Almost missed this one:
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/47574
Call for Papers: Collection of Essays
"Superhero Synergies: Genre in the Age of Digital Convergence"
Edited by
James Gilmore (UCLA) and Matthias Stork (UCLA)
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Since the late 1990s, the proliferation of digital media has opened
up a seemingly infinite horizon of narrative possibilities in transmedia
storytelling. Traditional ideas about the look and the texture of
cinema, television, and comics have equally undergone striking revision
in the age of digital convergence. New technologies--including 3-D,
video on-demand, and electronic tablets--change the ways we think about
media production, aesthetics, and consumption. Digital media have made
popular culture a malleable entity to be modified continuously. As a
result, popular media do not exist in isolation, but converge into
complex multidimensional objects. The Internet further relays this
multidimensionality via discussion forums, fan fiction, and video-based
criticism.
Nowhere has this phenomenon been more persistent, more creative, or
sparked more discussion than in the superhero genre. While the genre is
home to many of the most financially successful films of the last 15
years, it has also developed life in video games, digital comics,
Internet criticism, video essays, novelizations, television programs,
and other forms of media. These media may speak to each other--as in a
video game based on the film The Avengers which is, in turn, based on a
series of Marvel comic books--or incorporate and critique forms of
media--as when the television series Heroes consciously employs comic
book aesthetics as a central narrative component. The superhero genre
thus forms an ideal lynchpin to examine the contemporary landscape of
popular media convergence.
The goal of this anthology is to explore the intricate relationship
between superheroes and digital media in an era of convergence.
Specifically, we encourage contributors to consider analytical,
research-driven, and theoretical work that tackles the problems and
possibilities of convergence culture as it relates to the experience and
study of superheroes in the contemporary world of digital media. While
the anthology incorporates a theoretical dimension, we predominantly
seek submissions that emphasize the experience of superheroes and
analysis of superhero images in this expanding and converging digital
landscape.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
* How do conceptions of “genre” and “narrative” change amidst the interaction of multiple digital media forms?
* Adaptation: How might superhero texts accent themselves as acts of
adaptation? How do digital media and transmedia storytelling transform
the notion of fidelity?
* Reception study: What opportunities do digital media present for
spectators to interact with each other and the media texts, and what are
the scope and shape of those fandom culture interactions (i.e. avatar
creation, fan fiction, video essay criticism)?
* Textual/aesthetic analysis: How do the texts themselves--comics,
films, video games, etc.--employ digital media and technology? In what
ways do their aesthetics and structures communicate a converging digital
landscape?
* Cultural studies: How do digital media inform the discourse of
socio-cultural issues within the genre, its texts, and their reception?
How might digital media convergence foster a more complex discourse of
these social, cultural, or political issues central to the genre--or do
they?
* Marketing aesthetics: How do the advertising strategies for individual
texts take advantage of an array of new media technologies?
* Film criticism: How does contemporary criticism use digital media
technology to analyze and chronicle the development of the superhero
genre?
* Gender analysis: How are male and female bodies figured in the
superhero genre, and how have those representations changed over time
and across different forms of media?
Interested writers should submit a proposal of approximately 400-600
words. Each proposal should clearly state 1) the research question
and/or theoretical goals of the essay, 2) the essay’s relationship to
the anthology’s core issues, and 3) a potential bibliography. Please
also include a brief CV. Accepted essays should plan to be approximately
6,000-7,000 words.
Deadline for proposals: November 1, 2012
Please send proposals to both contact e-mails:
James Gilmore:
james.n.gilmore@gmail.com
Matthias Stork:
mstork@ucla.edu
Publication timetable:
November 1, 2012 – Deadline for Proposals
December 15, 2012 – Notification of Acceptance Decisions
April 15, 2013 – Chapter Drafts Due
July 15, 2013 – Chapter Revisions Due
August 30, 2013 – Final Revisions Due
Acceptance will be contingent upon the contributors' ability to meet these deadlines, and to deliver professional-quality work.
If you have any questions, please contact the editors.
Both Stone Arch and Harper's I Can Read series have recently tackled the origin of Wonder Woman. Both do a good job with the story and offer a nice balance of old and new. (Stone Arch also has additional adventures of Wonder Woman; details at http://www.capstonepub.com/product/9781434226518.)
Stein, Erin K. WonderWoman: I Am Wonder Woman. Illus. Rick Farley. I Can Read Level 2. N.p.:
Harper-HarperCollinsPublishers, 2010. 32 pp. 978-0-06-188517-4
As Wonder Woman, Diana is granted a variety of powers
and tools, including the Invisible Jet, to achieve her mission. 
