Americas

Canada

Education

Candida Rifkind, in the Department of English at the University of Winnipeg, is seeking one MA student enrolled in the Cultural Studies program to work on projects related to graphic biography (biographies in the form of comic books). The deadline for applicants is the 1st February 2016. Link (English, WG)

Research

The annual conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Comics invites proposals for papers for its conference which takes place on the 12th and 13th May 2016, at the Toronto Reference Library. Abstracts are due by the 18th December. Link (English, WG)

CRAS (Colloque de recherche en arts séquentiels) issued its call for papers for the fourth conference, Par la bande : la marge dans la bande dessinée, focusing on the margins in and of comics. Link (04/11/2015, French, BC)

United States

Culture

Creative submissions are being accepted for Abstract Comics, volume 2. Link (06/11/2015, English, WG)

Research

Proposals for 2016’s Michigan State University Comics Forum are due by the 20th December. The conference will take place on the 26th and 27th February. Link (English, WG)

There is a call for papers for the 13th Annual UF Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels: “Transnational Comics: Crossing Gutters, Transcending Boundaries.” The conference will be held in Gainesville, Florida between the 8th and 10th April 2016. Abstracts are due by the 10th January. Link (English, WG)

The University of Iowa Press has published, On the Origin of Superheroes: From the Big Bang to Action Comics No. 1, by Chris Gavaler.  Link (English, WG)

The Superhero Costume: Identity and Disguise in Fact and Fiction, co-authored by Danny Graydon and Barbara Brownie, has been published through Bloomsbury Academic. Link (English, WG)

South Central Review has published a special issue of the journal entitled “Graphic Representation: Contemporary Graphic Narrative.” Link (English, WG)

There is a call for papers for Comics and Visual Culture: A Conference for Student Research, which takes place at California State University, Northridge on the 27th February 2016. Submissions are due by the 4th December. Link (19/09/2015, English, WG)

Asia

Japan

Culture

The exhibition “The World of Manga for Men” opened on the 21st November and runs until the 9th February 2016. It features high quality reproductions (Genga’ [dash]) of works by Hiroshi Hirata, Takumi Nagayasu, Motoka Murakami, and Keiko Takemiya. Link (English, JBS)

On the 19th December, Yonezawa Yoshihiro Memorial Library (Meiji University), will hold a talk show where the winners of the 2015 Gaiman (foreign manga) will be announced. The speakers are Masato Hara (BD translator) and Yukari Shiina (Comics translator). Link (Japanese, JBS)

The Japan Media Arts Festival (Art, Entertainment, Media and Manga) announced its winners on the 27th November. The winning works will be exhibited from the 3rd until the 14th February 2016 at the National Art Center in Tokyo. Among the laureates is “bara manga” artist Gengoroh Tagame for his work My Brother’s Husband. Link (26/11/2015, English, JBS)

Education

There will be a mini symposium, “The Hidden Layer* Video Games as Indebted to Comics” at Kyoto International Manga Museum on the 13th December. Organised by Kyoto Seika University Graduate School of Manga Studies and the IMRC, chaired by Jaqueline Berndt, the invited speakers are Ben Whaley and Marco Pelliteri, with Sharalyn Orbaugh and Selen Çalik as commentators. Link (English, JBS)

Obituaries

Actress Setsuko Hara, muse of director Yasujiro Ozu, passed away in September; her death was made public in late November. The animated film Millennium Actress (2001) by the late Satoshi Kon was inspired by her life. Link (25/11/2015, English, JBS)

Manga artist, Mizuki Shigeru, passed away on the 30th November at the age of 93. During his lifetime, Mizuki authored many works that are now considered classics in the “youkai” manga genre. Link (30/11/2015, Japanese, JBS)

Research

Mechademia has an open call for submissions for panels and individual presentations for the Mechademia Conference held in Tokyo from the 18th until the 20th March, the deadline is the 1st March 2016. Link (English, JBS)

Europe

Belgium

Culture

A conference and exhibition on the Congo in comics, with works by Barly Baruti and Nicolas Pitz, was held at the Point Culture in Louvain-la-Neuve, organised in collaboration with Pierre Luc Plasman, Véronique Bragard and UCL Culture. Link (12/11/2015, French, BC)

Research

The ACME Comics Research Group issued a CFP for their upcoming conference, Poetics of the Algorithm. Abstracts are due by the 20th December. Link (09/11/2015, French, BC)

France

Business

Mediatoon Licensing has launched Europe Comics, the previously announced effort to export BD to anglophone markets. For the previous announcement see Link 1, and for the launch see Link 2. Link 1 (English, LTa), Link 2 (13/11/2015, French, LTa)

Obituaries

French cartoonist Pierre Ouin passed away on the 9th November. He was a staple of the punk comics scene with his fanzine Krapö baveux, and contributed to major underground magazines as Viper, Lynx, Métal Hurlant and Psikopat. Link (11/11/2015, French, BC)

Research

On the 23rd November in Strasbourg, the research lab De Traits et d’esprit (HEAR) organised a study day on fanzines and comics with, among others, guest speakers Maël Rannou, Jean Charles Andrieu de Levis and Gert Meesters. Another session will be held on the 14th December, with authors Florent Ruppert, Dominique Goblet and Léon Maret. Link 1 (French, BC), Link 2 (15/11/2015, French, BC)

