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News Review: April 2015

04 May

Americas

United States

Culture

Nominations for the 2015 Eisner Awards have been announced, inclusive of the category for Best Scholarly/Academic Work. Link (English, WG)

Education

The University of Chicago has acquired papers of cartoonist, Daniel Clowes. Link (30/04/2015, English, WG)

Job 

The International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF), announces an open call for the position of Treasurer. Applications are being accepted until the 31st May. Link (English, WG)

Research

The Comic Book Film Adaptation: Exploring Modern Hollywood’s Leading Genre, by Liam Burke, has now been published through the University Press of Mississippi. Link (English, WG)

Asia

Japan

Culture

From the 10th May until the 28th June, Fudenosato Kobo, located in Hiroshima prefecture, is holding the “Matsumoto Leiji x Maki Miyako; Couple Collaboration Exhibition.” It includes works by manga artists and married couple Matsumoto, whose representative works include “Galaxy Express 999”, and Maki, a shojo manga artist who debuted in the 1950s and who also worked on the design for the earliest version of fashion doll Licca chan. There will be events throughout the month of May with both artists. Link (Japanese, JBS)

Law & Politics

A manga created by premier Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, with its aim to promote the amendment of the constitution, is under fire for containing “a lot of nonsense”. Link (03/05/2015, Japanese, JBS)

Research

The 15th Annual Convention of the Japan Society for Studies in Cartoon and Comics (JSSCC, Manga Gakkai), will be held at the Aster Plaza in Hiroshima City, on the 27th and 28th June. The first day is dedicated to scholarly presentations, and the second to a symposium with specialist guests. This year the symposium’s theme is “The many facets of Barefoot Gen”. Details on the rest of the program will be posted on the website soon. Link (Japanese, JBS)

Europe

Belgium

Culture

Hergé’s The Castafiore Emerald has been adapted as an opera by a Belgian company, to be performed in September 2015. Link (07/04/2015, French, LTa)

France

Business

Toulon publisher Soleil Productions, founded in 1989 by Mourad Boudjellal and now owned by Delcourt, is downsizing significantly, it has been announced. The majority of its activity will ‘disappear’ according to Actualitté. Link (15/04/2015, French, LTa)

Culture

A new Ric Hochet album is to be published at the end of May, five years after the death of orginal illustrator Tibet. Link (23/04/2015, French, LTa)

Germany

Culture

An exhibition of the comic, Weisse Wölfe, opened in Dortmund on the 15th April. Link (06/04/2015, German, MdlI)

Edition Alfons has announced a new book series on comics; the first volume by Detlef Lorenz will be about Robinson Crusoe and is going to be published this summer. Link (23/04/2015, German, MdlI)

Several comic-related events take place as part of 22. Internationales Trickfilm-Festival Stuttgart (ITFS) in May. Link (28/04/2015, German, MdlI)

The festival, Graphic Novel Tage, is going to take place in Hamburg from the 18th until the 22nd May; guests include Lewis Trondheim and Flix. Link (30/04/2015, German, MdlI)

Research

A conference on visual satire and caricature is going to take place in Obernkirchen from the 15th until the 17th September. Link (09/04/2015, German, MdlI)

A series of workshops on comics takes place in Cologne on the 24th April, 22nd May, and 26th June. Link (20/04/2015, German, MdlI)

A lecture series on “literature and illustration” in Hanover features two talks on comics, by Nathalie Mälzer on the 24th June and by Christina Meyer on the 15th July. Link (23/04/2015, German, MdlI)

Hungary

Culture

The 11th International Comics Festival Budapest is held on the 10th May at Dürer Kert, Budapest. International guest artists and writers include Lucie Lomová (Czech Republic), Ptiluc (France), Typex (Netherlands) and Pierre Wazem (Switzerland).  Link (01/05/2015, English, ES)

Portugal

Culture

On the 15th May the authors Anton Kannemeyer (South Africa), Posy Simmonds (England) and Marcelo D’Salete (Brasil) will discuss the different procedures of comics production and the dialogues that these procedures establish with global culture. This round table discussion, moderated by Pedro Moura, is attached to a cycle of conferences named Próximo Futuro (Next Future), and will take place in Lisbon, in Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. Link (03/04/2015, Portuguese & English, RR)

From the 29th May until the 14th June, the Casa da Cultura of Beja will host the annual International Festival of Comics (XI Festival Internacional de Banda Desenhada de Beja). This festival is usually composed by some exhibitions, book/magazine launches, author events, workshops, concerts, and much more. Link (18/04/2015, Portuguese, RR)

Spain

Business

José A. Serrano has published a list with the top-selling comics in some of the main bookstores in Spain in 2014. Link (Spanish, EdRC)

Culture

The 33rd edition of the Barcelona International Comic Fair was celebrated from the 16th to the 19th April. Its Gran Premio (Great Prize) was given to scriptwriter and translator, Enrique Sánchez Abulí, celebrated for his classic series Torpedo 1936. Las meninas won in the category of best Spanish comic, and Saga was awarded best foreign work. Link (17/04/2015, Spanish, EdRC)

The travel section of El País has an article with the list of the best 10 comics bookstores in Madrid. Link (01/04/2015, Spanish, EdRC)

An exhibiton with originals of the work of painter and comic artist Miquel Fuster can be seen at the University of Barcelona from the 29th April to the 15th May. Link (29/04/2015, Spanish/Catalan, EdRC)

Research

The 13th edition of Unicomic, a three-day seminar of comics studies, will take place at the University of Alicante. Link (Spanish, EdRC)

Switzerland

Culture

The comic magazine, Comixene, which was cancelled in 2012, is going to be relaunched in August. Link (27/04/2015, German, MdlI)

UK

Research

There is a call for papers for the 1st Global Conference on Superheroes, which will take place between the 7th and 9th September at Mansfield College, Oxford. Link (17/04/2015, English, WG)

The British Consortium of Comics Scholars Day and Comics Tea Party will take place on the 30th May at the  University of Sussex. Link (08/04/2015, English, WG)

*                    *                    *

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

Correspondents: Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (JBS, Japan), Enrique del Rey Cabero (EdRC, Spain), William Grady (WG, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Germany & Switzerland), Renatta Rafaella (RR, Portugal), Eszter Szép (ES, Hungary), Lise Tannahill (LTa, Belgium & France).

