Category: ralph ellison

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Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and “Hardware” #1

In the last post, I wrote about the metaphor of the caged bird in Dwayne McDuffie and Denys Cowan’s Hardware #1. The metaphor recurs throughout the series; however, I won’t get into those reoccurrences in this post. Instead, I want to look at the allusions to Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man that McDuffie and Cowan deploy in Hardware #1. These types of allusions are nothing … Read More Ralph Ellison’s “Invisible Man” and “Hardware” #1

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The Caged Bird in “Hardware” #1

Recently on Twitter, Joseph Illidge posted the following about Hardware #1 (1993). He said, “One of the best first issues of a superhero comic book series ever produced in the American Direct Market.” As a fan of Milestone Comics and Hardware, I’d have to agree. I’ve been meaning to write about Hardware #1 for a while, and now is the time, specifically because I … Read More The Caged Bird in “Hardware” #1

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Positioning the Reader in “The Teacher from Mars” and “Judgement Day!”

Last post, I wrote about the ways that Eando Binder’s “The Teacher from Mars” serves as a commentary on racism and Jim Crow during the mid-twentieth century. Today, I want to look at Otto Binder, Al Feldstein, and Joe Orlando’s adaptation of the story for EC Comics’ Weird Science-Fantasy #24 and at Feldstein and Orlando’s “Judgement Day!” Specifically, I want to focus on some … Read More Positioning the Reader in “The Teacher from Mars” and “Judgement Day!”

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David F. Walker’s “Cyborg” and Identity

Last January, I posted a syllabus for a “Comics and Race” course that I constructed. At that time, I had not read any of David F. Walker’s work. A few months later, I read Nighthawk, and I was blown away. Nighthawk led me to other series by Walker such as Shaft, Luke Cage, Power Man and Iron Fist, and his recent work Bitter Root. … Read More David F. Walker’s “Cyborg” and Identity

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Everett K. Ross as Mephisto? Positioning in Christopher Priest’s Black Panther

In the previous post, I wrote about the narrative point-of-view (pov) in Christopher Priest’s Black Panther (1998-2003). There, I discussed Priest’s comments about placing Everett K. Ross as the narrator of Black Panther and how that narrative position related to the work of Quentin Tarantino. Today, I want to look at a shift that occurs in issue #34, part one of “Gorilla Warfare.” Ross’ … Read More Everett K. Ross as Mephisto? Positioning in Christopher Priest’s Black Panther