CFP: Pulp Magazine Studies Area / PCA/ACA conference (Nov 1; Apr 16-19)

Call for Proposals

Pulp Magazine Studies Area

Popular Culture/American Culture Association

National Conference

Chicago, IL

April 16-19, 2014

 

Pulp magazines were a series of mostly English-language, predominantly American, magazines printed on rough pulp paper.  They were often illustrated with highly stylized, full-page cover art and numerous line art illustrations of the fictional content.  They were sold for modest sums, and were targeted at (sometimes specialized) readerships of popular literature, such as western and adventure, detective, fantastic (including the evolving genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror), romance and sports fiction. The first pulp Argosy, began life as the children’s magazine The Golden Argosy, dated Dec 2, 1882 and the last of the “original” pulps was Ranch Romances and Adventures, Nov. 1971.

 

The Pulp Studies area exists to support the academic study of pulp writers, editors, readers, and culture.  It seeks to invigorate research by bringing together scholars from diverse areas including romance, western, science fiction, fantasy, horror, adventure, detective, and more.  Finally, the Pulp Studies area seeks to promote the preservation of the pulps through communication with libraries, museums, and collectors.

 

With this in mind, we are calling for papers and panels that discuss the pulps and their legacy.  Suggested authors and topics:

• Magazines:  Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Wonder Stories, Fight Stories, All-Story, Argosy, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Spicy Detective, Ranch Romances and Adventures, Oriental Stories/Magic Carpet Magazine, Love Story, Flying Aces, Black Mask, and Unknown, to name a few.
• Editors and Owners:  Street and Smith (Astounding), Munsey (Argosy), Farnsworth Wright (Weird Tales), Hugo Gernsback (Amazing Stories), Mencken and Nathan (Black Mask), John Campbell (Astounding).
• Influential Writers:  H.P. Lovecraft, A. E. Merritt, Robert E. Howard, C. L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Donald Wandrei, Clark Ashton Smith, and Henry Kuttner. 
• Influences on Pulp Writers:  Robert Bloch, H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, and Edgar Rice Burroughs were all influences, along with literary and philosophical figures such as Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edgar Allen Poe, and Herbert Spencer.
• Popular Characters:  Conan of Cimmeria; Bulldog Drummond; Doc Savage; Solomon Kane; Buck Rogers; The Domino Lady; Jiril of Jiory; Zorro; El Borak; The Shadow; The Spider; Nick Carter; The Avenger; and Captain Future, among others.  Also character types: the femme fatale, the he-man, the trickster, racism and villainy (such as Charles Middleton’s Ming the Merciless), and more.
• Artists:  Popular cover artists including Margaret Brundage (Weird Tales), Frank R. Paul (Amazing Stories), Virgil Finlay (Weird Tales), and Edd Cartier (The Shadow, Astounding).
• Theme and Styles:  Masculinity, femininity, and sex as related to the heroic in the pulps; the savage as hero, the woman as hero, the trickster as hero, etc.
• Film, Television and Graphic Arts:  Pulps in film, television, comics, graphic novels and other forms are especially encouraged.
• Cyberculture:  Cyberpulps such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies and pulp-influenced games such as the Age of Conan MMORPG or the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
• International Pulp Fiction:  During the interwar period and after WWII American-style pulp fiction inspired native pulp traditions in Australia, Britain, and continental Europe.  Submissions covering pulp magazines, paperbacks, and writers in languages other than English are especially encouraged.

These are but suggestions for potential panels and presentations.  Proposals on other topics are welcome.

