The comic book has become an essential icon of the “American Century,” an era defined by optimism in the face of change and by the recognition of the intrinsic value of democracy and modernization. For many, the Middle Ages stand as an antithesis to these ideals, and yet medievalist comics have emerged, endured, even thrived alongside their superhero counterparts.
Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant emerged from an America at odds with monarchy but still in love with King Arthur. Green Arrow is the continuation of a long fascination with Robin Hood that has become as central to the American identity as it has to the British. The Mighty Thor reflects the legacy of Germanic migration into the United States. The rugged individualism of Conan the Barbarian owes more to the western cowboy than it does to the continental knight-errant, and in the narrative of Red Sonja we can trace a parallel history of Feminism.
This study began as a Kluge Fellowship at the Library of Congress (the worlds’ largest repository of comic books). It offers a reception history of medievalist comics, contextualizing them against a greater backdrop of modern American history. It illuminates some of the ways in which we use our imagined past to navigate the present, and it plots some possible futures as we transition into the “Asian Century.”