CFP: The Scientific Imagination / ICFA / Orlando, FL (Oct 31; Mar 18-22)

Call for Paper and Panel Proposals

36th International Conference

on the Fantastic in the Arts

The Scientific Imagination

March 18-22, 2015

Marriott Orlando Airport Hotel

The ICFA welcomes papers on any aspect of the fantastic - including fantasy, science fiction, weird fiction, horror, gothic, and fairy tales.

This year, we are particularly interested in topics related to our theme, The Scientific Imagination. Join us as we explore the possibilities and intersections of science and imagination—from Faust and Frankenstein, through the Golden Age and the New Wave, to steampunk and mash-ups—in all their guises, including fiction, film, television, music, theater, comics, visual art, and social media. Papers might explore topics such as rationalism vs. belief, science for good and ill, alternate and speculative technologies and biologies, futurism, imaginary sciences, time travel, and the tensions inherent in discovery, among other topics. We welcome papers on the work of our guests: Guest of Honor James Morrow (winner of the Sturgeon Award, the World Fantasy Award, and two Nebula Awards), Guest of Honor Joan Slonczewski (winner of two Campbell Awards), and Guest Scholar Colin Milburn (author of Nanovision: Engineering the Future).

The Visual & Performing Arts and Audiences (VPAA) Division accepts papers on

• visual arts such as comic books, paintings, architecture, sculpture, photographs and illustrations;
• the performing arts, including (film, TV, game, pop/rock) music, dance and theater;
• games, including fanfic, fan artwork and cosplay;
• transformative texts, both fan and professional, including mashups and viral marketing;
• and audience/reception studies concerning audiences for any medium or genre of the fantastic.

The VPAA Division Head is Isabella van Elferen. Queries can be sent to I.vanElferen@Kingston.ac.uk or I.A.M.vanElferen@gmail.com. Further contact information can be found below.

Our submissions portal will open soon to receive proposals: http://www.fantastic-arts.org/annual-conference/submissions/ . The deadline for submitting proposals is October 31.

CFP: The Canadian Alternative / essay collection (April 30)

Call for Papers

The Canadian Alternative

For a proposed edited and refereed volume on Canadian graphic novelists and cartoonists. Dominick Grace and Eric Hoffman, editors of Dave Sim: Conversations, Chester Brown: Conversations, and Seth: Conversations for the University Press of Mississippi, are editing a collection of essays provisionally titled The Canadian Alternative: Canadian Cartoonists, Comics, and Graphic Novels. We seek previously unpublished essays addressing Canadian cartoonists/comics. Our primary interest is in "alternative" cartoonists and cartooning, narrowly defined; that is, figures associated with the underground, independent, and/or ground-level comics movements.

Figures of key interest might include but are not limited to

• Marc Bell
• David Boswell
• Chester Brown
• David Collier
• Julie Doucet
• Rand Holmes
• Jeff Lemire (especially his independent work)
• Bernie Mireault
• Bryan Lee O'Malley
• Dave Sim
• Seth

However, and as the inclusion of Lemire above indicates, we are also interested in papers dealing with the Canadian "alternative" more broadly-defined, whether represented by the visions of specific creators who have worked in mainstream comics (Byrne, Dan and Gene Day, Lemire, McFarlane, etc.) or by Canadian alternatives to mainstream US comics publishing (e.g. the Canadian "whites" of World War Two), the various attempts to create a Canadian market/national hero (perhaps best represented by Richard Comely and Comely Comics's Captain Canuck), and other distinctly Canadian takes on the graphic medium (e.g. Martin Vaughan-James's The Cage, or BP Nicholls's use of comics/cartooning). Substantial essays (5,000-8,000 words) focusing on specific creators, comparing/contrasting the work of a few creators, or addressing Canadian movements in comics are welcome. Submit completed papers by April 30 2015 to Dominick Grace (dgrace2@uwo.ca) and/or Eric Hoffman (diamondjoecity@gmail.com). Inquiries/proposals are also welcome.

