Africa

South Africa

Culture

The creators behind the graphic novel, Rebirth, will be in conversation Andy Mason at Book Lounge, Cape Town, on the 7th March. Link (English, MR)

Americas

Canada

Culture

The Vancouver Art Gallery is having a retrospective exhibition of Art Spiegelman’s work. Spiegelman also gave a lecture on the 13th February at Simon Fraser University Woodwards Campus associated with the event. Link (English, PW)

Shawn Conner of the Vancouver Sun interviews Art Spiegelman on his new exhibit, “CO-MIX: A Retrospective of Comics, Graphics, and Scraps” running from the 16th February to the 9th June, at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Link (14/02/2013, English, HMS)

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival (TCAF) updated its list of featured guests. Link (English, PW)

The Joe Shuster Awards produced a “work in progress” list of Canadian creators who published work in 2012 and are therefore eligible for the 2013 awards. Link (20/02/2013, English, PW)

The Vancouver Comic Arts Festival is gearing up for its May event. Link (English, PW)

United States 

Business

Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. announce their top selling 100 comics for January 2013. Link (English, HMS)

Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. announce their top selling 100 graphic novels for January 2013. Link (English, HMS)

Kevin Melrose for Robot 6 at Comic Book Resources reports that comic sales may have hit a 20 year high at 715 million dollars. Link (18/02/2013, English, HMS)

Culture

The Comics Beat reports that Tom Tomorrow, cartoonist creator of This Modern World, has been announced as the winner of the 2013 Herblock Prize, established in 2004 to honor editorial cartooning. Link (26/02/2013, English, HMS)

The Comics Beat features three graphic novels as winners of this year’s Cybil Awards, Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards, for books gaining attention from young readers and libraries. Link (21/02/2013, English, HMS)

Will Eisner Studios, Inc. announces upcoming Will Eisner Week events in several cities including readings, panels, and celebrations of the life and works of Will Eisner. Link (17/02/2013, English, HMS)

The LA Times features honorees in the field of graphic novels and comics for their prestigious Book Awards 2013.  Link (English, HMS)

The Comics Beat reports that Spain Rodgriguez and Mort Meskin have been nominated for automatic inclusion in the Eisner Award Hall of Fame, as well as listing other potential inductees. Link (04/02/2013, English, HMS)

Education

Columbia University announces the addition to its graphic novels archive of Elfquest materials, the latest acquisition in the library’s ongoing support for the research and teaching of graphic novels. Link (25/02/2013, English, HMS)

Ball State University announce registration for a Massive Open Online Course (MOCC) entitled, Gender Through Comics, for Spring 2013 running from the 2nd April to the 10th May. Led by Christina Blanch, the course will feature interviews with industry professionals such as Mark Waid, Brian K. Vaughn, and Terry Moore. Link (English, HMS)

Peter Gutierrez at Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. “Bookshelf” newsletter provides tips and resources for “Creating Effective Teaching Guides for Graphic Novels” in school curriculums. Link (27/02/2013, English, HMS)

Research

The Comics Beat discusses the current reassessment of Frederick Wertham’s life and works, including library professor Carol Tilley’s recent accusation that Wertham falsified his research. Link (13/02/2013, English, HMS)

The call for papers for SANEjournal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education 4.1: “The Singularity Plurality” has been posted. The editors are seeking articles that examine the works and theories of individuals in relation to how their ideas can shape the integration of comics into educational settings. Submissions expects in November 2013. Link (English, WG)

inkt|art, a new journal dedicated to women working in graphic narrative, released its first issue. Link (English, WG)

The comix-scholars discussion list has recently launched an archive service (Link). You have to be a member of the list to get access, details of the list and how to join are available here: Link (English, WG)

The conference, Graphic Art: Violence and Healing in Comics and Graphic Novels (28th-30th May 2013), has extended its deadline for abstracts to the 15th March. This is alongside the announcement of special guest, Chris Ware, appearing at the conference. Link (20/02/2013, English, WG)

The call for papers for panels on Collaboration in Comics, Transnational Comics, and Fine Art and Comics are available on the Comics and Graphic Narratives website. The panels are for the MLA Annual Convention (January 2014). Abstracts for Collaboration in Comics, and Transnational Comics, are due by the 8th March 2013. Abstracts for Fine Art and Comics are due on the 1st April 2013. Link (English, WG)

