Americas

Argentina

Research

The call for papers for the Third International Biennial Comics Conference Viñetas Serias has been announced. The registration form for the event will be enabled from the 1st March (via the link) for the event which takes place between the 8th and 10th September. Link (English, WG)

Canada

Research

MediaCommons’ The New Everyday announces the publication of a cluster of articles on “The Multimodality of Comics in Everyday Life.” Link (English, WG)

United States 

Business

Marvel’s Origins II #1 and Avengers #24, alongside DC Comic’s Batman #26 took the top three spots in December, based on total unit sales of products invoiced, according to Diamond News. Link (English, MB)

Diamond News tallied the total unit sales of products invoiced for graphic novels for the month of December. DC’s Fables Volume 19: Snow White took the top spot, followed by Boom! Studios’ Adventure Time Volume 2: Pixel Princess, and IDW’s Richard Stark’s Parker Slayground. Link (English, MB)

Image dominated the top six spots of Diamond News’ Top 500 Graphic Novels list for 2013. Based on the total unit sales invoiced for the calendar year, Saga Volume 1, Walking Dead Volume 1 Days Gone By and Saga Volume 2 came out on top. Link (English, MB)

Diamond News also compiled the total comics sales invoiced for the calendar year. Walking Dead #115 (Image), Justice League of America #1 (DC Comics), and Superman Unchained #1 (DC Comics) ranked first through to third respectively. Link (English, MB)

Marvel Comics came in at the top of the dollar share and unit share for 2013, as reported by Diamond News. DC Comics was second and Image Comics was third. Marvel and DC Comics each took approximately a third of the dollar and unit shares. Link (08/01/2014, English, MB)

Culture

The William King Museum Center for Art and Cultural Heritage has announced a new exhibit titled, Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find: The Comic Art Collection of Shelton Drum, which will take place between the 24th January through to the 29th June. The free exhibit, in Abingdon, Virginia, will feature original art by Steve Ditko, Jack Kirby, Frank Frazetta, and several others. Link (English, MB)

Education

Enrollment is now open for the free online course, Social Issues Through Comic Books. Run by Christina Blanch, the course examines current social issues through comic books, and will run from the 10th March until the 18th August. Link (English, WG)

Obituary

Wee-Pals cartoonist, Morrie Turner, has passed away at the age of 90. Link (27/01/2014, English, WG)

San Francisco Comic Book Company owner, Gary Arlington, passed away on the 17th January. Arlington is considered to have opened the first comic book store in the U.S. with several thousands comic books, and was a huge supporter of local comics and arts. Link (17/01/2014, English, MB)

Research

Biographical Sketches of Cartoonists & Illustrators in the Swann Collection of the Library of Congress, by Sara Duck, has just been released. The book provides biographical sketches ranging from the years 1780 to 1970 that were compiled by Erwin Swann. Link (English, MB)

The Comics Arts Conference is now accepting proposals for its 2014 conference which takes place at the San Diego Comic Con. Submissions are due by the 1st March. Link (English, WG)

PS: Political Science and Politics has just published a symposium on “The Politics of Superheroes,” edited by Matthew Costello and Kent Worcester. Link (English, WG)

Mark McKinney’s The Colonial Heritage of French Comics (Liverpool University Press) has now been published in a paperback edition. Link (English, WG), US LInk (English, WG)

The Society for Cinema and Media Studies conference, which takes place in Seattle between the 19th and 23rd March, has published the conference schedule which holds a number of comics panels. Link (English, WG)

There is a call for papers for the panel, German Comics: An Unturned Stone, which will take place at the 38th Annual Conference of the German Studies Association Kansas City, Missouri, between the 18th and 21st September. Abstracts are due by 9th February. Link (10/01/2014, English, WG)

The International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF) has put out a call for proposals for their 17th annual meeting to be held at the Bill Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, OH, between the 13th and 15th November. Abstracts are being accepted through to the 14th March, and will be blind reviewed. Link (English, MB)

ImageTexT Volume 7, Issue 2, has recently been published. Link (English, WG)