 

For general information on the Pulp Studies area, please visit our website:  http://pulpstudies.weebly.com/

 

Final Submission Deadline: November 1, 2013

 

How to Submit Proposals:  Submit proposals through the following website:  http://ncp.pcaaca.org/

Note:  Only papers submitted through the website will appear in the conference program.  If you have any questions, please contact the Pulp Studies area coordinators:

 

Justin Everett - University of the Sciences - j.everet@usciences.edu

Jeffrey Shanks - Southeast Archaeological Center - jeffrey_shanks@nps.gov

CFP: Indigenous 'Deep' Space: Indigenous Absence and Presence in Sci-Fi and Comics (Dec 2; Feb 13-16)

Call for Papers:

Indigenous 'Deep' Space:

Indigenous Absence and Presence

in Sci-Fi and Comics
Native/Indigenous Studies Area

Southwest/Texas Popular & American Culture Association
nativestudiespca@gmail.com

Southwest/Texas Popular & American Culture Association's 34th Annual Conference in Albuquerque, NM

Submit abstracts to: http://conference2013.swtxpca.org/

***DEADLINE Extended to December 2, 2012***

Paper proposals are now being accepted for a panel dedicated to the absence and presence of Indigenous characters and cultures in popular sci-fi and comics. From Star Trek Voyager's Chakotay to the X-Men's Danielle Moonstar, sci-fi and comic genres have capitalized on the Indigenous landscape for characters and cultures. This panel asks presenters to examine and discuss the absence and presence of Indigenous characters and cultures in these popular genres.

Listed below are some suggestions for possible presentations but topics not included here are welcomed and encouraged:

• Indigenous writers of sci-fi and speculative fiction genres
• Indigenous cultures in space (issues of colonization that mirror Indigenous histories in sci-fi deep space settings)
• Blue Corn Comics
• Indigenous/Native American descended characters in sci-fi
• Indigenous/Native American descended characters in comic and graphic novels
• Specific sci-fi T.V. shows and webisodes incorporating Indigenous cultures and characters (episodes of Stargate, Angel, Buffy, Star Trek, etc.)
• Online comics
• History of Indigenous characters in sci-fi or comics

Inquiries regarding this area may be sent to Brian Hudson and Margaret Vaughan at *nativestudiespca@gmail.com*

Please forward this information to people who would be interested in participating.

Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/nativeswtxpca and Twitter @nativeswtxpca

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?

CFP: The Comics Get Medieval 2013 (PCA) (Sept.1; March 27-30)


Call for Papers
The Comics Get Medieval 2013:
A Continuing Celebrationof Medieval-themed Comics
PCA Washington, DC 3/27-30/13
Special Sessions of the Comic Art & Comics Area
Organized By Michael A. Torregrossa and Jason Tondro
Proposals Due to Organizers by 1 September 2012
Celebrating our seventh year in 2013, proposals are now being considered for inclusion at “The Comics Get Medieval 2013,” a series of panels and roundtables sponsored by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages and to be hosted by the Comic Art & Comics Area of the Popular Culture Association (PCA) for the 2013 Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations to be held from 27 to 30 March 2013 in Washington, DC.

The goal of these sessions is to foster communication between medievalists, comics scholars, and specialists in popular culture studies in general. The organizers define “medieval comics” as any aspect of the comics medium (panel cartoons, comic strips, comics books, comics albums, bande dessinée, graphic novels, manga, webcomics, comics to film/film to comics, etc.) that feature medieval themes either in stories set during the Middle Ages or in stories presenting some element of the medieval in anachronistic settings (pre-medieval or post-medieval eras or medieval-inspired secondary worlds). We are also interested in papers looking at medieval-themed comics from a pedagogical perspective.

Completed papers should be delivered in 15-20 minutes (depending on the number of presenters). All proposals will also be considered for inclusion in an essay collection to be edited by the panel organizers during the early part of 2013. (Individuals only interested in submitting for the collection should also send proposals by 1 September 2012 and indicate their preference in the email.)
In addition, a select list of potential topics and a bibliographic guide to medieval comics will appear as part of The Medieval Comics Project web site available at <http://MedievalComicsProject.org> and The Arthur of the Comics Project web site available at <http://Arthur-of-the-Comics.org>, both organized by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages.

No later than 1 September 2012, interested individuals (who must be members of PCA or ACA or join for 2013) should submit full contact information (name, address, phone/cell, and email), titles, abstracts of 300-500 words, and a brief resume to the session’s organizers, who will then forward them to the area chair. Address all inquiries and proposals to the organizers at the following address: and include “Comics Get Medieval 2013” in the subject line.

