Americas

Canada

Education

There is a PhD scholarship available at the University of Calgary to pursue a doctoral study in comics in the Department of English. The proposed study will be supervised under Bart Beaty. Link (10/02/2014, English, WG)

Research

There is a call for papers for a proposed panel on Comics and Memory, to take place at the next Modern Language Association (MLA) convention, to be held in Vancouver in January 2015. Abstracts are due by the 10th March. Link (18/02/2014, English, WG)

There is a call for papers for a proposed panel on Comics and Immigration, to take place at the the next MLA convention (Vancouver, January 2015). Abstracts are due by the 8th March. Link (19/02/2014, English, WG)

There is a call for papers for a proposed panel on Global Comics and Nationalism, to take place at the next MLA convention. Abstracts are due by the 12th March. Link (21/02/2014, English, WG)

United States 

Business

DC Comics holds the top two spots for the top selling comics in January 2014, according to Diamond Comic Distributors. Scott Synder’s Batman #27, the over sized Detective Comics #27, and Avengers World #1 (Marvel) rounded out the top three spots. Link (English, MB)

Saga Volume 1 (Image), The Walking Dead Volume 1: Days Gone Bye (Image), and All-New X-Men Volume 1: Yesterday’s X-Men (Marvel) took the top three positions on the Top 100 Graphic Novels as reported by Diamond Comic Distributors. The numbers are based on total unit sales invoiced during the month of January 2014. Link (English, MB)

Culture

WonderCon 2014 is returning to Anaheim, California, between the 18th and 20th April. This year badges will only be sold online at their website. The Comics Arts Conference also returns to the convention to host a series of seminars about comics, and the schedule has been published online. Link (26/02/2014, English, MB)

There is a crowd funding campaign for the documentary, She Makes Comics, by Sequart Research & Literacy Organization. Link (English, WG)

Scholars behind the Comics Art Council have put together a crowd funding campaign to produce a documentary about Bill Finger. The documentary aims to shed light on Finger in lieu of his family’s upcoming bid to get the writer officially recognised as co-creator of Batman. Link (English, WG)

Education

The family of Dick Tracy creator, Chester Gould, have donated his comics work to Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum. Link (04/02/2014, English, WG)

Obituaries

Artist, illustrator, teacher, and cartoonist, Bhob Stewart, passed away in late February. Known as the person who coined the phrase “Underground Comix”, Stewart worked with DC Comics and Topps’ Wacky Packages. Link (26/02/2014, English, MB)

Research

The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association has put out a call out for proposals which focus upon mainstream/independent comics, web/strip comics, and/or graphic novels. Papers are expected to analyse their sources with a theoretical framework that results in discussions about the role of comics in a broader cultural and critical context. The deadline to submit proposals is the 19th May, for the conference to be held in late October at Providence College, Rhode Island. Link (English, MB)

The works of Golden Age artist and classic illustrator, George Carlson, has been released by independent comics publisher Fantagraphics and edited by Daniel Yezbick titled Perfect Nonsense: The Chaotic Comics and Goofy Games of George Carlson. The book includes a career retrospective, critical analysis, biographical timeline, and many illustrations, some rare and not published before. Link (English, MB)

Southeast Asian Cartoon Art: History, Trends and Problems has recently been published by McFarland Publishing. Edited by John A. Lent, the anthology includes essays examining overarching themes of historical/contemporary overviews and socio-cultural/political issues. Link (English, MB)

There is a call for papers for the Rocky Mountain Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels 2014 (13th-15th June), which is now attached to the Denver Comic Con. The deadline for proposals is the 15th March. Link (02/02/2014, English, WG)

There is a call for papers for a collection to be published through McFarland entitled The Punk Aesthetic in Comics. Abstracts are due by the 2nd June. Link (20/02/2014, English, WG)

The collection, It Happens at Comic-Con: Ethnographic Essays on a Pop Culture Phenomenon, edited by Ben Bolling and Matthew J. Smith, has been published through McFarland. The collection  covers a range of topics associated with Comic-Con International, from issues of identity, gender, and communicative performance. Link (English, WG)

Asia

Japan

Culture

Kyoto International Manga Museum is hosting the third edition of the Kyoto MaGiC Exhibition, featuring fashion from manga titles. The exhibition runs from the 23rd March to the 8th June. This year the fashion designs are based on the manga titles, Mairunovitch, by Zakuri Sato, and Kimi ni todoke, by Karuho Shiina. Link (English, JBS)

There will be an exhibition on the Nouvelle Bande Dessinée at Kyoto International Manga Museum, from the 15th March until the 25th May. The exhibiting artists are A-li-ce, Fumio Obata, Freddy Nadolny Poustochkine, Gaëlle Duhazé, 
Jérôme Boulbès, and José Parrondo. Link (English, JBS)

On the 29th March, at Yonezawa Yoshihiro Memorial Library (Meiji University), Hosei Iwashita and Kentaro Miwa, with Go Ito as a facilitator, will hold a talk on “expressive structure in shojo manga” and “manga and film”. Link (Japanese, JBS)

Research

The 14th annual convention of the Japanese Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics (JSSCC) will be held between 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 