Asia

Japan

Culture

Kyoto International Manga Museum is hosting the yearly graduation exhibit of the students of Kyoto Seika University Faculty of Manga, between the 19th and 23rd February. This exhibition is during the same period as the Anime Week, and during this period admission to the Kyoto International Manga Museum is free. Link (Japanese, JBS)

The 16th Niigata Manga Awards Festival will be held on the weekend of the 8th and 9th February. Link (Japanese, JBS)

Obituary

Ichiro Nagai, the voice of many popular TV anime series’ characters, like Namihei from Sazae san and Happosai from Ranma 1/2, passed away on the 27th January. Link (29/01/2014, English, JBS)

Research

The 14th annual convention of the Japanese Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics will be held on the 28th and 29th June, at Kyoto Seika University and Kyoto International Manga Museum. The call for presentations is open until the 1st April. Link (Japanese, JBS)

Europe 

Croatia

Culture

Croatian and Dutch artist Helena Klakočar talked about her new comic book project Moisture, Frost & Salt. The talk was held on the 28th January in the book club Booksa as a part of the comic book program ‘Strip-tease’. It was moderated by Matko Vladanović. Link (28/01/2014, Croatian, LO)

Publisher Vlado Šagadin (from the publishing house 2×2) and artist Ivana Pipal talked about the Croatian comic book scene, and presented Pipal’s new comic book Priča o teti Mandi (A story of aunt Manda). The presentation was held on the 27th January at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Link (26/01/2014, Croatian, LO)

Czech Republic

Research

There is a call for papers for the panel, The Sequential Art: Comics as a Cultural Nexus, part of the Second Global Forum of Critical Studies, taking place in Prague between the 21st and 22nd February. Link (English, WG)

Denmark

Culture

Serieland.dk is currently running a crowd-funding project for the print publication of the anthology That Time My Father Beat My Best Friend to Death – and Other True Stories (Dengang min far slog min bedste ven ihjel – og andre sandfærdige beretninger), featuring autobiographical contributions from eight Danish comic strip creators. Link (21/01/2014, Danish, KBF)

Education

The comics creators Eric Knipper, and Folkeuniversitet i Aarhus have announced a series of five lectures to be held in April and May 2014. The lectures include: What are comic strips? by Carsten Fogh Nielsen; How do comic strips work? by Rikke Platz Cortsen; Comic strips and graphic novels, by Marianne Eskebaek; Autobiographical comic strips, by Sabrina Vitting-Seerup; and The new wave, by Thomas Thorhauge. Link (08/01/2014, Danish, KBF)

France

Business

France’s national union of bande dessinée creators (Groupement des Auteurs de Bande Dessinée-SNAC) have used the 2014 Angoulême festival to distribute a document calling attention to various issues including tax rises affecting creators, concerns over digital distribution agreements, and new copyright difficulties. The document argues that these issues are threatening creators’ livelihoods. Link 1 (29/01/2014, French, LTa), Link 2 (29/01/2014, French, LTa)

Culture

The founder of bande dessinée publishers, Delcourt, has announced his intention to open a bande dessinée school in Paris, partly to challenge the dominance of Angoulême as France’s centre of bande dessinée creation. Link (29/01/2014, French, LTa)

Obituary

Bande dessinée author and children’s illustrator, Stéphane Bein (Anna Sponge, Les Trentenaires), has died at the age of 41. Link (19/01/2014, French, LTa)

Germany

Culture

The exhibition, “Tout le monde kaputt“ – Der Erste Weltkrieg im Comic, on World War I in comics, opened at the LMU Munich University Library on the 15th January and runs until the 11th April. Link (06/01/2014, German, MdlI)

A manga exhibition, Manga-dô – Der Weg des Manga, opened in Munich on the 23rd January and runs until the 9th February. Link (12/01/2014, German, MdlI)

A Jacques Tardi exhibition opening on the 15th January, and an introductory talk by Iris Praefke on the 21st and 22nd January accompany the screening of the documentary film Tardi – Schwarz auf Weiß in Berlin. Link (13/01/2014, German, MdlI)

The exhibition, Streich auf Streich – 150 Jahre deutschsprachige Comics seit Max und Moritz, on German comics, opens at Museum Wilhelm Busch – Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst in Hanover on the 16th February, and runs until the 27th April. Link (16/01/2014, German, MdlI)

