Description
Beyond his iconic newspaper strips, the legendary American cartoonist and author Jules Feiffer has enjoyed a long and varied career, with a wide creative output in comics, theatre, film, and children's literature, from illustrating The Phantom Tollbooth to writing the screenplay for the film Popeye. Yet, some of his most innovative work came very late in his career, with a trio of graphic novels he composed in his eighties: Kill My Mother (2014), Cousin Joseph (2016), and The Ghost Script (2018).
Back to Black provides the first full-length critical analysis of this trilogy, exploring how it pays homage to the iconography and themes of film noir through constant graphic experimentation and a striking reinvention of Feiffer's distinctive style. Fabrice Leroy shows how Feiffer deftly alternates between dramatic and satirical tones as he plays with the conventions of noir to provide a caustic yet moving commentary on mid-twentieth-century American life. Through close readings of each novel in the trilogy, he examines Feiffer's singular depiction of the central political issues in the United States from the Great Depression to the 1950s, which still resonate today: unionization struggles, cinematic propaganda, McCarthyism, the American Dream, immigration, antisemitism, civil rights, and gender discrimination. Placing the noir trilogy into the context of Feiffer's long career, Back to Black demonstrates how he offers a loving tribute to the genre without losing his unique voice or critical edge.
About the Author
FABRICE LEROY is professor of Francophone studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is the author of Sfar So Far: Identity, History, Fantasy and Mimesis in Joann Sfar's Graphic Novels and the co-editor of the collections Intermediality in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels and The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel.
Reviews
"Fabrice Leroy has written a book that is vital in finally giving Jules Feiffer the place he deserves in American comics. His in-depth readings disclose the larger historical, social, and political context of an exceptional trilogy, shedding new light on questions of masculinity in recent Jewish American culture." -- Jan Baetens * author of Rebuilding Story Worlds: The Obscure Cities by Schuiten and Peeters *
Book Information
ISBN 9781978842915
Author Fabrice Leroy
Format Paperback
Page Count 204
Imprint Rutgers University Press
Publisher Rutgers University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Back to Black provides the first full-length critical analysis of this trilogy, exploring how it pays homage to the iconography and themes of film noir through constant graphic experimentation and a striking reinvention of Feiffer's distinctive style. Fabrice Leroy shows how Feiffer deftly alternates between dramatic and satirical tones as he plays with the conventions of noir to provide a caustic yet moving commentary on mid-twentieth-century American life. Through close readings of each novel in the trilogy, he examines Feiffer's singular depiction of the central political issues in the United States from the Great Depression to the 1950s, which still resonate today: unionization struggles, cinematic propaganda, McCarthyism, the American Dream, immigration, antisemitism, civil rights, and gender discrimination. Placing the noir trilogy into the context of Feiffer's long career, Back to Black demonstrates how he offers a loving tribute to the genre without losing his unique voice or critical edge.
About the Author
FABRICE LEROY is professor of Francophone studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is the author of Sfar So Far: Identity, History, Fantasy and Mimesis in Joann Sfar's Graphic Novels and the co-editor of the collections Intermediality in French-Language Comics and Graphic Novels and The Cambridge Companion to the American Graphic Novel.
Reviews
"Fabrice Leroy has written a book that is vital in finally giving Jules Feiffer the place he deserves in American comics. His in-depth readings disclose the larger historical, social, and political context of an exceptional trilogy, shedding new light on questions of masculinity in recent Jewish American culture." -- Jan Baetens * author of Rebuilding Story Worlds: The Obscure Cities by Schuiten and Peeters *
Book Information
ISBN 9781978842915
Author Fabrice Leroy
Format Paperback
Page Count 204
Imprint Rutgers University Press
Publisher Rutgers University Press
Weight(grams) 454g
