The Monster Hunter in Modern Popular Culture
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About the Book
As monsters in popular media have evolved and grown more complex, so have those who take on the job of stalking and staking them. This book examines the evolution of the contemporary monster hunter from Bram Stoker’s Abraham Van Helsing to today’s non-traditional monster hunters such as Blade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Watchmen. Critically surveying a diverse range of books, films, television shows, and graphic novels, this study reveals how the monster hunter began as a white, upper-class, educated male and became everything from a vampire to a teenage girl with supernatural powers. Now often resembling the monsters they’ve vowed to conquer, modern characters occupy a gray area where the battle is often with their own inner natures as much as with the “evil” they fight.
About the Author(s)
Bibliographic Details
Heather L. Duda
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 192
Bibliographic Info: notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3406-0
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5187-6
Imprint: McFarland
Table of Contents
Preface 1
1. A History of the Monster Hunter 7
2. Humanity and the Contemporary Vampire 37
3. Vigilantism and the Graphic Novel’s Monster Hunters 67
4. The Advent of the Female Monster Hunter 101
5. Monster Hunters for the New Millennium 142
Conclusion 166
Chapter Notes 171
Works Cited 175
Index 181
Book Reviews & Awards
- Winner, Rondo Hatton Award
- “New perspective…highly recommended”—Midwest Book Review
- “An admirable job”—Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts
- “Recommend[ed]”—The Borgo Post