Though a publisher has yet to be determined, the University Press of Mississippi has expressed interest in publishing this collection.

CFP: Voyages / Int'l Graphic Novel and Comics Conf & Int'l Bande Dessinée Society Conf / Paris (Dec 31; Jun 22-27)

Call for Papers

Voyages

Sixth International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference /

Ninth International Bande Dessinée Society Conference

in collaboration with the joint conference of

l’Institut national d’histoire de l’art,

l’Université du Québec à Montréal et l’Université Lumière Lyon 2

Venue: University of London Institute in Paris/

Institut national d’histoire de l’art

Monday 22nd – Saturday 27th June 2015

From their earliest manifestations, comic art characters have travelled the globe and beyond. Whether realist or fantastical, drawn to educate or to amuse, comics have used their considerable and unique expressive power to depict journeys, both physically and mentally, to "elsewhere." As the medium has evolved worldwide into one attracting both an adult and a juvenile audience, this relationship to the voyage has diversified, as recently-developed trends such as “graphic journalism” attest. This conference will focus on the relationship of the sequential art form to the voyage and study representations of travel across the history of the medium up to the present day. The conference intends to consider the notion of "voyage" in a broad sense, to include related notions concerned both with geographical movement – such as migration, exile or deployment – and with the psychic journey.

With this inclusive framework in mind the organising committee for the joint International Graphic Novel and Comics conference and International Bande Dessinée Society (IBDS) conference welcome abstracts on all areas of scholarship relating to comics, the graphic novel, and bande dessinée.

Abstracts of 150-200 words in advance of a 20-minute paper, as well as questions and expressions of interest, should be sent to:
voyagesconference@gmail.com
or
c.macleod@ulip.lon.ac.uk

Deadline: 31st December 2014

CFP: Graphic Justices of the Future: Law and Jurisprudence in Futuristic Comics / UK (no date given)

Call for Papers

Graphic Justices of the Future:

Law and Jurisprudence

in Futuristic Comics

This cfp is apparently available only as an image, from this website. For more information, contact thomas.giddens@smuc.ac.uk

CFP: Marvel Feature Films / essay collection (Nov. 15)

Call for Papers

Marvel Feature Films

edited by Robert Moses Peaslee,

Matt McEniry, and Robert G. Weiner

The recent release of Guardians of the Galaxy marks the penultimate film in the so-called second “phase” of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a group of big-budget tentpole films that include Marvel’s The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Solider, Thor: Dark World, Iron Man 1-3, and the Incredible Hulk. Meanwhile, other studios like Sony and Fox have had success with films based on Marvel properties such as the X-Men and Spider-Man.

Feature films and full-length television movies based on Marvel characters go back to the 1970s, however, and very little scholarship has been produced on these films. The editors of this volume seek essays that discuss Marvel feature length films, and while we will consider essays that deal with the Marvel Cinematic Universe and more recent films, we are particularly interested in those films that have not received a lot of scholarly attention (including television and animated features).  We are also interested in work dealing with films produced when certain characters were Marvel properties (like Transformers, G. I. Joe, and Conan). Please note we are not interested in television series, per se, but rather the full-length films produced from them. We are also interested in the business aspect of Marvel Films and Marvel Animation.  We will also consider essays on those unauthorized foreign films based on Marvel characters like Turkish Captain America/Spider-Man, etc.

We are particularly interested in considering essays dealing with:
Transformers (1986), G.I. Joe (1987), Howard the Duck (1986), Captain America  (1979, 1990), Inhumanoids: the Movie (1986),  Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989), Man-Thing (2005), Ghost Rider (2007, 2011), Spider-Man: The Dragon’s Challenge (1979), Dr. Strange (1979), Generation X (1996), Power Pack (1991), Punisher (1989), Nick Fury: Agent of Shield (1998), Blade 1-3 (1998, 2002, 2004), Elektra (2005), Thor: Tales of Asgard (2011), Iron Man: Rise of Technovore (2013), Planet Hulk (2010), Fantastic Four (1994) and Next Avengers (2008).