My Small Tribute to Will Eisner

Today would have been Will Eisner's 95th birthday. (If you don't know who Will Eisner was, [1] Shame on you; [2] Go visit his official website.) I had the honor to meet the great man several times, and when he died on January 3, 2005, it was a blow. I got to pay Will back in a small way when Jon B. Cooke asked me to help him out a bit on a special tribute issue of his magazine, Comic Book Artist. I helped proofread the issue, for which Jon generously gave me the credit "Special Contributing Editor."

This issue of CBA was double-sized, and chock-full of features on and testimonials to Eisner. On this, the anniversary of his birth, I felt compelled to rummage through the attic and find that issue again; I'll be reading it tonight and for the next several days. Anyway, here's what I had to say about Mr. Eisner in November of 2005.

Will Eisner: An Appreciation
Gene Kannenberg, Jr.
published in Comic Book Artist 2.6 (November 2005), page 151

My first exposure to Will Eisner and The Spirit was in Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes. The Spirit didn’t exactly fit into my eleven-year-old mind’s conception of what “comic books” were — back then, if someone wasn’t wearing a garish costume, the story wasn’t a “real” comic book to me. Still, I read that Spirit story over and over again, and it has stayed with me ever since. Prophecies, exotic locations, violence… and that silent panel in which the beggar erases his sand-drawing of “the man with the hidden face”: the story wasn’t as flashy as the others in the book, but it was moody, deliberate, affecting. And looking at the story again, now, I can see and admire the careful craft behind the narrative.

Many years later (after “giving up” comic books not once but twice), I wrote my Ph.D. dissertation on comics; and like any good graduate student, I decided I need to read everything in the critical literature. (And back then, it was almost possible to do that, at least for the English-language writing on comics.) If Eisner’s Comics and Sequential Art wasn’t the first book about comics that I read and obsessed over at that time, it was certainly in the top five.

And it was a book that I returned to continuously. Eisner’s clear, direct essays about storytelling were eye-opening; intended as a collection of lessons for would-be cartoonists, the book let me, a non-artist, peek inside the creative process and gain valuable insight from the experience. Eisner helped me think about comics as comics. Though I never studied with him formally, I consider him one of my formative teachers and mentors — his work, both creative and critical (and for him, the distinguishing line is thin at best) has been a part of my thinking for decades.

I was lucky enough to meet the man a handful of times. The most memorable was at a meeting of the Popular Culture Association in 1998, where he was a special guest of honor for the Comic Art and Comics Area. Not only did he give an evening talk (which was attended by hundreds of folks, including many who only knew of Eisner from reading The Spirit in their newspapers in the 1940s and 50s), but he also attended many sessions, participating from the audience when he wasn’t on the dais.

For one of those panels, I was honored to serve as the moderator. I got to sit at the same table as Will Eisner. Right next to him! And on my birthday! The only thing marring the experience was a cold I had trouble shaking, so I probably looked more than a bit queasy up there. Which, I suppose, covered up for the fact that I otherwise would have spent most of the time grinning like an idiot. “I’m sitting next to Will Eisner!”

The topic was “Comics and Technology,” and he was an active, thoughtful participant. Hell, he was more invested in the possibilities of technology than practically anyone else in the room, with an enthusiasm augmented by a lifetime of experience with change. He knew that nothing was static, and he wanted to make sure he would never be left behind. (As if that were possible.)

He shook my hand as the session ended; being too old at this point to consider “never washing that hand again,” I managed to do something more permanent (and meaningful): I liberated the piece of paper on which Eisner had been doodling. Being an impecunious academic, I own very little original art; this doodle is one of the few pieces in my “collection,” and a precious one.

Will Eisner’s art was inspiring, his work ethic was inspiring — his whole life was (and continues to be) inspiring.

[Caption: "Above: While attending a conference together, Will Eisner doodled on a piece of hotel stationery and Gene Kannenberg, Jr. snagged it before Will threw it away. Art © 2005 the Estate of Will Eisner."]

I miss you, Mr. Eisner, but you live on through your work.

