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Calls & Conferences

cfp: The Joint International Conference of Bande Dessinées, Graphic Novels and Comics

Location: Centre Belge de la Bande Dessinée and Hoek 38, Brussels, Belgium

Tuesday 24 June – Wednesday 25 June 2025 (online)

Monday 30 June – Friday 4 July 2025 (in-person)ers

The Taste of Comics

Taste is constructed through culture, aesthetics and the senses. What is good taste and bad taste? In the past comics were aligned with trash culture evoking notions of good literature and bad literature, good art and bad art. How and why were these hierarchies constructed? Are they still relevant? Changing tastes can make a topic more appealing or less appealing and inform how we view a place, text, theme, author, or artist. Aesthetic tastes have informed the reception of styles such as the école de Marcinelle or Hergé’s clear line. There are issues of good taste and restraint, bad taste and excess in art movements from the Classical to the Gothic or the architectural taste of the Cités obscures. There are also issues of taste in the consumption of art or fashion as in, for instance, paper cut out dolls and makeover stories. 

Speaking more literally, graphic gastronomy is filled with stories about taste and food in in autobiographies like Lucy Knisley’s Relish: My Life in the Kitchen. Food features prominently in manga of cookery and romance are found in manga such as Kitchen Princess by Natsumi Ando and Miyuki Kobayashi and LGBTQA+ manga such as Fumi Yoshinaga’s What Did You Eat Yesterday, or Jarrett Melendez’s Chef’s Kiss. Food features in instruction books like Robin Ha’s Cook Korean!: A Comic Book with Recipes and adventure stories skilfully whisked together with instruction as in Tetsu Kariya and  Akira Hanasaki’s Oishinbo a la carte #1: Japanese Cuisine. Bakhtinian excess is evoked in characters such as Capitaine Haddock’s drinking, Garfield’s love of Lasagne, and Scooby Doo and Shaggy who will eat anything. Matter-Eater Lad, from the Legion of Superheroes, of course, can eat anything. Eating can also be dis-tasteful in stories such as Chew, a detective who gets psychic impressions from whatever food he eats. And at the opposite end of excess is the tragedy of famine in graphic novels like Red Harvest: A Graphic Novel of the Terror Famine in Soviet Ukraine (Michael Cherkas) or starvation as in Art Spiegelman’s Maus.As always, papers outside of this theme are also welcomed. 

We are looking for papers based on, but not limited to, any aspects of taste such as:

·      changing tastes in comics and graphic novels – e.g. a franchise or character

·      artistic styles such as art nouveau, art deco, ligne clair

·      kitsch, punk, anti-taste

·      cultural tastes and traditions

·      synesthesia – tasting words, colours

·      graphic gastronomy, depicting food, recipes

·      horror and dis-taste – ghouls, vampires, werewolves, cannibalism

·      food and romance

·      greed and excess

·      feasting, fasting, famine

·      appetite and the body

·      changing appreciations of art and fashion, makeovers

·      places and their gastronomic reputations: Belgium and beyond!

As always, papers outside of this theme are also welcomed.

We invite proposals for single 20-minute papers, 60- or 90-minute participatory workshops or roundtables, or three-paper panels. Please complete the online form at https://forms.office.com/e/cwa9dxQeYW, which includes details such as proposal title, your desired format (paper, workshop, panel, roundtable), co-presenter details, in-person or online, abstract (200 words) and biography (100 words). The online form will close at midnight UK time on 31 January 2025, and we will confirm acceptance by 1 March 2025.

We hope this whets your appetite. Please email TheIGNCC@gmail.com with any queries, and keep an eye on our website www.IGNCC.com for more updates and the latest news.

 

Kategorier
Calls & Conferences News

CFP: ‘The Illustrated Woman’

A symposium on illustration research and practise in relation to notions of womanhood. 
The School of Design, University of Leeds, UK. 
Monday 19th May 2024 10am – 5pm.  

“When we change the way we see, the things we see also change.” 
Catherine McCormack 

This symposium aims to bring together academics and practitioners to discuss the phenomenon of the illustrated woman – a constructed or drawn image of a woman with a defined purpose to promote, illuminate, educate or entertain. Though  designed for dissemination to large audiences, illustration remains an often academically overlooked site of potential power, particularly in the ways in which it covertly or explicitly reflects or challenges ideological positions of womanhood.

