Women in Comics I and II have been unique events inspiring, informative and celebratory. We are committed to honouring women’s contribution to comics, and hosting women comics creators from the UK and abroad – both those who have been pioneers in the field and those currently forging new directions in the medium today.

In 2009 Women in Comics I was held at The New Hall Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. We welcomed from Belgium, author of Faire Semblant C’est Mentir, Dominique Goblet, and also Melinda Gebbie, artist of Lost Girls, who noted of the day: “I never knew Cambridge could be so much fun!”

In 2010 Women in Comics II was hosted as part of Comics Forum, in Leeds Art Gallery. We heard from Suzy Varty who edited the first all-women comic in the UK in 1972, and we borrowed the front page of her publication “Heroine” for our programme’s cover image. We also hosted Maureen Burdock from Santa Fe, New Mexico, whose comics “The F-Word Project” have social consciousness as their message and take superheroines into a whole new dimension. Penneviender (The Penfriends), a Danish feminist separatist comic book art group showed us what women comic artists are producing both individually and collaboratively in Denmark. We also had an exciting array of comics scholars including Professor Teal Triggs, author of Fanzines, and Dr Mel Gibson, National Teaching Fellow and a great supporter of Women in Comics conferences.

Women in Comics III will take place at the University of Glasgow in Autumn 2012. We look forward to seeing you there!

Sarah Lightman (Chair),

Catriona MacLeod, Rikke Platz-Cortsen Nicola Streeten, Hattie Kennedy and Emily Rabone (Committee)