The Comics Connection: Low Culture Meets Even Lower Culture

This book traces the development of the action TV series from its genesis in the 1950s to the present day.

My chapter concerns comic books, and how the comics industry piggybacked onto the action TV craze – with remarkable success.

The essay asks how far TV tie-in comics acted as a form of ‘surrogate TV’ for a readership often too young to be allowed to stay up to see the actual shows. This entailed investigation of how far the low cultural positioning of comics had repercussions for the way they went about their adaptations – what to retain from shows, what to jettison, and how to re-mould them in an acceptable manner.

Roger Sabin

Research Interests

Cultural history, cultural studies, subcultural studies, film and television studies. Specialisms: comics, graphic novels, manga; punk and counterculture; 19th century entertainment; television crime drama. Cultural theory, especially postmodernism in history.
Current Research

Currently completing one book and co-authoring two others. The sole-authored book is about 19th century ‘funny papers’/comics, and in particular the character 'Ally Sloper', the first comics superstar. The other two concern TV crime drama: one is about The Wire, and one about the history of the genre. Also, various smaller-scale projects involving comics, graphic novels, manga and other areas listed above.

Previous books include: As Author: Comics, Comics and Graphic Novels (Phaidon); Adult Comics: An Introduction (Routledge); The Lasting of the Mohicans (University Press of Mississippi – co-authored with Martin Barker). As Editor: Punk Rock: So What? (Routledge); Below Critical Radar: Fanzines and Alternative Comics 1976-Now (Codex - with Teal Triggs); The Movie Book (Phaidon – with Michael Newton).