To what extent do we actually see illustrated women? Whilst there is a wealth of studies about representation of women in art or photography, this symposium seeks to ask similar and new questions of illustration to uncover a fresh discourse.  Such questions include – How do contemporary illustrated “spaces of femininity” or topographies of womanhood operate? Is there a characteristic of the Gen-AI woman that contributes to key debates about visual constructions of femaleness and femininity?  What new (and old) theoretical positions may shape our understanding of historical and contemporary illustrations of women? What can our own contemporary illustration practice contribute to our understanding of the illustrated female form? How do different cultural contexts influence the portrayal of women in illustration? Are there cultural variations in the depiction of femininity, and how do they reflect or challenge local ideologies? How have historical shifts in societal attitudes towards women influenced the style and content of illustrated representations? What lessons can be drawn from past illustration that inform contemporary practices? 

We welcome proposals addressing (but not limited to) female representation in relation to: specific illustrators/collectives; genres of illustration (editorial, commercial (packaging/advertising), children’s books, comics/graphic novels etc.); race; modes of making; cultural similarity/difference; spaces of femininity; anatomy and physicality; Gen-AI; queer illustration; theoretical frameworks or positions; historical or contemporary perspectives; the gaze; authorial or professional motivations; production or reception regimes; social or commercial contexts; methodological approaches. 

Proposal Submission 

Please submit a 500 word proposal (appropriate for a 20 minute presentation) to c.m.stones@leeds.ac.uk and c.zlotea@leeds.ac.uk.  

The proposal should include a clear aim/research question, an outline of key arguments/findings and a conclusion. Illustrations may also be included. 

There will be plans following the conference to publish presented papers in an edited volume. More details will follow after the conference.  

Deadline for proposal submission: 30th Jan 2025.  

Notification of Acceptance: 28th Feb 2025 

Date of Symposium: Monday 19th May 2024 10am – 5pm. 

In-person Attendance Fees: £30 (full price) £5 (student price).  

For more information or questions please contact Dr Catherine Stones (c.m.stones@leeds.ac.uk)  or Dr Cătălina Zlotea (c.zlotea@leeds.ac.uk). 

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Uncategorized

The Voices of the Dead

Malmö University Comics Hub (MUCH) and K3 Monster Lab In collaboration with activist art group Party of the Dead Invite to K3 Halloween 2024 Exhibition:

The Voices of the Dead

October 29 to November 16 in K3 Open Space, Niagara building Art activism, satire, comics, workshops and calaveras.

Thursday October 31, 14-16

Grand opening with activities in and around K3 Open Space:                              

  • Draw your inner critics
  • Listen to the sound of the monstruous
  • Make contact with the Dead
  • Take part of comics and satirical drawings
  • Join the movement of Late Bloomers

Early November: Monster writing workshops, presentations and standup comedy. Dates not decided (but will be within opening hours of Niagara building)

Malmö University Comics Hub (MUCH) is a platform för research, artistic development and cooperation within the field of comics, hosted by the School of Arts and Communication (K3) at Malmö University. K3 Monster Lab is a research group looking into monsters and the monstruous, hauntology and creative practices, from a feminist and posthuman perspective. Contact: Åsa Harvard Maare asa.harvard@mau.se

The Party of the Dead is an art activist group located in Tbilisi and Cologne, using actions and installations to critique how the dead are used rhetorically in political pro-war discourse in today’s Russia. @partyofthedead @партия мёртвых

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Uncategorized

much at Ystad Comics Festival

much contributed to Ystad Comics Festival with an academic Friday, focusing on fanzines.

For the 4th time much presented an academic day in collaboration with Ystad (formerly Skillinge) Comics Festival. This time the research presented focused on fanzines. Among the presenters were Ýrr Jónasdóttir, head of Ystads Art Museum, who presented the museums huge collection of artist books. Anna Nordenstam, Professor of Literature at the University of Gothenburg, who presented her ongoing research on fanzines, and senior lecturer Anders Høg Hansen, Malmö University, who discussed his recently published book Mix Tape Memories: Movement and Difference in Life Writing in relation to the praxis of fanzine-making. See the full program below:


Kategorier
Calls & Conferences Events

Confirmed keynote speaker

Drawing Connections – Comics as Art and Inquiry, Symposium at Malmö University November 15–16, 2024. 

See CFP here:
https://comics.uni.mau.se/cfp-drawing-connections-comics-as-art-and-inquiry/

Dr. Harriet EH Earle. Photo: Sheffield Hallam University

We are happy to announce that Dr Harriet EH Earle FHEA, Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing, Sheffield Hallam University, will present a keynote.