The CIBDI released the program of the conference Les êtres contrefaits: corps difformes et corps grotesques dans la bande dessinée, organised by Frédéric Chauvaud and Denis Mellier. It will take place in Angoulême from the 2nd to the 4th December. Link (16/11/2015, French, BC)

Neuvième art 2.0. published a new dossier, devoted to Italian cartoonist Guido Crepax. Link (16/11/2015, French, BC)

Germany

Business

Satoon, a new cartoon/comic/satire/television magazine was launched on the 7th November. Link (German, MdlI)

Culture

The comics exhibition, “Redrawing Stories from the Past”, is shown in Berlin until the 10th January. Link (German, MdlI)

Tagesspiegel names its top 11 comics of the year; This One Summer by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki takes the top spot. Link (German, MdlI)

An exhibition of comic artists associated with the neurotitan gallery, including Mawil and Ulli Lust, is going to be shown in Berlin from the 5th December until the 9th January 2016. Link (German, MdlI)

Research

A symposium on comics and art history is going to take place in Kiel on the 4th December. Link (German, MdlI)

“Graphic Medicine and Literary Pathographies: The Aesthetics and Politics of Illness Narratives in Contemporary Comics and Literature” is a research project headed by Dr. Irmela Marei Krüger-Fürhoff, of Freie Universität Berlin, and Einstein Visiting Fellow Prof. Susan Merrill Squier, from Penn State University. Link (English, WG)

A roundtable discussion on Argentinian comics took place in Berlin on the 11th November. Link (German, MdlI)

A workshop on the comic, TearTalesTrust, by Harald Lieske and Björn Hammel took place in Siegen on the 24th November. Link (German, MdlI)

Hungary

Culture

Hungarocomix 2015, a one-day festival of Hungarian comics and their creators took place with great success on the 28th November in Budapest. (ES)

Graphifest, the biggest festival for graphic design in Hungary, which took place between the 5th and 12th November, devoted special attention to comics this year: they had an exhibition “Comic.Book.Hero,” an improvisation with Hungarian comics artists, and a roundtable with comics artists and illustrators. Link (Hungarian, ES)

Brody Art Yard, in collaboration with BP! Comics, opens its call for submissions for an anthology of Indie comics. The project welcomes new wave and alternative comic stories focusing on Central and Eastern Europe. The best 10-20 graphic novels will be published in a publication printed in Risograph. The compilation will be launched during the first Sztriptíz – Indie Comic Fair, dedicated to the art of alternative comic design. The deadline of the call is the 4th January 2016. Link (English, ES)

Portugal

Culture

From the 4th December until the 6th December the city of Matosinhos will be the hosting Comic Con Portugal. The fair will take place in Exponor. The program includes a range of national and international artists in different areas, coming from diverse career backgrounds. Link (Portuguese & English, RR)

On the 20th November a space in the Library of São Domingos de Rana (Cascais) was opened which is dedicated exclusively to comics. Link (18/11/2015, Portuguese, RR)

Until January 2016, the gallery Mundo Fantasma is hosting the exhibition “Olá, o meu nome é O. Shauwen” (Hello, my name is O.Shauwen) by Olivier Schrauwen. On the 14th November, the author also published his book Cinzas (Ashes). Link (14/11/2015, Portuguese, RR)

Spain

Culture

The 18th edition of Expocomic will be take place in Madrid from the 11th to the 13th December. It will host an array of national and international authors, as well as professional events, workshops, and talks. Link (Spanish, EdRC)

Romania

Culture

Craiova hosted Craiova Comic Con 2015 between the 20th and 22nd November. The convention showcased the work of independent Romanian cartoonists. Link (Romanian, MP)

UK

Culture

The manga exhibition, “Manga Now: Three Generations”, will run at the British Museum until the 15th November. Link (English, WG)

Education

Lancaster University has appointed BD creator, critic and Tintin expert, Benoit Peeters, as its Visiting Professor in Graphic Fiction and Comic Art. Link 1 (25/11/2015, English, LTa), Link 2 (26/11/2015, French, LTa)

Jobs

Editors of the journal, Studies in Comics, are seeking an editorial assistant. The deadline for applicants is the 15th December. Link (English, WG)

Research

The symposium, From Hogarth to Hellboy: The Transformation of the Visual Reader, will take place at Senate House Library, London, on the 16th December. Link (English, WG)

There is a call for papers for the Seventh International Conference of Graphic Novels and Comics, which will take place at Manchester Metropolitan University from the 11th July 2016. The theme for the conference is Graphic Gothic, and despite the listed deadline, abstracts are being accepted until the end of this year. Link (English, WG)

*                    *                    *

 

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

Correspondents: Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (JBS, Japan), Enrique del Rey Cabero (EdRC, Spain), Benoît Crucifix (BC, Belgium, France, and Canada), William Grady (WG, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Germany), Mihaela Precup (MP, Romania), Renatta Rafaella (RR, Portugal), Eszter Szép (ES, Hungary), Lise Tannahill (LTa, France & UK).

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.