From white eagles to turbopoles. The specifics of superhero narratives in Polish comic books

ABSTRACT

Within the larger context of global superhero narratives, Polish comic books are not considered meaningful—both artistically and financially—types of such stories. However, it would be misguided to consider Polish superhero comics as a marginal area of research. In my article, I would like to recreate the approaches of Polish creators towards building and expanding local superhero universes in comics, who tend to adopt either of two main strategies. One of those, represented in the Biały Orzeł (The White Eagle) series by Adam Kmiołek and Maciej Kmiołek, can be defined as an 'interception' strategy, because these titles extensively derive from the American models of universe-based narratives. Secondly, by looking at the growing range of Polish superhero comics such as Jan Hardy (John Indomitable) by Jakub Kijuc or TurboLechici (TurboPoles) by Karol Kalinowski, which evidently challenge the American pattern, I intend to describe the logic of the 'localization' strategy in the construction of superheroes and the overall idea of a universe-alized storytelling. Subsequently, I would like to concentrate on presenting these 'transnational' and 'transnarrative' connections between American and Polish supermen whilst explaining the characteristics of managing the 'local' variation of a superhero universe.

KEYWORDS:

• Superheroes
• american Monomyth
• polish Monomyth
• polish superheroes
• comic books

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tomasz Żaglewski

Tomasz Żaglewski is a PhD in the Institute of Cultural Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland). He is an author of many comics-related academic papers published in the most important Polish art and social sciences journals.  Recently his papers were published in the „Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics” and “International Journal of Comic Art“. His main academic interest is in regard to superhero narratives as a transmedia and transcultural phenomenon. He published the very first Polish monography about a modern comic book film: “Kinowe uniwersum superbohaterów. Analiza współczesnego filmu komiksowego“ (“Superheroes' Cinematic Universe. Analyzing a modern comic book film“) by the PWN Group publisher. In 2018 he presented a papers during “ImageTech: Comics and Materiality“ conference at the University of Florida and “Superheroes Beyond“ conference at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.