Two exhibitions on comics and Jewish identities take place in Dresden: Wurzellose Kosmopoliten – Comics zu jüdischen Identitäten in Europa, USA und Israel from the 21st January to the 4th May, and Luftmenschen – Zwischen Algier und Odessa unterwegs in den Bildwelten des französischen Comic-Zeichners Joann Sfar from the 21st January to the 28th March. Link (27/01/2014, German, MdlI)

An exhibition of finalists of the comic competition Animate Europe opens in Potsdam on the 20th February. Link (30/01/2014, German, MdlI)

Research

A call for papers has been published for a conference on translations and adaptations of comics in Hildesheim from the 31st October to the 2nd November 2014; deadline for submissions is the 28th February. Link (28/01/2014, German, MdlI)

There is a call for papers for the symposium Adaptation: Animation, Comics and Literature, which is a part of the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film /Literaturhaus Stuttgart, The event takes place on the 24th April, and submissions are due by the 21st February. Link (English, WG)

Norway

Culture

The dates for this year’s Raptus Comics Festival have been announced. Raptus 2014 will be held in Bergen between the 19th and the 21st September. Link (30/01/2014, Norwegian, KBF)

Portugal

Culture

The municipality of Odemira is organising the 8th edition of BDTECA, that consists of activities related to comics. These include two exhibitions, a fair and a contest. The event began on the 7th January with the launch of the annual comics contest, and will end on the 29th March with the close of the exhibition which features comics produced by the contestants. Link (Portuguese, RR)

From the 25th January until the 25th March, the Espaço Tintim in Lisbon is hosting an exhibition that aims to show the new adventures of Tintin in the 21st century, created by Portuguese authors (Novas aventuras de Tintim no século XXI criadas por autores portugueses). Link (25/01/2014, Portuguese, RR)

Sweden

Culture

Seriefrämjandet and Svenska institutet, with support from Kulturrådet, are representing Sweden at the Festival International de la Bande Dessinée in Angoulême, France, which takes place between the 30th January until the 2nd February. Link (30/01/2014, Swedish, KBF)

UK

Culture

The exhibition entitled, Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK, is being staged by the British Library between the 2nd May and the 19th August. The show will explore the library’s British comics collection, presenting work that has challenged the status quo, and signals to issues around gender, violence, sexuality, drug-taking and politics. It is co-curated by Paul Gravett and John Harris Dunning, and is being designed by Dave McKean. Link 1 (English, WG), Link 2 (22/01/2014, English, WG), Link 3 (22/01/2014, English, WG)

As part of the Sussex Centre for Folklore, Fairy Tales & Fantasy illustrated lecture series, Robin Furth, who plotted the Marvel Comics version of Stephen King’s Dark Tower, will be giving a talk on the 13th March at the University of Chichester. Link (English, WG)

Research

Routledge has just published a new book titled, Comics and the Senses: A Multisensory Approach to Comics and Graphic Novels, as part of their Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies. Author Ian Hague incorporates the multisensory model to challenge the thought that comics are strictly a visual experience, and includes a case study of Alan Moore’s work. Link (English, MB)

The Sterling Maxwell Seminar Series at the University of Glasgow has published their schedule, which includes a couple of talks relevant to comics studies. Link (English, WG)

The Comics Grid: Journal of Comics Scholarship is currently taking submissions, due by the 31st March. Submissions may include research, reviews, and interviews, and once peer-review is completed, the article is published immediately. Link (English, MB)

There is a call for presentations for the 3rd Global Conference: The Graphic Novel, taking place at Mansfield College, Oxford, between the 3rd and 5th September. Abstracts are due by the 4th April. Link (08/01/2014, English, WG)

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

Correspondents: Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (JBS, Japan), Michele Brittany (MB, North America, UK), Kristy Beers Fägersten (KBF, Denmark, Norway, Sweden), William Grady (WG, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Germany), Luka Ostojic (LO, Croatia), Renatta Rafaella (RR, Portugal) Lise Tannahill (LTa, France).

Click here for News Review correspondent biographies.

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