"Battling, in the Sea of Comics”: EC’s Invisible Man and the Jim Crow Future of “Judgment Day!”
How did the most notorious comic book publisher of the 1950s employ the discursive instruments of horror, crime, and the weird to confront racism and other forms of social discrimination? Prof. Qiana Whitted’s lecture explores the stakes and strategies behind EC Comics during the early years of the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement. Through the controversial science fiction story “Judgment Day!”, her discussion will consider how EC grappled with the legacy of racial caricature in popular media to convey a different message, all while building new reading communities and expanding the visual and verbal dynamics of comics narrative in unprecedented ways.