Drawing Connections – The Stories We Tell. Conference 2026

DAY 1. Friday November 13th. 
Venue: Malmö University, Orkanen B121 
Nordenskiöldsgatan 10. Ground floor, Entry from the street to the left of the main entrance.

Orkanen. Photo: Anna Wahlgren.


08.00 – 09.00 Registration 
09:00 – 09:10 – Welcome and Introduction 

Session 1. Aspects from Comics History: 
09:10 – 09:30 – Kristian Hellesund: Redrawings or remediation? 
09:30 – 09:50 – Lorenzo Di Paola: Beyond the Balloon: The Corriere dei Piccoli Page (1908–1910) as a Performative Space between Folklore and Modernity 
09:50 – 10:10 – Nina Ernst: Rhymed Order, Drawn Disorder: Text and Image in Ester Gill’s Early Newspaper Comics 
10.10 – 10.30 Robert Aman and Erik Nylander: The Circulation of Swedish comics: an emerging network of the 1990s 
10:30 – 10:40 – Q&A 

10:40 – 11:00 – Morning Coffee Break 

Session 2. Narrativity and Critical Making: 
11:00 – 11:20 – Charlotte J. Fabricius: Queer communities from screen to print: a Danish case study 
11:20 – 11:40 – Mathieu Li-Goyette: The Curious Case of Irene Vartanoff 
11:40 – 12:00 – Eszter Szép: In the Event of Comics 
12:00 – 12:10 – Q&A 

12:10 – 13:00 – Lunch 

13:00 – 14:00 – KEYNOTE: Ilan Manouach: From Raw to Low Resolution: Comics as Compression Artefacts 

Session 3. Entering the Public Space: 
14:00 – 14:20 – Eduardo Serradilla Sanchis: The concept of an exhibition extends beyond the physical space it occupies and the tools it employs. The dissemination of sequential language through a themed exhibition. 
14:20 – 14:40 – Anna Nordenstam and Margareta Wallin Wictorin: Comics at exhibitions: two examples with Swedish feminist comics. 
14:40 – 15:00 – Lars Vinter Kristensen: Storm P. and the Hidden History of Nineteenth-Century Danish Comics 
15:00 – 15:10 – Q&A 

15:10 – 15:30 – Afternoon Coffee Break 

Session 4. Modes of Publication and Reception: 
15:30 – 15.50 Åsa Warnqvist: Start Reading Comics! Storytelling Strategies in Comics for Children and Young People Published in Sweden in 2025 
15:50 – 16.10 Fredrik Strömberg: From Page to Scroll – the Transformative Possibilities of Online Comics Publishing 
16.10 – 16.30 Xiaoyu Zhou: Scrolling, Space, and Time: Rethinking Narrative Pacing in Webtoons 
16.30 –16.40 – Q&A 

Session 5. Collective Practice: 
16.40 – 17.00 – Kristina Öhman: Tuberculosis and participatory storytelling 
17.00 – 17.20 – Amr Abbas: Socio-political Critique and Engagement in Comics in Post-Revolution Egypt 
17.20 – 17.40 – Lovisa Prage and Marie Tillman: The unknown and inexplicable – comics within ethnography 
17.40 – 18.00 – Q&A, concluding remarks. 

19.00 – Dinner at Välfärden Restaurant (just across the street from the venue)

DAY 2. Saturday November 14th. 

Note! Change of venue. Orkanen, main entrance at Nordenskiöldsgatan 10. Auditorium C127 

Introduction: 09.00 

Session 6. Documenting Life and Identity: 
09.10– 09.30 – Jakob F. Dittmar and Bernt Clavier: Stimmung in Graphic Novels 
09.30 – 09.50 – Silvia Gianni: Reading Collectivity: Towards a Heuristic Model of the Reportage Graphic Novel 
09. 50 – 10.10 – Frits Gåvertsson and Jimmy Jönsson: Timber, Comics, and Narrative Identity 
10.10 – 10.20 – Q& A 

10.20 – 10.30 – Morning Coffee Break 

Session 7. Comics in a Time of Crisis: 
10.30 – 10.50 Yasco Horsman and Mathijs Peters: Narrating and Drawing: Luz, Meurisse, Coco 
10. 50 – 11.10 Sally Pirie: “Our Story is a Moving Target”: Using comics-based research to tell “dangerous” stories 
11.10– 11.30 Mike Classon Frangos: How Do Comics Shape Narratives of Emergency? 
11.30 – 11.40 – Q&A 

11.40 – 12.40 – Lunch 

Session 8. Artsbased pratice- and research: 
12:40 – 13:00 – Romy Surprenant: On Quilted Comics and the Representation of the Tactile 
13:00 – 13:20 – Emilia Bergmark: Human Nature 
13.20 – 13.40 –Tara Black: The comic is eating my life: Auto-fiction and comics 
13.40 – 14.00 – Bitte Andersson: Empowerment – Exploring Comics’ Ability to Strengthen Readers and Communities 
14.00 – 14.20 – Fredric Gunve: Every day I touch the world with my eyes through my glasses – framing my neighbourhood as comic-art. 

14:20 – 14:40 – Q&A. Closing remarks.
15.00 End of Conference.

View from the Swedish Comics Archive

Pre-conference, Pre-conference day at The Comics Archive
Thursday November 12th between 09.00 (AM) to 17.00 (PM)
The Comics Archive, Friisgatan 19. 
The easiest way to find The Comics Archive at Friisgatan 19 is to take the train from Malmö Central station to The Triangeln station (ab. 3 minutes ride). Use the North entrance facing Johanneskyrkan and the Triangeln mall. Walk ab. 5 minutes East along Friisgatan, cross Bergsgatan and the entrance to the archive is right before the Panora cinema at Friisgatan 19. 

See pdf: The Comics Archive visit