s the girl!’ : Comics, Professional Identity, Affection, Nostalgia and Embarrassment Mel Gibson
Chapter 2. Looking for Queerness Martha Newbigging
Chapter 3. Harrowing Rites of Passage : Refugee Girlhood in the Wake of Syrian Migrant Crisis María Porras Sánchez
Chapter 4. Comics, Caregiving and Crip Time JoAnn Purcell
Chapter 5. Discussing Gender in a Communist Comics Magazine : Corinne et Jeannot, 1970 Sylvain Lesage
Chapter 6. The Ambivalence of Girlhood and Motherhood in A Girl-and-Her-Dog Comics Series : Margot & Oscar Pluche / Sac à Puces Benoît Glaude
Chapter 7. Modernity, Aesthetics and the Active Female Body in Mirabelle (1960–1967) Joan Ormrod
Chapter 8. The Demon Girl of Malayali Comic Strips : The (Im)possibilities of Comic Imagination Aswathy Senan
Chapter 9. Reading Girl- and Womanhood in the Classic Flemish Family Comics Series Jommeke : A Conversation with Katrien De Graeve and Sara De Vuyst Michel De Dobbeleer
Chapter 10. Death and the Maiden : Some Notes Concerning Charlotte Salomon’s Leben? oder Theater? Sébastien Conard
Chapter 11. Developing a Style of Her Own: Mophead by Selina Tusitala Marsh (2019) Marine Berthiot
Conclusion Eva Van de Wiele
Afterword: Picturing Girlhood Julia Round
About the Authors Index

Dona Pursall

Dona Pursall is PhD student on the ERC project "Children in Comics" of Prof. Maaheen Ahmed at Ghent University and is co-supervised by Prof. Jan Baetens at KU Leuven.

Eva Van de Wiele

Eva Van de Wiele is postdoctoral researcher on the ERC project "Children in Comics" of Prof. Maaheen Ahmed at Ghent University.