From Serials to Blockbusters: Media Industry Approaches to Comic-to-Live-Action Adaptations and Race.

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes the relationship between comic-to-live-action adaptations and race from the 1940s through the present. Comic-to-live-action adaptations are increasingly lucrative and appeal to mass audiences, and as such the representations of race contained in these texts circulate widely and impact and interact with other media representations. Multiple media industries, including the comics, film, and television industries are involved in the live-action adaptation process. Each of these industries has its own set of expectations about the adaptation and its intended audience, and these assumptions circulate throughout the industries. I consider historical examples of comic-to-live-action adaptations, archival material from Marvel Comics relating to ideas about live-action adaptation of their characters, interviews with comics professionals and promotional materials from other industry workers involved with adaptations, and contemporary representations of Asian American and Latina/os in comic-to-live-action adaptations. Comics professionals often feel disrespected by the live-action industries, experience a lack of agency in the adaptation of their work, and choose not to have their work adapted. This diminishes the pool of available representations in comics, which in turn results in less diverse live-action adaptations. The historical status of live-action comic adaptation as a lowbrow genre and how industries react to its increased prominence in the present day have also impacted how race is represented. Racial difference is often represented in higher-profile adaptations, but nuanced discussion of race and its meanings is rare. This dissertation contributes to existing work in media studies, ethnic studies, and media industry and production studies, particularly in examining how the processes involved at various levels of media production impact representations of race in media.