CFP: Religion, Popular Culture, and the Nineties Edited by Ilaria W. Biano Although initially dismissed as “a holiday from history” (Will), a “frivolous if not decadent decade” (Rich), and a “time of trivial pursuits” (Halberstam) (cf. Chollet and Goldgeier 2008), the 1990s have increasingly been recognized as a pivotal historical moment. Scholars have underscored its…
Author: matthewbrake84
Wolfenstein: Playing the Jew?
By Dr. Frank G. Bosman We are in the year 1960. The Third Reich has solidified its political, cultural, and military dominance over Europe and North America since their 1946 victory over the Allied Forces by means of nuclear technology. All Entarteten are rounded up in concentration camps, racial laws rule the world, and only…
Call for Papers 2025: Censorship, Book Burning, and Separating the Artist from the Art!
Call for Papers 2025! Censorship, Book Burning, and the Separation of Artist from their Art! The ninth volume of the Pace University Journal of Comics and Culture is inviting authors, scholars, cartoonists, and comics creators to submit essays on banning and censorship of comics, contemporary or otherwise. Be it due to artist, content, religion, region,…
Embracing the Chaos: Lady Gaga’s ‘Disease’ and the Sacredness of the ‘Person-Body’
By Rev. Christopher N. West What makes us who and how we are in the world? Reductive approaches to personhood try to isolate a particular abstract aspect of our identities as our defining characteristic – an approach known as ‘essentialism’, as it seeks to reduce personhood down to a vital ‘essence’. For this reason, sacramental…
Call for Papers: Session “Visualizing conflicts and apocalypses. Religion and visual arts in a Polarized World”
Call for papers Session “Visualizing conflicts and apocalypses. Religion and visual arts in a Polarized World” Deadline 20 December International Society for the Sociology of Religion June 30 – July 4, 2025 Kaunas (Lithuania) Organized by Francesco Piraino – University of Bologna and Kees de Groot – Tilburg University For many years the relationship between…
Election Special: Lex Luthor, Donald Trump, and the Power of Pride
By Matthew Brake Brian Cronin wrote an interesting article on CBR about six years ago discussing John Byrne’s 1980s reboot of the Superman villain Lex Luthor. Historically depicted as a mad scientist, Byrne updated him for the 80s by reworking him into a corrupt businessman who loved to put his name on every building (regular…
Extended Call for Papers: G.I. Joe, Theology, and Cobra
EXTENDED Call for Chapter Proposals (21 January 2025) G.I. Joe, Theology, and Co-bra! Knowing (and Believing) is Half the Battle Series: Theology, Religion, and Pop Culture Editor: Dr Peter Admirand, Dublin City University G.I. Joe is celebrating its 60th year in 2024 with the success of the 6-inch G.I. Joe Classified Series, the comic license now owned…
Horror Comics and Religion: Beyond the Frames
By John W. Morehead I grew up in the 1970s and have fond memories of walking home from elementary school and cutting through the small local grocery store each day. Right near the entrance were a couple of magazine racks that featured the latest comic books and MAD magazine. With great eagerness we would spin…
Infestation, Oppression, Possession: The Conjuring Universe and American Consumerism
By Danny Anderson First, you stare down creaking stairs that descend into a cold and humid darkness. Then the musty smell of decay moldering under layers of dust overwhelms the rest of your senses. As your eyes adjust, you make the chilling discovery: you are surrounded by ghosts. There’s a reason so many horror films…
Hell on Earth: Discharge and the Need for Lament in a Time of War
By Jack Holloway On March 16, 1968, soldiers of the US Army entered the My Lai hamlet in the village of Son My in central Vietnam and systematically attacked and killed hundreds of noncombatant Vietnamese. The Army’s report stated “at least 175” people were killed, but a tablet at the memorial site in Vietnam lists…
Pop Culture and Theology 