CFP: On the Scholarship of Religion and Comic Books (PCA) (Dec. 1; Apr. 11-14)

Call for Papers:

On the Scholarship of Religion

and Comic Books

Popular Culture Association / American Culture Association

April 11-14, 2012

Boston, MA

Area: Religion & Culture, Comics & Comic Art (joint session)
Moderator: A. David Lewis (Boston University)

Overview: The last half-dozen years have seen an explosion in U.S. publications addressing the intersection of religion and comics, but little has been said on the body of work taken as a whole. Outside of individual reviews, rarely are these works discussed in terms of their applications, their intertextuality, their audiences, their shortcomings, or the new questions they raise. This panel is to act as a forum addressing either portions of these works, entire books, their shared space, or the next steps to which they may all lead. In addition to the print publications recommended below, this panel also invites reflections on some of the websites and blogs conducting similar work, also listed:

Books: Superheroes: Religion and Popular Culture (2005), Up, Up, and Oy Vey (2006), Our Gods Wear Spandex (2007), Superheroes and Gods: A Comparative Study from Babylonia to Batman (2007), Disguised as Clark Kent (2007), Holy Superheroes! Revised and Expanded Edition (2008), From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books (2008), The Jewish Graphic Novel: Critical Approaches (2008), Jews and American Comics (2008), India’s Immortal Comic Books: Gods, Kings, and Other Heroes (2009), Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels (2010), Supergods (2011), The Seven Spiritual Laws of the Superhero (2011), Do the Gods Wear Capes? (2011)

Online: ComicAttack.net “Comics Are My Religion” columns, ComicBookBin.com “Religion and Comics” columns, By Rao! Comics and Religion site, Jewish Comics blog, Faith in Four Colors site

Other English-language, U.S. market pieces of scholarship may be considered, but the focus should remain on already-produced analysis, not on works-in-progress nor on the comics themselves. Submissions should be thoughtful reflections on how these pieces function, what opportunities they present, where they may fail, and what has been overlooked.

Abstracts of 100-250 words, a C.V., and brief bio are due by December 1 to ADL@bu.edu for consideration.

CFP: The Comics Get Medieval at PCA (Dec. 1; April 11-14)

UPDATED CFP
THE COMICS GET MEDIEVAL 2012:
A CELEBRATION OF MEDIEVAL-THEMED COMICS IN COMMEMORATION OF THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRINCE VALIANT
CALL FOR PAPERS (PCA: BOSTON, MA 4/11-14/12)
SPECIAL SESSIONS OF THE COMICS & COMIC ART AREA
ORGANIZED BY MICHAEL A. TORREGROSSA AND JASON TONDRO
PROPOSALS DUE TO ORGANIZERS BY 1 DECEMBER 2011

Celebrating our sixth year in 2012, proposals are now being considered for inclusion at “The Comics Get Medieval 2012,” a series of panels and roundtables sponsored by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages and to be hosted by the Comics & Comic Art Area of the Popular Culture Association (PCA) for the 2012 Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations to be held from 11-14 April 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The goal of these sessions is to foster communication between medievalists, comics scholars, and specialists in popular culture studies in general.  The organizers define “medieval comics” as any aspect of the comics medium (panel cartoons, comic strips, comics books, comics albums, band dessinée, graphic novels, manga, webcomics, comics to film/film to comics, etc.) that feature medieval themes either in stories set during the Middle Ages or in stories presenting some element of the medieval in the post-medieval era.  We are also interested in papers looking at medieval comics from a pedagogical perspective.

Completed papers should be delivered in 15-20 minutes (depending on the number of presenters). All proposals will also be considered for inclusion in an essay collection to be edited by the panel organizers in the summer of 2012.  (Individuals only interested in submitting for the collection should also send proposals by 1 December 2011 deadline and indicate their preference in the email.)

In addition, a select list of potential topics and a bibliographic guide to medieval comics will appear as part of THE MEDIEVAL COMICS PROJECT web site available at http://MedievalComicsProject.org and THE ARTHUR OF THE COMICS website available at http://Arthur-of-the-Comics.org, both organized by the Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages.

