Ian Hague
Photo by Greice Schneider.
Dr Ian Hague, BA (Hons), MA, PhD
Director, Comics Forum
Lecturer in Contextual and Theoretical Studies, University of the Arts, London (London College of Communication)
Editorial Board Member, Studies in Comics; Peer Reviewer, The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics
Contact Details
Email: i.hague@lcc.arts.ac.uk
Postal address: Dr Ian Hague, Lecturer in Contextual and Theoretical Studies, London College of Communication, London SE1 6SB
University Webpage: http://www.arts.ac.uk/research/ual-staff-researchers/a-z/dr-ian-hague/
Personal Webpage: www.ianhague.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/drianhague (@drianhague)
Biography and Research Interests
Dr Ian Hague is a lecturer in Contextual and Theoretical Studies at the University of the Arts, London, where he is based at London College of Communication. He is also a practicing graphic designer and illustrator, and works as a PowerPoint Designer at OgilvyOne Business.
He is the founder and director of Comics Forum, and was the director of the organisation’s annual conference from 2009-2014, transitioning to be a member of the conference committee after that point. He was the editor of the website from 2011-2014, and remains involved in the site as a general editor.
Ian holds a PhD from the University of Chichester (2012), an MA in Cultural Studies (2008) from the University of Leeds (2008), and a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Hull (2007).
Ian is the author of Comics and the Senses: A Multisensory Approach to Comics and Graphic Novels (Routledge 2014) and the co-editor (with Carolene Ayaka) of Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels (Routledge 2014).
Research interests:
Material culture, technology, the theory and philosophy of the senses. Literature, theory and history of art. Comics and graphic novels, sequential art forms. Design and visual culture.
Publications
Books
Representing Multiculturalism in Comics and Graphic Novels (co-edited with Carolene Ayaka, Routledge 2015).
Comics and the Senses: A Multisensory Approach to Comics and Graphic Novels(Routledge 2014).
Articles
‘Adapting Watchmen’ in Framing Film: Cinema and the Visual Arts (Intellect 2012), pp 37-55.
‘Beyond the Visual: The Roles of the Senses in Contemporary Comics’ in The Scandinavian Journal of Comic Art, 1.1 (2012), pp 96-110. http://sjoca.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/SJoCA-1-1-Article-Hague.pdf
‘British Comics in the Early Twenty-first Century’ in Twenty-first Century British Fiction: Critical Essays (Gylphi 2015), pp 37-57.
‘Comics and Cultural Studies’ in The Routledge Companion to Comics (Routledge 2016), pp 424-432.
‘A Defining Problem’ in Comics & Politik – Comics & Politics (Christian Bachmann 2014), pp 73-88.
‘Drawing “the apprenticeship of a man of letters”: Adapting Remembrance of Things Past for bande dessinée’ in Transforming Anthony Trollope: Dispossession, Victorianism and 19th century word and image (Leuven University Press 2015).
‘Interview with Thierry Groensteen’ in Studies in Comics 1.2 (2010), pp 359-369.
[FORTHCOMING] ‘Materiality in Comics Studies’ in The Routledge Handbook to the Secret Origin of Comics Studies (Routledge 2016).
‘The Nimble Scholar: An Interview with Chris Murray’, Comics Forum Website (20/03/2012), https://comicsforum.org/2012/03/20/the-nimble-scholar-an-interview-with-chris-murray-by-ian-hague/.
‘Sketching in Lectures: An Interview with Mel Gibson’, Comics Forum Website (01/06/2012), https://comicsforum.org/2012/06/01/sketching-in-lectures-an-interview-with-mel-gibson-by-ian-hague/.
Reviews
‘The Contemporary Comic Book Superhero, edited by Angela Ndalianis’. Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 4.2 (2013), pp 359-361.
‘First International Conference On Comics And Graphic Novels: Sites Of Visual And Textual Innovation, Instituto Franklin-Uah, Alcalá De Henares’. Studies in Comics 3.1 (2012), pp 158-160.
‘From Comic Strips To Graphic Novels: Contributions To The Theory And History Of Graphic Narrative, edited by Daniel Stein And Jan-Noël Thon’. European Comic Art7.1 (2014), pp 112-116.
Conference Papers and Talks
2016
(Co-presented with Simon Grennan) ‘Medium, knowledge, structure: capacities for choice and the contradiction of medium-specificity in games and comics’presented at Poetics of the Algorithm: Narrative, the Digital, and ‘Unidentified’ Media, University of Liège, Belgium, 16-18/06/2016.
Keynote Address: ‘Culture at Risk? Collectors, Ownership and Comics in the Digital Age’ presented at Comics in Culture/Culture in Comics, Uniwersytet SWPS (University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Warsaw), Poland, 03/06/2016.
‘British Digital Comics?’ presented at British Comics Workshop, The Cartoon Museum, London, UK, 04/05/2016.
‘(Re)Shaping Narratives: The Challenge of Choice’, guest lecture presented at Bournemouth University, 16/03/2016.
2015
Panel Chair: From Hogarth to Hellboy: The Transformation of the Visual Reader, Senate House Library, 16/12/2015.
Respondent: Transitions 6: New Directions in Comics Studies at Birkbeck, University of London, 31/10/2015.
Keynote Address: ‘Squares, Circles and Dirty Windows: A Toolkit for Studying the Materiality of Digital Comics’ presented at Materiality and Mediality of Contemporary Comics, University of Tuebingen, Germany (24-26/04/2015).
2014
(Co-presented with Simon Grennan) ‘The Known Unknown: reading and playing across the boundaries between games and comics’ presented at the 9th Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Comicforschung, Berlin, 25-28/09/2014.
‘Drawing ‘the apprenticeship of a man of letters’: Adapting Remembrance of Things Past for bande dessinée’ presented at the International Association of Word and Image Studies conference 2014, University of Dundee, 11-15/08/2014.
