CFP: Disability and Superheroes / essay collection (June 30)

Call for Papers

Disability and Superheroes

essay collection

We invite abstracts for essays to be published in a collection showcasing new work on the representation and conceptualization of disability in superhero comics. We encourage examinations of mainstream titles and characters (such as those published by Marvel and DC) as well as considerations of other texts that engage disability and the superhero genre in creative ways (such as Cece Bell’s El Deafo). We are especially interested in contributions that explore additional intersections of race, class, sexuality, and gender.

We especially welcome essays on specific characters, writer/artists or storylines, rather than essays more broadly conceived (for example, a proposal for an essay devoted to a particular issue of Lee/Colan-era Daredevil would have a higher chance of acceptance than one simply on Daredevil, a series published by Marvel for over 50 years).

The collection envisions a diverse selection of contributors (scholars from the humanities, comics studies, and disability studies; disability activists; comics creators; medical professionals; comics journalism; and so on) that represent a range of perspectives, methodologies, and communities. The contents of the collection may be likewise diverse, including essays by individual and collaborative authors, interviews, and/or creative work.

The editors welcome inquiries by email. Please submit 400-word abstracts and 50-word bios by June 30, 2016. After reviewing submissions, the editors will select contributors and then submit a proposal for publication by a university press.

Final essays will be approximately 5,000-7,000 words, but the editors are also open to shorter submissions.

José Alaniz, University of Washington, jos23@uw.edu
Scott Smith, Penn State University, sts12@psu.edu

CFP: Comics & Graphic Narrative Circle / ALA (Jan. 29; May 26-29)

Call for Papers

Comics and Graphic Narrative Circle

American Literature Association

27^th Annual Conference: May 26-29, 2016

Hyatt Regency San Francisco

5 Embarcadero, San Francisco, CA

The Comics & Graphic Narrative Circle welcomes abstracts for presentation at two sessions on comics at the 2016 ALA conference in SanFrancisco.

Session One: Women in the Comics Industry

Although women have been part of the comics industry in the United States since its beginning, the last few years have seen a massive growth in popular and critically-acclaimed comics by women creators, along with increasing attention to female fans and the representation of women characters. The increased prominence of women comes as a direct challenge to the image of the white male nerd as the quintessential comics consumer, and to the preponderance of men in positions of power within the industry. We invite submissions dealing with any facet of women in the comics industry. In what ways have major comics corporations (Marvel, DC, Image) responded or failed to respond to questions of women’s representation at the level of characters and stories, or at the level of opportunities for writers, artists, and editors? In what ways have series such as Ms. Marvel, The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, or Bitch Planet, imprints such as Boom! Box (publishers of Lumberjanes), or influential creators such as Kelly Sue DeConnick altered our understanding of the market for feminist comics? How have women shaped the comics industry as it now exists? What can we learn from the careers of women editors such as Karen Berger (who oversaw DC’s massively influential imprint Vertigo) or Francoise Mouly (who edited the avant garde comics anthology RAW and is now art editor for the New Yorker)? Do feminist stories require different artistic approaches at the level of story structure and style?

 

Session Two: Open Topic

We invite submissions on any topics regarding comics.

Please email an abstract (of no more than 350 words) and a brief biographical note to Ben Novotny Owen (owen.179@osu.edu) and David M. Ball (balld@dickinson.edu) no later than January 29^th.

CFP: ICAF, International Comic Arts Forum / USC Columbia (Nov. 6; Apr. 14-16)

Call for Papers

ICAF:

International Comic Arts Forum

14-16 April 2016

University of South Carolina, Columbia

ICAF, the International Comic Arts Forum, invites proposals for scholarly papers for its eighteenth annual meeting, to be held at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, from Thursday, April 14, through Saturday, April 16, 2016. Confirmed guests include comics artists Howard Cruse, Keith Knight, Cece Bell, and Prof. Michael Chaney of Dartmouth College.

The deadline to submit proposals is November 6, 2015.

ICAF welcomes original proposals from diverse disciplines and theoretical perspectives on any aspect of comics or cartooning, particularly studies that reflect an international perspective. Studies of aesthetics, production, distribution, reception, and social, ideological, and historical significance are equally welcome, as are studies that address larger theoretical issues linked to comics or cartooning, for example in image/text studies or new media theory.

Among the thematic panels we hope to offer are Comics and the American South, Digital and Online Comics, and Superheroes; proposals are especially welcome in these areas.

