The Face of Fear

The book complemented a film festival at the BFI Southbank, ‘Fashion in Film’. Sabin's chapter concerned 'The Face of Fear', a movie directed by Richard Fleischer, and one other, ‘Blood and Black Lace’ (1963), directed by Mario Bava, and explored their common interest in ‘faceless killers’. This required applying approaches derived from Cultural Studies and psychoanalysis to offer close readings of the movies, and to offer analyses of connected ephemera – such as comic books.

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).