Running on the 15th and 16th of November, Comics Forum 2012 brought together nearly eighty academics, comics readers and creators to discuss the medium in depth at Leeds Central Library. Speakers came from around the world to deliver a range of fascinating presentations, and we featured Simone Lia in conversation with Ann Miller, and Charlie Adlard in conversation with Hugo Frey, as our keynote speakers. A huge thank you to all our participants, volunteers and supporters for helping to make the event such a success!

The Comics Forum 2012 page has now been updated and moved into the Comics Forum Archives section on the website. There you can download the full conference programme and speakers’ abstracts and biographies, as well as other conference documents like the poster and the call for papers.

Congratulations to John G. Swogger and William H. Foster III, who won our ‘Pick of the Papers’ prizes at this year’s event. John presented a paper entitled ‘Palauan Storyboard: Comics and narrative context in archaeological fieldwork’ and won Simone Lia’s Fluffy and Please God, Find Me a Husband! after being voted the paper of the day by the audience on Thursday. William talked on Friday about ‘The Changing Image of African American Women in Comics’ and won a copy of The Walking Dead Compendium Volume One. John has also reviewed Comics Forum 2012 here (if you were at Comics Forum 2012 and have reviewed the event, let us know and we’ll put a link in the archive!).

Comics Forum also appeared at this year’s Thought Bubble convention, to talk to people about studying comics in universities and schools. The Comics Forum table was manned by Comics Forum director Ian Hague, and consultant Dr Mel Gibson, and we were absolutely delighted with the response we got from the lovely Thought Bubble crowd! Thanks to everyone who came over for a chat! If we didn’t see you this year, come over and say hello next time…

We ran a raffle at the Comics Forum table, and we can now announce that the winners were:

Top Prizes: One issue of European Comic Art (courtesy of Berghahn), three issues of Studies in Comics and a copy of Ann Miller’s Reading Bande Dessinée (courtesy of Intellect).

Won by Pete Hindle and Darren Moffatt.

Runners Up: One issue of European Comic Art (courtesy of Berghahn).

Won by: Lou Crosby, Lily Glover, Nathalie Henry, Wade Simpson and John H. Thomson.

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Comics Forum 2012 was supported by Thought Bubble, Arts Council England, the University of Chichester, Dr Mel Gibson and Molakoe Graphic Design. Prizes for the Pick of the Papers competition were provided by Travelling Man.