Harriet Earle (Hattie) is a lecturer and researcher in comics and popular culture. Her current research brings fibre arts and needlework into conversation with comics. What connections can we make between these two artistic forms and to what end? If we broaden our working definitions of comics to include narrative needlework, how does our understanding of both fields change – who is included and what is gained? Hattie considers the politics and poetics of the needle as a tool for creating narratives that give voice and power to [previously] silen[ced/t] communities. 

Profile at Sheffield Hallam University:
https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/harriet-earle

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:


SERIES EDITOR
Global Perspectives in Comics Studies (Routledge)

BOOKS
Comics: An Introduction (Routledge 2020)
Comics, Trauma, and the New Art of War (U. Press Miss. 2017)

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Earle, H. (2024). How do comics engage with the Vietnam War? Two photography case studies. Americana: The Institute for the Study of American Popular Culture, 22 (2). https://americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2023/earle.htm

Earle, H. (2021). Traumatic Absurdity, Palimpsest, and Play: A Slaughterhouse-Five Case Study. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. http://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2021.1951787

Earle, H. (2020). The Politics of Lace in Kate Evans’ Threads: From the Refugee Crisis (2017). The Comics Grid : Journal of Comics Scholarship, 10 (1), 13. http://doi.org/10.16995/cg.215

Kategorier
Events News

Robert Amans: Serier för vuxna

Evenemang av:

 Seriefrämjandet – The Swedish Comics Association

Friisgatan 12, 211 46 Malmö, Sweden
Längd: 2 h
Boksamtal om ”Serier för vuxna” (Lystring).
Tisdag 28/5
Klockan 18-20
Rum för serier, Friisgatan 12, Malmö

I 272 sidor storformat berättas ett stycke vild och lätt osannolik litteraturhistoria om serieförlaget Epix med den excentriske förläggaren Horst Schröder i spetsen. Kokain gömt i kopieringsmaskinen, åtal för olaga våldspornografi och en kidnappning av en femåring är endast några av de ämnen som berörs. Men framför allt är det en berättelse om en grupp unga eldsjälar övertygade om att seriekonsten är ämnad för något större.

Robert Aman, bokens författare, samtalar med serietecknaren och tidigare Epix-medarbetaren Gunnar Krantz. Samtalet leds av Fredrik Strömberg.

Boken kommer finnas till försäljning på plats

Mer information om boken:
Under 80-talet förändrades den svenska seriekulturen i grunden. Ingen symboliserar denna förändring mer än den excentriske Horst Schröder och hans förlag Epix. I Epix, Pox, Tung Metall och en rad andra tidningar introducerade Schröder svenska läsare till tidens mest betydelsefulla serier från hela världen. Allt tydligt märkt med ”Serier för vuxna” i ena hörnet på omslagen för att markera att det rörde sig om ett innehåll väsensskilt från Kalle Anka eller Fantomen. Under en period på tio år fick Epix uppleva både triumfer och skandaler. Nu berättar alla inblandade för första gången hela historien om det mytomspunna förlaget som var en adrenalinspruta rätt i hjärtat på serie-Sverige.

Robert Aman – kulturskribent och serieforskare – har inte bara intervjuat Schröder och Epix-redaktionens mångtaliga medarbetare, utan även svenska och internationella seriestjärnor som publicerat sig i Epix tidningar, konkurrenter som gått i klinch med Schröder (eller tvärtom), journalister som rapporterat om förlagets förehavanden, kritiker och aktivister som helst av allt önskade att tidningar som Epix och Pox inte existerade. Och många fler.

Serier för vuxna berättar ett stycke vild och lätt osannolik litteraturhistoria. Kokain gömt i kopieringsmaskinen, åtal för olaga våldspornografi och en kidnappning av en femåring är endast några av de ämnen som berörs. Men framför allt är det en berättelse om en grupp unga eldsjälar, övertygade om att seriekonsten är ämnad för något större. Denna bok slungar läsaren tillbaka till 80-talet och innanför väggarna hos redaktionen på Frejgatan 19 i Stockholm, där luften var tjock av stora förhoppningar, brinnande entusiasm, gnisslande konflikter – och svart rök från Horsts pipa.

Boken är rikt illustrerad med omslagsbilder, utdrag från serier, pressklipp och fotografier, varav flera aldrig tidigare har publicerats.

Kategorier
Calls & Conferences Events News

CFP: Drawing Connections – Comics as Art and Inquiry

Symposium at Malmö University November 15–16, 2024. 