Proposal Guidelines: ICAF prefers argumentative, thesis-driven papers that are clearly linked to larger critical, artistic, or cultural issues; we avoid presentations that are summative or survey-like in character. We only accept original 20-minute papers that have not been presented or accepted for publication elsewhere. Presenters should assume an audience versed in comics and the fundamentals of comics studies. Where possible, papers should be illustrated by relevant images on PowerPoint. Proposals should not exceed 300 words.

Review Process: All proposals will be subject to blind review. Due to high interest in the conference, in recent years ICAF has typically been able to accept only about half of the proposals received.

SEND ABSTRACTS (with contact information, including state, province, or country of residence in the body of the email) by 6 November 2015, to C.W. Marshall, ICAF Academic Program Director, via email at .

Receipt of all proposals will be acknowledged. Applicants should expect to receive confirmation of acceptance or rejection by December 14, 2015.

ICAF also sponsors the John A. Lent Scholarship in Comics Studies. This scholarship is awarded to a current student who has authored, or is in the process of authoring, a substantial research-based writing project about comics. Applications for this scholarship are due by 8 January 2016. For more information and details of the application process, please visit our website.

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.

Call for Manuscripts: ACME Comics Research Book Series (ongoing)

Call for Manuscripts:

ACME Comics Research

Book Series

The ACME Comics Research Group and the University Press of Liege (PULg) invite the submission of manuscripts on the study of comics/BD/manga/cartoons/graphic novels for the scholarly book series ACME. The ACME Book Series is bilingual: manuscripts in English and French are accepted.

The books in this series examine comics/BD/manga or dialogues between comics/BD/manga and other media (literature, film, new media, video games, the fine arts and so on). ACME is interdisciplinary and welcomes all theoretical perspectives, methodologies and backgrounds (literary studies, post-colonial studies, art history, semiotics, aesthetics, cultural studies, etc.). The aim of the series is to mirror the contextual, socio-political and formal diversity of the medium and its analysis as well as its interrelation with other forms of expression; contributions on adaptation, hybrid media and intermediality in the widest sense are therefore also welcome.

Please send a short description of the work (500-1000 words), a table of contents, a sample chapter together with a brief bio-bibliography with institution affiliation (if any) to members of the ACME editorial team, i.e., Aarnoud Rommens (aarnoud.rommens@ulg.ac.be), Björn-Olav Dozo (bo.dozo@ulg.ac.be) or Gert Meesters (gert.meesters@univ-lille3.fr). Please keep in mind that in this call we are looking for finished manuscripts (monographs, edited collections of essays, revised doctoral dissertations, etc.) or manuscripts near completion.

About ACME
A comics research group based at the University of Liège (Belgium), ACME gathers scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds who explore the form using various critical approaches, including art history, sociology, aesthetics and philosophy, semiotics, formalism, linguistics, literary and cognitive studies. The name of the group explicitly refers to Chris Ware’s project Acme Novelty Library whose innovative nature illustrates in its own way the ambitions of ACME within the academic world and beyond. The name ACME is also inspired by another eponymous model, i.e., the Warner Brothers cartoon corporation’s famous motto boasting that it is “a company that makes everything.” On the one hand, this maxim attests to the group’s embrace of interdisciplinarity. On the other, it expresses ACME’s conviction that comics studies deserve more than a marginal place in academia. For more information, visit http://www.acme.ulg.ac.be/ (English and French).

For more information on the University Press of Liege (PULg), please visit http://www.presses.ulg.ac.be/

CFP: SANE Journal (April 27)

Call for Papers

SANE Journal

April 27, 2015

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

Researchers, scholars, teachers, administrators, specialists, and advanced graduate students are invited to submit works of research, reviews, and rationales. The mission of SANE Journal is to promote research regarding the integration of comic books, graphic novels, or “other” sequential art narratives in educational settings; including the teaching of comics or the ways in which the comics medium can instruct or cause a change in behavior. Manuscripts should be submitted by April 27 2015, with an anticipated publication date of July 2015.

SANE Journal is a peer-reviewed, open access interdisciplinary journal covering all things comics-and-education-related, from pre-k to doctorate. For more information, email Richard Graham (rgraham7@unl.edu). Articles can be submitted for review and possible inclusion by visiting: http://www.sanejournal.net/.

CFP: Illustration, Comics, and Animation Conference (March 1; May 8-10)

General Call for Papers

Illustration, Comics,

and Animation Conference

Dartmouth College

May 8-10

What is the future of illustration studies? 

What can comics scholars learn from animation studies and vice versa?\ 

Do illustrated books or graphic novels resist the supposed obsolescence of the book? What do pictures want (now)?

