I was reading this meaningless press release about the Marvel Universe and its latest goings on and encountered this job title:
Comic book historian Alan Kistler agreed: “Spider-Man is a scientist with a different perspective than Mr. Fantastic, and he specializes in different fields, so it could be very interesting to see how his own expertise rounds out this new Future Foundation. And from another angle, it could be interesting to see how Spidey feels about essentially replacing a person he considered a friend and what kind of pressure this will place on him.”
So do you think comic book historians have a deep grounding in Western Civilization or world history or does their specific training come in lieu of it?
Perhaps he has a Ph.D in art history and wrote his dissertation on comic books.
I’m just guessing. I get it that academics can get overspecialized, but without specialization, how would human knowledge advance?
So how does a comic book historian advance human knowledge?
This, I think, is a good model for what a doctorate is. It’s meant in jest, but it’s quite true. Assuming that this person or any particular comic book historian did intensive original research in the history of comic books, he’s necessarily advancing human knowledge by compiling and synthesizing information about a field of art.