Trent University Professor to Launch New Book Classics and Comics

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

First book of its kind examines the ancient world in comic books

Friday, February 25, 2011, Peterborough

Dr. George Kovacs will be celebrating the launch of his co-edited volume of Classics and Comics on Friday, March 4 at 4:30 p.m. at the Ceilie pub in Trent University’s Champlain College.

Classics and Comics is a collection of essays from around the world on the representation of Greek and Roman mythology in modern comic-books. Plans are already in progress for a second volume, due to overwhelming international interest and accumulating material on the subject from a growing number of academics.

“Now I can justify going to a comic book store by calling it research,” joked Professor Kovacs, the co-editor of Classics and Comics, released in January, 2011. The idea for the book was born out of a discussion with colleagues at a classics conference in 2008. “There is a confluence of characteristics of classicists and ‘comicists’,” said Prof. Kovacs. “Comic book fans and classics fans both read obsessively, poring over the same works repeatedly.”

Each of the sixteen articles was commissioned specifically for Classics and Comics. How we understand the synthesis of text and image, and how we generate modern meaning of classical content are ideas explored in this, the first book to address Greco-Roman classics in comics. The book includes appearances of DC Comics’ Wonder Woman, Frank Miller's Sin City, Jack Kirby's The Eternals, and examples of Japanese manga.

Prof. Kovacs’ areas of research include Greek and Roman literature, particularly theatre and stagecraft of the fifth-century BCE. He is a long-standing member of Trent University’s Classics Drama Group and has directed theatrical productions in 2009 (Andromache) 2010 (Wasps) and 2011 (A Man Who Hates People). He and his co-editor, C.W. Marshall (UBC), met at Trent in 1995. Classics and Comics is now available for purchase through Amazon or OUP.

-30-

For more information, please contact: Dr. George Kovacs, assistant professor, Ancient History and Classics, 705-748-1011, ext. 7679, gakovacs@trentu.ca