Click here for News Review correspondent biographies.

Click here to see the News Review archive.

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 2015/05/04 in News Review

 

The Spanish Civil War in Comics: A Conversation on Spanish Comics, Remembrance, and Trauma by Sarah D. Harris and Enrique del Rey Cabero – Part 2

29 Apr

Click here to read part 1 of this conversation.

This is the second part of a conversation on the relationships between comics and the Spanish Civil War and its aftermath. Having sketched out the history of comics in Spain from the early, middle, and late twentieth century, scholars Sarah D. Harris and Enrique del Rey Cabero will now discuss the representation of the war in more recent graphic novels and comics. They will also describe possible pedagogical opportunities for using some of these publications in the classroom.

SARAH: Hello, Enrique. I’ve enjoyed discussing with you the roots of the current comics climate in Spain, and a few groundbreaking twentieth century works. I’m struck by just how many Spanish comics from the twenty-first century take up the theme of Civil War. In the past several years, I’ve been especially interested in El arte de volar (The Art of Flying) (2009) [1] by Antonio Altarriba and Kim, Un médico novato (A Rookie Doctor) (2013) by Sento, Las serpientes ciegas (The Blind Serpents) (2008) by Felipe Hernández Cava and Bartolomé Seguí, and Los surcos del azar (The Furrows of Chance) (2013) by Paco Roca. In these recent books, as you have noted, several of their prologuists or authors describe an explicit and intentional act of remembering, and also a desire to participate in a collective or community endeavor. In interviews and paratexts, each work is called part of something bigger, something shared.

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Posted by on 2015/04/29 in Guest Writers, Interviews

 

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The Spanish Civil War in Comics: A Conversation on Spanish Comics, Remembrance, and Trauma by Sarah D. Harris and Enrique del Rey Cabero – Part 1

27 Apr

In the young twenty-first century, several Spanish comics about memory and the Civil War have garnered well-deserved critical acclaim. However, they have been explored very little in academia. This conversation brings together two scholars working on memory and Spanish comics to discuss the current comics scene in Spain, the Civil War and its aftermath, the representation of the war in recent graphic novels and comics, and possible pedagogical opportunities for using some of these publications in the classroom. Enrique is currently researching and teaching in Australia, and Sarah is a professor of Spanish in the USA. For both of them, this conversation introduces some of their most recent research projects.

ENRIQUE: I think the first thing I would like to point out is how vibrant the Spanish comics scene is today. Comics are now more widely appreciated among many audiences. The rise of the graphic novel at a global level has played an important role and has already produced notable examples in the Spanish context, such as Arrugas (Wrinkles, Knockabout) [1] and some of the ones we will be talking about in this round table. Comics have also increased their visibility in media (newspapers, television), online (through websites and webcomics) and there has been some institutional support by the Spanish Ministry of Culture (since 2007, a National Comics Prize is awarded annually to the best Spanish comic of the year, under the same program as other national prizes such as Literature, History, etc.), public libraries (which have considerably extended their comics catalogue in recent years) and universities (which organize more and more conferences and seminars).

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Posted by on 2015/04/27 in Guest Writers, Interviews

 

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The Bi-Monthly ComFor Update for April 2015 by Stephan Packard

23 Apr

As German universities are about to return for their summer semesters, I find that the previous seasons of comics research in Germany hardly seem to apply any longer; an onslaught of publications, conferences, and exhibitions seems to continue throughout the year. Giving an overview of all of them no longer appears feasible, but here are some of those that kept us busy during the last two months, with apologies to anyone whose projects I might have missed. Do let me know.

We’re currently gearing up for the workshop on The Mediality and Materiality of Contemporary Comics at Tuebingen between April 24th and 26th. This second workshop of the AG Comicforschung, the panel for comics research, of the German Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft) will be organised by Jan-Noël Thon and Lukas Wilde. The program boasts keynotes by Daniel Stein, Karin Kukkonen, Ian Hague, Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, and AG founder Véronique Sina, and will combine these with shorter paper presentations on topics ranging from the treatment of history in comics to analyses of individual comics by Warren Ellis, John Byrne, Scott McCloud, Brian Fies, and several others.

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Posted by on 2015/04/23 in ComFor Updates

 

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Telling the Prehistory of Greenland in Graphic Novels by Lisbeth Valgreen

09 Apr

Background

Denmark and Greenland have, for a long time, been historically connected; in 1721 the Danish/Norwegian priest and missionary Hans Egede travelled to Greenland in search of the Norse. He didn’t find them, as the Norse had disappeared at the start of the 15th century. He did however find the Inuit, and he focused his missionary activities on them instead. In 1728, Egede founded the colony Godthaab (which is now known as Nuuk, the capital of Greenland today), and until 1953 Greenland was considered a Danish colony. In 1953, Greenland became a part of the Danish realm under the constitution of Denmark. Greenland received Home Rule Government in 1979, and in 2009 this Home Rule Government was extended to Self Government – although the Danish monarch is still the head of state in Greenland. Since the 19th century, Danish (and later also Greenlandic) scientists have been working in Greenland, documenting everything from archaeology, anthropology and language, to geology, biology and glaciology.

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Posted by on 2015/04/09 in Guest Writers

 

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