Comic Venus

Download or read book Comic Venus written by Kristen Anderson Wagner and published by Wayne State University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-05 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the social and historical significance of women’s contributions to American silent film comedy. For many people the term "silent comedy" conjures up images of Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, Buster Keaton's Stoneface, or Harold Lloyd hanging precariously from the side of a skyscraper. Even people who have never seen a silent film can recognize these comedians at a glance. But what about the female comedians? Gale Henry, Louise Fazenda, Colleen Moore, Constance Talmadge—these and numerous others were wildly popular during the silent film era, appearing in countless motion pictures and earning top salaries, and yet their names have been almost entirely forgotten. As a consequence, recovering their history is all the more compelling given that they laid the foundation for generations of funny women, from Lucille Ball to Carol Burnett to Tina Fey. These women constitute an essential and neglected sector of film history, reflecting a turning point in women's social and political history. Their talent and brave spirit continues to be felt today, and Comic Venus: Women and Comedy in American Silent Film seeks to provide a better understanding of women's experiences in the early twentieth century and to better understand and appreciate the unruly and boundary-breaking women who have followed. The diversity and breadth of archival materials explored in Comic Venus illuminate the social and historical period of comediennes and silent film. In four sections, Kristen Anderson Wagner enumerates the relationship between women and comedy, beginning with the question of why historically women weren't seen as funny or couldn't possibly be funny in the public and male eye, a question that persists even today. Wagner delves into the idea of women's "delicate sensibilities," which presumably prevented them from being funny, and in chapter two traces ideas about feminine beauty and what a woman should express versus what these comedic women did express, as Wagner notes, "comediennes challenged the assumption that beauty was a fundamental component of ideal femininity." In chapter three, Wagner discusses how comediennes such as Clara Bow, Marie Dressler, and Colleen Moore used humor to gain recognition and power through performances of sexuality and desire. Women comedians presented "sexuality as fun and playful, suggesting that personal relationships could be fluid rather than stable." Chapter four examines silent comediennes' relationships to the modern world and argues that these women exemplified modernity and new womanhood. The final chapter of Comic Venus brings readers to understand comediennes and their impact on silent-era cinema, as well as their lasting influence on later generations of funny women. Comic Venus is the first book to explore the overlooked contributions made by comediennes in American silent film. Those with an interest in film and representations of femininity in comedy will be fascinated by the analytical connections and thoroughly researched histories of these women and their groundbreaking movements in comedy and stage.

Download or read book Brain Bats of Venus written by Greg Sadowski and published by Fantagraphics Books. This book was released on 2019-10-23 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume continues Sadowski’s biography of the famed Mad cartoonist. It includes scores of letters between Wolverton and his editors and publishers and excerpts from his personal diaries, providing documentary insight not only into Wolverton’s day-to-day life and career, but also the inner workings of the early comic book industry. It is also chock full of Wolverton’s comics stories from this period, including 17 science-fiction and horror tales fully restored and never before collected in a single volume.

Download or read book Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #127 written by Sophie Campbell and published by IDW Publishing. This book was released on 2022-03-30 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Who is Dr. Jasper Barlow, and is he friend or foe? As the TMNT regroup from their battle with the Punk Frogs, the doctor makes some of our heroes an offer they may find hard to refuse. Plus, a tense situation between the Utroms and Triceratons goes from bad to worse!

Download or read book The Horror Comics written by William Schoell and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-07-10 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the Golden Age of the 1940s, through the Silver Age of the '60s, up until the early '80s--the end of the Bronze Age. Included are the earliest series, like American Comics Group's Adventures into the Unknown and Prize Comics' Frankenstein, and the controversial and gory comics of the '40s, such as EC's infamous and influential Tales from the Crypt. The resurgence of monster-horror titles during the '60s is explored, along with the return of horror anthologies like Dell Comics' Ghost Stories and Charlton's Ghostly Tales from the Haunted House. The explosion of horror titles following the relaxation of the comics code in the '70s is fully documented with chapters on Marvel's prodigious output--The Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night and others--DC's anthologies--Witching Hour and Ghosts--and titles such as Swamp Thing, as well as the notable contributions of firms like Gold Key and Atlas. This book examines how horror comics exploited everyday terrors, and often reflected societal attitudes toward women and people who were different.

Download or read book Venus on the Half-Shell written by Philip Jose Farmer and published by Titan Books (US, CA). This book was released on 2013-12-10 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Simon Wagstaff narrowly escapes the Deluge that destroys Earth when he happens upon an abandoned spaceship. A man without a planet, he gains immortality from an elixir drunk during an interlude with a cat-like alien queen. Now Simon must chart a 3,000-year course to the most distant corners of the multiverse, to seek out the answers to the questions no one can seem to answer.

Download or read book Venus Wars written by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and published by Dark Horse Manga. This book was released on 1993-09-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's 2083 A.D. Humanity has inhabited Venus for only eighty years, but already full-scale war threatens our precarious hold on the planet. Colonial forces battle each other for power and territory while the Terran government looks on warily, ready to intervene. High-powered Octopus supertanks clash with super-charged, one-ton Battlebikes in awesome displays of mechanized combat and cataclysmic destruction. Ken Seno, daredevil cyclist, rides into danger, unafraid to die. But if he falls, so does the last hope for life on Venus!

Download or read book Marvel Masterworks written by and published by Marvel. This book was released on 2011-08-31 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As seeb in Agents of Atlas! She's the goddess of love, the ruler of romance, the original queen of hearts: Venus! In 1948, she descended to Earth to spread, protect and experience love--and those adventures are collected here for the first time! Conspiring co-workers, doubtful doctors and quarreling couples keep her busy for a while--but there's a quick shift in mood and genre when Marvel's best-known god of evil decides all this love means it's time to give hate a chance, on Earth AND in the heavens!