Comic-Con International

Scott Daniel Boras (Arizona State University) relates his experiences as "Ethnography Man," researching the world of cosplay at Comic-Con and investigating how cosplay both subverts and reinforces codes of conduct, and in the end is more about transcendence than escape. Beverly Taylor (School of the Art Institute of Chicago) presents her research into how the culture of physique athletes -- body builders, figure, and fitness athletes -- is influenced and inspired by superheroes, even to the point of considering their lives outside the gym to be their secret identities. Lincoln Geraghty (University of Portsmouth) looks at the culture of collectibles, focusing specifically on Comic-Con, to argue that these lunchboxes, toys, video games, and websites are such a part of the meaning-making process that they becomes texts to study in their own right.
Speaker Scott Daniel Boras, Beverly Taylor, Lincoln Geraghty