Americas
Canada
Education
There is a funded Postdoctoral Fellowship in Comics Studies under the supervision of Dr. Bart Beaty available at the University of Calgary. The deadline for applications is the 1st September. Link (07/07/2014, English, WG)
Research
There is a call for papers for a panel entitled, Comedy and Comics: Parody, Satire, and Humor in Superhero Narratives, which will be held at The Northeast Modern Language Association’s 46th annual conference, in Toronto in 2015. 300 word abstracts are due by the 30th September. Link (14/07/2014, English, WG)
United States
Business
Diamond Comic Distributors tabulated the total unit sales of comics invoiced in June and Scott Synder and Greg Capullo’s Batman #32 (DC Comics) from the “Zero Year” series was the top seller for the month. Marvel’s Amazing Spider-Man #3 and Original Sin #3 took second and third spots respectively. Link (English, MB)
The top graphic novels for June included Afterlife with Archie: Escape From Riverdale Vol 1, Marvel’s Night of the Living Deadpool, and Ed Brubaker’s period spy thriller Velvet: Before the Living End (Image). Interestingly, all three volumes of Saga (Image) were also in the top 10. Link (English, MB)
Diamond Comic Distributors reported continued growth in the comic industry with total sales up 3.8% for mid-year sales statistics. Link (English, MB)
Culture
Sequart Organization has announced that the Fredric Wertham documentary, Diagram for Delinquents, is now available for download purchase and DVD preorder. Link (English, WG)
Gail Simone will be leaving Batgirl, and starting with issue #35, the series will be written by Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher and illustrated by Babs Tarr. Batgirl will don a new suit that has already been praised for its practicality over sexual allure. Link (10/07/2014, English, MB)
The winners of the 2014 Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards have been announced. Link (English, WG)
Research
McFarland has recently published the collection, The Ages of the X-Men: Essays on the Children of the Atom in Changing Times, edited by Joseph J. Darowski. Link (English, WG)
Asia
China
Culture
The comics exhibition, A Parallel Tale: Taipei in 80s x Hong Kong in 90s, organised by the Hong Kong Arts Centre, which opened in Taipei last year, has traveled back to Hong Kong. It showcases five artists from Taiwan and five artists from Hong Kong. It is at the Comix Home Base until the end of August. Link (Chinese, LCT)
Indonesia
Law and Politics
The recent Indonesian presidential elections saw the use of election comics as part of the campaign. Link (Bahasa Indonesia, LCT)
Japan
Culture
Kyoto International Manga Museum is holding a Mini-Manga Artist Experience workshop every day of the summer vacation (from the 19th July until the 31st August), and every weekend and holiday until the 28th September. Link (English, JBS)
The 86th Comiket (Comic Market) will be held from the 15th to the 17th August at Tokyo Big Sight. The twice-a-year Comiket is the largest fan convention in Japan, and a must see for every comics scholar visiting Japan during this period. Link (English, JBS)
The JSSCC (Japan Society for Studies in Cartoons and Comics) Kansai area group is holding a lecture on Tezuka Osamu on the 10th August (preceded by a visit to the Tezuka Osamu exhibition at the same venue), at Shiga Prefectural Museum of Modern Art. Link (Japanese, JBS)
The “Era of Ashita no Joe” Exhibition is running until the 21st September at Tokyo’s Nerima Art Museum (there will be gallery talks by curators on the 23rd August, and on the 6th and 13th September). Link (26/07/2014, Japanese, JBS)
Research
Manga critic, Nagayama Kaoru, and manga scholar, Hori Akiko, will speak at the 50th Yonezawa Yoshihiro Memorial Library event, on the topic of “Increased and augmented erotic manga studies.” The event will be held in Japanese. Link (Japanese, JBS)
Malaysia
Law and Politics
Malaysia has banned a Malay translation of an Ultraman comic book for using the word Allah to describe the Japanese hero. Link (Bahasa Malaysia, LCT)
Singapore
Culture
The e-book of the Lianhe Zaobao (Singapore’s main Chinese newspaper) cartoon exhibition from last year is released online. Link (English/Chinese, LCT)
Law and Politics
Singapore has banned the sale of an Archie comic for depicting a gay wedding. Link (16/07/2014, English, LCT)
Europe
Belgium
Research
The French Comics Theory Reader, edited by Ann Miller and Bart Beaty, has now been published by Leuven University Press. Link (English, WG)
Germany
Culture
Germany is guest country at the 29th Helsinki Comics Festival; guests include Marijpol and Sascha Hommer. Link (10/07/2014, German, MdlI)
The Internationaler Graphic Novel-Salon is going to take place as part of Literaturfestival Hamburg on the 18th September. Link (17/07/2014, German, MdlI)
Education
A conference on comics in the classroom is going to take place on the 26th September in Berlin. Link (21/07/2014, German, MdlI)
Research
A panel on comics and law will take place as part of the annual conference of the German Society for Media Studies (Gesellschaft für Medienwissenschaft, GfM) in Marburg on the 4th October. Link (07/07/2014, German, MdlI
A conference on graphic novels took place in Braunschweig from the 2nd to the 4th July. Link (German, MdlI)
Bildlaute & laute Bilder, an essay collection on audiovisuality in graphic narratives, has been published by Bachmann. Link (14/07/2014, German, MdlI)
A call for papers for an edited volume entitled, The German Graphic Novel: Scholarship and Pedagogy, has been published. Link (22/07/2014, English, MdlI)
Portugal
Culture
The library, José Régio in Vila do Conde, is hosting the exhibition titled, “de um simples traço nasce um sonho” (From a single line arises a dream), by the Portuguese author Agonia Sampaio. The exhibition can be visited until the end of August. Link (28/07/2014, Portuguese, RR)
Until the 19th August, the Casa da Cultura in Sátão is hosting an exhibition about Tintin. Link (05/07/2014, Portuguese, RR)
