Comics Forum

RSS

What is the Philosophy of Comics? by Aaron Meskin

There are lots of ways philosophy and comics might be related. There are comics about philosophy and philosophers (Action Philosophers, Logicomix); other comics might be said to address philosophical issues without really being about philosophy or philosophers (Dinosaur Comics is sometimes like this); there is philosophy through comics — philosophical works that use comics to popularize philosophical ideas (see the Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series); there are philosophically minded comics authors (Moore, Morrison and Ditko come to mind); and of course there are philosophers such as myself who like comics. (Philosophers in my department are well-known in the Leeds comics shops!) The philosophy of comics is something entirely different from all of these – it consists in the investigation of the philosophical questions raised by comics themselves.

Read the rest of this entry »

1 Comment

Posted by Comics Forum on 2012/03/26 in Guest Writers

Tags: comics studies, philosophy, Scott McCloud

The Nimble Scholar: An Interview with Chris Murray by Ian Hague

20 Mar

Dr Chris Murray teaches English and Film Studies at the University of Dundee. He researches comics and organises two annual conferences: the Scottish Word and Image Group conference and the Annual Dundee Comics Day. He is also the co-editor of the journal Studies in Comics. In 2011, Chris was responsible for launching the UK’s first MLitt in Comics Studies, based in Dundee’s humanities department.

In this interview, conducted on the 29th of October 2011 at the University of Dundee, we discuss the value of studying comics, the place of Comics Studies in the universities, and where the discipline might be headed.

* * *

Read the rest of this entry »

2 Comments

Posted by Comics Forum on 2012/03/20 in Guest Writers, Interviews

Cartoon County by Corinne Pearlman

16 Mar

The last Monday in the month (give or take a bit of manoeuvring) is always reserved for Cartoon County – the monthly meetings of the Sussex Association of Cartoonists and Comic Strip Artists. And it’s been going since 1993…If you measure out those Mondays, that’s 884 meetings, or two and a half years worth of my evenings taken up with Cartoon County, or buying 884 pints of Guinness for my co-coordinator, David Lloyd. Well, perhaps I’m not that generous all the time, but that works out as a pretty big black lake, however you measure it. Commitment or madness, or just a dogged devotion to the cause of promoting comics and cartoons in Sussex, because the fact is that Brighton, at the epicentre of cartoon creativity on the south coast, is just buzzing with a new input of creators every week. A constantly rejuvenating stream of cartoonists finds their way into (currently) The Cricketers on Black Lion Street in Brighton’s Lanes, and while a certain leverage to London takes its toll, there are always new faces who join our informal gatherings from 6 till late…

Read the rest of this entry »

Snapshots by Dan Berry

12 Mar

Interviews

At the end of 2010, I took it upon myself to interview as many comic artists, publishers, retailers and writers working in the UK as possible. There was a sense at the time that something was changing in comics. This change, however, was difficult to define. I asked a relatively standard set of questions that explored working process, influences and ambitions. I also asked the question ‘What do you think of the health of the UK comics scene at the moment, and what do you think it can do better?’

However hard it is to define change or progression, it is made all the harder to define without a benchmark against which to measure it. What I hoped for with these interviews was the beginnings of a record of popular opinion amongst the comics industry.

Read the rest of this entry »