Africa

South Africa

Culture

The current exhibition at Erdmann Contemporary is Speechless, a comic art exhibition. Link (English, WG)

Americas

United States

Education

The University of Massachusetts Boston has recently acquired a collection of comic books, called the Allan D. MacDougall Popular Culture Archive. A list of comics can be found via the link, and is grouped by publisher. Link (English, WG)

Obituary

David Beronä, a comics scholar and librarian, has recently passed away. He authored Wordless Books: The Original Graphic Novels (2008). Link (English, WG)

Research

A special issue of the journal, Composition Studies, on Comics, Multimodality, and Composition has been published. Link (English, WG)

There is an extended deadline of 30th June for submissions to the edited collection, The Canadian Alternative, which focuses on  Canadian graphic novelists and cartoonists. Link (02/05/2015, English, WG)

The Northeast Popular/American Culture Association (NEPCA) is seeking paper proposals on comics and graphic novels for its fall conference to be held at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire on the 30th and 31st October.The deadline to submit proposals is the 15th June. Link (12/04/2015, English, WG)

There is a call for papers for an edited collection entitled The Comics of Art Spiegelman. Abstracts are due by the 15th June. Link (04/05/2015, English, WG)

Penn State University Press has published the Graphic Medicine Manifesto, co authored by MK Czerwiec, Ian Williams, Susan Squier, Michael Green, Kimberley Myers, and Scott Smith. Link (English, WG)

The Comics Journal has a report on Queers & Comics: The LGBTQ Cartoonists and Comics Conference. Link (18/05/2015, English, WG)

Drawn from the Classics: Essays on Graphic Adaptations of Literary Works, edited by Stephen E. Tabachnick and Esther Bendit Saltzman has been published through McFarland. Link (English, WG)

Europe

Austria

Culture

The 1st Vienna Comic Con is going to take place on the 21st and 22nd November. Link (14/05/2015, German, MdlI)

Ben Katchor is going to teach a course on ‘Comics and Performance’ in Salzburg from the 20th-25th July. Link (28/05/2015, German, MdlI)

France

Research

The programme, and other details for the Sixth International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference / Ninth International Bande Dessinée Society Conference, which takes place in Paris between the 22nd and 27th June, can be found via the link. Link (English, WG)

Germany

Culture

The exhibition on Western comics, Going West!, is now shown in Dortmund. Link (04/05/2015, German, MdlI)

An exhibition of recent German comics was shown in Asperg until the 29th May. Link (04/05/2015, German, MdlI)

Munich Comic Festival is going to take place from the 4th until the 7th June this year; guests include Dave McKean, Mike Perkins, and Jock. Link (13/05/2015, German, MdlI)

A roundtable on reading of webcomics took place at the re:publica web 2.0 conference in Berlin on the 5th May; a video recording is available. Link (German, MdlI)

Publisher Tokyopop and website Animando have founded a new award for dōjinshi. Link (13/05/2015, German, MdlI)

Several comic authors are going to participate in Comic Symposium in Saarbrücken on the 9th June, including Barbara Yelin and Marijpol. Link (21/05/2015, MdlI)

A series of exhibitions of abstract comics is going to be shown in Bremen from the 13th June until the 8th November. Link (25/05/2015, German, MdlI)

Research

Stephan Packard has been awarded one of this year’s Heinz Maier Leibnitz awards of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Link (07/05/2015, German, MdlI)

A roundtable organised by the German Society for Comics Studies (ComFor) is going to take place on the 7th June as part of Munich Comic Festival. Link (14/05/2015, German, MdlI)

Two talks on autobiographical comics were given in Bonn on the 20th May. Link (18/05/2015, German, MdlI)

Portugal

Culture

From the 29th May until the 14th June, the Casa da Cultura of Beja will host the annual International Festival of Comics (XI Festival Internacional de Banda Desenhada de Beja). This festival is usually composed by some exhibitions, book/magazine launches, author events, workshops, concerts, and much more. Link (Portuguese, English and French, RR)

Spain

Culture

An exhibition about the work of Japanese author Yuichi Yokohama can be seen at Centro Centro, Madrid, from the 27th May to the 6th September. Link (25/05/2015, Spanish, EdRC)

An exhibition about the creation of Las Meninas, best Spanish work at the Barcelona International Comic Fair, can be seen at Libreria Gil, Santander, from the 6th May to the 4th June. Link (06/05/2015, Spanish, EdRC)

Research

The international conference, Comics y Compromiso social (Comics and social commitment), will be celebrated at Valencia from the 18th to the 20th November. Abstracts are due by the 15th July. Link (16/02/2015, Spanish, EdRC)

The summer course, Imágenes y migraciones del cómic y la novela gráfica (Images and migrations from comics and graphic novels), will be celebrated at the University of Alcalá from the 23rd to the 26th June. Link (16/05/2015, Spanish, EdRC)

Switzerland

Culture

The exhibition, La Magie du Western dans la Bande Dessinée Franco-Belge, which focuses upon Franco-Belgian Western comics will be at the château de St-Maurice from the 22nd May until the 15th November. Link (French, WG)

UK

Research

The Comic Electric: A Digital Comics Symposium will be held at The University of Hertfordshire on the 14th October. Abstracts are due by the 27th July. Link (29/05/2015, English, WG)

Reports on the Applied Comics Network meetup which took place on the 9th May can be found via the link (scroll down). Link (English, WG)

There is a call for papers for, TRANSITIONS 6 – New Directions in Comics Studies 2015 Symposium, which will take place on 31st October at Birkbeck, University of London. Link (01/06/2015, English, WG)

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

Correspondents: Enrique del Rey Cabero (EdRC, Spain), William Grady (WG, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Austria & Germany), Renatta Rafaella (RR, Portugal).

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.