Americas
Brazil
Culture
Convenção Internacional de Quadrinhos de Curitiba (International Comics Convention of Curitiba) took place between 25th and 28th October, and gathered a large number independent comics artists from the country, establishing itself as one of the biggest comics conventions in Brazil (Link). Full coverage of the event can be read here: Link (29/10/2012, Portuguese, GS)
Research
Jornada de Estudos sobre os Romances Gráficos (Study Day on Graphic Novels) has released its program, approaching a wide range of topics such as experimental comics, translation, literary studies and an overview of the new Brazilian comics. The colloquium will happen on the 19th and 20th November. Link (05/10/2012, Portuguese, GS)
A new journal on comics studies has just been released in Brazil: Nona arte: Brazilian Journal of Comics Research is edited by the Observatório de Histórias em Quadrinhos (USP). The journal is open access; peer reviewed and also accepts foreign articles. Link (Portuguese, GS)
United States
Business
Publishers Weekly reports on positive trends in digital comics and comics sales, with a downturn for Manga in 2012, as announced at the ICv2 conference for industry professionals leading up to New York Comic Con. Link (English, HMS)
Culture
Publishers Weekly reports on trends at a record breaking New York Comic Con with consistently increasing attendance in recent years. Link (English, HMS)
The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art at the Society of Illustrators in New York City opens a fall exhibition of highlights from its collection from 5th September to 22nd December, following its merger with the Society of Illustrators. Link (English, HMS)
The Museum of Cartoon and Comic Art in New York City has opened its international spring Festival, “MoCCA Fest”, for exhibitor registration. MoCCA Fest specialises in independently produced and small-press comics. Link (English, HMS)
Education
A week prior to the event, it is announced that Batman producer Michael Uslan will be awarded an honorary Doctorate in Comics from Monmouth University, NJ, on the 13th October, with quotes and reactions from Uslan. Link (08/10/2012, English, HMS)
Rob Spahr of NJ.com, gives a preview of Michael Uslan’s upcoming awards ceremony to receive an honorary Doctorate in Comics from Monmouth University, NJ. Link 1 (10/10/2012, English, HMS). Additional reporting: Link 2 (08/10/2012, English, HMS)
Kate Kostursky of American Libraries Magazine critiques New York Comic Con’s substantial comics and education panels from a librarian’s perspective. Link (12/10/2012, English, HMS)
Law
Tim Kineally of Reuters reports in the Chicago Tribune on Warner Bros. victory in the Siegel and Shuster lawsuit over intellectual property rights to Superman. Link (18/10/2012, English, HMS)
Jeff Trexler at The Comics Beat gives an in-depth discussion of the Siegel and Shuster/Warner Bros. case and what it might mean for comics ownership in the future. Link (18/10/2012, English, HMS)
Ben Fritz of the LA Times reports on Stan Lee Media, a now defunct company, in its lawsuit against Disney for the copyright to many Marvel characters. Link (10/10/2012, English, HMS)
Research
The Fall 2012 issue of the International Journal of Comic Art (Vol.14, No. 2) has been released. Link (English, WG)
A call for papers has been issued for papers on ‘Comics: Graphic Novels, Strips, Panels, Films, and Everything in Between,’ at the Pop Culture Association National Conference in Washington DC in 2013. Proposal submissions expected by Nicole Freim by the 1st November. Link (English, HMS)
A call for abstracts for the Comics as Scholarship Digital Humanities Quarterly special issue has been announced, to be edited by Anastasia Salter and Roger Whitson. Abstracts are due the 1st January 2013. Link (22/10/2012, English, HMS)
Harper Collins announces the book release of Sean Howe’s research work Marvel: The Untold Story, which explores the history of Marvel comics from the perspective of insiders on the basis of substantial interviews with staffers. Link (09/10/2012, English, HMS)
Asia
Japan
Business
Amazon Japan finally releases the Kindle, with 15,000 manga titles available. Link (25/10/2012, Japanese, JBS)
Culture
The Kitakyushu Manga Museum, the second cultural facility of its kind in Japan, opened in August 2012. Link (Japanese, JBS)
