Noir justice: Law, crime and morality in Díaz Canales and Guarnido’s Blacksad: Somewhere within the shadows and Arctic-nation

Comics have a long history of engagement with concepts of justice. Mainstream comics in English have commonly focused on crime, crime prevention, and punishment as part of their broader preoccupation with themes of power, abuse of power, and responsibility. This engagement is perhaps most obvious in...

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Main Author: Hanley, Jane
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Published: Research Online 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol16/iss1/16
https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1301&context=ltc
id ftunivwollongong:oai:ro.uow.edu.au:ltc-1301
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spelling ftunivwollongong:oai:ro.uow.edu.au:ltc-1301 2023-05-15T15:06:21+02:00 Noir justice: Law, crime and morality in Díaz Canales and Guarnido’s Blacksad: Somewhere within the shadows and Arctic-nation Hanley, Jane 2012-01-01T08:00:00Z application/pdf https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol16/iss1/16 https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1301&context=ltc unknown Research Online https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol16/iss1/16 https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1301&context=ltc Law Text Culture article 2012 ftunivwollongong 2020-02-25T10:01:14Z Comics have a long history of engagement with concepts of justice. Mainstream comics in English have commonly focused on crime, crime prevention, and punishment as part of their broader preoccupation with themes of power, abuse of power, and responsibility. This engagement is perhaps most obvious in the traditional superhero genre, in which ostensibly ‘good’ heroes are charged to protect the innocent and right wrongs perpetrated by ‘bad’ villains. Analysing the stories of the two iconic heroes Superman and Batman, Reyns and Henson identify a ‘crime control’ model of justice focused on preventing and repressing crime (2010). In this model, the formal legal system is inadequate and due process is failing, thus indicating the need for vigilantism. Yet despite the failures of the legal system, the overall social order and obedience to the law is nevertheless the accepted morality. Phillips and Strobl similarly conclude that the underlying message in mainstream comics is a conservative one: the goal is always to reinforce or restore an 380 Hanley ideal of social order (2006). Thus, the concept of justice can be utilised as a broad model for understanding inequality, abuse and recompense in human relations. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic University of Wollongong, Australia: Research Online Arctic Canales ENVELOPE(-59.693,-59.693,-62.498,-62.498) Henson ENVELOPE(-168.350,-168.350,-84.833,-84.833)
institution Open Polar
collection University of Wollongong, Australia: Research Online
op_collection_id ftunivwollongong
language unknown
description Comics have a long history of engagement with concepts of justice. Mainstream comics in English have commonly focused on crime, crime prevention, and punishment as part of their broader preoccupation with themes of power, abuse of power, and responsibility. This engagement is perhaps most obvious in the traditional superhero genre, in which ostensibly ‘good’ heroes are charged to protect the innocent and right wrongs perpetrated by ‘bad’ villains. Analysing the stories of the two iconic heroes Superman and Batman, Reyns and Henson identify a ‘crime control’ model of justice focused on preventing and repressing crime (2010). In this model, the formal legal system is inadequate and due process is failing, thus indicating the need for vigilantism. Yet despite the failures of the legal system, the overall social order and obedience to the law is nevertheless the accepted morality. Phillips and Strobl similarly conclude that the underlying message in mainstream comics is a conservative one: the goal is always to reinforce or restore an 380 Hanley ideal of social order (2006). Thus, the concept of justice can be utilised as a broad model for understanding inequality, abuse and recompense in human relations.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Hanley, Jane
spellingShingle Hanley, Jane
Noir justice: Law, crime and morality in Díaz Canales and Guarnido’s Blacksad: Somewhere within the shadows and Arctic-nation
author_facet Hanley, Jane
author_sort Hanley, Jane
title Noir justice: Law, crime and morality in Díaz Canales and Guarnido’s Blacksad: Somewhere within the shadows and Arctic-nation
title_short Noir justice: Law, crime and morality in Díaz Canales and Guarnido’s Blacksad: Somewhere within the shadows and Arctic-nation
title_full Noir justice: Law, crime and morality in Díaz Canales and Guarnido’s Blacksad: Somewhere within the shadows and Arctic-nation
title_fullStr Noir justice: Law, crime and morality in Díaz Canales and Guarnido’s Blacksad: Somewhere within the shadows and Arctic-nation
title_full_unstemmed Noir justice: Law, crime and morality in Díaz Canales and Guarnido’s Blacksad: Somewhere within the shadows and Arctic-nation
title_sort noir justice: law, crime and morality in díaz canales and guarnido’s blacksad: somewhere within the shadows and arctic-nation
publisher Research Online
publishDate 2012
url https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol16/iss1/16
https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1301&context=ltc
long_lat ENVELOPE(-59.693,-59.693,-62.498,-62.498)
ENVELOPE(-168.350,-168.350,-84.833,-84.833)
geographic Arctic
Canales
Henson
geographic_facet Arctic
Canales
Henson
genre Arctic
genre_facet Arctic
op_source Law Text Culture
op_relation https://ro.uow.edu.au/ltc/vol16/iss1/16
https://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1301&context=ltc
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