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In: 2018, Calls for Papers

In contemporary America, popular culture has become one of the primary spaces in which political debates are enacted. The Gamergate movement in video game criticism, which helped lead to the rise of the “alt-right,” demonstrates how popular culture not only comments on America’s cultural and political divides but is itself a site of political contention. This is just as true of comics as of other cultural forms, as suggested, for example, by the South Carolina government’s retaliation against universities that selected Fun Home as a common book, or the respective use of Ms. Marvel and Pepe the Frog as anti-Islamophobic and racist symbols. We solicit papers onRead More →

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In: 2017, Other Comics Events @ MLA, Past Sessions, Social Events

Saturday, 7 January 581. Alien Lines: Science Fiction Comics 1:45–3:00 p.m., Grand Ballroom Salon A, Philadelphia Marriott Program arranged by the forums GS Comics and Graphic Narratives and GS Speculative Fiction Presiding: Aaron Kashtan, Univ. of North Carolina at Charlotte 1. “Don’t Let Them Touch and Despair You: World Construction in the World of The Wrenchies and It Will All Hurt,” Phoebe Salzman-Cohen, Penn State Univ., University Park 2. “‘This Is How an Idea Becomes Real’: Bodies in Saga,” Daniel John Pinti, Niagara Univ. 3. “‘I’m Getting Too Good to Ignore’: The Feminist Politics of Sharon Ruhdal’s Dystopian Comics,” Margaret Galvan, New York Univ. 4. “Feeling The Puma Blues: The DilutionRead More →

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In: 2017, Calls for Papers

  Drawing the Line: Comics and Adaptation While comics adaptations have frequently been derided for “dumbing down” great works of literature through adaptation, recent movie adaptations of comics have conquered the box office and brought new attention to the medium. These intriguing developments beg the questions—How might comics be transformed by such adaptations? What is the potential for comics in reworking other forms? Recent books, such as Stephen Tabachnick and Esther Bendit Saltzman’s anthology Drawn from the Classics (2015) and the University of Leicester Conference (2015) on “Comics and Adaptation in the European Context” indicate growing academic interest in issues surrounding comics adaptations. This roundtableRead More →

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In: 2017, Calls for Papers

Graphic Narrative, Comics, and Temporality Whether we consider the fragmentation of time in the Dr. Manhattan chapter of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, or Art Spiegleman’s intermingling of his father’s WWII past with his present as narrator in Maus, rendering time as space has been one of the most unique and commented upon formal aspects of the graphic novel. More recent, innovative graphic narratives that deliberately foreground time include Richard McGuire’s Here and Chris Ware’s Building Stories. This panel seeks new scholarly work on the representation of temporality in comics and graphic narratives, with a particular attention to the formal qualities of comics. PapersRead More →

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In: 2017, Calls for Papers

Alien Lines: Science Fiction Comics The medium of comics—often dominated by genres bound to contemporary concerns or enduring conventions—remains marginal in the study of science fiction. Likewise, the oldest questions driving science fiction scholarship—identity and difference, self and other, chance and futurity—have not been central to comics studies. In short, we have rarely asked: how do the central projects of science fiction manifest in comics form? The Forum on Speculative Fiction and the Forum on Comics and Graphic Narratives therefore invite papers that explore this question. We especially desire proposals focused on the ways difference, otherness and futurity manifest on the comics page. How doesRead More →

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In: 2016, Past Sessions

Friday, 8 January Satire and the Editorial Cartooon 5:15-6:30, 311, JW Marriott Saturday, 9 January Latina/o Comics 10:15–11:30 a.m. JW Marriot , Lone Star C Charlie Hebdo and Its Publics 10:15–11:30 a.m. JW Marriot , Lone Star C See you in Austin! (see earlier post for more details)Read More →

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In: 2016, Other Comics Events @ MLA, Uncategorized

Francophone Media(na)tions Thursday, 7 January, 12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., 401, JW Marriott Program arranged by the forum LLC Francophone Presiding: Miléna Santoro, George Washington Univ. “Crossing Trenches in Le cœur des batailles by Jean-David Morvan and Igor Kordey: Textual Analysis of ‘La Marne’ (2007) and ‘Verdun’ (2008),” Anne Cirella-Urrutia, Huston-Tillotson Univ. “Frontiers, Conquests, and the (Re)Birth of the Nation: The Rise of the Comics Western in France at the End of Empire,” Eliza Bourque Dandridge, Duke Univ. ” Fast-Forward Massilia: From Claude McKay to Moussu T (e lei Jovents),” Danielle Marx-Scouras, Ohio State Univ., Columbus   Graphic Interventions: Visual Cultures of the Arab World Thursday, 7Read More →