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Yearly Archives: 2013

Superior Unreliability: Thoughts on Narrators in Comics on the Occasion of Spider-Man 2012/13 by Stephan Packard

12 Aug

The following thoughts started off as a contribution to the online roundtable on unreliable narration in comics at the German Society for Comics Studies, ComFor. I am indebted to fellow roundtable participants Burkhard Ihme, Dietrich Grünewald, Elisabeth Klar, and Daniel Stein, as well as roundtable organizer Felix Giesa, for the engaging and inspiring discussion.

Spoiler Alert: Peter Parker is no longer the amazing Spider-Man; in fact, he is no longer Peter Parker. Doctor Octopus, one his longest-running villains, has taken possession of Peter’s body, is living in and through him and has been secretly continuing both his private and his secret identity. While Doctor Octopus’ Spider-Man has since launched into his own series, the Superior Spider-Man replacing (for now) the established Amazing Spider-Man, the original replacement of one mind by another took place around issue #698 of Amazing, late in 2012. More specifically, it took place before that issue starts, but readers only find out about it on the last few pages. Up to that point, the readers are deceived, much like the other characters surrounding Peter and Spider-Man. So the narration is unreliable in the strict sense of the prima facie interpretation requiring revision. But does the unreliable narration imply an unreliable narrator? And what can this unreliability tell us about the general problems of applying narratological concepts such as narration, narrator, and unreliability, which are typically formed vis-à-vis written lingual narrative, to comic books?

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Posted by on 2013/08/12 in Guest Writers

 

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Call for Papers: Comics and Cultural Work

08 Aug

Guest Editor: Casey Brienza

‘All artistic work, like all human activity, involves the joint activity of a number, often a large number, of people. Through their cooperation, the art work we eventually see or hear comes to be and continues to be. The work always shows signs of that cooperation,’ wrote sociologist Howard Becker in his seminal monograph on cultural production Art Worlds. Comic art is no exception to Becker’s basic insight. Writers, illustrators, graphic designers, letterers, editors, printers, typesetters, publicists, publishers, distributors, retailers, and countless others are both directly and indirectly involved in the creative production of what is commonly thought of as the comic book.

Yet comics scholars all too often advance a narrow auteurist vision of production in their research. Names such as Art Spiegelman, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Osamu Tezuka continue to loom large in the intellectual firmament, while, despite recent calls for sociological approaches to comics scholarship, the large numbers of people without whom no comic would exist in the first place are routinely overlooked. A clear focus upon these people and the contributions of their labour is therefore long overdue and absolutely necessary to advance the boundaries of the theoretical and methodological study of comics. After all, how are we to understand any work of comic art if we know nothing about the myriad varieties of cultural work that went into its creation?

Possible topics include (but are not limited to): cultures and/or experiences of work in the comics production, distribution, promotion, and consumption circuit; theorizing the cultural work of comics; precarious and freelance labour in comics; feminization and other employment inequality; professional identities and self-identifications in the comics industry; new workflow/publishing models for comics in the digital age; and analyses of autobiographical comics and/or fictionalized narratives about the life of the comic book artist.

Along these lines, we are seeking short contributions of 1000-1500 words for a series of Comics Forum articles on comics and cultural work to be published throughout December 2013 on the Comics Forum website (http://comicsforum.org). Prospective authors should also include a short biographical sketch of 50-100 words. The deadline for submission is October 31, 2013, and you will receive notification of acceptance or rejection by November 15.

Any inquiries and submissions should be directed to Casey Brienza, City University London (casey.brienza.1@city.ac.uk). Please write ‘Comics and Cultural Work’ in the subject line.

Click here for a copy of this call for papers in PDF format.

Comics Forum is supported by: Thought Bubble, Dr Mel Gibson, the University of Chichester, Routledge, Arts Council England and Molakoe Graphic Design.

 
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Posted by on 2013/08/08 in Comics and Cultural Work

 

News Review: July 2013

04 Aug

Africa

South Africa

Culture

Moray Rhoda and Neville Howard, behind the comics anthology Velocity, were invited to present a panel on African and Australian comics at the San Diego Comic-Con on the 18th July. It was a historical first, as no South Africans have ever presented a panel talk at the San Diego Comic-Con. Link 1 (18/06/2013, English, MR), Link 2 (English, MR)

Americas

Canada

Business

With developer David Mirvish’s sale of “Honest Ed’s” (which features strongly in Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim), Toronto comics shop “The Beguiling” may also be affected. Link (English, PW)

Culture

Vancouver Comics Arts Festival is set to go for the third year in a row on the 24th and 25th May 2014. Link (English, PW)

The Joe Shuster awards for Canadian cartooning will take place on the 24th August. Link (English, PW)

Research

After the success of the Comics and the Multimodal World conference this year, Graphixia will run another conference at Douglas College next year, possibly in May or June. (PW)

Comics and the Multimodal World presenter, Susan Kirtley, won an Eisner for best educational/ academic book. Bart Beaty, one of the keynote speakers was also nominated for the same award. Link (English, PW)

