By Lukas R. A. Wilde

It is my pleasure to fill you in on what happened since Natalie’s last update in March on comics scholarship in the German-speaking corners of the world. The summer term started around the middle of April in German universities and, as usual, ComFor’s editorial staff compiled a list of comics related classes and lectures from disciplines as varied as Literature (English, German and French), Media Studies, History, Art Teaching and even Geography. Spring break or not, our motivated team (that Laura Oehme and I have had the honor to hand over some months back) has in general been very busy, as you can see from our new website section dedicated to international comic scholarship journals. Take a look at their second installment introducing new issues and articles of the International Journal of Comic Art, Studies in Comics, the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, ImageTexT and The Comics Grid in a clear arrangement. As usual, you can also find short introductions of new monographs and edited collections on comics within the regular Monitor section. Most of these books are released by international publishing houses and in English, so send a short note to redaktion@comicgesellschaft.de if you know of a publication that should be included in future installments. One notable German-language publication has been released during the last months: Überzeichnete Spektakel: Inszenierungen von Gewalt im Comic [Exaggerated Spectacle: The Staging of Violence in Comics] by ComFor member Jörn Ahrens. The author investigates the many forms, strategies and functions of ‘graphic violence’ from a formal, media-specific perspective, with case studies ranging from classics as Sin City or the works of Joe Sacco, to more contemporary series such as 100 Bullets or DMZ. The monograph’s release was accompanied by a roundtable discussion event on May 14 at the University of Gießen (with Frank Thomas Brinkmann, Ole Frahm and Kirsten von Hagen) on the relationship between comic aesthetics and violence.

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By Natalie Veith

In March, German universities are on term break, but it is rapidly coming to a close, so we are all busy getting ready for the summer semester that starts in April, preparing for our research and teaching duties, compiling reading lists and shuffling around seminar schedules. But that is not the only thing keeping us busy these days. In the field of comics studies as well as in the general German-language comics scene, this month in particular has been eventful.

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by Julia Ingold

The first month of the new year always starts smoothly with a prolonged holiday period. German universities resume their daily activities only in the second week of January and so does ComFor’s editorial staff—as usual with our established retrospect about several ComFor members’ favorite comics of 2018. Shortly after Stephan Packard’s substantial bi-monthly update two months ago, ComFor’s editorial team posted a retrospect on the panel “Comics 4.0” that the Committee for Comics Studies contributed to the German Society for Media Studies’ (GfM) annual conference that took place in Siegen under the headline “Industry” in September 2018. ComFor Member Lukas R. A. Wilde gave a talk on “Von Remediation zum Intermedium: Formen, Formate und mediale Rahmungen digitaler Comics” (From Remediation to Indermedia: Forms, Formats and Medial Framings of Digital Comics). Tim Glaser shared his views on “Comics, Communities & Crowdfunding: Plattformen und deren Einfluss auf die Rezeption und Distribution von Webcomics” (Comics, Communities, and Crowdfunding: Platforms and their Influence on Reception and Distribution of Webcomics). Peter Vignold, for his part, presented on “From A(yn) to Z(ack): Objektivismus im zeitgenössischen Comicfilm” (From A(yn) to Z(ack): Objectivism in the Contemporary Film Adaptation of Comics). The first two presentations both took their cues from the concept of the infinite canvas that Scott McCloud introduced in his 2000 book Reinventing Comics. The panel expounded the question to what extent webcomics’ many new possibilities might collide with the fact that they still only receive widespread attention once they are transferred into traditional print media and thus lose aspects of their inherent mediality.

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by Stephan Packard

After the traditional summer break, the winter semester has begun at German, Swiss and Austrian universities. A few weeks in, at least 15 courses and lecture series in those regions have begun work related to comics studies: the ComFor website’s staff has edited a useful and fascinating list. In addition to all of these courses, the Comic-Kolloquium in Berlin has started up again as well, boasting no less than ten announced talks from guests and regulars throughout the season. Topics range from Art Spiegelman to Preacher, from Eastern German history to 19^th century sequential art, and from literary criticism to quantitative and network analysis. Back in June, the Comic-Kolloquium had contributed a dense series of talks packed with presentations that opened up comics studies for a popular audience at the Comic Invasion Berlin. The Kolloquium is organized by Matthias Harbeck, Linda-Rabea Heyden and Marie Schröer.

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by Laura Oehme

The summer term has started and the past two months since Julia’s update were rich in comics-related events in academia (and beyond) all over Germany. With regard to the ComFor itself, the biggest news is the new board of the society that was elected at the end of April. As part of the ComFor’s current online editorial team, I am particularly happy to see that Lukas R.A. Wilde – the longest-serving member and absolutely vital coordinator of the editorial team – has been chosen for the position of treasurer, but I am equally ecstatic about the reelection of Stephan Packard as president and the election of Véronique Sina as vice president of the society. For more information on all three board members, please see our introduction of the “ComFor’s New Managing Committee”.

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