Some welcome news, a collection of essays I contributed to is coming out this year from Sequart.
This collection - the publisher has an increasing library of books on various pop culture icons - is edited by Loren Collins and focuses on the character of Jack Knight, aka Starman, as created by James Robinson and Tony Harris.
I was delighted to see Harris has returned to lend us Jack, with the hero appearing on the cover of the collection.
I previously presented a version of this essay at ACMI for the Superhero Identities Conference in 2016. Here’s a short passage from my piece:
Starman the series repeatedly dips in to the imagery of the Western across its run, with superhero comics positioned as a succeeding genre. There is also a nudging snide touch in his choice of a jacket with an astrological symbol on the back, conflating his father’s study of astronomy and comic book science with the supernatural.
Jack’s cultural cringe surrounding his family’s involvement in superhero culture happens to parallel the criticism of the genre itself. Starman attempts to answer this by showing Jack’s own progression from contempt to fond reflection on the history of Golden Age superheroes, and eventual acceptance of its importance within his own life.
Starman by Tony Harris - cover art for Knight's Past: A Starman Companion