by Stephan Packard

It has been a comparatively quiet summer for comics studies in Germany, but that is about to change with autumn, as several conferences, exhibitions and projects get back into gear.

The German Society for Comics Studies’ (ComFor) annual conference will be held in Essen this year from November 16th to 19th. Dedicated to the use of comics in schools—teaching comics and teaching other subjects through comics—the conference takes up an array of topics that have attracted increasing attention for the last several years. The conference starts with the popular workshop format, in which comics scholars present ongoing and planned projects for joint discussion and feedback. For this year’s topic, many of these presentations will be from young scholars studying to be teachers; they will consider possible uses of comics in school settings. During the next three days, speakers will examine several dimensions of comics’ didactic uses and challenges, from issues of mediality and materiality through visual literacy and language acquisition, on to philosophical and historical treatments in comics to specific didactic programs and projects. As always, anyone interested in the topic is welcome to join in the discussion; see full program and information about registration here.

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 by Laura Oehme

As usual, July and August have been comparably quiet months for German comics studies, but there were some interesting developments nevertheless. We, the online editorial team of the German Society for Comics Studies (ComFor), still managed to publish two posts each week about conferences, publications, exhibitions, and other developments concerning comics studies in Germany with lots of information I don’t want to keep from you, starting off with some very sad and some very good news.

The very sad news reached us only days before the deadline of this column: Unfortunately, Christian Maiwald discontinues his German-language comics blog “dreimalalles”. Maiwald’s thorough documentation of anything connected to comics enriched Germany’s comics landscape tremendously and often served as a source for our own ComFor posts. In the name of the whole ComFor editorial team, I would like to take the opportunity to thank Christian Maiwald for two years of hard work and dedication to the comics community. Read the rest of this entry »

by Nina Heindl

The first half of 2016 has passed and it is time for a new bi-monthly update on comics studies-related news from Germany. Let me start with one of the biggest and certainly one of the highlights regarding comics-related events in Germany, the 17th Erlangen International Comic-Salon, which took place from May 26 to 29. A central part of the Comic-Salon is the trade fair with more than 150 exhibitors. Among the many simultaneous exhibitions was one dedicated to manga artist Jiro Taniguchi, one about comics and satire in Turkey, and one on Indian comics. As in past years, the ComFor contributed a lecture series to the supporting program. Organized by Clemens Heydenreich, five comics scholars gave talks on different aspects of the general topic “Drawn Borderline Walks. Comic Culture(s) Internationally”. The webcomic initiative Comic Solidarity also had an astonishing program, entitled “Webcomic in Focus” and directed by Lukas R.A. Wilde and organized by Eva Junker, with talks, discussions, workshops on digital comics, and book-signing sessions.

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