PhD (Doctoral) Research: Terrorism and Superheroes

Hello,
My name is Nicholas Gray and I am a PhD student at the department of Geography, University College London. I am here today to ask you to help me with my PhD research project which centres on audience’s engagements with themes of terrorism within the Superhero genre of comic books. My notion of audience is somewhat broader than previous studies which simply seek the opinions of fans in that I wish to understand the views of comic fans AND those who may be considered non-readers or anti-fans of comic books.

All too often research on media practices stops as soon as the fans have been consulted on that media type or event. I however wish to understand wider understandings and audience constructions of what a superhero comic is and what it means to global audiences. In particular I wish to understand comics as a geopolitical tool, as something that can be used to understand and interact with the wider interactions of everyday life. Specifically, as I have stated already, my research looks to constructions and understandings of terrorism through superhero comic books.

Now it may seem odd that I wish to find people who do not read comics; or who may be completely against them as a media form and then ask them questions about comics. But I do believe that this type of person has as much to say about a given topic as any fan would. All I am asking is for your personal opinions and ideas about what you think or understand superhero comics to be about based upon your own everyday life experiences and encounters with anything related to the superhero genre.

I have created a series of online questionnaires, one of which is designed specifically for comic readers and a second for those who do not read comics to express their views. I was therefore wondering if you could spare approximately 15 minutes of your time to complete this questionnaire. As a sweetener all those that complete the questionnaire will be entered into a draw for a £10 Amazon.co.uk (or Amazon.com) voucher.

I am a UK based researcher, but I am looking for a more global understanding of various issues for the online questionnaire.

If you wish to take part in this research please click on the relevant link below that directs comic fans and non comic readers to their relevant questionnaires.

The questionnaires are located at:

COMIC FANS QUESTIONNAIRE

tinyurl.com/ComicPhD1

(please copy and paste into the address bar of a browser window)

NON-READERS QUESTIONNAIRE

tinyurl.com/ComicPhD2

(please copy and paste into the address bar of a browser window)

These links will take you to the questionnaire (created using Google Documents, and links shortened courtesy of TinyURL) which should be viewable on all major internet browsers and many mobile phone browsers.

If you choose to take part and know of others local to you within household, family and friendship groups that may be interested also, then please feel free to pass the information of this project onto them.

I thank you for taking the time to read this post and I thank all those who choose to take part.

Yours Gratefully

Nicholas Gray

LOL

how did you ever get funding for this from a Geography department?

dont read if you are going to participate:

http://www.essex.ac.uk/history/conferences/Postgraduate%20Conferences/Papers/Gray%20-%20Heroes_Conference_Paper_2003.pdf

My work forms part of the wider sphere of critical geopolitics in particular popular geopolitics which I first studied during my undergraduate degree at Cambridge. I'm interested in how audiences understand reality through discourses within media.

I have also been invited to present at a History conference debating the nature of heroism (something not really touched upon in my main work, but quite common in academia for people to branch out and try to look at bodies of work differently for different departments and academic disciplines) which has so kindly been bought up here. My more current publications surround the methodological questions of critical geopolitics:

Dittmer, J., Gray, N. (2010). Popular Geopolitics 2.0: Towards new methodologies of the everyday. Geography Compass 11(4), 1664-1677

I thank you for your interest and I look forward to your replies.

Took the questionnaire.

I took it as well.

Spoiler:
Who didn't put down Batman as the primary "having to deal with terrorism, the most" character? I'm sure I could have thought of many other characters especially from Manga, but it was just the easiest answer to put down.

I‘ll take it once i‘m on the laptop rather than my mobile. I‘m a bit skeptical but hey, anything to help.

Originally posted by jaden101
I‘ll take it once i‘m on the laptop rather than my mobile. I‘m a bit skeptical but hey, anything to help.

That's probably the better option. I only know that it would work on a mobile phone as I've been playing around with QR Codes for posters so as to allow people with smart phones to quickly access project details or the questionnaire. Saves people having to potentially get out a pen and paper or rip the poster for details.

Thanks for the interest though all, it is much appreciated. Scepticism of the concepts of terrorism within superhero comics is completely healthy, I am after your individual opinions at the end of the day 🙂

Thanks

Nick

Done it. I'm also going to have a read of the paper that inimalist posted later on tonight.

I'll post my thoughts on that too.

Originally posted by dadudemon
I took it as well.

Spoiler:
Who didn't put down Batman as the primary "having to deal with terrorism, the most" character? I'm sure I could have thought of many other characters especially from Manga, but it was just the easiest answer to put down.

Word

Originally posted by jaden101
Done it. I'm also going to have a read of the paper that inimalist posted later on tonight.

I'll post my thoughts on that too.

Thanks for taking part.

The papers not the greatest as its a write up of a conference presentation given that I wasn't expecting to have to hand in anything written for (as this is not usually the practice and I didn't have permissions to publish the relevant images on the document from the Warner Bros. lawyers). So its a rehash of my masters dissertation on DC's 'Black Adam' with a refocus on trying to understand the nature of heroism rather than being geopolitically focussed as was the original research.

not that it wasnt interesting, I did like it and think others here will as well, but half the point of posting your previous work was to ensure you weren't a sock 😛

and quotes from z-cult? you got game sir!

I'll try to bring up some stuff to discuss from the other paper later, but I've got a full weekend of concerts and conferences, lol! I'm sort of interested in takin you up on the discourse or orientialism though, as, to me at least, a lot of it seems like criticizing "Debbie does Dallas" because it might have been shot in Houston. lol, that makes more sense when you look at Victorian art, but I still think it applies here 🙂

sorry for the "tease" I'm on my phone waiting for a subject.

Originally posted by dadudemon
I took it as well.

Spoiler:
Who didn't put down Batman as the primary "having to deal with terrorism, the most" character? I'm sure I could have thought of many other characters especially from Manga, but it was just the easiest answer to put down.

Spoiler:
I was actually tempted to put Goku at first...

I miss Z-CultFM, was an excellent little board for comic discussions back in my ZippoHippo days on that board. Was where I picked up a lot of suggestions of things to try out from back in the day. Spent many a happy time perusing and posting on there before the dreaded shut-down occurred.

Glad you enjoyed the paper, I don't feel it works overly well without images, especially where I'm desperately trying to describe an image and analyse at the same time.

Originally posted by UCLGeogPhD
Glad you enjoyed the paper, I don't feel it works overly well without images, especially where I'm desperately trying to describe an image and analyse at the same time.

It felt like it was missing something when I read it so it makes sense that the images made it flow.

Originally posted by dadudemon
I took it as well.

Spoiler:
Who didn't put down Batman as the primary "having to deal with terrorism, the most" character? I'm sure I could have thought of many other characters especially from Manga, but it was just the easiest answer to put down.

Spoiler:
lol, I sat there for a minute thinking about it before I decided batman was the only good answer. Nick Fury could have gone there but he's not really a superhero.

Originally posted by inimalist
dont read if you are going to participate:

http://www.essex.ac.uk/history/conferences/Postgraduate%20Conferences/Papers/Gray%20-%20Heroes_Conference_Paper_2003.pdf

I like the paper!

Spoiler:
People think Black Adam has pointy ears because he's Arab? Casual racism never ceases to amaze me.

I don't think people expected him to fail because of their views of the East, however. He had two major things arrayed against him. First: comic book inertia, setting up a permanent change is rare and difficult for a character that is at all established. Second: the laws of drama "happy people make boring stories". These two factors mean that experienced audiences know to expect that new characters who carry emotionally weight will die in order to serve drama.