CFP: Comics, Picturebooks and Childhood [journal issue] (March 31)

CFP:

Comics, Picturebooks and Childhood

Special issue of the

Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics

(http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcom20/current)

  Special Issue Editors: 
Dr. Mel Gibson (University of Northumbria)
Dr. Kay Sambell (University of Northumbria)
Dr. Golnar Nabizadeh (The University of Western Australia)
This special edition will explore links between these two media in relation to childhood. Both have been studied in relation to how they work (key examples being Maria Nikoljeva and Carole Scott (2001) How Picturebooks Work and Thierry Groensteen (2007) The System of Comics). The history, specific creators, culture and audiences for these media have also been areas of research. Focusing on the links across illustration, graphic narratives and visual culture, this special issue offers critical interventions on the field of comics and picturebooks.

They are not typically considered together, although some research has done so, for example Mel Gibson (2010) 'Graphic Novels, Comics and Picturebooks' in David Rudd (ed) Routledge Companion to Children's Literature (pp.100-111) and David Lewis (1998) ‘Oops!: Colin McNaughton and “Knowingness”’ in Children’s Literature in Education, 29 (2), pp. 59-68.

In relation to audience (a focus in Lewis, above), comics and picturebooks have frequently been associated with younger readers, despite the two being very flexible media which can be used to address readers of all ages on any topic. When such assumptions are dominant, this is usually related to perceptions of what might be ‘appropriate’ content.

Sometimes controversy is about an entire medium as outlined by John A. Lent (1999), in ‘Comics Controversies and Codes: Reverberations in Asia’ This chapter in Pulp Demons: International Dimensions of the Postwar Anti-Comics Campaign flagged up ways in manga were seen as having an impact upon the health and morals of young people in South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan between the 1940s and the 1980s (pp179-214).

Equally, controversy might focus on a single text, as was the case in relation to the British publication of Jenny lives with Eric and Martin by Suzanne Bösche (originally published in Denmark as Mette bor hos Morten og Erik), one of the first picturebooks focusing on homosexuality and family structure. This single text was a key element in Britain in the introduction of the Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 which forbade the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality by local government.

In both these cases, what may be seen to underpin controversy relating to these media are social constructions of childhood, a concept developed within Childhood Studies and perhaps best illustrated by Allison James and Alan Prout (eds.) (1990) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood.

This issue also constitutes an attempt to extend the scope of scholarship on the comic and the picturebook beyond US/UK and European critical frameworks by highlighting Asian and Australian visual cultures and contexts.

Proposals are sought on, but not limited to the following;

• Creators who work with both these media, such as Raymond Briggs and Shaun Tan.
• Picturebook creators who are influenced by comics. For example, the ways in which the work of Maurice Sendak is influenced by that of Winsor McCay
• Comics for children and constructions of childhood
• Controversies around comics, picturebooks, childhood and child readers
• Defining the borders and emerging areas in comic book scholarship
• Manga, comics and picturebooks
• Comic book conventions and avant-garde innovations
• Divergences and intersections between comic books and picturebooks
• When and how does a comic book creator become perceived as a picture book creator?
• In what ways do constructions of childhood as innocent and vulnerable impact upon what is considered suitable content in a comic or a picture book?

Deadline for proposals for 5000-7000 word articles is March 31st 2013 (for issue 5:1, June/July 2014 of the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rcom20/current). Send proposals to Dr Mel Gibson at mel.gibson@northumbria.ac.uk

CFP: Anime and Manga [PCA/ACA, Washington D.C.] (Nov. 30; Mar. 27-30)

CFP:

Anime and Manga

PCA/ACA 2013 National Conference

Washington D.C.

March 27-30, 2013

www.pcaaca.org

This is the national meeting of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association. This submission is under the area “Asian Popular Culture.” There are two “Calls for Papers.”  

Deadline: November 30, 2012

Submissions should be submitted online. Instructions can be found here: http://pcaaca.org/national-conference-2/proposing-a-presentation-at-the-conference/

In addition, please submit your proposal to Wendy Goldberg (wdgoldbe@olemiss.edu), who will organize these panels.

CFP: The “Abject” in Anime and Manga

This call is for papers that focus on the “abject” in anime and manga. French theorist, Julia Kristeva, in her essay, “Powers of Horror,” defines the abject as that which threatens the boundary between subject and object, producing fear and revulsion.  The classic “abject” example would be the corpse which is like/unlike a living body.

