The German Society for Comics Studies (ComFor) invites abstracts for their 12th annual research conference, to be held at Bonn University, Dec 1st-3rd, 2017. Deadline: April 30th.
Please click here for a PDF with more details.
Category Archives: General
An Interview With Dirty Rotten Comics
One of the amazing, unique and encouraging things about comics is the sense of community that is fostered across the broad range of readers and writers. It is massively refreshing to see academic readers of comics in open and equal conversation with die-hard fans, writers, artists and even ‘casual readers’. This is a form that brings people together across backgrounds. Dirty Rotten Comics is a small press anthology that seeks to be an outlet for creators of comics who are starting out and brilliant. I spoke to Kirk Campbell and Gary Clap to learn more about Dirty Rotten Comics and Throwaway Press.
HE: Tell me a little bit about you – why comics? How did you get into the publishing world?
GC: We started writing and drawing comics together back at university, with a couple of friends. We were just writing throwaway gag strips for one another, playing around with ideas and seeing who could come up with the most outrageous punchline. We did this for a few years, and over time found that we had enough material to publish. So we threw together some cheap A5 collections and toured the small press comic fairs and conventions that were around at the time. It was all fairly basic stuff but good fun nonetheless, and it was a thrill to have our comics reach a wider audience. Read the rest of this entry »
Comics Forum Opportunities
Comics Forum is seeking to appoint three or more individuals to the roles of Articles Editor(s), News Editor(s), and Reviews Editor(s) on the Comics Forum website (www.comicsforum.org). Each of the roles is outlined below:
Articles Editor
The articles editor will:
- Actively source articles for the Comics Forum website (by attending conferences, staying up to date with developments in comics scholarship, approaching possible contributors)
- Edit guest articles (with a keen eye for textual organisation, argument, and structure)
- Be engaged in ongoing communication with guest contributors
- Format and publish articles on our website (WordPress), liaising with the other website & social media editors
News Editor
The Comics Forum News Review is a monthly roundup of articles relevant to comics scholarship from around the internet, sourced by an established body of international comics scholars from across the continents of Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, Oceania (see https://comicsforum.org/category/news-review/ for reference).
The responsibilities of a News Editor include the collating of news reports from a range of international correspondents (these arrive on the last day of a given month), editing these reports into a News Review post, and publishing it on the Comics Forum website on the 4th day of the following month. Secondary to this, the News Editor is responsible for the development of the News Review as and when possible, including sourcing and expanding its pre-existing body of correspondents that feed into the News Review.
Reviews Editor
The reviews editor will:
- Actively source texts to review and reviewers for the Comics Forum website (by staying up to date with developments in comics scholarship, approaching possible contributors, developing and maintaining good relationships with publishers)
- Edit reviews (with a keen eye for textual organisation, argument, and structure)
- Be engaged in ongoing communication with reviewers
- Format and publish articles on our website (WordPress), liaising with the other website & social media editors
All three roles require:
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal
- A strong knowledge of English
- Meticulous proofreading
- Academic writing skills
- Deadline driven
- Knowledge of comics scholarship (and willingness to stay up-to-date)
- Reasonably tech-savvy (You’ll be working with Word, WordPress, and social media)
- Strong organisational skills
- Previous editorial experience is desirable but not essential
All roles are voluntary positions.
To apply for one of these roles, please email your CV (including publications if possible) and a cover letter to comicsforum@hotmail.co.uk. The deadline for applications is the 25th of September.
Comics Forum Online: Year Two Review and Comics Forum 2013 Call for Papers
The Comics Forum website is two years old today! Following on from last year’s round up of articles, in this post I’ll be providing a review of all the pieces we’ve published this year, and launching the Comics Forum 2013 call for papers.
Comics Forum 2012
Running on the 15th and 16th of November, Comics Forum 2012 brought together nearly eighty academics, comics readers and creators to discuss the medium in depth at Leeds Central Library. Speakers came from around the world to deliver a range of fascinating presentations, and we featured Simone Lia in conversation with Ann Miller, and Charlie Adlard in conversation with Hugo Frey, as our keynote speakers. A huge thank you to all our participants, volunteers and supporters for helping to make the event such a success!
The Comics Forum 2012 page has now been updated and moved into the Comics Forum Archives section on the website. There you can download the full conference programme and speakers’ abstracts and biographies, as well as other conference documents like the poster and the call for papers.
Congratulations to John G. Swogger and William H. Foster III, who won our ‘Pick of the Papers’ prizes at this year’s event. John presented a paper entitled ‘Palauan Storyboard: Comics and narrative context in archaeological fieldwork’ and won Simone Lia’s Fluffy and Please God, Find Me a Husband! after being voted the paper of the day by the audience on Thursday. William talked on Friday about ‘The Changing Image of African American Women in Comics’ and won a copy of The Walking Dead Compendium Volume One. John has also reviewed Comics Forum 2012 here (if you were at Comics Forum 2012 and have reviewed the event, let us know and we’ll put a link in the archive!).
Comics Forum also appeared at this year’s Thought Bubble convention, to talk to people about studying comics in universities and schools. The Comics Forum table was manned by Comics Forum director Ian Hague, and consultant Dr Mel Gibson, and we were absolutely delighted with the response we got from the lovely Thought Bubble crowd! Thanks to everyone who came over for a chat! If we didn’t see you this year, come over and say hello next time…
We ran a raffle at the Comics Forum table, and we can now announce that the winners were:
Top Prizes: One issue of European Comic Art (courtesy of Berghahn), three issues of Studies in Comics and a copy of Ann Miller’s Reading Bande Dessinée (courtesy of Intellect).
Won by Pete Hindle and Darren Moffatt.
Runners Up: One issue of European Comic Art (courtesy of Berghahn).
Won by: Lou Crosby, Lily Glover, Nathalie Henry, Wade Simpson and John H. Thomson.
To keep up to date with all the latest Comics Forum news and articles, be sure to subscribe to our blog posts by filling in the subscribe form on the right hand side of this page, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
Comics Forum 2012 was supported by Thought Bubble, Arts Council England, the University of Chichester, Dr Mel Gibson and Molakoe Graphic Design. Prizes for the Pick of the Papers competition were provided by Travelling Man.
Comics Forum 