CFP - Project: Comic Con, St. Louis MO (Aug. 31; Oct. 17-18)

Call for Papers, Presentations, and Panels

Project: Comic Con 

October 17-18, 2015 

St Louis, MO

Dear colleagues, scholars, and friends:

We invite submissions for proposed papers, presentations, and panel sessions related to comics and graphic narratives for inclusion within the academic mini-conference held in conjunction with Project: Comic Con, a locally organized, family friendly celebration of comics, cartoons, anime, and pop culture in St Louis, MO.

As this year’s theme is “Women in Comics,” we are especially interested in potential presentations, panels, workshops, or creative sessions that relate with or speak directly to the changing role of women in comics as characters, creators, and consumers. We also welcome proposals that deal specifically with works related to or produced by our anticipated roster of guests.

More information concerning the Project: Comic Con guest list, programming, and accommodations can be found here: http://www.projectcomiccon.com/

All accepted presenters receive a two-day pass to Project: Comic Con. All presentations are open to anyone with a pass.

As our conference is also meant to encourage popular discussion and debate, we encourage and prefer visually engaging and accessible presentations.

Please submit abstracts and proposals of no more than 300 words and a brief biographical statement no later than 31st August, 2015. Please send all materials as Word attachments to Daniel Yezbick at DYezbick@stlcc.edu.

We look forward to your proposals.

CFP: Sacred Texts and Comics (edited collection; Aug.21, 2015)

Call for Papers

Sacred Texts and Comics:

Religion, Faith, and Graphic Narratives

The last decade has produced critical and expressive studies in sacred canonical texts and comics. Witness, for example, the artistic works from R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis (2009) and JT Waldman’s Megillat Esther (2005), as well as scholarly publications from Karline McLain’s India's Immortal Comic Books (2009), A. David Lewis’s edited volume Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books & Graphic Novels (2010), and Samantha Baskind’s and Ranen Omer-Sherman’s editorial work for The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches (2010).

Sacred Texts and Comics: Religion, Faith, and Graphic Narratives is a proposed volume for the “Critical Approaches to Comics Artists” series at the University Press of Mississippi that builds upon, but also beyond, Western or “major” religious traditions to develop a broader landscape of religious graphic mediums. We encourage submissions that engage Islamic, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Native American, African Diaspora traditions, or other religious communities from a variety of disciplinary or cross-disciplinary perspectives. Such critical approaches may include studies in religion, literature, theology, art history, culture, anthropology, political science, or other disciplines that work with the multi-dimensional features of graphic narratives.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Depictions of the sacred in comics
• The place of historical exegesis and critical, religious interpretation in graphic narratives
• Comics as a form and method of interpretation
• The ways in which the graphic, formal features engage notions of the sacred
• The modes by which graphic narratives represent the sacred or conceptions of religion
• The ways in which religious identity and belief are represented and explored in graphic mediums
• The multiple ways that visual culture informs religious practice

Please send a 500-1000 word abstract, CV, and contact information to Ken Koltun-Fromm (kkoltunf@haverford.edu) and Assaf Gamzou (assaf@cartoon.org.il) by August 21, 2015. Haverford College will host a symposium on “Sacred Texts and Comics” on May 5th and 6th, 2016 that will include workshops for contributors to this proposed volume. Please indicate your interest in and availability to participate in the symposium (all expenses will be paid, including a small stipend).

Via.

CFP: The Canadian Alternative (edited collection / deadline extension to Aug 31)

CFP:

The Canadian Alternative

(edited collection)

Deadline extension: Now August 31, 2015

We have EXTENDED THE DEADLINE 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 Cages, 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 to Dominick Grace (dgrace2@uwo.ca) and/or Eric Hoffman (diamondjoecity@gmail.com). Inquiries/proposals are also welcome. NEW DEADLINE: AUGUST 31 2015

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

CFP: The Comics of Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell (collection; Aug. 15)

Call for Papers

The Comics of Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell

(an edited collection)

This proposed volume for the University Press of Mississippi's book series, Critical Approaches to Comics Artists, will examine the works of two influential cartoonists: Julie Doucet and Gabrielle Bell. These artists have helped shape the world of contemporary comics, particularly through their experiments in autobiography, travelogue, fantasy, and diary.

We are interested in assembling a tightly woven collection of compelling essays from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives in order to suggest starting off points for sustained future critical analysis. Each essay may examine the works of one or the other cartoonist, or it may put historical and aesthetic discussions of their works in conversation with one another. Some of the critical approaches we hope to encounter include: comics and visual studies, art history, print and material culture studies, women's and gender studies, and auto/biography studies.

General topics potential contributors may choose to address in discussing the works of one, the other, or both cartoonists include:

• diaries, travelogues, and dream journals
• representations of gender and sexuality
• adaptations (film, etc.) and/or translations
• auto/biography and/or gender and genre
• urban landscapes and interiors
• comics genealogies and networks
• technology and comics
• place and origin: Quebec/England/San Francisco/New York
• graphic medicine (epilepsy, depression)
• self-publishing, zines, and mini-comics
• career trajectories
• ]anthologies/anthologizing; comics publishers/publishing (L'Association, Drawn & Quarterly, website, self, etc.)
• art books and/or non-narrative works
• non-comics works and methods (collage, poetry, animation, silkscreening, etc.) 

In the form of a Word file or PDF, please send a 500-1000 word abstract, CV, and contact information to Tahneer Oksman and Seamus O'Malley at bellanddoucet [at] gmail.com by August 15.