No later that 1 December 2011, interested individuals  (who must be members of PCA or ACA or join for 2012) should submit full contact information (name, address, phone/cell, and email), titles, and abstracts of 300-500 words to the sessions’ organizers, who will then forward them to area chair. Address all inquiries and proposals to the organizers at the following address: Medieval.Comics.Project@gmail.com and include “Comics Get Medieval 2012” in the subject line.

Comics Get Medieval 2012 Call for Papers

THE COMICS GET MEDIEVAL 2012:
A CELEBRATION OF MEDIEVAL-THEMED COMICS IN
COMMEMORATION OF THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRINCE VALIANT
CALL FOR PAPERS (PCA: BOSTON, MA 4/4-7/12)
SPECIAL SESSIONS OF THE COMICS & COMIC ART AREA
ORGANIZED BY MICHAEL A. TORREGROSSA AND JASON TONDRO
PROPOSALS DUE TO ORGANIZERS BY 1 DECEMBER 2011

Celebrating our sixth year in 2012, proposals are now being considered for inclusion at “The Comics Get Medieval 2012,” a series of panels and roundtables sponsored by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages and to be hosted by the Comics & Comic Art Area of the Popular Culture Association (PCA) for the 2012 Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations to be held from 4-7 April 2012 in Boston, Massachusetts.

The goal of these sessions is to foster communication between medievalists, comics scholars, and specialists in popular culture studies in general. The organizers define “medieval comics” as any aspect of the comics medium (panel cartoons, comic strips, comics books, comics albums, band dessinée, graphic novels, manga, webcomics, comics to film/film to comics, etc.) that feature medieval themes either in stories set during the Middle Ages or in stories presenting some element of the medieval in the post-medieval era. We are also interested in papers looking at medieval comics from a pedagogical perspective.

Completed papers should be delivered in 15-20 minutes (depending on the number of presenters).

All proposals will also be considered for inclusion in an essay collection to be edited by the panel organizers beginning in late 2011/early 2012. (Individuals only interested in submitting for the collection should also send proposals by 1 December 2011 deadline and indicate their preference in the email.)

In addition, a select list of potential topics and a bibliographic guide to medieval comics will appear as part of THE MEDIEVAL COMICS PROJECT web site available at http://MedievalComicsProject.org and THE ARTHUR OF THE COMICS website available at http://Arthur-of-the-Comics.org, both organized by the Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages.

No later that 1 December 2011, interested individuals (who must be members of PCA or ACA or join for 2012) should submit full contact information (name, address, phone/cell, and email), titles, and abstracts of 300-500 words to the sessions’ organizers, who will then forward them to area chair.

Address all inquiries and proposals to the organizers at the following address:

Medieval.Comics.Project@gmail.com and include “Comics Get Medieval 2012” in the subject line.

CFP: General Call/Manga Pioneers PCA/ACA April 20-23 2011 San Antonio

CFP: Anime and Manga

Conference: PCA/ACA 2011 National Conference

Place: San Antonio, TX

Dates: April 20-23, 2011

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.”

Submission Deadline: December 5, 2010.

This is a general call for papers on any aspect of anime/manga with any ideological approach. Preference will be given to topics that can be reasonably covered in a fifteen minute paper. (See also specific CFP to follow).

If you have any questions, please contact me at the e-mail below. Submissions should be sent in the form of a 150-word abstract outlining what you would like to discuss. Include contact information and a CV.

Submit by December 5, 2010
to Wendy Goldberg
e-mail: wdgoldbe@olemiss.edu

CFP: Manga Pioneers

Panel one: In celebration of Fantagraphic’s recent publication of a collection of short stories by Moto Hagio (A Drunken Dream and Other Stories) this panel asks for papers that explore manga by the “Fabulous 49ers” (or Year 24 Group). Only a few works have been published in English, including Keiko Takemiya’s To Terra and Andromeda Stories -- both by Vertical Inc. Though not available in English, another seminal work is Ryoko Ikeda’s Rose of Versailles. Presenters may take a variety of approaches, including an exploration of these mangaka’s influences on other writers and artists.

