天美传媒

About

James C. Taylor is a Teaching Fellow in Film and Television Studies. He holds a BA in Film Studies from the University of Kent, and completed his Masters and PhD at the 天美传媒. His PhD thesis, 鈥楬ollywood Superheroes: The Aesthetics of Comic Book to Film Adaptation鈥�, develops a theoretically-informed approach with which to undertake close analysis of superhero blockbusters adapted from comic books. The thesis can be read . His first monograph, .

Research Interests

My research interests include Hollywood cinema, digital images, adaptation theory, transmediality, film seriality, media franchising, comics studies and horror. I am particularly interested in exploring ways in which style and form inflect the meanings of texts as they are adapted between media.

Teaching

In the 2025/26 academic year I am leading the first year core Film and Television Analysis module in the Autumn term, the third year and MA option Horror and the Gothic in Film and Television in the Autumn term, the first year core Screen Technologies module in the Spring term and the third year and MA option Film Seriality and Franchising in the Spring term.

I have previously taught on the following modules:

• Adaptation: From Page to Screens (first year core module)
• Film Criticism (first year core module)
• Film History (first year core module)
• Film and Television Studies 101 (first year core module)
• Visual Cultures (first year core module)
• Hollywood Cinema (second year core module)
• National Cinema (second year core module)
• World Cinema (second year core module)
• Post-Classical Hollywood (second year option)
• Art of Animation (second and third year option)
• Film Aesthetics (third year core module)
• Screen Cultures and Methods (MA core module)
• The Global Audience (MA option for the Centre for Cultural and Media Policy Studies)

Publications

The Superhero Blockbuster: Adaptation, Style, and Meaning (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2025).

'鈥淚 have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror鈥�: The Authentic Lovecraftian Image in Film and Television' in Christina Wilkins (ed.), Authenticity and Adaptation (Cham: Palgrave, 2025), pp. 61-82.

'The Owls Nesting in the Bat's City: Secrecy, Gotham's Social Structures, and the Court of Owls' in Marco Favaro and Justin F. Martin (ed.), Batman's Villains and Villainesses: Multidisciplinary Perspectives on Arkham's Souls (Lanham: Lexington, 2023), pp. 51-64.

'Configurations of Man, Monster and Hero in The Incredible Hulk' in Sarah Cardwell, Jonathan Bignell and Lucy Fife Donaldson (ed.), Epic / Everyday: Moments in Television (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2023), pp. 29-51.

'Postmodern Parody in Animated Superhero Cinema,' in Lorna Piatti-Farnell (ed.), The Superhero Multiverse: Readapting Comic Book Icons in Twenty-First-Century Film and Popular Media (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2021), pp. 87-104.

鈥楻eading the Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Avengers鈥� Intertextual Aesthetic,鈥� JCMS 60, no. 3 (Spring 2021), pp. 129鈥�156.

鈥楻enewing Hegemonic Masculinity Every Wednesday: Arrow and Television Form鈥�, in Esther De Dauw and Daniel J. Connell (ed.), Toxic Masculinity: Mapping the Monstrous in Our Heroes (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2020), pp. 34-51.

鈥楥an a Digitally Constructed Spider-Man do Whatever a Hand-Drawn Spider-Man Can?: CGI as Adaptation Strategy鈥�, in Barry Keith Grant and Scott Henderson (eds.), Comics and Pop Culture: Adaptation from Panel to Frame (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2019), pp. 232-245.

鈥樷��, Alternate Takes (2017). PDF available here.

鈥樷��, Writing Visual Culture, vol. 7 (2015).

Conference Papers

'What If鈥� The Multiverse Found its Home on Television? The Adaptive and Intertextual Dynamics of Marvel Studios鈥� What If鈥�?', The Superhero Project: 9th Global Meeting, The View Hotel, Eastbourne, September 2025.

'What If鈥� The Multiverse Found its Home on Television? The Adaptive and Intertextual Dynamics of Marvel Studios鈥� What If鈥�?', Critical Studies in Television 2025, Edge Hill University, St James Campus, July 2025.

'Restoration, Nostalgia and Mourning in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice', Association of Adaptation Studies 20th Annual Association of Adaptation Studies Conference: Adaptation, Restoration, Rebirth, Istanbul Bilgi University, June 2025.

'Change and Stasis in Alternate Timelines: Aesthetics of Mutability and Stability in X-Men: Days of Future Past and Logan', SCMS 2025, Fairmont Chicago and Swiss么tel, April 2025.

'Killer Media and the Transmedia Killer: Freddy Krueger鈥檚 Parodic Takes on Moral Panics', A Nightmare on Elm Street @ 40, University of Nottingham, November 2024.

