Continuing a tradition established in 2012, CU-Boulder faculty members, students and staff presented at the 2016 Denver Comic Con and its associated literary conference, Page 23. Members of CU-Boulder’s media studies and English departments presented on topics such as gender representation in popular media, action figure culture and the racial politics in recent Superman comics.
Denver Comic Con and Literary Conference is a three-day, family-friendly, pop culture fan convention with a scholarly twist. The event features comics, popular sci-fi and fantasy TV shows, movies, Japanese animation, cosplay (costumed role-playing), gaming and panel presentations.
Rick Stevens, an associate professor of media studies, and Christopher Bell, an alumnus of the media studies department, spoke on a panel about the manufacture and collection of action figures, especially the growing market for female action figures. Stevens was also joined by alumna Shannon Sindorf for a panel on superhero gender representation.
Stevens relished the chance to bring a media studies perspective to the comic book community. “One of our goals by coming into that community is to participate, but also to ask questions in a way that have people think about ‘why do you like this?’ ‘Why do you not like that?’ ‘Why does this particular hero speak to you?’”
Read the full story on the College of Media, Communication and Information website.
Photo: Rick Stevens and his son, Peter, stand in front of the Captain America shield at Denver Comic Con.