Panel two: In contrast to the lack of English editions of the 49ers works, Osamu Tezuka’s legacy continue to grow with Vertical publishing a variety of his texts: including Buddha, MW, Dororo, and recently Ayako (forthcoming, November 2010) and The Book of Human Insects (forthcoming, July 2011). This panel asks for papers that focus on works by the “God of Manga” and may take a variety of approaches.

Submissions should be sent in the form of a 150 word abstract outlining what you would like to discuss. Include contact information and a CV.

Submit by December 5, 2010
to Wendy Goldberg
e-mail: wdgoldbe@olemiss.edu

CFP: PCA Comic Art and Comics (11/30; April 20-23)

PCA

comic art & comics

***Call For Papers ***

Comics: Graphic Novels, Strips, Panels, Films,

and Everything in Between

The Comic Art & Comics Area of the Popular Culture Association invites all comics scholars to participate in the annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association to be held April 20-23, 2011, in San Antonio, Texas. Details of the conference can be found at the conference website.

The Comic Art & Comics Area of the Popular Culture Association offers a chance for scholars from across the country to share their research and exchange ideas on the growing field of comics scholarship. Graduate students and those without current academic affiliation are also welcome. Papers on all aspects of the medium are invited. Past papers have covered mainstream comic books, graphic novels, underground comics, cartoons, comic strips, comics and film, international comics, writers, artists, teaching comics, and writing and publishing comics scholarship.

This call asks for individual paper proposals or submissions for entire panels. If you are submitting a panel, please make sure to note the members of your panel. In addition to general papers, if a presenter would like to propose a special panel or roundtable discussion, please e-mail the chair so she can forward the request to the mailing list.

Papers should be delivered in 15-20 minutes. The PCA limits presenters to one paper given at the conference, so if you are interested in presenting a paper in the Comic Art & Comics Area, do not submit a paper to another area. Participants are eligible for the annual Inge Award for Comics Scholarship, awarded to the top paper presented in the Comic Art & Comics Area of the PCA.

Scholars interested in presenting a paper at the national conference should send a 100-200 word abstract and a short introductory bio by November 30, 2010, to the area chair. If sending via e-mail, please send as a doc file, pdf, or rtf.

Via e-mail: Nicole Freim - nfreim@charter.net

Via mail:
Nicole Freim
Riverside Community College
1798 Main Street
Riverside, CA 92501

For more information, please visit the PCA web site: http://www.pcaaca.org

CFP: Pulp Fiction as Genesis of Genius, PCA/ACA (Dec. 15; April 20-23)

Of related interest... 

Call for Proposals

Giving Birth to Greatness:

Pulp Fiction as Genesis of Genius

Pulp Studies Area

Popular Culture Association/

American Culture Association National Conference

San Antonio, TX

April 20-23, 2011

ABSTRACT: Although often viewed as a site for literary works with little value and short shelf lives, pulp fiction has in reality been a very effective mechanism for launching the careers of authors who would become literary giants, many of whom would move on to publish novel-length works that have become embedded in the canon of American and British fiction. In spite of its status among the literati as being of little worth, the pulps—particularly those of the early 20th century—have played an important role in shaping popular genres of modern fiction, including detective, adventure, spicy, science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Further, these working-class fictions, with their focus on action and adventure, gave voice to the hopes and fears of the common working man in a way that was often ignored by so-called “literary” fiction. Pulp magazines have also often been the site for the introduction of new—and often controversial—cultural issues, such as space travel, alien abduction, drug addiction, homosexuality, sado-masochism, crime, and pornography.

As we inaugurate our Pulp Studies area this year, we encourage sessions that somehow address the surprising role that the pulps have played in the careers of the authors, artists, editors, and publishers.
Suggested authors and topics:

