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Cartooning is an industry, a subculture, and a field. Educational cartooning is none of these. It is a flexible, popular art that is constantly being reinvented by diverse people working in isolation from each other. As an educational cartoonist, I have been aware of this lack of communication for years. Recently, Michigan State University's Randy Scott, the world's preeminent comic book librarian, sent me a list of the comic books about AIDS that are included in the Educational Materials Database of the National AIDS Information Clearinghouse. (For addresses of materials discussed in this article, see sidebar 1.) I was astounded. As of June 1990, their list included 46 titles from almost three dozen sources. After years of keeping an eye out for AIDS education comics, I had found out about only 15 of these titles.

Comic books are finally being recognized as a scholarly medium in literature, art, history, popular culture, and many other fields of study. Blanket disapproval of comic books, however, continues in all but a few academic libraries. Librarians do face philosophical and practical challenges to acquiring comic books, but it is both possible and desirable to do so. Valuable selection tools and Internet resources are examined, along with annotations of significant comic book creators.

In 1958 the Daily Express began publication of a comic strip adaptation of Casino Royale authorised by Ian Fleming, predating the original film version by four years. For the next 10 years adaptations of the novels and short stories appeared in the newspaper with Bond’s appearance fashioned firstly by John McLusky and then Yaroslav Horak. When the supply of Fleming’s stories was exhausted, new adventures were penned by Jim Lawrence with artwork by Horak, McLusky or Harry North. From 1977 publication switched to the Sunday Express and then the Daily Star. Eventually, the strips were reprinted for a whole new audience by Titan Books.

Subsequently, Bond appeared in a number of other comic book adaptations and reworkings, including key adaptations by the independent publishers Dark Horse and Dynamite, offering contemporary re-imaginings of this iconic, but always controversial, male icon. Taken together they provide a run of Bond adventures over more than 50 years. As such, they contain an alternative Bond universe, where his embodiment of male heroism mimics and varies Fleming’s original and the images constructed in the film franchise. This chapter will consider these mirror images and their responses to changing societal pressures as Bond adapts to new definitions of what constitutes the male hero.

We develop a four-factor conceptual framework to explain how information presented in comics differs from other media and therefore is processed differently. The unique ability of sequential art to manipulate time, prompt the reader for closure, utilize abstractions, and combine words and pictures to deliver a multimodal message mages comics an especially effected medium for marketing communications. The influence of these four factors is illustrated through the use of the comic medium in lieu of traditional text throughout this chapter. As a result, processing complex information is facilitated.

International business or International marketing.

The case is recommended for undergraduate and graduate courses in the fields of international business and international marketing. The aim is to show students the problems that a family business in the animation industry faces while growing and internationalizing. Specifically, the case discusses the entry mode selection and market selection challenges faced by an emerging market company in the comic book and animation industry to operate overseas and compete with entertainment giants such as Disney and DC Comics. The case enables the instructor to discuss international market selection theories and evaluate entry modes. For graduate students, the international market selection can be further developed by using more robust concepts such as psychic and cultural distance.

This case examines the trajectory of a pioneering company in the comic book and animation industries, and in the licensing of trademarks in Brazil. Mauricio de Sousa Productions was founded in 1959 and is considered to be one of the most successful cultural producers in the country. According to a leading Brazilian public opinion research agency, 97 per cent of Brazilian children and 96 per cent of their parents are familiar with the Monica and Friends characters. As one of the main players in the publishing market, with 86 per cent of market share, Mauricio de Sousa Productions has a product portfolio that goes beyond Monica and Friends comic strips: the company’s show on the Cartoon Network ranks third in audience viewing in the country and the company has produced animated movies, books, shows and games. However, despite its experience in publishing comic books in several countries, Mauricio de Sousa Productions (MSP)’s worldwide operations have not been as profitable and sustainable as expected. Aiming at expanding its global presence, MSP’s top management decided in 2014 to review the company’s internationalization strategy and operations to enhance the firm’s performance.

