Peter Coogan gained a doctorate in American Studies from Michigan State University, with his dissertation “The Secret Origin of the Superhero: The Emergence of the Superhero Genre in America from Daniel Boone to Batman”, which he revised for wider publication in 2006 . He coined the term Wold-Newtonry in a paper titled "Wold-Newtonry: Theory and Methodology for the Literary Archeology of the Wold Newton Universe." In it, he talks about literary archaeology, a term which he says was inspired by Warren Ellis's term mystery archeologists in Ellis and Cassaday's Planetary comics. The paper is at Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton pages, and as a chapter in Win Scott Eckert's Myths for the Modern Age book, published by MonkeyBrain Books. Coogan co-edited the Comic Art Studies newsletter and also set up the Comics Studies Email service to "coordinate communication about comic scholarship." The newsletter's motto was Comica Amica Nobicum and originated from the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection, to "facilitate communication about the Comic Art Collection at Michigan State University, and communication about public comics collecting and scholarship in general." In 2005, Coogan presented a paper titled "The Definition of the Superhero" at the interdisciplinary Holy Men in Tights Superheroes Conference at the School of Art History, Cinema, Classics & Archaeology, University of Melbourne in Melbourne, Australia.
Institute for Comics Studies
Coogan is the founder of the Institute for Comics Studies. The mission of the Institute for Comics Studies is to promote the study, understanding, recognition, and cultural legitimacy of comics.
Comics Arts Conference
Coogan is co-founder, co-chair, and co-organizer of the Comics Arts Conference which is held annually at the San Diego Comic-Con International and at WonderCon. The purpose of the conference is to "bring together comics scholars, practitioners, critics, and historians who want to be involved in the dynamic process of evolving an aesthetic and a criticism of the comics art form."
''Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre''
In 2006, MonkeyBrain Books published a much revised and expanded form of his dissertation as Superhero: The Secret Origin of a Genre, with a foreword by Batman-legend Dennis O'Neil. The book's main purpose is to define the superhero genre, and produce a standard definition for the term itself. Coogan writes: He draws a distinction between terms used as metaphors and terms used literally, concluding that - at least part of - the problem is a lack of scholarly definition of the superhero genre. Comics writer and critic Peter Sanderson, in his "Comics in Context" columns dealing with Coogan's Superhero, summarizes the contention over the term "superhero" by noting that some fictional characters not "explicitly portrayed as superhuman... nonetheless perform feats that real people would be unlikely to duplicate," citing Luke Skywalker and Jack Bauer as two examples. Coogan's remit, therefore, is to clarify these issues and: Sanderson also notes that Coogan - and his publisher, MonkeyBrain, who also publish Jess Nevins' annotations on Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - are not following the common trend in academic circles to largely ignore the superhero genre when comics are discussed. Coogan seeks to define not merely the superhero as a character, but also the genre itself, thereby discussing not just individual attributes, but types of story, noting that the superhero: Coogan's definition makes reference to DC's lawsuit against Victor Fox, who published Wonder Man in 1939, in imitation of Superman. The presiding Judge Learned Hand identified three defining characteristics in his ruling, which form a key part of Coogan's argument: Peter Sanderson, noted MarvelComics historian and author of the Comics in Context blog at QuickStopEntertainment, while not agreeing completely with Coogan's points, nevertheless states that the book "should become a basic text for study of the superhero genre," recommending it to all fans of the genre.