• Magazines: Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Wonder Stories, Fight Stories, All-Story, Argosy, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Spicy Detective, Flying Aces, Black Mask, and Unknown, to name a few.
• Editors and Owners: Street and Smith (Argosy), Farnsworth Wright (Weird Tales), Hugo Gernsback (Amazing Stories), Mencken and Nathan (Black Mask), John Campbell (Astounding).
• Influential Writers: H.P. Lovecraft, A. E. Merritt, Robert E. Howard, C. L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Donald Wandrei, Clark Ashton Smith, and Henry Kuttner.
• Influences on Pulp Writers: Robert Bloch, H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, and Edgar Rice Burroughs were all influences, along with literary and philosophical figures such as Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edgar Allen Poe, and Herbert Spencer.
• Popular Heroes: Conan of Cimmeria; Doc Savage; Solomon Kane; Buck Rogers; Northwest Smith; Jiril of Jiory; Zorro; Kull of Atlantis; El Borak; The Shadow; The Spider; Bran Mak Morn; Nick Carter; The Avenger; and Captain Future, among others.
• Artists: Popular cover artists included Margaret Brundage (Weird Tales), Frank R. Paul (Amazing Stories), Virgil Finlay (Weird Tales), and Edd Cartier (The Shadow, Astounding).
• Periods: The dime novels; Argosy and the ancestral pulps; Weird Tales, Amazing Stories, and the heyday of the pulps; John Campbell’s reforms; the 1950s; the decline of the pulps in the 50s and 60s; pulps in the age of the Internet.
• Theme and Styles: Masculinity, femininity, and sex in the pulps; the ethos of plot and action; compact vs. purple prose; Social Darwinism; technocracy vs. naturalism; social roles; drugs and addiction; the aesthetic of violence; detective as hero; pornography and the cover girl; the savage as hero.
• Reinvention of the Pulps: Pulps in film, television, comics, graphic novels and other forms are especially encouraged. Possible topics could include film interpretations such as Conan the Barbarian, comic book incarnations of pulp magazines and series; “new weird” reinventions of the pulps such as the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and The Watchmen; fan films; and newer productions, including the recently released Solomon Kane and the forthcoming Conan.

These are but suggestions for potential panels and presentations. Proposals on other topics are welcome.

Final Submission Deadline: December 15, 2009

• When submitting your paper, abstract, proposal, or panel please include your name, affiliation, and email address. For those submitting a panel, include the name, affiliation, and email address for each participant and note who will be the principle contact and panel chair.
• Abstracts should be approximately 250 words in length.
• Indicate if presentation media is required. Projectors will be present in most locations, but presenters must supply their own computers.
• A preliminary version of the schedule will usually be posted on our website in January. Due to the number of panels and participants, we are unable to accommodate individual scheduling requests. We encourage participants to come for the entire conference. The final version of the schedule will be distributed in hard copy at the conference with addendums if needed. For privacy reasons we do not publish email addresses in the online version of the program.
• Only one paper is accepted from the same presenting author. All presenters, including invited panel speakers and session chairs, must register and pay the conference registration fee. If you need an early confirmation for visa or budgetary reasons, please indicate this in your submission.

Submit proposals to:
Justin Everett
University of the Sciences
600 S. 43rd St.
Philadelphia, PA 19104
Email: j.everet@usp.edu

OR:

Deirdre Pettipiece
West Chester University
Anderson Hall 119b
West Chester, PA 19383
Email: dpettipiece@wcupa.edu

CFP: Comic Art & Comics, PCA (Nov. 30; March 31-April 3)

I've been going to the PCA for nearly 15 years. It's a great place, particularly for beginning scholars: You'll find a large, collegial, and enthusiastic community of like-minded comics academics.

Comic Art & Comics Area
Popular Culture Association
Comics:
Graphic Novels, Strips, Panels, Films,
and Everything in Between

The Comic Art & Comics Area of the Popular Culture Association invites all comics scholars to participate in the annual meeting of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association to be held March 31 - April 3, 2010, in St. Louis, Missouri, at the Renaissance Grand Hotel St. Louis. Details of the conference can be found at the conference website: www.pcaaca.org.

The Comic Art & Comics Area of the Popular Culture Association offers a chance for scholars from across the country to share their research and exchange ideas on the growing field of comics scholarship. Graduate students and those without current academic affiliation are also welcome. Papers on all aspects of the medium are invited. Past papers have covered mainstream comic books, graphic novels, underground comics, cartoons, comic strips, comics and film, international comics, writers, artists, teaching comics, and writing and publishing comics scholarship.

