FROM GUM WRAPPERS TO RICHIE RICH MATERIALITY CHEAP COMICS

Between the 1930s and the invention of the internet, American comics reached readers in a few distinct physical forms: the familiar monthly stapled pamphlet, the newspaper comics section, bubblegum wrappers, and bound books. From Gum Wrappers to Richie Rich: The Materiality of Cheap Comics places the history of four representative comics-Watchmen, Uncle Scrooge, Richie Rich, and Fleer Funnies featuring Pud-in the larger contexts of book history, children's culture, and consumerism to understand the roles that comics have played as very specific kinds of books. Examining the bibliographical histories of each title, Barnholden demonstrates how the materiality of consumer culture suggests meanings to comics texts beyond the narratives.