Journal of Comics and Culture Volume 12 Call for Papers: Fascism

The word “fascism” is a term frequently thrown around in politics, particularly at the present moment in the U.S. Political opponents are quick to throw this label at each other, warning the populace that something sinister is lurking behind the acerbic rhetoric of their political rival. However, it is easier to call someone a fascist than to actually define what a fascist “is.”

Scholars who study fascism are quick to point out how nebulous the term actually is, making a precise definition hard to come by. Is it about power? Is it about racism and anti-Semitism? Was it merely a culturally and historically specific phenomenon? 

One can look to historical examples of fascist thinkers to try to create a working definition of the term. Carl Schmitt, the “jurist of the Third Reich,” might provide a good indicator of fascist thinking as being concerned with extra-legal sovereignty on the part of a leader and a strong focus on the differences between friends and, especially, enemies. One could also look at modern scholars of fascism like Jason Stanley and Robert Paxton, the latter of whom provides a robust definition of fascism, saying that fascism is a form of political behavior focused on national decline, humiliation, or victimhood, using compensatory cults of unity, energy, and purity, and it involves a mass-based party collaborating with traditional elites to pursue internal cleansing and expansionist goals through redemptive violence, without ethical or legal restraints. 

This issue of the Journal of Comics and Culture is soliciting articles that address the presence of fascism in comics. Article topics may include, but are not limited to the following:

• Depictions of fascist societies in comics
• Hitler’s anti-comics propaganda
• Herge and fascist outlooks in Tintin 
• Comics providing examples of resistance to fascism
• Depictions in comics of fascism being used to slur ones opponents
• Addressing whether or not superheroes are inherently fascist (per creators like Alan Moore or cultural critics like Bill Maher), the “Umermensch” Problem. 
• Vigilantism vs Civil Service 
• Fascism’s depictions in World War II comics from the 1930s and 1940s
• The representation of political opponents as fascists in comics – reality or slander?
• Golden Age superheroes vs the Axis
• Frank Miller’s Batman: Does The Dark Knight glorify authoritarianism and violence?
• Hydra and the manipulation of political systems and the seizing of power
• X-Men and minority oppression and alienation 
• The Boys and corporate fascism
• Superheroes in the post 9/11 era – Civil War and reflections on societal anxieties about security vs liberty
• Art Spiegelman’s Mous
• “Comics and the Super State” (1945): Gershon Legman’s outlook on post-war fears and comics promoting “super-state” mentalities. 
• Post-war reckoning: fears of superheroes internalizing the villains’ outlooks

Abstracts of 250 words and CVs may be submitted to Ioana Atanassova at iatanassova@pace.edu or Matthew Brake at popandtheology@gmail.com by December 31, 2026.