 Comics, with their unique blend of text and visualization, offer a rich field for artistic research, particularly in terms of their material components from the techniques used in creating the comic to the tools used to reproduce the comic. As an artistic research symposium, Drawing Connections aims to look at the material aspects of comics creation, exploring how these elements shape storytelling within the medium. While comics are a globally practiced form of storytelling, much remains to explore about the tools, techniques, and tactility that contribute to what makes the story tick. 

The symposium will address the role of comics in artistic research to emphasize how practical research in comics can facilitate inquiry and generate knowledge, particularly in understanding and innovating the narrative structures within the medium. To that end, we want to invite reflexive practitioners as well as researchers who make comics to test theories on comics, but also those whose research focus on the materiality of comics production. While we recognize the significance of digital production and publishing in comics, our discussions this time will exclusively explore the materiality and craftsmanship of analog comics. 

The symposium will take place at Malmö University and is arranged by MUCH (Malmö University Comics Hub) in collaboration with the Swedish Comics Archive and is designed to showcase how comics serve as a unique platform for narrative innovation, critical inquiry, and interdisciplinary dialogue. MUCH is a platform för research, artistic development, and cooperation within the field of comics, hosted by the School of Arts and Communication (K3) at Malmö University. 

 We welcome submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes: 

Comics as a methodology: Looking at how comics can be used as a method to explore complex ideas about narrative structure. 

The aesthetics of comics: Looking at how comics artists can use design and layout to influence the narrative experience. 

Exploring production: Looking at how comic book production – including technological and material constraints – has influenced storytelling styles and formats. 

Materiality and medium specificity: Looking at the physical aspects of comics (such as material quality, publishing techniques, and formats) and their impact on the development of comics as an art form. 

Archival research in comics: Understanding archival materials in the historical context of comic production and how past practices influence current trends. 

Future directions: Anticipating new trends, technologies, and methodologies in the creation and study of comics. 

Deadline for submission of 300-word abstracts and a short author note (c.150 words): June 30, 2024 to oskar.aspman@mau.se 

We hope you will join us in exploring the aesthetic, narrative, and theoretical potential of comics! 

Drawing Connections – Comics as Art and Inquiry

https://comics.uni.mau.se/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/drawingconnectionsCFP.pdf

 Illustration: Åsa Schagerström

CONFIRMED KEY-NOTE SPEAKER

Dr. Harriet EH Earle. Photo: Sheffield Hallam University

We are Happy to announce that Dr Harriet EH Earle FHEA, Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing, Sheffield Hallam University, will present a key-note.

Harriet Earle (Hattie) is a lecturer and researcher in comics and popular culture. Her current research brings fibre arts and needlework into conversation with comics. What connections can we make between these two artistic forms and to what end? If we broaden our working definitions of comics to include narrative needlework, how does our understanding of both fields change – who is included and what is gained? Hattie considers the politics and poetics of the needle as a tool for creating narratives that give voice and power to [previously] silen[ced/t] communities. 

Profile at Sheffield Hallam University: https://www.shu.ac.uk/about-us/our-people/staff-profiles/harriet-earle

RECENT PUBLICATIONS:


SERIES EDITOR
Global Perspectives in Comics Studies (Routledge)

BOOKS
Comics: An Introduction (Routledge 2020)
Comics, Trauma, and the New Art of War (U. Press Miss. 2017)

JOURNAL ARTICLES

Earle, H. (2024). How do comics engage with the Vietnam War? Two photography case studies. Americana: The Institute for the Study of American Popular Culture, 22 (2). https://americanpopularculture.com/journal/articles/fall_2023/earle.htm

Earle, H. (2021). Traumatic Absurdity, Palimpsest, and Play: A Slaughterhouse-Five Case Study. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics. http://doi.org/10.1080/21504857.2021.1951787

Earle, H. (2020). The Politics of Lace in Kate Evans’ Threads: From the Refugee Crisis (2017). The Comics Grid : Journal of Comics Scholarship, 10 (1), 13. http://doi.org/10.16995/cg.215

Kategorier
Events News

Författarsamtal med Liv Strömquist

Författarsamtal med Liv Strömquist om boken Den rödaste rosen slår ut, om romantisk kärlek från de gamla grekerna till reality-tv. Författarsamtalet arrangeras av Kultursamverkan vid Malmö universitet i samarbete med universitetsbiblioteket.

Måndag den 13 maj kl 17:15 – 18:15. Niagara, Hörsal C. Nordenskiöldsgatan 1.

Läs mer: Mau Reads: Författarsamtal med Liv Strömquist

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Uncategorized

CFP: Comprehending Comics: Exploring Methodologies and Approaches to Comic Studies in History and the Social Sciences

The conference will take place online September 8-9, 2024. 