These and related questions will be explored at the Illustration, Comics, and Animation Conference at Dartmouth College to be held May 8-10, 2015.

Scholars interested in the illustrated image in all of its mediated guises are invited to participate in this interdisciplinary conference. Nearly all illustrated or drawn ‘texts’ are eligible for consideration:

• comics and graphic novels
• cartoons and animated films
• picture books
• illustrated books

And given the uniquely plenary nature of the conference, which brings together scholarship on static and moving illustrations, preference will be given to proposals that seek to bridge visual media. Possible topics may include:

• Individual titles by prominent practitioners in the field
• Identity, subjectivity, authority, ideology or culture in or more type of illustration media
• The future of particular schools of criticism (psychoanalysis, critical race theory, phenomenology, Marxism, feminism, queer theory, post-colonialism, formalism, aesthetic theories, etc.) and one or more type of illustration media
• The contributions of archives and libraries to the study of comics, animation, and illustration.

The location of the conference may also be a source of inspiration for prospective participants. Not only does Dartmouth College lie in close proximity to the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, Vermont, it is also the origin of Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss, a Dartmouth graduate of the Class of 1925.

Individual papers should be no longer than 20 minutes. Panels shall be ninety minutes long and should be comprised of three presenters and one chair. Please send 300 word abstracts and a brief bio for each proposed paper no later than March 1, 2015.

Send all proposals and inquiries to:
Michael A. Chaney <michael.chaney@dartmouth.edu>

CFP: 6th Int'l Conference: Comics & Medicine (Jan. 30; July 16-18)

Call for Papers

6th International Conference

Comics and Medicine

16th – 18th July 2015

Culver Arts Center

University of California, Riverside

Theme
The theme of this year’s conference, Spaces of Care, invites us to think about space as a critical element in health care and comics. Receiving medical treatment can affect how we relate to and interact with each other and our environments. Medical care is often thought of as taking place primarily in clinical spaces. A strength of comics is their ability to visualize care beyond these settings to include geographic, physical, ideological, imaginative, temporal, and social spaces. We invite the submission of a wide variety of abstracts focusing on medicine and comics in any form (e.g. graphic novels, comic strips, manga, web comics) that examine topics including, but not limited to:

• Comics depictions of architecture and design and their impact on illness and disability
• Comics representations of physical spaces that impact the delivery of medical care
• Use of comics to imagine new spaces for well-being and care
• The use of comics in creating internal bodily spaces in medical education and illustration
• The materiality of comics as a space for expressing or demonstrating care
• The use of space in comics to evoke intersubjective understandings of health and illness narratives
• The use of comics to visualize geographical, ideological, and/or political boundaries and access to medical therapies
• Ethical implications of creating comics for patients, physicians, or institutions
• Trends in, histories of, or the use of comics in healthcare
• The interface of graphic medicine and popular culture

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

• Carol Tyler – You’ll Never Know
• Justin Green – Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary
• Steven Keewatin Sanderson – Darkness Calls, Invited Threat
• Jared Gardner – Projections: Comics and the History of 21st Century Storytelling

For more information go to graphicmedicine.org

Formats

• Lightning talks: 5-minute presentations with up to 15 slides. This format is meant to encourage submission of short presentations to share your work (e.g. comics, new research projects, new ideas) in a concise format.
• Oral presentations: 15- to 20-minute presentations.
• Panel discussions: 90-minute interviews or presentations by a panel of speakers
• Workshops: 90-minute sessions intended to be “hands-on” interactive workshops for participants who wish to obtain particular skills with regard to comics and medicine. Suggested subjects for workshops are:
• creating comics
• understanding, reviewing, and critiquing comics
• getting comics published
• teaching and learning with comics

Submission Process
Proposals may be in Word, PDF, or RTF formats with the following information in this order:
author(s)

• affiliation
• email address
• phone number
• title of abstract
• body of abstract
• sample images or web links to work being discussed
• presentation preference (see format options above)
• equipment needed (e.g. AV projection, whiteboard, easel, etc.)

300-word proposals should be submitted online by Friday, January 30, 2015 to: graphic.medicine.conference@gmail.com

Abstracts will be peer-reviewed by an interdisciplinary selection committee. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be completed by the week of March 30th, 2015. While we cannot guarantee that presenters will receive their first choice of presentation format, we will attempt to honor preferences, and we will acknowledge the receipt of all proposals.

Please note: Presenters are responsible for session expenses (e.g. handouts and supplies) and personal expenses (travel, hotel, and registration fees). All presenters must register for the conference.