'Are Superheroes Vertical or Horizontal? An Exploration of Aspect Ratios', The Superhero Project: 8th Global Meeting, The View Hotel, Eastbourne, September 2024.

'The Temporality of Grief and the Film Sequel: Reconstructing Memories in The Souvenir Part II', Association of Adaptation Studies Nineteenth Annual Conference: Time and Space in Adaptation, University of Szczecin, June 2024.

'Mourning in the Horror Film Sequel', Horror Studies Now 2024, Northumbria University, May 2024.

'"I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror": Cinematic visualisations of Lovecraft's prose', Fear 2000: Horror Uncaged, Sheffield Hallam University, July 2023.

'In Pursuit of an Authentic Lovecraftian Image on Screen', Association of Adaptation Studies Eighteenth Annual Conference: Authenticity and Adaptation, University of Birmingham, June 2023.

'鈥淥r is He Both?鈥�: (Re)connecting the Superhero and Horror Genres in The Immortal Hulk', The Superhero Project: 6th Global Meeting, Van Der Valk, Moers, September 2022.

'Hulk Undying: (Re)connecting Horror and Superheroes in The Immortal Hulk', Fear 2000: Horror Undying, Online, July 2022.

'The Strangest Continuity of All: Traversing Timelines in the X-Men Films', The Superhero Project: 5th Global Meeting, Die Wolfsberg, M眉lheim, September 2021.

'The Strangest Continuity of All: Journeying Across Timelines in the X-Men Films', Association of Adaptation Studies Sixteenth Annual Conference: Journeys: Memory and Migration, Online, June 2021.

'Tears of a Hulk and the Lonely Ranger: Configurations of Monster/Man in Television鈥檚 The Incredible Hulk', The Superhero Project: 4th Global Meeting, Die Wolfsberg, M眉lheim, September 2020.

'Into the Superhero-Verse: Self-reflexivity and Critique in Animated Superhero Cinema', The Superhero Project: 3rd Global Meeting, Die Wolfsberg, M眉lheim, September 2019.

'Into the Superhero-Verse: Postmodern Aesthetics in Animated Superhero Cinema', Association of Adaptation Studies Fifteenth Annual Conference: Adaptation and Modernisms, Masaryk University, Brno, September 2019.

'Junji Ito鈥檚 Gyo from Manga to Anime: Adaptation and Genre Hybridity', Fear 2000: Contemporary Horror Worldwide, Sheffield Hallam University, May 2019.

'The Adaptation鈥檚 Sequel as Textual Replicant: Blade Runner 2049鈥檚 Quest for Authenticity', Association of Adaptation Studies Thirteenth Annual Conference: Facts: True, Alternative, Evolving, University of Amsterdam, September 2018.

'Digital Imaging Technology and Technique', Film as Film Today: On the Criticism and Theory of V. F. Perkins, 天美传媒, September 2018.

鈥楥an a Digitally Constructed Spider-Man Do Whatever a Hand-drawn Spider-Man Can?: CGI as Adaptation Strategy鈥�, SCMS 2017, Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park, March 2017.

鈥楴ostalgic Reflections on American Comic Book and Cultural History in Superhero Blockbusters鈥�, Association of Adaptation Studies Eleventh Annual Conference: Adaptations and History, St Anne鈥檚 College, Oxford, September 2016.

鈥樷�淚 Must Become Something Else鈥�: Arrow鈥檚 Serialisation of Masculinity鈥�, The Superhero Project: 2nd Global Meeting, Mansfield College, Oxford, September 2016.

鈥樷�淪uperheroes in New York? Give Me a Break鈥�: Representing Urban Experience in Superhero Blockbusters鈥�, Association of Adaptation Studies Tenth Annual Conference: Adaptations and the Metropolis, Senate House, London, September 2015.

鈥楾he Mild Mannered Man of Steel: A Transmedia Dismantling of the Clark Kent/Superman Binary鈥�, The Superhero Project: 1st Global Meeting, Mansfield College, Oxford, September 2015.

鈥榃e are Iron Man: Forging Multiplicity in a Culturally Unfamiliar Superhero鈥�, Association of Adaptation Studies Ninth Annual Conference: Adaptations and Multiplicities, Flagler College, St. Augustine, September 2014.

鈥業t鈥檚 a Bird! It鈥檚 a Plane! It鈥檚 Coming Right at Us!: Staging Depth in Superman: The Movie鈥�, The Digital in Depth: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Depth in Digital Media, 天美传媒, May 2014.

鈥楤eyond Kick-Ass Narratives: Exploring Formal Properties of Comic Books and Digital Media Converging in Cinematic Space鈥�, Adventures in Textuality: Adaptation Studies in the 21st Century, University of Sunderland, April 2013.