On the 23rd November, the Kyoto International Manga Museum celebrates its sixth anniversary. Director Yoro Takeshi will talk about Manga and Entertainment. Link (Japanese, JBS)
Meiji University’s Yoshihiro Yonezawa Memorial Library of Manga and Subcultures is organising a talk show on “Gaiman” (foreign manga/comics) on the 24th November. Link (Japanese, JBS)
Education
The Faculty of Manga at Kyoto Seika University has added a Character Design Course and a Gag Manga Course to its four existing courses, to start from the new academic year in April 2013. Link (Japanese, JBS)
Research
The gender study group of the Japanese Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics has its 18th meeting on the 11th November. Link (Japanese, JBS)
South Korea
Research
The 3rd Mechademia Conference on Anime, Manga and Media Theory from Japan, will be held at Dongguk University, Seoul, from the 29th November to the 2nd December. Link (English, JBS)
Philippines
Culture
Blush, a Southeast Asian BL Convention, will be held on the 9th December, in Manila. Link (English, JBS)
Singapore
Culture
The third 24 Hours Comics Day was held in Singapore on the 20th October at the Bukit Merah Community Library. Link (English, LCT)
Lim Cheng Tju gave a talk on Singapore comics since the 1980s at the National Museum of Singapore on the 24th October. Link (English, LCT)
Europe
Denmark
Culture
The Danish comics artist Jakob Martin Strid gets the prize of the crown prince couple. Link (06/10/2012, Danish, RPC)
The festival and exhibition Artbubble took place in Horsens between the 6th & the 7th October. Link (06/10/2012, Danish, RPC)
There’s an exhibition on Osama Tezuka in Viborg until the 4th November. Link (25/08/2012, Danish, RPC)
Technology
Danish Comics Creators have made an app for accessing comics created by Danish artists. Link (23/10/2012, Danish, RPC)
Finland
Research
The Nordic Network for Comics Research (NNCORE) has a CFP for their international conference in Helsinki. The deadline for papers is on the 10th November. Link (23/09/2012, English, RPC)
France
Business
French company Aquafadas, creator of the digital comics reader AveComics, has been acquired by e-reader manufacturer Kobo. Link (12/10/2012, French, LTa)
FNAC has announced they will no longer sponsor the the Angoulême bande dessinée festival. They cite financial difficulties and their wish to create their own BD prize. Link (16/10/2012, French, LTa)
Culture
Didier Conrad has been announced as the new illustrator of the Astérix series, beginning with the series’ 35th album, due to be published in 2013. Link (10/10/2012, French, LTa)
Angoulême’s Cité de la BD will rename its Castro Building after Jean Giraud/Moebius. Link (11/10/2012, French, LTa); Link 2 (11/10/2012, French, LTa)
It has been announced that Manga legend, Leiji Matsumoto, will appear at the 2013 Angoulême festival. Link (23/10/2012, French, LTa)
The Musée de la Bande Dessinée will hold an exhibition of 70 preparatory drawings by Edmond Baudoin on Salvador Dali, taken from Dali par Baudoin, published by Dupuis. This will accompany the Centre Pompidou’s major Dali retrospective from the 21st November 2012, until the 24th March 2013. Link (22/10/2012, French, LTa)
Education
Bande dessinée-based teaching resources for French teachers available on TES website. Link (10/10/2012, French/English, LTa)
Obituaries
Claudine Blanc-Dumont, colourist of the series Blueberry and Jonathan Cartland, has died. Link (12/10/2012, French, LTa)
Breton BD author Bruno le Floch, creator of Chroniques Outremers, has died at the age of 55. Link (07/10/2012, French, LTa)
Greece
Culture
The dates and full program of the 14th International Comics Festival (ex Babel Fetstival) have been announced. After three years of absence the festival is coming back. Link (Greek, LTs)
Education
Vakalo Art and Design College has announced an annual comics workshop. Link (Greek, LTs)
A seminar on comics translation begins in November. Link (15/10/2012, Greek, LTs)
Research
A new book about Greek comics, based on a PhD reaserch by Greek cartoonist Soloup is coming out. Link (26/10/2012, Greek, LTs)
Ireland
Culture
Irish Comic News have published a poster for the Dublin Comic Mart, taking place 03/11/2012. Link (24/10/2012, English, SC)
