Book review: Nickie D. Phillips and Staci Strobl, Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice, and the American Way

Abstract

Comic Book Crime examines crime, justice and law and order as depicted in American comic books, while simultaneously examining the manner in which complex criminological perspectives often manifest themselves as retributive or incapacitation narratives in popular fiction and media discourse. While comics scholarship is a relatively under-developed area of criminological enquiry, This article examines Phillips and Strobl's book which effectively straddles the divide between cultural criminology and the ‘law and literature’ movement. The book tells the story of an industry that has grown from its pulp fiction beginnings to become a primary source of material for mass market crime narratives, especially Hollywood cinema, while remaining true to its crime story origins.