A brief but by no means conclusive list of interesting questions to consider:

• How has Disney’s acquisition of Marvel changed the blockbuster landscape?
• Why were certain television or direct to video films like Captain America (1990), Captain America: Death Too Soon or Spider-Man: The Dragon’s Challenge released theatrically overseas?
• Why did Howard the Duck fail to live up to its hype, and what are we to make of his recent reappearance in the CMU?
• How can we think more deeply about the use of legend and myth in these films?
• What was the production history of Transformers (1986) and how did the film eventually factor into the continuity of the Marvel comics series? 
• Cyberpunk influences, particularly in films like Iron Man: Rise of Technovore
• Faustian influences in the Ghost Rider films and the use of the original Ghost Rider, Carter Slade, in the first film.
• How Daredevil and Thor were used in the Hulk television films?
• While Blade was moderately successfully in 1998, why did it take the 2000’s X-Men to kick start the current wave of Marvel and superhero films?
• Generation X as an example of X-film?
• Has Marvel Animation been successful compared to DC in producing high quality animated films?
• Planet Hulk as Greek/Roman myth?
• Traditional vampire lore in the Blade series.
• Spider-Man as a villain in the Turkish 3 Dev Adam, also featuring Captain America.
• The Bollywood 'Tu Mera Superman featuring a mash-up of Superman and Spider-Woman?
• Production history of producer Roger Corman’s ill-fated attempt at the $2 million Fantastic Four film.

Please submit a 200-500 word abstract by November 15th to Rob.weiner@ttu.edu and Matthew.mceniry@ttu.edu

Upon acceptance final essays will be due on Feb 15th.

CFP: Inkers and Thinkers: Alternative Forms, Alternative Voices / U of Adelaide (Oct 15; May 15-16)

Inkers and Thinkers:

Alternative Forms, Alternative Voices

An Interdisciplinary Symposium

at the University of Adelaide

May 15-16, 2015 

Call for Papers
The University of Adelaide’s Discipline of Media will hold its second annual interdisciplinary symposium on comics and graphic narratives on May 15 and 16, 2015. We invite researchers of all disciples, as well as artists working in the comics field, to submit proposals for conference papers. The theme of this year’s symposium is ‘Alternative Forms, Alternative Voices’.

Questions that could be addressed by research papers include, but are not limited to:

• How have comics historically been considered alternative and subversive? 
• How have comic creators used new technologies and emerging cultural practices to shape comics as an alternative or radical medium? 
• How have comics operated as a medium of expression for marginalised groups or ideas? 
• What publishing practices and formal properties have been used to position certain comics as alternative, or opposed to accepted ideas about literacy and discourse? 

Abstracts of 250-300 words for presentations of 15 minutes should be submitted to inkersandthinkers@gmail.com by October 15th, 2014. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by November 30th, 2014.

Call for Workshop Proposals
As part of the Inkers and Thinkers 2015 programming we are seeking proposals for 90-minute hands-on creative workshops on comics and graphic narratives to be held on May 15 and 16, 2015. The workshops should be thematically tied to the academic symposium, which explores the ways that comics have experimented with forms, uses, and content. Proposals are welcomed from both writers and artists, either working as individuals or in a team. Please note that we are seeking funding to provide stipends for accepted workshops.

Workshop classes could include, but are not limited to:

• Technical Aspects of Comics Production: Such as how to write effective dialogue, unfold action in sequence, portray character emotion, etc. 
• Crafting Comics Content: Such as how to illustrate a wordless comic, working with historical and autobiographical material, using comics for political or educational purposes, etc.

Submissions should include an overview of the proposed workshop, including a draft lesson plan, and information about the presenters, including any relevant teaching and/or artistic experience, as well as what equipment and materials will be needed for you and the class. Workshops should be designed to accommodate up to 40 participants.

Pitches for workshop sessions should be submitted to inkersandthinkers@gmail.com by October 31, 2014. Please indicate whether your session is designed for a beginner or intermediate audience, or both. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by December 1st, 2014.

CFP also online here.