Available now for preorder is a new cultural studies book by Swedish University Professor Robert Aman.

Titled ‘New Left Comics‘, the book examines how Swedish comic creators used mainstream comics (such as the Phantom) in the 1970s to discuss New Left ideology, social justice, and international politics. The book will be of interest to researchers and students in comics studies, cultural studies, media studies, and sociology.

Published by Routledge, this new book written by Robert Aman will contain 168 black and white pages containing English text, available in both Paperback and Hardback formats. It’s due for release on the 11th of March 2026.

The front cover seen below features an image of several raised fists, a common symbol of protest, freedom, revolution, and solidarity.

The various chapters found in the book are:

• 1. Introduction 
• 2. The Phantom and Foreign Aid 
• 3. Johan Vilde and Colourblind Anti-racism 
• 4. Tumac and the Revolution 
• 5. Mystiska 2:an and the Underside of the Welfare state 
• 6. Conclusion

The description provided by Routledge for the book reads:

Why does Johan Vilde testify about Sweden’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade? Why do the young Stockholm sons, Stefan and Sacho, in Mystiska 2:an discuss class society and commercialism on their way back home from school? And why does the Phantom start a co-operative society in the jungle and act as a mouthpiece for Prime Minister Olof Palme? And in reverse: why is it almost impossible to imagine Spider-Man, Tintin, or Archie ruminating about trade union issues, gender equality on the labor market, or to take a stand against the apartheid regimes in Southern Africa?

New Left Comics examines the leftist radicalization in Sweden during the decade immediately succeeding 1968 through the lens of comic books. It looks at four of the most popular and widely read comic books and graphic novels – Johan Vilde, Tumac, Mystiska 2:an, and The Phantom – between 1968-1980, and uncovers the ways in which writers and artists used mainstream comics as a medium to teach and inform readers about various forms of injustices and inequality – as well as utopian futures – by adding social, political, and economic comments.

This topical and engaging volume in the Global Perspectives in Comics Studies series will be of interest to researchers and students of comics studies, literary studies, visual art studies, cultural studies, media studies, and sociology. It will also be useful reading for a wider academic audience interested in discourses around world politics, politics and media, politics and popular culture and comics traditions.

We’re also provided a small brief about the author, Robert Aman:

Robert Aman is Senior Associate Professor at Linköping University, Sweden. He has previously been a lecturer at the University of Glasgow and is a former Visiting Fellow at several institutions, including Duke University, University of Oxford, Sciences Po Paris, and Ghent University. Aman is the author of many books and research articles, including two award-winning monographs – Serier för vuxna: Epix och den svenska serierevolutionen (Lystring) and När Fantomen blev svensk: vänsterns världsbild i trikå (Daidalos).

New Left Comics by Robert Aman is available now for preorder from a variety of website including from the publisher direct, Routledge and also from Amazon, Booktopia and Adlibris.

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