On the 13th July, the comic book Angra do Heroísmo: Mui Nobre Leal e Sempre Constante Cidade (Angra do Heroísmo: Very noble, loyal and always constant city) was published. The book represents the history of the city of Angra do Heroísmo (Azores) and it is available in English, German and Portuguese. Link (17/07/2014, Portuguese, English, German, RR)
Scandinavia
Research
There is a call for papers for a special themed issue of the Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art – “From the Land of the Midnight Sun: Nordic History and Cultural Memory in Comics.” The deadline for abstracts is the 1st October. Link (English, WG)
Spain
Culture
Carlos de Gregorio and Andrés Pérez Fernández presented a roundtable about classic comics, El cómic clásico. De Popeye a Tintín, which was part of the cycle “Protagonistas de la cultura”. The event took place in El Corte Inglés, Callao, Madrid. Link (09/07/2014, Spanish, EdRC)
The exhibition, KNOCK! KNOCK!, displays some work by various comic artists, including Robert Crumb, Charles Burns and Chris Ware. It is being shown in the Galería Javier López from the 26th June until the 10th September. Link (14/07/2014, English, EdRC)
Ilustratour, one of the biggest illustration festivals in the world, was celebrated in Valladolid from the 30th June to the 11th July. The event offered many workshops and conferences dedicated to comics. Comics artists and editors, such as Max, Sonia Pulido, Miguel Gallardo and Sam Arthur, were present. Link (07/07/2014, English, EdRC)
Oxfam, together with a group of prominent Spanish comic artists, continues developing the project, Viñetas de Vida (Life Cartoons), which tries to portray the reality of international development through the language of comics. A previous artists was David Rubín in Burundi. Link (10/07/2014, Spanish, EdRC)
They have also released a free app for iOS and Android (Comic On Tour. Oxfam Intermón). The app includes self-updated comics which can be read in Spanish, Catalan, English and French (it currently includes three full comics about Guatemala, Colombia and Morocco). Link (04/07/2014, Spanish, EdRC)
Education
El cómic: lenguaje, historia y crítica (una aproximación didáctica al noveno arte y su relación con la literatura) (Comics: language, history and criticism (a didactic initiation to the ninth art and its relation to literature)), a university summer course, took place between the 14th and 17th July at the Universidad de Alicante. Link (17/07/2014, Spanish, EdRC)
Switzerland
Culture
An exhibition on Western comics is shown at Cartoonmuseum Basel from the 4th July to the 2nd November. Link (03/07/2014, German, MdlI)
UK
Culture
The theme for the 2014 Dundee Comics Prize is Heroes and Villains. The competition requires the creation of a 4-8 page comic on the theme of Heroes and Villains, with the chance to win £250, plus publication of the story in Tales of the UniVerse #2. More details can be found through the link. Link (English, WG)
Education
A website for the Scottish Centre for Comics Studies, based at the University of Dundee, is now live. The website provides news, and information on staff, students, projects, and the courses that are available. Link (English, WG)
Research
There is a call for 500-1000 word contributions that explore the intersections between mental health and comics, graphic novels and sequential art, for a special themed edition of Asylum magazine. Link (English, WG)
The Tenth International IAWIS/AIERTI Conference and Twenty-First Annual Scottish Word and Image Group Conference takes place at the University of Dundee between the 11th and 15th August. The conference theme is exploration and discovery in word and image, with the event offering various papers on comics. Link (English, WG)
A second keynote speaker for Transitions 5 has been announced: Dr. Antonio Lázaro-Reboll (University of Kent) will be speaking on Spanish-language comics. Link (English, WG)
Forming out of Comics Forum’s special theme month on Comics and Cultural Work, edited by Casey Brienza; both Brienza and Paddy Johnston seek submissions for an edited collection entitled “Cultures of Comics Work.” The deadline for proposals is the 31st November. Link (English, WG)
There is a call for papers for a conference entitled, Comics and Adaptation in the European Context, which is to take place on the 10th April 2015 at the University of Leicester. The deadline for abstract proposals is the 17th November. Link (English, WG)
A call for participants for the Scottish Comics Unconference Meet-up 2015 has been published online. The event will take place on Saturday 28th February 2015 in Glasgow. Link (English, WG)
Julie Brown at the University of Leeds has put together a survey that aims to find out more about the work that comics creators do, their experiences forging a career in comics, the challenges and opportunities they face, and what professional or other support systems they have used and/or might need. Link (English, WG)
Oceania
Australia
Business
Melbourne comics retailers All Star Comics are a co-recipient of the Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award for 2014 (there was a tie between ASC and Legend Comics and Coffee in Nebraska). Co-owner of All Star Comics, Mitchell Davies, describes the experience of winning the prestigious award. Link (29/07/2014, English, ALM)
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News Editor: Will Grady (comicsforumnews@hotmail.co.uk)
Correspondents: Jessica Bauwens-Sugimoto (JBS, Japan), Michele Brittany (MB, North America), Enrique del Rey Cabero (EdRC, Spain), William Grady (WG, UK), Martin de la Iglesia (MdlI, Germany and Switzerland), Amy Louise Maynard (ALM, Australia), Renatta Rafaella (RR, Portugal), Lim Cheng Tju (LCT, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore).
Click here for News Review correspondent biographies.
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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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