Fantastic! Heroic! Disabled? “Cripping” the Comic Con is a one day symposium taking place at Syracuse University on the 11th April. The symposium will engage with the representations of disability in comic books, graphic novels, and manga. Link (English, WG)

Technology

Peter Kafka at All Things D reports on the possibilities of combining comics and augmented reality on an iPad platform via Anomaly Productions at the ‘D: Dive into Media’ conference. Link (23/02/2013, English, HMS)

Asia

Japan

Culture

There is an exhibition at the Kyoto International Manga Museum – SKETCHTRAVEL – featuring illustrations from artists from all over the world. It takes place from the 7th March to the 2nd June. Link (English, JBS)

The Kita Kyushu Manga Museum is exhibiting work by artists from the oldest fanzine (dojinshi) circle in Japan, between the 2nd and the 10th March. Link (Japanese, JBS)

Research

The Foreign Manga Study Group (including comics, BD, etc.) of the Japan Society for the Study in Cartoon and Comics will hold its fifth meeting on the 10th March, at the Kyoto International Manga Museum, 3F, 12:30-17:30. Link (Japanese, JBS)

The Japan Society for the Study in Cartoon and Comics is now accepting abstract submissions for presentations at their 13th Conference on the 6th and 7th June (only members of the JSSCS are eligible), the deadline is the 1st April. Link (24/01/2013, Japanese, JBS)

There is a call for papers for the conference, Exporting Young Japan: Between Text and Image, which seeks to explore the dynamic relations between Japan and Europe through the specific angle of the exportation of visual and textual representations of Japanese youth. 300 word abstracts are due on the 4th March, for the conference taking place between the 29th and 30th June, at Konan University. Link (English, WG)

Singapore

Culture

The inaugural Manga Festival outside of Japan was held in Singapore from the 15th to the 17th February. The festival consisted of lectures, business forum, autograph sessions and an exhibition. There was a discussion with young fans to understand how they consume and procure their manga and anime. Link (English/Japanese, LCT)

Europe 

Belgium

Obituary

Maurice Rosy, who notably wrote the first Boule et Bill story died on the 23rd February, aged 86. Rosy was one of lesser known figures in the classic Spirou magazine. He wrote many scripts for Tif et Tondu, from 1955 to 1968, a series for which he created the super-villain M. Choc. He also co-wrote two Spirou stories with Franquin: Le dictateur et le champignon (The Dictator and the Mushroom) and Les pirates du silence (Pirates of Silence). Link (24/02/2013 French, NL) Link 2 (25/02/2013, French, LTa)

Croatia

Culture

It has just been announced that the comic book and street art festival OHOHO! will be held from the 18th to 20th April, at the club Attack/Medika in Zagreb. Link (27/02/2013, Croatian, LO)

Internationally acclaimed comic book illustrator Igor Kordej, who is now working for the French publisher Delcourt, participated in the discussion event that took place in Zagreb on the 19th February. Kordej talked about his early work and his international career. This was a part of the regular comic book program Strip-tease at the book club Booksa. Link (19/02/2013, Croatian, LO)

A radio show Na kraju tjedna, that is being aired on the public radio channel HR3, featured Saša Čobanov, a freelance journalist specialized on comic books, and Marko Šunjić, a comic book publisher. Čobanov and Šunjić talked about the social and economic status of the comic book art in Croatia. Link (12/02/2013, Croatian, LO)

Denmark

Business

Comics magazine nummer9 reports that the comics store, Komics, in Aarhus has been closed down. Link (07/02/2013, Danish, RPC)

Finland

Culture

Pop-up Comics @XL art space lists its workshop and exhibitions. Link (02/02/2013, English/Finnish, RPC)

The Helsinki Nordic Comics Competition in 2013 is looking for new children’s comics artists from Nordic/Baltic countries. The competition will also produce a Finnish-language anthology from the comics and publish it at the Helsinki Comics Festival (6th September 2013). Link (04/02/2013, Finnish/English/Swedish, RPC)

France

Business/Technology

250 Dupuis bande dessinée titles are made available on the digital book-streaming platform Youboox. Link (26/02/2013, French, LTa)

Culture

Marjane Satrapi’s paintings are on display at the Galerie Jerome de Noirmont, in Paris. They are brightly colored women portraits, echoing her familiar style, but also drawing on Matisse or Balthus in their flirtation with abstraction. Link (French, NL)

