Published in the Studies in Cartoons and Comics Series
In Petrochemical Fantasies, Daniel Worden reveals the entwined history of comics and fossil fuels in the United States. From the 1840s to the present, comics have depicted the power, pollution, and rapid expansion of energy systems—especially the explosive growth of coal and oil. In the 1930s, some of the first comic books were the gas station giveaways Gulf Funny Weekly and Standard Oil Comics. And in recent years, comics have become one of the major sites for visualizing life after oil, a striking reversal of the medium’s early boosterism.
Surveying the work of acclaimed artists such as Nell Brinkley, George Herriman, Jack Kirby, Winsor McCay, and R. F. Outcault and recovering little-known works, Worden advances a new history of American comics in the Anthropocene. From late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century editorial cartoons and superhero comics that visualize our modern energy culture to contemporary comics grappling with climate crises, Petrochemical Fantasies places comics, environmental humanities, and energy studies in conversation with each other to unearth the crucial but overlooked history of comics’ place in US energy culture.
“Convincing and compelling, Petrochemical Fantasies is certain to have an impact on academic conversations about energy sources and popular culture. Worden illuminates in rich detail how US comics articulate the hopes and anxieties bound up in fossil fuels.” —Paul Williams, author of The US Graphic Novel
“Combining insights from two of the most rapidly expanding areas of humanities inquiry—energy humanities and comics studies—Petrochemical Fantasies is highly relevant and the first major work in its area. Scholars in both fields will find new and valuable material.” —Bart Beaty, author of Unpopular Culture: Transforming the European Comic Book in the 1990s
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