The case highlights the key factors facing firms when expanding from an emerging markets. Students are expected to discuss and evaluate options, thus developing their knowledge and decision processes related to family-owned business challenges and opportunities, international market selection theories and international market entry mode. Developing strategies to face challenges as those presented by competitors such as Disney should bring opportunities to students to think outside models and weigh risks. Finally, the case gives students opportunity to base their decision processes and evaluations on logistics problems as well as psychic and cultural distances. It also compels the students to appreciate the various challenges involved in exploiting international market with animation content and intellectual properties as a service.

Company presentation to use in the discussion introduction can be found in: www.monicaandfriends.com/content/video.php

CSS 5: International business.

This bibliographic essay examines the scope and variety of nonfiction works in comics form with the intent of expanding librarians’ awareness of the diversity of such materials and serving as a resource for librarians.

It provides some theoretical background for understanding what constitutes nonfiction in graphic form and an overview of works available in print.

The article provides a representative (but not comprehensive) survey of graphic nonfiction works in the genres of memoir, travel, journalism, history, biography, science, essays and educational materials.

The essay focuses on materials published in books in English; the library world would benefit from subsequent research exploring the richness of materials available in other formats and other languages.

The field of graphic nonfiction is expanding, and this article serves as a guide for libraries interested in building or expanding collections in this format.

Development of economic understandings fosters the growth of democratic citizenship competencies. Elements of popular culture should be recognized for the influence they have on children’s economic decisions. Children should learn of the concept of popular culture to regulate its effect on their habits and understand how it has shaped the lives of people throughout history. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Using a C3 inquiry investigation, this study explored if students from fifth grade to kindergarten could be engaged in higher-level thinking about economic concepts through the analysis of elements of popular culture in historical primary sources and then continue that analysis into popular culture of their own lives. Analyses of students’ discussions during each stage of the study provide descriptive statistics and themes to reveal understandings.

Results imply that children can successfully engage in document analysis and creation of accurate present-day popular culture artifacts and that children in second grade and above were subsequently influenced in their economic understandings about spending and saving money from popular culture analyses. Children in first grade and kindergarten were not successfully able to express these deeper connections, which may be explained by cognitive theory offered for this age range.

This research offers a unique way of combining the analysis of historic and present-day primary sources in order to understand the influences popular culture can have on economic-based behaviors. Novel approaches, which use the C3 framework to engage students in higher-order thinking of social studies disciplines, will help build stronger democratic citizenship competencies in children.

Access to media is more available now than ever before, both physically and digitally. This study was used to investigate the underlying personality traits that influence the decision to purchase either physical or digital books, and extend theory on access to art and provide a unique lens through which marketers can sell digital media.

Study 1 is a field study in which data were collected from several comic book readers and collectors to look at the role that psychological ownership plays in influencing the likelihood of buying physical or digital comics. Specifically, study 1 includes consumers' need for uniqueness and tech savviness as potential influencers. Study 2 extends the findings of study into a new context and manipulates, rather than measures, the identity of the participants. Study 2 looks at the effects of turning a digital object into a non-fungible token (NFT).

This paper demonstrates that consumers who have a high consumer need for uniqueness (CNFU) are more likely to prefer physical media to digital media. Further, it is shown that preference for physical media leads, on average, to more purchases and that the consumer's psychological ownership mediates the effects of CNFU. In addition, this paper shows that higher degrees of tech savviness led to a preference for digital media. Finally, this paper shows that when consumers identify with a collector identity, turning a digital item into an NFT increases their preference for that object.

This work builds off recent research into physical and digital media and is one of the first to examine the specific personality types that prefer each.

Comic books, especially if printed in black and white, are a relatively cheap communication and entertainment medium. This means that poor people (including kids) can afford them, and also that small publishers (including kids) can afford to produce them. It thus seems natural that there have always been “alternatives” to the comics published by the big companies with their color printing and Madison Avenue artwork.