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Author Archives: Comics Forum

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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Digital comics and material richness by Aaron Kashtan

12 Jul

The notion of “materiality” has entered the lexicon of comics studies thanks largely to the work of Ernesto Priego, and Comics Forum sponsored a 2011 conference on the topic of materiality and virtuality in comics. However, I still feel that comics scholars, especially in the United States, have not paid sufficient attention to the importance of materiality. I want to suggest here that one of the reason comics should be interesting, not only to comics scholars but also to scholars of other media, is because of the sort of rich material, embodied and tactile interactions they make possible. Comics help us understand the ways in which reading, whether in print or on a digital platform, is always a materially and physically situated process. Rather than adopting Priego’s thesis that ‘comics as a communicative language has expressed itself as a kind of materiality that is specific to itself and only itself,’ however, I want to suggest that comics help to illuminate the way in which material interaction is a significant factor in our understanding not only of comics but of readable media artifacts in general.

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Posted by on 2013/07/12 in Comics Forum 2011, Guest Writers, Materiality and Virtuality: A Conference on Comics

 

News Review: June 2013

04 Jul

Americas

Canada

Research

Graphixia has published a report on the conference Comics and the Multimodal World that took place at Douglas College between the 13th and 16th June. Link (18/06/2013, English, WG)

United States 

Business

Diamond Comics announced their top 100 comics for May 2013. The Brian Wood/Olivier Coipel all-female X-Men #1 comes in at the top spot. Link (07/06/2013, English, MB & EG)

Diamond Comics released their list of the 100 bestselling graphic novels of May 2013; in the lead is BOOM! Studios’ Adventure Time: Playing with Fire. Link (07/06/2013, English, MB & EG)

Within two weeks of its release, Warner Bros. new film Man of Steel has surpassed the half-billion dollar mark at the box office, though it has not found the success of this year’s earlier Iron Man 3. Link (30/06/2013, English, EG)

Archaia Entertainment, home of award winning Tale of Sand and Mouse Guard, has been acquired by Boom! Studios this past week. Link (24/06/2013, English, MB)

Culture

The Comics Grid report on the 2nd Annual Chicago Alternative Comics Expo, which took place on the 15th and 16th June. Link (25/06/2013, English, WG)

Education

Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. announced their Diamond Graphic Novel Common Core List, a selection of 98 graphic novels designed to fit into the United States’ Common Core curriculum of education standards. Selections are divided by age and include such works as Johnny Boo Does Something, Scary Godmother, and Underwater Welder. Link (27/06/2013, English, EG)

As part of their Workforce Development & Continuing Education program, the University of Akron is offering a five-week course titled “Creating Great Characters and Funny Comics” which will begin on the 11th July. Link (English, MB)

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and Dark Horse have published the “CBLDF Presents Manga: Introduction, Challenges, and Best Practices” handbook. It is designed for interested librarians and educators to navigate the field of manga by providing a historical framework in which to discuss the genre and issues faced by the manga industry today. Link (26/06/2013, English, MB)

Jobs

The Savannah College of Art and Design has posted a full time teaching position, Professor of Sequential Art, to commence this autumn. Candidates should hold an undergraduate and graduate degree in sequential art or a related field. Link (English, MB)

Obituaries

Kim Thompson, who was diagnosed with lung cancer in February of this year, has passed away aged 56. He was co-publisher of Fantagraphics Books, and instrumental in translating and bringing European graphic novels to American audiences. Link (19/06/2013, English, MB & EG)

Research

The Columbus College of Art and Design announced Mix 2013: CCAD’s Celebration of Comics, the second annual symposium bringing together academic and artistic perspectives. The event will take place between the 27th and 28th September, in Columbus, Ohio. Proposals were due June 24th, but the announcement includes early event details. Link (04/06/2013, English, MB)

The Comics and Comic Art area chair is now accepting abstracts for the PCA/ACA National Conference being held at the downtown Marriott Chicago, between the 16th and 19th April 2014. The deadline for abstracts is the 1st November, and travel grant requests are due on the 15th November. Link (English, MB)

The Superhero Reader, edited by Jeet Heer, Kent Worcester, and Charles Hatfield, has been published through the University Press of Mississippi. Link (29/06/2013, English, WG)

Asia

Indonesia

Culture

As reported a few months ago, the Comics Alternatives: From Graphic Diary to Manga Style conference was held at Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), Bandung, from the 13th to the 16th June. It was a lively conference with many discussions held during and after the panels. Countries (both researchers and artists) represented were Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Germany. Link (English, LCT)

An exhibition of horror comics by established and young Indonesian artists was held at Kedai Kebun Forum Gallery in Jogjakarta between the 8th and the 30th June. A series of talks on comics was also conducted at the space. Link (English, LCT)

Japan

Culture

The Kyoto International Manga Museum is exhibiting a large collection of ballet manga, original ballet manga art, and related items between the 13th July and the 23rd September. Related talk shows, events, and work shops will also be held. Link (English, JBS)