Belgium

Research

Pascal Lefèvre has set up a webpage “Tools for analyzing Graphic Narratives and Case Studies”, which summarises his last 20 years of work on the formal aspects of comics. The site can serve as a quick theoretical and practical introduction (for both students and fans) in ways to analyse comics. Link (English, WG)

France

Culture

Art Ludique in Paris will host a major Marvel Comics exhibition from the 22nd March until the 31st August. Link 1 (21/02/2014, French, LTa), Link 2 (English, LTa)

Bill Watterson, author of Calvin and Hobbes, has been awarded the Grand Prix at the 2014 Angoulême festival. Link 1 (02/02/2014, French, LTa), Link 2 (03/02/2014, English, LTa)

Obituary

François Cavanna, one of the founders of satirical bande dessinée publications Hara-Kiri and Charlie Hebdo, has died aged 91. Link (30/01/2014, French, LTa)

Germany

Culture

Comics Atlas Finnland has just been published by Reprodukt (2014). This publication is a German-language collection of Finish comics, including the work of Roope Eronen, Matti Hagelberg, Jarno Latva-Nikkola, Mika Lietzén, and Hanneriina Moisseinen (amongst many others). The volume reflects complementary themes of this year’s Frankfurt Book Fair, which has Finland as its theme; and the Helsinki Comics Festival, for which Germany is the theme country. Link 1 (24/02/2014, German, KBF), Link 2 (21/11/2013, English, KBF), Link 3 (English, KBF)

Journalist Andreas Platthaus has put together a collection of recent German-language comics that are going to be shown at book fairs around the world. Link (04/02/2014, German, MdlI)

An exhibition of comic artist Peter Eickmeyer is shown in Melle until the 24th February, and in Osnabrück from the 27th April. Link (06/02/2014, German, MdlI)

Comic magazine Reddition turns 30 this year; there is going to be an anniversary exhibition at Comic-Salon Erlangen in June. Link (10/02/2014, German, MdlI)

The convention Comic-Salon Erlangen is going to take place from the 19th – 22nd June this year. Link (12/02/2014, German, MdlI)

The convention, Comiciade, is going to take place in Aachen on the 4th and 5th April; guests include Roger Langridge and Hermann. Link (20/02/2014, German, MdlI)

A talk on web comics given by comic artist Sarah Burrini at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf in January has been made available online. Link (24/02/2014, German, MdlI)

Research

A workshop on “comic studies and media studies” is going to take place at Ruhr-Universität Bochum on the 25th and 26th April. Link (12/02/2014, German, MdlI)

Greece

Culture

There is a crowd funding campaign, organised by scholar Lida Tsene (amongst others), for a short story by French author, Marguerite Yourcenar, to be adapted into a Greek language graphic novel. Link (English/French, LTs)

Ireland

Business

There is a new online comic shop set up in Ireland. Link (English, SC)

Culture

Shelley Culbertson interviews Uproar Comics Danny McLaughlin. Link (English, SC)

There has been an updated list published for guests attending Dublin Comic Con, which takes place between the 9th and 10th August. Link (English, SC)

Portugal

Culture

The municipality of Setúbal is organising an exhibition titled “Fernão Mendes Pinto e a sua Peregrinação” (Fernão Mendes Pinto and his peregrination). The exhibition focuses on the work of the Portuguese Comic author, José Ruy, published in the magazine, Cavaleiro Andante, from December 1957 until June 1959. The exhibition will run until the 11th March in Casa da Cultura de Setúbal. Link (03/02/2014, Portuguese, RR)

The Art Center of São João da Madeira is organising a course on comics. It will take place from March until May in the Oliva Creative Factory. Link (26/02/2014, Portuguese, RR)

Sweden

Culture

The Stockholm International Comics Festival has confirmed its first guest, Olivier Martin, co-creator (with Sylvain Runberg) of Den Mörka Sidan (The Dark Side). Link (22/01/2014, Swedish, KBF)

UK

Business

Downthetubes has updated its figures for UK comic sales, which list sales up until December 2013. Link (English, WG)

Culture

As part of the forthcoming Eisner Week, there will be a  Round Table Symposium on the 5th March, at the Gilchrist Club, University of Glasgow. Academic staff and postgraduate students, alongside members of the comics industry will present good graphic novels that they have recently discovered. Link (English, WG)

Scott McCloud has been announced as a guest for the 2014 Lakes International Comic Art Festival, which takes place in Kendal between the 17th and 19th October. Link (07/02/2014, English, WG)

Education

Bournemouth University’s Media School is now inviting applications for the MA courses in Adaptation, and also Literary Media. Taught in part by Dr Julia Round, these courses will include the study of comics. There is also funding available (see Link 2). Link 1 (English, WG), Link 2 (English, WG)

Research

European Comic Art Volume 6, Issue 2, has recently been published. Link (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), Shelley Culbertson (SC, Ireland), Kristy Beers Fägersten (KBF, Germany, Sweden), William Grady (WG, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Germany), Renatta Rafaella (RR, Portugal) Lida Tsene (LTs, Greece), Lise Tannahill (LTa, France).

Click here for News Review correspondent biographies.

Click here to see the News Review archive.

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