United States 

Business

Diamond News reports on their top 100 comics based on total unit sales of products invoiced for June 2013. Leading the way was the new Scott Snyder/Jim Lee book Superman Unchained from DC Comics. Link (05/07/2013, English, MB & EG)

Diamond News reports on their top 100 graphic novels based on total unit sales of products invoiced for June 2013, with the latest Walking Dead volume at the head. Link (05/07/2013, English, MB) 

Online merchant Amazon has launched its own graphic novel imprint, Jet City Comics, which promises to have books by the likes of George R.R. Martin and Neal Stephenson available by the end of the year. Link (09/07/2013, English, EG)  

Marvel Comics has launched the Marvel: Share Your Universe campaign, which is meant to provide an easy way to bring younger readers and viewers to the fictional world of the popular publisher. Link (09/07/2013, English, EG) 

Based on the success of last year’s Infinite Comics, Marvel has launched their first few weekly all-digital series starring heroes Wolverine and Iron Man. Link (09/07/2013, English, EG)

Culture

The San Diego Comic-Con was held in the middle of July, and the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF) posted an article covering their “Draw Your Favorite Character from a Banned Book” panel. The panel included Jeffrey Brown, Chris Burnham, Terry Moore, Tim Seeley, Jeff Smith and Eric Powell. Link includes several photographs from the event. Link (26/07/2013, English, MB)

 Education

History of Comics Online Class is a 14 week online course on comics being offered by the Sequential Artists Workshop. The course begins on the 27th August. Link (English, WG)

Jobs

Independent comic book and graphic novel publisher Fantagraphics, based in Seattle, Washington, is currently looking for individuals with an interest in learning more about the business from an editorial position. The deadline for consideration is the 15th October. Link (English, MB) 

Law & Politics

Graphics designer and author of Super Graphic: A Visual Guide to the Comic Book Universe, Tim Leong, has created a new infographic that traces the main themes that libraries have cited in order to challenge and ban certain comics such as Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again, Maus, Sandman, and others. Link (16/07/2013, English, MB) 

Research

A call for papers has been posted for an essay collection entitled “Comic Continuations and Adaptations.” Editors are seeking papers that explore adaptations and continuations of comic books and graphic novels into other media, especially television, film, and the novel. Abstracts are due by the 1st September. Link (11/07/2013, English, MB)

There is a call for papers for a special issue of Studies in American Humor set for autumn 2014 entitled “MAD Magazine and Its Legacies.” Queries and abstracts are due by the 1st October. Link (29/07/2013, English, MB & EG)

The Southwest Popular/American Culture Association has posted a call for papers for their upcoming 35th annual conference that takes place between the 19th and 22nd February 2014, in Albuquerque. Of interest is the Graphic Novels, Comics, and Popular Culture panel hosted by Robert G. Weiner. The deadline for abstract submission is the 1st November. Link (15/07/2013, English, MB) 

“The Comics of Hergé” is a proposed volume in a new book series, Critical Approaches to Comics Artists (University Press of Mississippi), edited by Joe Sutliff Sanders. Those interested in contributing to the volume should send a 500 word abstract by the 1st January 2014. Link (11/07/2013, English, WG)

Redrawing French Empire in Comics by Mark McKinney has just been published by Ohio State University Press. Link (English, WG)

Michael Dooley interviewed Kathleen McClancy and Joyce Havstad about the Comic Arts Conference at San Diego Comic-Con. Link (10/07/2013, English, WG)

Asia

Japan

Business

The 84th Comic Market will be held in Tokyo, from the 10th to the 12th August. Link 1 (Japanese, JBS), Link 2 (English, JBS)

Culture

On the 7th September, Kyoto International Manga Museum will hold a ‘konkatsu‘ (marriage activities) singles party where people interesting in manga and anime, who are looking for romantic partners, can get to know each other. Link (Japanese, JBS)

On the 17th August, Yoshihiro Tatsumi, author of many critically acclaimed manga in the gekiga genre, will speak at the Kyoto International Manga Museum with manga critic Tomofusa Kure and Kazuma Yoshimura (professor at the Faculty of Manga, Kyoto Seika University). Link (Japanese, JBS)

Law & Politics

The head of the editorial department of Core Magazine, Akira Ota, and two others have been arrested by Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department for distributing obscene images in Comic Mega Store and Nyan 2 Club. Both publications employ a mosaic censoring technique over the explicit content, but officials deemed the censorship insufficient. Link (25/07/2013, English, MB)

Europe 

France

Culture

Albert Uderzo, illustrator of the Astérix series, has been named an Officer of the Légion d’honneur. Link (14/07/2013, French, LTa)

Germany

Culture

A comics exhibition at University of Duisburg-Essen causes controversy around Craig Thompson’s Habibi. Link (28/06/2013, German, MdlI)

An exhibition on Italian comics was held in Munich until the 21st July. Link (09/07/2013, German, MdlI)

A roundtable on web-comics with Flix and other artists has been announced to take place in Cologne on the 23rd September. Link (29/07/2013, German, MdlI)

Ireland

Culture

The Dublin Comic Mart took place on the 3rd August. Link (22/07/2013, English, SC)

Jobs

A comics artist is wanted by to create a comic book on the history of Cork for an exhibition. Link (27/07/2013, English, SC)