A review of At War With The Empire: Ireland’s Fight For Independence, by David O Leary, has been posted online. Link (03/10/2012, English, SC)
Research
The list of speakers, and some of the abstracts for papers presented at the conference, ‘Grant Morrison and the superhero renaissance’ (Dublin, 14th and 15th September), have been posted online. Link (12/09/2012, English, SC)
Romania
Culture
Alois Nebel (2011, dir. Tomáš Luňák), the animation film based on the Czech comic book trilogy by Jaroslav Rudiš and Jaromír 99, won the Prize for the Best Animated Feature at Anim’est – the yearly international animation festival in Bucharest. Link (13/10/2012, English, MP)
PinkHell, an exhibition of 20 contemporary Hungarian cartoonists publishing in PinkHell magazine, was launched in Bucharest by the Hungarian Comics Union and the Hungarian Comics Academy. Link (18/10/2012, Romanian, MP)
A ‘drawing concert’ featuring Swiss cartoonist Kati Rickenbach took place in Bucharest at the National Academy of Music. Rickenbach drew live to the music of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Link (28/10/2012, Romanian, MP)
Slovenia
Culture
The Tolmin Museum has opened an exhibition on the comic Tolmin Peasant Uprising of 1713 by Remigio Gabellini, and Slovenian Classical Authors in Strip in association with Forum Ljubljana, the institute for artistic and cultural production. After twenty years, ten of the original drawings and a colour version of the comic are on display. Link (13/09/2012, Slovenian, AV)
An exhibition of Slovenian comic book author Marjan Manček (1948, Novo mesto) called ‘Comics and Illustration’ is opened in the Library of Ciril Kosmač, Tolmin, Slovenia. Link 1 (30/10/2012, Slovenian, AV); Link 2 (Slovenian, AV)
There is an exhibition about Iztok Sitar (1962, Ljubljana) – the Slovenian publicist, caricaturist, illustrator, and author of many socially engaged comics books and the book History of Slovenian Comics: 1927-2007 (original title: Zgodovina slovenskega stripa: 1927-2007). Link 1 (31/10/2012, Slovenian, AV); Link 2 (31/10/2012, Slovenian, AV)
Sweden
Culture
Comics artist Joanna Hellgren exhibits at the Swedish Architecture museum in Stockholm. Link (02/10/2012, English, RPC)
The bi-annual Altcon festival in Malmö has the theme ‘No borders’, and takes place between the 7th and 11th of November. Link (English, RPC)
Research
Sweden gets its second PhD dissertation published on comics, Tecknad Tomboy by Ylva Sommerland. Link (22/08/2012, Swedish RPC)
The ”Telling stories” research group in the Nordic Network for Comics Research (NNCORE) got together for a seminar in Malmö (25th & 26th October). Link (25/10/2012, English, RPC)
UK
Culture
Bleeding Cool published an extensive interview with Paul Gravett, spanning his career in comics. Link (31/10/2012, English, WG)
Down the Tubes has published their photo review for Dundee Comics Day 2012, which took place on the 28th October at the University of Dundee. Part 1 (29/10/2012, English, WG); Part 2 (01/11/2012, English, WG)
Jobs
A Marvel comics editorial internship has been posted on the Panini Comics website. Link (English, WG)
Research
The poster and keynotes for Comics Forum (15th & 16th November) have been published online. Link (19/10/2012, English, WG)
Last modified on the 29th October, details can be found for the forthcoming Comica Symposium 2012 – Transitions 3: New directions in comic studies (03/11/2012). Link (29/10/2012, English, WG)
Oceania
Australia
Culture/Research
The Manga Library, part of the Japanese Studies Centre at Monash University, is celebrating its tenth anniversary, with a symposium on 23rd-24th November, and an exhibition of girls manga from 23rd-26th November. Link (English, JBS)
* * *
News Editor: Will Grady (comicsforumnews@hotmail.co.uk)
Correspondents: Lim Cheng Tju (LCT, Singapore), Lida Tsene (LTs, Greece), Lise Tannahill (LTa, France), Shelley Culbertson (SC, Ireland), Rikke Platz Cortsen (RPC, Scandinavia), Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (JBS, Japan), Mihaela Precup (MP, Romania), Greice Schneider (GS, Brazil), Hannah Means-Shannon (HMS, North America), Asta Vrečko (AV, Slovenia), William Grady (WG, UK).
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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