CFP: The Comics World (essay collection) / Dec. 15

The Comics World:

Comics, Graphic Novels, and Their Publics

Call for Chapters

Benjamin Woo and Jeremy Stoll, eds.

In Comics versus Art, Bart Beaty introduces the notion of the comics world to describe the field of cultural production that is oriented to comics and comic art. Beaty is drawing on institutional approaches in the sociology of art that take all the actors involved in producing a work – not only the “artists” themselves but also curators, agents, dealers, critics, technical support staff, makers of specialized equipment or supplies, and various audiences – as their object of analysis. In this volume, we understand the comics world, by extension, as a set of interacting communities that condition the production, mediation, and consumption of comics and graphic novels. All these publics – in their differentiated but shared orientation to comics – make the comics world go round.

The comics world is a social space, and it needs to be approached in those terms. With this volume, we seek to provide an accessible introduction to social-scientific approaches to comics and graphic novels while simultaneously filling in the social, cultural, and institutional contexts of comics’ production and circulation with respect to particular communities of people engaged in comics-oriented practices.

We welcome contributions from a range of disciplinary perspectives and methodologies seeking to make sense of the people and practices oriented to comics. Proposals may include, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Creator communities (defined in terms of occupational role, publishing sector, gender, race/ethnicity, nationality, etc.)
• Business, production and other support staff
• Teachers and students
• Distributors, retailers, critics, and other cultural intermediaries
• Conventions, their organizers and participants
• Audiences and fandoms
• Relations of affiliation or conflict between any of these communities

The editors have received an expression of interest from a university press with a well- established list in comics studies.

Please submit an abstract of 500–800 words to Benjamin Woo (benjamin.woo@carleton.ca) by December 15, 2014. Abstracts should clearly outline the scope of the argument and describe the nature of the research undergirding this analysis. Final chapters will be between 7,000 and 8,000 words. Submitters will be notified of acceptance by January 15.

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.

CFP: Comics and Translation / New Readings journal issue (Nov 10)

Comics and Translation

Call for Contributions

to themed issue of New Readings

Since its rise to popularity in the early 20th century, comic literature has travelled extensively across linguistic and cultural borders. Many comic characters are part of a general cultural heritage that is not confined to any one language. Yet, the role of the translator and translation in facilitating comic literature’s mobility has been relatively little studied. This oversight may well stem from the traditional marginalisation of comics within the literary field, but it can also be linked to the particular circumstances in which many mainstream comics are produced. More often than not, comics are a team effort involving at least one graphic artist and one scriptwriter, or larger creative teams. In such circumstances, the traditional idea of individual authorship and responsibility is untenable from the outset, turning the translator into one of several collaborators in the production process. Lawrence Venuti has studied the translator’s invisibility, which goes hand in hand with a ‘practice of reading and evaluating’ that takes the translation for the original. This invisibility seems to apply even more markedly to the translation of comic literature, where there is a multimodal message. Here the message is only in part encoded linguistically and the visual mode is often taken to predominate over the textual mode, further reducing the translator’s visibility. This themed journal issue aims to expose the importance of translation in the history of comics.

New Readings is inviting articles on any aspect of the translation of comic literature, widely understood here to refer to literature that combines images with words, from single stand-alone panels, to comic strips and graphic novels. We are particularly interested in theoretical contributions and in articles whose scope transcends single texts or individual authors. However, work on practical aspects of comics translation and case studies will also be considered for publication.

 

Topics can include, but are not limited to:

• The comics translator’s (in)visibility
• Reading comics in translation
• The limits of translatability
• Translation and comics genre
• Dialect, sociolect and idiolect in comics translation
• Standards and conventions of comics translation
• Translating sound effects
• Translating images
• Software-based comics translation
• Spatial constraints in translating comics
• Translating comics adaptations of literary classics
• Reception of comics in translation
• The market for comics translation
• Case studies of comics translated between any of the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish.

