The editor of The Ages of the Justice League is seeking abstracts for essays that could be included in the upcoming collection. The essays should examine the relationships between Justice Society, Justice Leauge, or other related comic books and the social era when those comics were published. Analysis may demonstrate how the stories found in Justice League comic books and the creators who produced the comics embrace, reflect, or critique aspects of their contemporary culture. This will be a companion volume to existing or soon-to-be-published volumes in the series that have already focused on Superman, Wonder Woman, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, and the Incredible Hulk.
Potential chapters include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Wait, Wonder Woman is the Team Secretary?: Gender Roles and Superhero Teams in the 1940s
- Our Superheroes at War: Popular Culture, Propaganda, and World War II
- The End of an Era: The End of the JSA and the Phasing Out of the Superhero genre at the End of WWII
- Science Fiction and the Justice League at the Dawn of the Silver Age
- Redefining Heroism in the Vietnam Era
- Nostalgia and the Reemergence of the Justice Society of America
- Crisis on Infinite Earths: Redefining Icons in the 1980s
- The End of the Satellite Era and Cultural Disillusionment
- Justice League Detroit: Portrayals of Urban Culture in 1980’s Entertainment
- Good Intentions, Problematic Result: Vibe, Gypsy Moth and Efforts at Inclusivity in the 1980s
- Giffen and Dematteis: When Levity was Needed
- Establishing an Identity in the Morrison Era of the JLA
- Fear as Justification for Violence in “Tower of Babel”
- JLA/Avengers and the Post 9/11 Mindset
- Infinite Crisis: Do Ends Justify Means?
- The New 52: When Business, Multimedia Impact, and Nostalgia Define a Bold New Direction
- The Justice League Reboot: All-New Origin for the New Millennium
Essays should focus on stories from the Justice Society and Justice League comic book adventures, not media adaptations of the teams. Furthermore, essays should look at a single period of comic book history, rather than drawing comparisons between different publication eras. For example, an essay that analyzed Justice Society comics from the 1940s and contextualized them with what was happening in American society would be more likely to be accepted than an essay that contrasted Justice League comic books from the 1960s with JLA comic books from the 1990s. The completed essays should be approximately 15-20 double-spaced pages.
Abstracts (100-500 words) and CVs should be submitted by June 1, 2015.
Please submit via email to Joseph Darowski, agesofjla@gmail.com.
Publisher: McFarland & Company