(Co-presented with Simon Grennan) It’s a book! It’s a game! It’s Building Stories! Play, Plot and Narration in Graphic Narratives presented at the Fifth International Graphic Novel and Comics Conference, British Library, 18-20/07/2014.
Close Your Eyes: Multisensory Approaches to “Visual Culture” presented at the Visual Methods Research Group, University of Bradford, 05/02/2014.
2013
‘“I do love the smell of that old newsprint”: Smell and Nostalgia in Comics’ presented at the Joint International Comics and International Bande Dessinée Society (IBDS) Conference, University of Glasgow/University of Dundee, 24-28/06/2013.
Digital Reading: A Research Outline presented at the University of Chichester’s Comics Research Symposium, University of Chichester, 01/05/2013.
2012
Invited speaker on student experience panel at The PhD Journey, University of Aberdeen, 05/11/2012.
Invited speaker on concluding roundtable discussion at Transitions 3, Birkbeck, 03/11/2012.
‘Eye Like Comics: Ocularcentrism and the Ideal Perspective in Comics Studies’ presented at the 7th Annual Conference of the Gesellschaft für Comicforschung(Society for Comics Studies), Institute for Media Culture Studies, University of Freiburg, 28/09/2012.
‘Comics and the Senses’ presented at Life Beyond the PhD, Cumberland Lodge, Windsor Great Park, Berkshire, 30/08/2012.
This paper was selected as one of four ‘Pick of the Presentations’ papers at this conference.
‘Comics Forum: The Plan’ presented at the Third International Comics Conference: Comics Rock, Bournemouth University, 28/06/2012.
2011
‘Comics as a Tactile Medium: Functions of Touch in Experiences of Reading’ presented at ‘First International Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels: Sites of Visual and Textual Innovation’, Instituto Franklin – Universidad de Alcalá, 10/11/2011.
‘“Comics is [not] a mono-sensory medium”: multisensory aspects of comics and graphic novels’; guest lecture presented at the University of Dundee, 28/10/2011.
‘Hearing Comics: Sound and Sequential Art’ presented at Joint International Conference of Graphic Novels, Bandes Dessinées and Comics, Manchester Metropolitan University, 05/07/2011.
I was also a speaker on the plenary roundtable discussion at this conference.
2010
‘Adapting Watchmen’ presented at Transitions (Comica Symposium), Birkbeck, 05/11/2010.
‘Beyond the Visual: The Roles of the Senses in Contemporary Comics’ presented at Contemporary Comics: A Symposium, University of Copenhagen, 21/05/2010.
This paper was also presented at the University of Chichester’s Research in Progress conference, 15/05/2010 (see Administration Experience).
2009
‘The Manhattan Perspective: Sequence and Simultaneity in Comics and Film’ presented at Framing Film: Cinema and the Visual Arts, University of Winchester, 06/09/2009.
‘Comics and the Linearity of Time’ presented at Timeframes: The Third Annual Dundee Comics Conference, University of Dundee, 28/06/2009.
Media and Public Appearances
2015
Interviewed for Studies in Comics 5.2 (pp 259-273), Intellect 2015.
2014
Interviewed for Lerbd, <http://lerbd.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/comics-and-senses-multisensory-approach.html>, 14/05/2014.
Invited speaker at Laydeez do Comics Leeds, Leeds, 31/03/2014.
2013
Interviewed for ‘Best of the Year 2013: Ian Hague’, Forbidden Planet International Blog, <http://www.forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2013/best-of-the-year-2013-ian-hague/>, 08/12/2013.
Invited speaker at Laydeez do Comics Leeds, Leeds, 20/05/2013.
2012
Invited speaker at Cartoon County [Sussex cartoonists’ and comic artists’ organisation], Brighton, 26/03/2012. Available at <http://mindlessones.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Ian-Hague.mp3>, released 10/09/2012.
Interviewed for ‘In The Gutter: Creating A Comic Book’, Penny Drop Productions (University of Leeds), <http://vimeo.com/36073123>, released 02/02/2012.
2011
Host of the Northern Sequential Art Competition Award Ceremony at the Thought Bubble sequential art festival 2011 convention, Leeds, 20/11/2011.
2009
Guest on ‘The Thread: The Comic Book Page as a Skin of Drama’ on Resonance 104.4 FM, London, 19/05/2009.
Administration
2011-
General Editor: Comics Forum website – http://comicsforum.org; established in 2011, the site includes guest articles, columns, conference archives and scholarly resources.
2015-
Committee Member: Comics Forum Conferences
‘Politics: A Conference on Comics’(2015)
2009-2014
Conference Director: Comics Forum Conferences:
‘Violence: A Conference on Comics’ (2014)
‘Small Press and Undergrounds: A Conference on Comics’ (2013)
‘Multiculturalism and Representation: A Conference on Comics’ (2012)
Comics Forum 2011 (incorporating ‘Sculpture and Comic Art’, ‘Graphic Medicine: Visualizing the Stigma of Illness’, and ‘Materiality and Virtuality: A Conference on Comics’)
Comics Forum 2010 (incorporating ‘Women in Comics II’ and ‘Theory and Practice: A Conference on Comics’)
Possibilities and Perspectives: A Conference on Comics (2009)
2012-2013: Event Director: Comics Forum Presents…
Death and the Superhero, Leeds, 25/03/2013.
Comics and Philosophy: From Maus toShe-Hulk, Leeds, 29/03/2012.
2009-2011: Student Representative for the Faculty of Business, Arts and Humanities on the University Research and Scholarship Committee, University of Chichester.
2009: Conference Director: Research in Progress (Postgraduate Conference), University of Chichester, 15/05/2010.
Comics Forum 