This call asks for individual paper proposals or submissions for entire panels. If you are submitting a panel, please make sure to note the members of your panel. In addition to general papers, if a presenter would like to propose a special panel or roundtable discussion, please e-mail the chair so she can forward the request to the mailing list.

Papers should be delivered in 15-20 minutes. The PCA limits presenters to one paper given at the conference, so if you are interested in presenting a paper in the Comic Art & Comics Area, do not submit a paper to another area. Participants are eligible for the annual Inge Award for Comics Scholarship, awarded to the top paper presented in the Comic Art & Comics Area of the PCA.

Scholars interested in presenting a paper at the national conference should send a 100-200 word abstract and a short introductory bio by November 30, 2009, to the area chair:

Via e-mail:
Nicole Freim: nfreim@charter.net

Via mail:
Nicole Freim
Riverside Community College
1798 Main Street
Riverside, CA 92501

For more information, please visit the PCA web site: http://www.pcaaca.org

R.I.P. Martin Vaughn-James

Sad news for fans of avant-garde comics: Martin Vaughn-James, author of the enigmatic album The Cage, passed away on July 3. See Tom Spurgeon's obituary for Vaughn-James at ComicsReporter.com, as well as this brief story at ActuaBD. (And thanks to afNews where I first learned this sobering news.)

If you're not familiar with The Cage, here are a couple of images to give you a feel for it. It's sort of a trip inside an apparently abandoned building, with no people anywhere to be seen. Even with the accompanying "explanatory" text, The Cage doesn't exactly present any sort of traditional narrative. It's also not a tour or even a travelogue. The Cage is, simply (or better, complexly) The Cage.


At the 2002 Popular Culture Association conference in Toronto, the Comic Art & Comics Area was honored to present a lecture by noted comics critic and scholar Thierry Groensteen on The Cage. By happy coincidence, not only had Vaughn-James produced The Cage while living in Toronto, but Prof. Groensteen himself had recently published a study of book, La construction de "La Cage." I was the Chair of the CA&C Area for 2002, and when I received Thierry's abstract, I knew that this presentation deserved a special session all its own. We had an overflow crowd for the talk, and I believe Thierry made a lot of converts that day.
Sadly, The Cage hasn't been available in English since its original publication in 1975, but it is in the collections of several libraries. It is also back in print in French, from the Belgian publisher Les Impressions Nouvelles. Even if you can't read French, it's an amazing, mind-blowing work. I can't recommend The Cage highly enough - it's near the top of my "Why Isn't This Book Available in English???" list.

Update: Forgot about image credits! Self-portrait and images from La Cage @ 2009 Martin Vaughn-James, sourced from Les Impressions Nouvelles web pages. Comic Art & Comics flyer @ 2002, 2009 Gene Kannenberg, Jr. and the Comic Art & Comics area of the Popular Culture Association.

CFP: Anime and Manga Panels, PCA (due November 21)

Posted on behalf of my pal Wendy!

PCA/ACA 2008 National Conference
New Orleans Marriott, New Orleans, LA
April 8-11, 2009
Proposal Deadline: Friday, November 21

This is the national meeting of the Popular Culture Association and the American Culture Association, and this submission is under the area "Asian Popular Culture."

Panel #1: Title: Horror Anime and Manga

This panel invites papers on any aspect of horror anime or manga. Essays may use texts that can be classically defined as "horror" (i.e., ghost stories) and may also explore the use of horror figures (i.e., vampires) in other genres (i.e., shoujo).

Panel #2 Title: Anime and Manga

Open call for papers on any aspect of anime and manga studies. We welcome submissions from a variety of academic and critical approaches.

Submissions should be sent in the form of a 150-250 word abstract, outlining what you would like to present. Include contact information, any audio-visual needs, and a CV.

Submit your abstract by Friday, November 21, 2008, to Wendy Goldberg via email: <wendy.d.goldberg [at] uscga.edu> ; or via snail mail to:

Wendy Goldberg
Dept. of Humanities
United States Coast Guard Academy
27 Mohegan Ave.
New London, CT 06320