Papers may not necessarily deal directly with Kristeva’s theories but participants are encouraged to explore the use of the horrific or the grotesque in anime and manga. Papers may explore how the abject comment on social or political institutions in addition to individual identities.

CFP: Teaching with Anime and Manga

Participants are encouraged to submit proposals about how they teach courses on anime and manga or how they integrate anime and manga into classes. Some questions to consider:

• What do you teach and how do you teach it? 
• How does anime and manga support the goals of the class?
• What has been student reaction to the subject?
• What has been the institution’s reaction to the subject?

Women's Manga Beyond Japan (21 – 23 February, 2011)

Women's Manga Beyond Japan:

Contemporary Comics as Cultural Crossroads in Asia

Date: 21 – 23 February, 2011

Venue: Seminar Room A & B, AS7,

Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore

Free Admission (Registration required)

CO-SPONSORS:

National University of Singapore (Japanese Studies Departure)

Japan Foundation

Women’s MANGA Research Project (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) No. 21320044 “Research in Women's Manga: Subjectivity, Globalization, and the Possibilities for Expression”)

In the last two decades, manga has become a global medium, a transcultural phenomenon which has spread all over the world. There are many reasons why manga has generated such massive international interest. One can be found in the gender-related practices and discourses it gives rise to. Previously prevailing forms of comics, such as American and Franco-Belgian productions, were mainly targeted at male readers, while manga appeals to girls and women as well, both as creators and readers. Manga for girls and women occupy a particular position: the manga style become a favorite means of young women's expression worldwide, and women dominate the realm of fan creations recently; furthermore, girls' and women's comics contribute significantly to exploring gender and sexualities, not limited to heterosexual femininity.

Inviting John. A. Lent as a keynote speaker, a forerunner who has contributed to unite comics, comics artists, and comics scholars all over the world, and focusing on female artists and their works in Asia from both scholarly and artistic perspectives, we would like to examine the ongoing conceptualization of manga, which has perhaps proved more inspiring to female readers and authors than any previous form of comics anywhere in the world.

We hope our international and transcultural approach to women as subjects of sequential art and manga, a new style of visual narrative, will suggest likely points of common interest for various cultures and readers far beyond Japan. The symposium approaches “women's manga/comics” in an inter- as well as transcultural way in order to explore common scholarly interests related to sequential art in general and manga in particular.

Registration

To register, please email your name, dates/panels you would like to attend and contact details to: sheila.tang@nus.edu.sg.

CFP - Toys, Games, and Comics in Asia (no due date given; Dec 10-12)

Toys, Games, and Comics in Asia:

Adaptation, Convergence, and Challenges

A Scholarly Conference

December 10-12

Over the last twenty years or so comic books and video games have been adapted in to movies. Novels have been adapted into comic books. Many of these products have been licensed as toys. Indeed two Singaporeans are actively engaged in such adaptations: Sonny Liew is working on a comic book version of Jane Austin’s novel Sense and Sensibility for Marvel Comics, and Eric Khoo is doing a film adaptation of Yoshihiro Tatsumi comic A Drifting Life. Increasing there are convergences between media forms and products. This conference held in conjunction with the Singapore Toys, Games and Comics Convention examines the issues involved in these developments from a scholarly perspective with a focus on Asia. We seek scholarly papers related to on a wide variety of issues (and from a wide number of academic disciplines) connected to Toys, Games and Comics, such as:

• Adaptation
• Branding
• Collectors
• Consumers
• Cross Media platforms
• Cultural Production
• Fans
• History
• Intellectual Property (Copyright, Patents, and Trademark)
• Marketing

Most conference sessions will be for approximately 90 minutes with a maximum of three papers each lasting twenty-minute and discussion time. Proposals for other types of sessions are also welcome.

Paper or session proposals should be sent to Associate Professor Ian Gordon: hisilg@nus.edu.sg.

Paper proposals should be in the form of a 200-500 word abstract of the paper, with name, contact details, and cv of presenter. Session proposals should include this information for three proposed presenters in the session. Organisers of the conference are Ian Gordon and Lim Cheng Tju.

The conference will be held in the Suntec City Convention Centre in downtown Singapore. All paper presenters will be registered for the Singapore Toys, Games and Comics Convention as professionals and receive free entry to the exhibition area.

The Singapore Toy, Games & Comic Convention (STGCC) is proudly brought to you by Reed Exhibitions – the world’s largest event organizer and the creators of New York Comic Con (NYCC) and the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (C2E2).

This CFP can also be found here: http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/hisilg/STGCC%20conference%20CFPs.pdf