Girls, gender and identity in comics Sugar, Spice, and the Not So Nice offers an innovative, wide-ranging and geographically diverse book-length treatment of girlhood in comics. The various contributing authors and artists provide novel insights into established themes within comic studies, children’s comics, graphic medicine and comics by and about refugees and marginalised ethnic or cultural groups. The book enriches traditional historical, narratological and aesthetic approaches to studying girlhood in comics with practice-based research, discussion and conversation. This re-examination of girls, gender and identity in comics connects with contemporary discourse on gender identity politics. Through examples from both within Europe and the anglophone world and beyond, and including visual essays and practice-based research alongside critical theory, the volume furthermore engages with new developments in contemporary comics scholarship. It will therefore appeal to students and scholars of childhood studies, comics scholars and creators, and those interested in addressing gender identity through the prism of comics. 'Sugar, Spice, and the Not So Nice' offers an innovative, wide-ranging and geographically diverse book-length treatment of girlhood in comics. The various contributing authors and artists provide novel insights into established themes within comic studies, children’s comics, graphic medicine and comics by and about refugees and marginalised ethnic or cultural groups. The book enriches traditional historical, narratological and aesthetic approaches to studying girlhood in comics with practice-based research, discussion and conversation. This re-examination of girls, gender and identity in comics connects with contemporary discourse on gender identity politics. Through examples from both within Europe and the anglophone world and beyond, and including visual essays and practice-based research alongside critical theory, the volume furthermore engages with new developments in contemporary comics scholarship. It will therefore appeal to students and scholars of childhood studies, comics scholars and creators, and those interested in addressing gender identity through the prism of comics. Preface Introduction Dona Pursall and Eva Van de Wiele Chapter 1. ‘It’s the girl!’ : Comics, Professional Identity, Affection, Nostalgia and Embarrassment Mel Gibson Chapter 2. Looking for Queerness Martha Newbigging Chapter 3. Harrowing Rites of Passage : Refugee Girlhood in the Wake of Syrian Migrant Crisis María Porras Sánchez Chapter 4. Comics, Caregiving and Crip Time JoAnn Purcell Chapter 5. Discussing Gender in a Communist Comics Magazine : Corinne et Jeannot, 1970 Sylvain Lesage Chapter 6. The Ambivalence of Girlhood and Motherhood in A Girl-and-Her-Dog Comics Series : Margot & Oscar Pluche / Sac à Puces Benoît Glaude Chapter 7. Modernity, Aesthetics and the Active Female Body in Mirabelle (1960–1967) Joan Ormrod Chapter 8. The Demon Girl of Malayali Comic Strips : The (Im)possibilities of Comic Imagination Aswathy Senan Chapter 9. Reading Girl- and Womanhood in the Classic Flemish Family Comics Series Jommeke : A Conversation with Katrien De Graeve and Sara De Vuyst Michel De Dobbeleer Chapter 10. Death and the Maiden : Some Notes Concerning Charlotte Salomon’s Leben? oder Theater? Sébastien Conard Chapter 11. Developing a Style of Her Own: Mophead by Selina Tusitala Marsh (2019) Marine Berthiot Conclusion Eva Van de Wiele Afterword: Picturing Girlhood Julia Round About the Authors Index