Contributions to the themed issue should reach New Readings by 10 November 2014. Submission is through the journal’s online system and requires self-registration. Submissions must be prepared in accordance with the conventions of MLA style and be between 6,000 and 8,000 words long (including footnotes and a list of works cited). New Readings welcomes submissions in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Articles in languages other than English are considered for publication if the subject matter justifies the choice of language. If in doubt, and for all other queries, please contact the editors prior to submission: NewReadings@cardiff.ac.uk. For full submission details and a checklist, please see the journal’s webpage: http://ojs.cf.ac.uk/index.php/newreadings/about/submissions

About the journal

New Readings is a peer-reviewed (double-blind), open-access online journal based at Cardiff University. We publish original research in the fields of literature, film and visual culture. Previous themed issues are: ‘Images of Exile’, ‘Figures of the Self’, ‘Identity, Gender, Politics’, ‘Space and Identity’, ‘Travelling the Urban Space’, ‘Writing Difference’, ‘Alternative Voices in European Cinema’, ‘Truth Claims in Fiction Film’ and ‘Hamlet and Poetry’. See the website for all past issues: http://ojs.cf.ac.uk/index.php/newreadings/index/

CFP: Nordic History and Cultural Memory in Comics / SJoCA journal issue (Oct 1)

Call for Papers

From the Land

of the Midnight Sun:

Nordic History and Cultural Memory in Comics

Special Issue of

Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art

The past is all around us, not least in our entertainments. It is also a highly malleable thing that can be moulded and shaped to tell us who we are, who we should be, and where we came from. The myriad ways in which conceptions about the past can be informed by contemporary concerns and the ways the past can be used to legitimize present practices and ideas have been ably charted by scholars in the rapidly growing field of memory studies. Although highly interdisciplinary, comics studies has yet to truly enter this field, despite the fact that its subject matter provides ample opportunity for studies of representations of history and memory.

Nordic comics history and comics that represent the past and present of the Nordic countries provide one of many possible inroads into these fruitful lines of inquiry. For example, Nordic comics, from early comics strips through locally produced contemporary comic books, like the Swedish funny animal series Bamse, Norwegian humor series Nemi, the Finnish Moomin stories, Danish strip Poeten og Lillemor, and many more, all provide a vast and still largely unstudied archive of historical perspectives and attitudes. Similarly, Nordic comics creators, like “Team Fantomen,” who have produced the majority of Phantom stories for regional publication since the 1960s, make frequent use of the Nordic past as a setting or story element. In addition, varying degrees of adulation or criticism inform biographical and historical comics and graphic novels about personages like Swedish writer August Strindberg and Elias Lönnrot, compiler of Kalevala, Finland’s national epic. Finally, it can be noted that the Viking Age and conceptions about its culture and beliefs have been a particularly inspiring topic for comics creators, spawning among others Peter Madsen’s long-running and often ideologically anachronistic Valhalla, several adaptations of Swedish writer Frans G. Bengtsson’s Röde Orm (The Long Ships or Red Orm in English), and, in 2013, the superhero-inspired The Norseman.

Furthermore, comics have helped make Nordic history and memory international imaginative currency. The Viking Age has been a particularly frequent topic, appearing in American mainstream comics like Marvel’s Thor and Vertigo’s Northlanders, Japanese Manga like Viking Saga and King of Viking, and Franco-Belgian album series like Asterix, Thorgal, and Johan and Peewit. In these comics, and in many others like them, the creators use a past not their own to speak to and about their own time and place. But in recent years, Nordic comics have also increasingly appeared in translation, perhaps most notably in such anthologies as Kolor Klimax, From Wonderland with Love, and the United States’ 2010 “Swedish Invasion.” In various ways, these comics contend with preconceived notions about the Nordic countries and Nordicness.

The Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art is planning a special issue on Nordic history and cultural memory in comics, and invites articles about these and related matters.

Welcome topics include, but are not limited to:

• Representation of Nordic historical personages and events
• Nordic comics and the search for a useable past
• Comics and revisionist Nordic historiography
• Comics, the past, and Nordic social criticism
• Nordic stereotypes and stereotyped Nordics
• Vikings and Old Norse religion in comic strips, comic books, graphic novels, and bandes dessinées
• Nordic comics in translation
• The reception of Nordic comics abroad
• What’s so Nordic about Nordic comics?

Please send an abstract of max. 300 words, along with a short bio and contact information, to submissions@sjoca.com. The deadline for abstracts is October 1, 2014. Full articles due by January 1, 2015. We also welcome reviews and forum texts (brief, non-peer reviewed scholarly commentaries, essays, and debate pieces). Interested parties should review our submission guidelines at sjoca.com and contact editor Martin Lund with a pitch or book request at p.martin.lund@gmail.com.

Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art (SJoCA) is an online, open-access, peer reviewed academic journal about comics and sequential art. The journal is interdisciplinary, encouraging a wide range of theoretical and methodological perspectives. Although the journal is rooted in the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden), it is global in scope and aims to publish high quality research regardless of national or regional boundaries. The journal publishes articles, book reviews, and forum texts from the field of comics studies. The language of the journal is English.

Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art is an independent journal and is published by the non-profit organisation Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art.