Continuing a tradition established in 2012, CU-Boulder faculty members, students and staff presented at the 2016 and its associated literary conference, . Members of CU-Boulder鈥檚 and 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. 鈥淥ne of our goals by coming into that community is to participate, but also to ask questions in a way that have people think about 鈥榳hy do you like this?鈥� 鈥榃hy do you not like that?鈥� 鈥榃hy does this particular hero speak to you?鈥欌��
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Photo: Rick Stevens and his son, Peter, stand in front of the Captain America shield at Denver Comic Con.
