Neptune Noir is a collection of essays on the hit drama Veronica Mars, and is not authorized by CW, the creators or producers of Veronica Mars, or any entity associated with the show. More than just a high school drama, Veronica Mars is a smart and savvy teen detective show that offers complex mysteries and rapier wit, engaging social commentary, and noir sensibilities—with the occasional murder thrown in for good measure. This collection, edited by the creator and executive producer of the show, offers supreme insight into the class struggles and love stories of the series. Essays by top writers intelligently address a multitude of questions, such as Is Veronica a modern-day vigilante? Why is a show that features rape, potential incest, and a teen girl outsmarting local authorities so popular with America's conservative population? and Why is Veronica and Logan's relationship the most important story-driving factor in the show?

Neptune Noir is a collection of essays on the hit drama Veronica Mars, and is not authorized by CW, the creators or producers of Veronica Mars, or any entity associated with the show. More than just a high school drama, Veronica Mars is a smart and savvy teen detective show that offers complex mysteries and rapier wit, engaging social commentary, and noir sensibilities—with the occasional murder thrown in for good measure. This collection, edited by the creator and executive producer of the show, offers supreme insight into the class struggles and love stories of the series. Essays by top writers intelligently address a multitude of questions, such as Is Veronica a modern-day vigilante? Why is a show that features rape, potential incest, and a teen girl outsmarting local authorities so popular with America's conservative population? and Why is Veronica and Logan's relationship the most important story-driving factor in the show?

The Essential Cult TV Reader is a collection of insightful essays that examine television shows that amass engaged, active fan bases by employing an imaginative approach to programming. Once defined by limited viewership, cult TV has developed its own identity, with some shows gaining large, mainstream audiences. By exploring the defining characteristics of cult TV, The Essential Cult TV Reader traces the development of this once obscure form and explains how cult TV achieved its current status as legitimate television. The essays explore a wide range of cult programs, from early shows such as Star Trek, The Avengers, Dark Shadows, and The Twilight Zone to popular contemporary shows such as Lost, Dexter, and 24, addressing the cultural context that allowed the development of the phenomenon. The contributors investigate the obligations of cult series to their fans, the relationship of camp and cult, the effects of DVD releases and the Internet, and the globalization of cult TV. The Essential Cult TV Reader answers many of the questions surrounding the form while revealing emerging debates on its future.

During the course of its three seasons, Veronica Mars captured the attention of fans and academics alike. The 12 scholarly essays in this collection examine the show's most compelling elements. Topics covered include vintage television, the search for the mother, fatherhood, the show's connection to classical Greek paradigms, the anti-hero's journey, rape narrative and meaning, and television fandom. Collectively, these essays reveal how a teen television show--equal parts noir, romance, social realism and father-daughter drama--became a worthy subject for scholarly study.

This bibliographic guide covers the “Buffyverse”—the fictional worlds of the acclaimed television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and its spinoff Angel (1999–2004), as well as the original Buffy feature film of 1992. It is the largest and most inclusive work of its kind. The author organizes and describes both the original texts of the Buffyverse (episodes, DVDs, novels, comic books, games, and more) and the secondary materials created about the shows, including books, essays, articles, documentaries, dissertations, fan production and websites. This vast and diverse collection of information about these two seminal shows and their feature-film forebear provides an accessible, authoritative and comprehensive survey of the subject.

Detective Fiction for Young Readers is an examination of contemporary mystery stories for children and young adults. This volume explores how the conventions, rules, and expectations of adult mystery fiction have filtered down, so to speak, especially in the past several decades, to writing for younger readers. The book is organized into three sections that explore the whodunit, the hardboiled, and the metaphysical styles of mystery fiction. Furthermore, this text analyzes how each style has been adapted for a younger audience, acknowledging and exploring representative novels most in keeping with that style. This volume is ideal for students, academics, and readers interested in children’s mystery fiction that adheres to formulas made popular after the golden age of classic detective fiction.

Get a sneak peak at Smart Pop's 2013 titles with this preview volume of standalone essays! Volume Includes: "Truth and Lies" – Debra Driza Downtown Chicago Faction Map from "Mapping Divergent's Chicago" – V. Arrow From Divergent Thinking: YA Authors on Veronica Roth's Divergent Trilogy, edited by Leah Wilson "Welcome to the Zombie Apocalypse" and "Overnight of the Living Dead French Toast" - Lauren Wilson From The Art of Eating Through the Zombie Apocalypse: A Cookbook and Culinary Survival Guide "Crime of Fashion" - Terri Clark From The Girl Who Was on Fire - Movie Edition, edited by Leah Wilson "Truly, My Name Is Cinna" - V. Arrow From The Panem Companion: An Unofficial Guide to Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games, From Mellark Bakery to Mockingjays "Lawless Neptune" - Alafair Burke From Neptune Noir: Unauthorized Investigations into Veronica Mars, edited by Rob Thomas "Introduction: Why Fic?" - Anne Jamison "Blurring the Lines" - Amber Benson From Fic: Why Fanfiction Is Taking Over the World, by Anne Jamison Plus an excerpt from the first book of Joanna Wiebe's new YA trilogy, The Unseemly Education of Anne Merchant

The literary character of Nancy Drew, created by the Stratemeyer publishing syndicate in the 1930s, has endured for more than eighty years. Successfully solving complicated mysteries, Nancy Drew offered girls the role model of a confident, independent young woman, functioning simultaneously within what was considered appropriate within the sphere of her gender and outside of that sphere in terms of her so-called moxie. Nancy Drew’s portrayal in the books has changed over the years, reflecting changing social norms, becoming a more obedient and less independent in the 1940s as women returned to traditional roles after World War II. Surprisingly, the Nancy Drew of the 1970s and 1980s did not reflect the changes brought about by the women’s movement and instead was transformed into a glamorous, globe-trotting professional private investigator in The Nancy Drew Files. The publishers soon came to their senses and brought back the plucky Nancy of old. In addition to analyzing Nancy Drew as a proto-feminist role model, Lynne Byall Benson provides a comprehensive bibliography of sources that can be used by scholars and teachers.

Prior to the 1960s, when African Americans had little access to formal political power, black popular culture was commonly seen as a means of forging community and effecting political change. But as Richard Iton shows, despite the changes politics, black artists have continued to play a significant role in the making of critical social spaces.

From "Wonder Woman" to Buffy Summers, Emma Peel to Sydney Bristow, "Charlie's Angels" to "The Powerpuff Girls", Superwomen are more than just love interests or sidekicks who stand by their Supermen. In her new book, Stuller shows how the female hero in modern mythology has broken through the boy's club barrier of tradition and reveals the pivotal role of high-heeled crime fighters in popular culture.Featuring spies and sexuality, daddy's girls and super-mothers, this is a comprehensive, engaging and thought-provoking guide to female detectives, meta-humans and action heroines, as well as their creators, directors, performers, and consumers. The book also includes a glossary of modern mythic women, from Aeon to Zoe, as well as a foreword by acclaimed cultural commentator Roz Kaveney, author of "Superheroes! Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films" (published by I.B. Tauris, April 2008).