Les fantômes du Louvres./ The Ghosts of the Louvre, is an Enki Bilal exhibit, currently being shown at the Musée du Louvres until the 18th March. Bilal worked on photos of 400 of the works and paintings in the museum’s collection, then retained 23 of them, which he painted over, to include them in a dialogue with his own characters and visual motifs. Link (French/English, NL)

An exhibition centred on the work of bande dessinée artist Enki Bilal will be presented at Paris’ Musée des Arts et Métiers from the 4th June until the 5th January 2014. Link (08/02/2013, French, LTa)

The author of bande dessinée series Quai d’Orsay is revealed as French diplomate Antonin Baudry. Link (03/02/2013, French, LTa)

Germany

Business

Spanish publisher Diábolo Ediciones will start publishing German translations of Spanish and French comics. Link (18/02/2013, German, MdlI)

Culture

Wonderfully Vulgar, an exhibition on early British comics, opens at Oldenburg University Library on the 14th March. Link (12/02/2013, German, MdlI)

Research

Students in a comics analysis class at Freiburg University have started an accompanying weblog. Link (German, MdlI)

A workshop on the “audiovisuality” of comics will take place at Ruhr-Universität Bochum on the 27th April. Link (18/02/2013, German, MdlI)

Ireland

Culture

2D Comics Festival, taking place between the 30th May and the 2nd June in Derry/Londonderry, has just announced several guests set to appear at the event. Link (14/02/2013, English, WG)

There is a William Simpson (Judge Dredd, et al.) exhibition at Belfast’s W5 Centre, which will be hosted until the 28th April. Link (English, WG)

The first Irish comic month is being held in March, boasting a number of events. Link (22/02/2013, English, SC)

Research

The symposium, Grant Morrison And The Superhero Renaissance, held at Trinity College in September 2012, has been reviewed. Link (English, SC)

Norway

Research

Sven-Arve Myklebost defends his PhD thesis on manga and Shakespeare. Link (28/02/2013, Norwegian, RPC)

Scandinavia

Research

The second issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art has been published online. Link (English, RPC)

Switzerland

Culture

The annual festival Fumetto – Internationales Comix-Festival Luzern is announced to be held from the 16th to the 24th March, and will feature the exhibition “Robert Crumb & The Underground (US).” Link (28/02/2013, German, MdlI)

UK                 

Culture

The Dundee Comics Expo will take place at the University of Dundee on the 30th March. A talk will be given by David Lloyd, and a talk and workshop by Karrie Fransman. Link (26/01/2013, English, WG)

The BD & Comics Passion Festival will take place at London’s Institut Français from the 30th May to the 2nd June. The festival will include workshops, live drawing, and special guests  Patrick Sobral (Les Légendaires), Etienne Davodeau (Les Ignorants), and François Boucq (Bouncer, Jérôme Moucherot). Link (21/02/2013, English, WG)

Leeds based comics festival, Thought Bubble (17th to the 24th November 2013), has announced its first wave of special guests. Link (English, WG)

Jobs

The University of London has AHRC block grant studentships available in humanities and social sciences. Applications are due by the 18th March. Link (English, WG)

Research

A number of UK academics are looking at the possibility of creating a Comics Studies Network, and are seeking the participation by means of filling out a brief survey to find out what people would want from such a network. Link (English, WG)

A call for papers has been posted for Graphic Justice, a one-day symposium on the intersection of comics and graphic fiction with the concerns of law and justice. Abstracts are due by the 22nd March, for the event to be held at St Mary’s University College in London on the 11th September 2013. Link (15/02/2013, English, WG)

Registration is now open for the 4th APGR / Graphic Novel Symposium, taking place at Central Saint Martins on the 23rd March. Presentations from research students will explore the fields of animation and graphic novels. Link (English, WG)

 

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News Editor: Will Grady (comicsforumnews@hotmail.co.uk)

Correspondents: Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (JBS, Japan), Rikke Platz Cortsen (RPC, Scandinavia), Shelley Culbertson (SC, Ireland), William Grady (WG, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Germany), Nicolas Labarre (NL, France), Hannah Means-Shannon (HMS, North America), Luka Ostojic (LO, Croatia), Moray Rhoda (MR, South Africa), Lise Tannahill (LTa, France), Lim Cheng Tju (LCT, Singapore), Peter Wilkins (PW, Canada).

Click here for News Review correspondent biographies.

Suggestions for articles to be included in the News Review can be sent to Will Grady at the email address above.