Reader in Popular Culture

Research Interests

Cultural history, Cultural Studies, and Subcultural Studies. Specialisms: Comics, graphic novels, and manga. Marginalised and underground literature/graphics/film. Punk and counter-culture. Comedy. TV crime drama. The 19^th century entertainment industry (music hall, penny press, etc.). Cultural theory, especially postmodernism in history.

Current Research

Currently working on two books: one about comic books in the 19^th century and the character ‘Ally Sloper’, for the University Press of Mississippi; and one about American TV cop shows (Kojak, The Wire, etc.) for McFarland Press.

Previous books include Comics, Comix and Graphic Novels (Phaidon), Adult Comics: An Introduction (Routledge), The Lasting of the Mohicans (as co-author, Uni Press of Mississippi); and Punk Rock: So What? (as Ed, Routledge) and Below Critical Radar (as Co-Ed, Codex), and The Movie Book (as Co-Ed, Phaidon).

Awards: Joint winner, Franco Fossatti Award, Italy, 2006. Nominated for Gleason Award, USA, 2000. Nominated for Harvey Award, USA, 1997. (Also, winner White Square Teaching Award 2012)

Editorial Board positions on academic journals include: 

•  Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Routledge, UK (also Consulting Ed)

•  Studies in Comics, Intellect, UK (also Consulting Ed)

•  European Comic Art, University of Liverpool, UK.

•  SIGNS: Studies in Graphic Narratives, University of Pisa et al, Italy.

•  ImageText, University of Florida, USA.

•  Image and Narrative, University of Leuven, Belgium.

•  Journal of Punk and Post-Punk, Intellect, UK (also Consulting Ed).

• Intensities: Journal of Cult Media, Brunel University, UK

Selected Outputs and Achievements

Selected academic essays and articles:

• 2012 'Wokker: Notes on a Surrealist Comic Strip', journal article, Comicalitiés, University of Paris.

• 2012: 'Doonesbury Does Iraq', journal article (with Prof Martin Barker) Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Routledge, vol 3, number 2.

• 2011: ‘The Wire: Dramatising the Crisis in Journalism’, journal article, Journalism Studies, vol 12, no 2, April 2011 (Routledge, ISSN: 10.1080/1461670X.2010.493741).

• 2010: ‘Comics’, chapter in book, The Media: An Introduction, Pearson, 3rd edition (ISBN: 978-1-4058-4036-1).

• 2009: ‘Ally Sloper On Stage’, journal article, European Comic Art, vol 2, no2, autumn 2009 (Uni Liverpool Press, ISSN: 1754-3739).

• 2009: ‘Ally Sloper: First Comics Superstar?’, chapter in book, A Comics Studies Reader, Uni Press of Mississippi (ISBN: 978-1-60473-108-8).

• 2009: ‘Who Loves Ya, David Simon?’, journal article, as co-author, in Darkmatter, online journal, as part of The Wire Files, at: http://www.darkmatter101.org/site/2009/05/29/who-loves-ya-david-simon/

• 2008: ‘The Face of Fear’, chapter in book, If Looks Could Kill, Koenig Books (ISBN: 978-3-86560-462-0).

• 2008: ‘Terry Gilliam’, chapter in book, Sub/versions: Cultural Status, Genre and Critique, Cambridge Scholars Publishing (ISBN: 1-84718-372-7)

• 2007: 'Gonzo Journalism: Ralph Steadman', journal article, Journalism Studies, vol 8, no 5, October 2007 (Routledge, ISSN - 1461-670X).

• 2006: ‘A Very American Fable: the Making of a Mohicans Adaptation’, as co-author, chapter in book, Nineteenth-Century American Fiction on Screen, Cambridge University Press (ISBN - 9780521842211).

• 2006: ‘Barefoot Gen in the US and UK: Activist Comic, Graphic Novel, Manga’, chapter in book, Reading Manga: Local and Global perceptions of Japanese Comics, University of Leipzig Press (ISBN - 3865831230).

Selected conferences 

• 2012 – 'Comics and Seriality', Repetition, Uni Kent/ICA London.

• 2011 – 'Aspects of Comics Scholarship', University of Southern Denmark.

• 2011 – 'Comics and Music Hall, 1880-1900', Research Society for Victorian Periodicals Conference, Canterbury Christ Church University, Canterbury. 

• 2011 – ‘Wokker: Notes on a Surrealist Comic Strip’, Surrealism, Science Fiction and Comics, The Courtauld Institute.

• 2010 – Keynote: ‘Doonesbury: the Politics of an Anti-War Strip’ (with Prof Martin Barker), International Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, Manchester Metropolitan Uni.

• 2010 – ‘Birth of the Comedy Critic’, International Comedy Conference, Uni of Salford/Manchester Metropolitan Uni. 

• 2010 – ‘The Wire in the context of TV Crime Drama’ (with Jane Gibb), The Wire as Social Science Fiction? Leeds Uni/Leeds Town Hall.

• 2010 – ‘Tootsie Sloper: Pioneering Female Character’, Comics Forum: Women in Comics, Leeds (sponsored by Glasgow Uni, Chichester Uni et al).

• 2009 – Keynote: ‘Mavericks and Zinesters: “Comics Scholarship” before Comics Scholarship’, Comics Forum, Leeds.

• 2009 – ‘Ally Sloper and Music Hall’, Instruction, Amusement and Spectacle: Popular Shows and Exhibitions, 1800-1914, Exeter Uni.

Selected exhibitions

Ally Sloper collection exhibited at Tate Britain as part of Rude Britannia, 2010.  

Research students

Currently supervising 9 PhDs at UAL; 1 at London Consortium; 1 at the Universitat des Saarlandes. Previous completions: 6.

Contact:

r.sabin@csm.arts.ac.uk