On the 20th July there will be a talk featuring manga artist Miki Tori, at the Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library. Tori will talk about her experiences as a Meiji University student, when she was a member of the Sakyo Komatsu (a Science Fiction author) research group. Link (Japanese, JBS)

Europe 

Denmark

Culture

The International Comics Festival in Copenhagen took place between the 1st and 2nd June. Link (English, RPC)

The Danish comics Pingprize awards took place on the 1st June. Link (Danish, RPC)

France

Business

US-based digital comics platform Comixology has launched in France, welcoming 14 French publishers onto the platform, and some 400 titles. The 14 publishers make up 40% of France’s BD/Comic/Manga/Graphic Novel publishing market. Link (19/06/2013, English, LTa)

Culture

The head of the International Bande Dessinée Festival (FIBD) at Angoulême has quit his post with a year of his mandate left to run. Gérard Balinziala, who has been director of the festival since 2009, will be succeeded in an interim capacity by Patrick Auzou until 2015, when Balinziala’s term officially ends. Link (02/07/2013, French, LTa)

The Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BnF) will stage a major exhibition on Astérix from October 2013 until January 2014, based around Albert Uderzo’s donation of original artwork. Link (03/06/2013, French, LTa)

Germany

Culture

The second “Graphic-Novel-Tage” were held in Hamburg from the 10th to the 13th June; guests included Luke Pearson, Max, and Nicolas Mahler. Link (07/06/2013, German, MdlI)

An exhibition and symposium on “Autorencomics zwischen Bildgedicht und Graphic Novel” took place in Saarbrücken. Link (German, MdlI)

Research

The proceedings of the 2011 ComFor conference have been published. Link (24/06/2013, German, MdlI)

Publisher De Gruyter has released From Comic Strips to Graphic Novels: Contributions to the Theory and History of Graphic Novels, edited by Daniel Stein and Jan-Noel Thon, as part of the Narratologia series. Essays explore comics (strips and books) and graphic novels from several theoretical and historical perspectives. Link (English, MB)

Norway

Culture

The Oslo Comics Expo took place between the 7th and 8th June. Link (Norwegian, RPC)

Sweden

Culture

There is an exhibition at the design center in Malmö entitled “What up North?”, which takes place between the 3rd May and the 8th September. Link (Swedish, RPC)

Switzerland

Research

A series of lectures on manga was held in June on the occasion of the exhibition “Proto Anime Cut” at Cartoonmuseum Basel. Link (06/06/2013, German, MdlI)

UK

Culture     

The Guardian reports on how Hari Kunzru creates a “walk-in” graphic novel with his exhibition, Memory Palace, at the V&A in London. Link (18/06/2013, English, WG)

Education

A series of comics drawing workshops have been developed as a collaborative project between Cardiff University’s Centre for Language and Communication Research and the South African charity Whizzkids United, to produce a comic book in which teenagers tell their own stories to support HIV/AIDS education. Link (English, WG)

Research

There is a call for papers for a special collection within the open access journal Writing Visual Culture, titled “Writing Visual Culture: Digital Comics.” Abstracts of 200 words for papers of 3000 to 6000 words should be submitted by the 19th August. Link (21/06/2013, English, WG)

The Comics Grid announce a special collection celebrating 100 years of George Herriman’s Krazy Kat. Submissions can examine any aspect of Herriman’s creation, and submissions are due by the 1st October. Link (English, WG)

*                    *                    *

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

Correspondents: Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (JBS, Japan), Michele Brittany (MB, North America), Rikke Platz Cortsen (RPC, Scandinavia), Eric Ganeau (EG, North America), William Grady (WG, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Germany), Lise Tannahill (LTa, France), Lim Cheng Tju (LCT, Singapore).

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 2013/07/04 in News Review

 

New MP3 Download: Death and the Superhero

01 Jul

Today we present the second MP3 to come out of the Comics Forum Presents… series, José Alaniz’s talk ‘Death and the Superhero: StrikeForce Morituri‘, which took place at the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds earlier this year.

‘Death and the Superhero’ looked at the ways in which the superhero genre deals with death through the use of a case study: Marvel Comics’ Strikeforce: Morituri (1986-1989). This lecture runs for just over an hour.

You can download the MP3 below, or from the Death and the Superhero archive page (where you can also download the event’s poster). All downloads are free.

Comics Forum Presents… Death and the Superhero: StrikeForce Morituri by José Alaniz (introduction by Ian Hague)

Direct download as an MP3 here (1:05:39, 60.1MB (right click and ‘Save Target As…’)).

Online streaming and alternative download formats are available here.

Be sure to check back later in the week for the monthly Comics Forum News Review, coming up on Thursday!

 
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Posted by on 2013/07/01 in Comics Forum Presents...

 

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