The Netherlands

Research

“The Ethics of War and Conflict in Graphic Narratives” is a workshop being organised for the European Association for American Studies (EAAS) annual conference, which takes place between the 3rd and 6th April 2014. 300-500 word abstracts are due by the 1st October. Link (12/07/2013, English, WG)

There is a call for papers for the conference, Backroom Business: The Production of Periodicals, which seeks to explore every aspect related to the production of European periodicals, from the early eighteenth century to the present day. Proposals are due on the 1st October for the conference that takes place on the 10th and 11th April 2014, in Radboud University. Link (26/06/2013, English, WG)

Switzerland

Culture

An exhibition on Tibet in comics opens at Museum Rietberg, Zurich, on the 14th July, accompanied by two lectures in September. Link (01/07/2013, German, MdlI)

UK   

Culture

Organisers of the 9th Art Award, that will take place at the Edinburgh Book Festival this August, are seeking crowd funding to publish an anthology which will contain extracts from the shortlisted works that are in the running for the award. The donation cut off is the 9th August. Link (English, WG)

Details for Stripped, the comics focused event at the Edinburgh Book Festival (10th – 26th August), can be found be found on the website. Guests include Chris Ware, Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Joe Sacco,  and many more. Link (English, WG)

Education

Damon Herd has teamed up with the DCA (Dundee Contemporary Arts) for a one week creative work shop on the history of superhero stories, taking place between the 5th and 9th August. The workshop is aimed at 11-16 year olds, and will be introduced by Dr Chris Murray of the University of Dundee. Link (English, WG)

Research

The newly created Journal of Illustration is to be published by Intellect. Link (English, WG)

There is a call for papers for the collection Bad Signals: Collected Essays on the Work of Warren Ellis, edited by Hallvard Haug, and Tony Venezia. The proposed anthology which will focus upon any aspect of Warren Ellis’ work, and 300 word abstracts are due by the 13th December. Link (23/07/2013, English, WG)

The comics conference, Transitions 4, will now take place on the 26th October. Link (English, WG)

Damon Herd provides a illustrated blog for the Laydeez do Comics Glasgow event that took place on the 25th June. Link (02/07/2013, English, WG)

The journal European Comic Art Volume 6, Issue 1, has recently been published. Link (English, WG)

*                    *                    *

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

Correspondents: Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (JBS, Japan), Michele Brittany (MB, North America), Shelley Culbertson (SC, Ireland), Eric Ganeau (EG, North America), William Grady (WG, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Germany), Moray Rhoda (MR, South Africa), Lise Tannahill (LTa, France), 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.

 
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Posted by on 2013/08/04 in News Review

 

List of Terms for Comics Studies by Andrei Molotiu

26 Jul

I put together the following list of terms, for the use of my students at Indiana University, Bloomington and at the University of Louisville, over the more than a decade that I have been teaching courses on comics. An earlier, shorter version of it was published in 2006 on the website of the National Association of Comic Art Educators (nacae.org; no longer extant) as part of the syllabus for my course at IU, Art History H 150, “The History of Comic-Book Art.” The list is not intended to be exhaustive: I compiled it primarily to be used in connection to my courses, and its emphases (and possible exclusions) reflect my own pedagogical interests. There is a simple explanation for the bold lettering on some of the terms: it indicated to my students the notions for which they were responsible on their exams.

The list was put together mostly from notions in common use in the comics industry, terms in Scott McCloud’s Understanding Comics (which I used as a textbook), terms adapted from film and literary studies, and new terms I have introduced myself for notions that seemed particularly important in my teaching. In a couple of further instances, the sources of terms are credited in the body of the entry. To the best of my knowledge, the formulations of all definitions, as written, are my own. For this publication, I have also incorporated into some of the definitions more detailed discussions based on my lecture notes.

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Posted by on 2013/07/26 in Comics Forum Archives, Digital Texts, Guest Writers, Scholarly Resources

 

Talking Sense(s): A Review of Montreal’s first CRAS Comic Forum by Marilyn Lauzon and Mathieu Laflamme

22 Jul

CRAS Image 1

CRAS [1] (an acronym for Colloque de recherche en arts séquentiels, which roughly translates as Sequential Arts Research Forum) is an organization set up by three Quebecer students pursuing their master’s degree in French literature at Université de Montréal. The forum aims to provide francophones with a platform for scholarly exchanges on comics and graphic novels and, by doing so, to contribute to their cultural legitimacy in the province of Quebec, where their production is thriving, but research on their subject, still marginal. CRAS’s first event, called “Au sens figuré: esthésie et bande dessinée”, took place at the La Quincaillerie bar on May 30, 2013 as part of the side events presented by the FBDM (Festival BD de Montréal). The event brought together ten speakers, including special guest Zviane, who explained how being a kinesthetic learner affects her creative process as a comic book artist. In the following article, we will try to outline the main ideas raised by the speakers and the audience during the event. Please take note we will also publish papers derived from the presentations on CRAS’s website (colloqueras.wordpress.com) in the following months.

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Posted by on 2013/07/22 in Conference reports

 

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