Please submit your proposal by May 1, 2024.

Interest in comic studies have generated wide and varied interests from an exploration of visual language and narrative in sequential art to the use of technologies in comics, to considerations current questions in both contemporary society and history. These have led to fruitful research which cross disciplines and produced diverse and complex scholarship. Richard Scully have written extensively on political cartoons and their relationship with imperialism and colonialism. Amy Matthewson’s Cartooning China examined the British popular satirical magazine Punch and situated the series of cartoons of China and Chinese people within their geopolitical frameworks. Sheena Howard and Ronald Jackson’s Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation brought together a range of critical essays exploring contributions of Black graphic artists. Collections such as Drawing the Past Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2022), edited by Dorian Alexander, Michael Goodrum, and Philip Smith, brought a range of scholars to unite around the broad theme of the historical imagination in American popular media. 

There is still an evolving consensus on which the methodologies that scholars specialized in fields of history and social sciences could use when engaging with comics. Often, research focused on comics-formatted primary sources is pigeonholed into literary study, or in other cases the linguistic framework of describing and analyzing comics fails to translate to a discussion of material culture. As the range of demonstrated methodologies is vast, and as the advancement of comics-based research offers new potential for the study of history and the social sciences, it is a crucial time to reflect and take stock of current practice and possible future directions. 

We are interested in all aspects of comics-format works, comics and graphic novels, and methodologies and themes that might address (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Representation in comics
  • The challenges of comics-based research studies as applied to the study of history
  • Historical aspects of visualities and comics in particular
  • The future of comics in research
  • Archeology and comics
  • Ancient and medieval history in comics
  • The effects of digital tools in comic studies
  • Comics and the politics of methodology – race, gender, sexuality, class, etc.
  • The transnational, transcultural, and/or interdisciplinary nature of comic studies
  • Teaching history with or through comics
  • Teaching comics-based research methods
  • Comics in memory studies
  • Tensions and concordances between art history and history of comics and graphic novels

We are now accepting proposals for papers (20 minutes) and panels (of 2 or 3 papers). Graduate students are also invited to submit a poster, which will be displayed online for the duration of the conference. The poster section will enable asynchronous comments, and a presentation session where participants give a short 3-5 minute summary of the poster content. Please submit the following to comprehendingcomics@historyincomics.org or elizabethallyn.woock@upol.cz by May 1st 2024:

  • abstract of 300 words
  • a biography of 50 words including your name, email, affiliation, and gender pronouns

This will be an online conference hosted by the Comics Lab at Palacky University, Czech Republic. Given the international spread of contributors, participant time zones will be considered when scheduling panels. The conference will take place September 8-9, 2024. 

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Seminars

Seminar: Töpffer and autography

Tracing, re-tracing and transferring -an experimental and artistic approach to Töpffers use of autography

Gunnar Krantz 2024 – After R. Töpffer. Lithographic print.

Materiality plays a significant role in all artforms. In comics, it is predominantly the inked black line that is used to construct the narrative. Inking – putting black india ink on top of pencil drawings to make them suitable for mechanical reproduction is a practice that is deeply intertwined with comics and often taken for granted.

Inking comics has not been subject to any deeper artistic problematization, nor extensive scholarly interest. This is unfortunate since inking was a crucial part of Swiss artist, author, and cartoonist Rodolphe Töpffer’s (1799-1846) innovation ”literature en estampes” [graphic literature]. What did Töpffers artistic practice consist of? What kind of paper did he draw on, and what pens and ink did he use?

Other methods relating to Töpffers work that need further attention are tracing and autography. Did Töpffer, as Kunzle suggests (2009) trace his own drawings, how does the autographic printing method work, and finally; how does this relate to contemporary comics?

In this seminar, Gunnar Krantz, comics artist and professor within the arts in visual communication will present the results of an experimental workshop in autography conducted in Febraury 2024, using the method described by Töpffer and relate it to a survey of relevant literature. The seminar will be held at Malmö University and on zoom.

Wednesday 20th of March at 13:00 (CET)
Location: Malmö University, Niagara building, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. Room: NIC0541-K3 studio

Zoom: https://mau-se.zoom.us/j/62522949096


Kunzle, David. (2009). ”The Gourary Topffer Manuscript of Monsieur Jabot: A Question of Authenticity. With the Dating and Distribution of Rodolphe Topffer’s First Published Picture Story, and the World’s First Modern Comic Strip” in European Comic Art, volume 2, Issue 2. doi.org/10.3828/eca.2009.2