CFP Superheroes and Disability on Screen Collection (8/15/2024)

Superheroes and Disability on Screen: Intersectional Perspectives on Super-Bodies and Super-Identities as Politicized Spaces

deadline for submissions:
August 15, 2024

full name / name of organization:
Lorna Piatti-Farnell, Auckland University of Technology and Katie Ellis, Curtin University

contact email:
lorna.piatti-farnell@aut.ac.nz

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/06/09/superheroes-and-disability-on-screen-intersectional-perspectives-on-super-bodies-and



The editors of the volume are calling for chapter abstracts for a volume focused on the representation of disability in superhero film and media, with a particular focus on intersectional discourses of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, power, and beyond. The volume will provide perspectives on the growing field of superheroes and disability by placing a specific focus on screen representations. As such, the collections will engage with critical debates over super-identities and super-bodies as politicized spaces in the 21st centuries.

This volume is intended for inclusion in the recently established book series on Superhero Studies, published by Lexington/Rowman&Littelfield. For more information, please see here: https://rowman.com/action/series/_/lexshs

Topics for the volume may include, but are not limited to:

• Superheroes, disability, and race/ethnicity
• Superheroes, disability, and gender/sexuality
• Superheroes, disability, and Indigenous discourses
• Superheroes, disability, and the body
• Superheroes and neurodivergence
• Superheroes, disability, and power
• Superheroes, disability, and capitalism
• Superheroes, disability, and grief/trauma
• Superheroes, disability, and memory
• Superheroes, disability, and history
• Superheroes, disability, and LGBTGI+ discourses
• Superheroes, disability, and war
• Superheroes, disability, and digital representations
• Superheroes, disability and AI
• Superheroes, disability, and trans/posthumanism
• Superheroes, disability, and fandom
• All of the above, with a focus on supervillains

If accepted, final chapters will be 5-6,000 words, and needed by September 2025.

The deadline for submission of abstracts (of around 250 words, plus 100-words bio) is 15 August 2024. Please send abstracts to attention of both editors:

Professor Lorna Piatti-Farnell: lorna.piatti-farnell@aut.ac.nz

Professor Katie Ellis: katie.ellis@curtin.edu.au



Last updated June 11, 2024

CFP Comics and Film: An Uncanny Relationship Conference (5/15/2024; Prague/hybrid 8/23/2024)

Comics and Film: An Uncanny Relationship

deadline for submissions:
May 15, 2024

full name / name of organization:
FAMU

contact email:
petra.dominkova@famu.cz

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2024/03/28/comics-and-film-an-uncanny-relationship

Comics and Film: An Uncanny Relationship
FAMU, Prague, Czech Republic, August 23, 2024; hybrid
Deadline for proposals: May 15, 2024
Petra Dominkova

The conference "Comics and Film: An Uncanny Relationship" explores the intersection between the 7th and 9th arts – Cinema and Comics – from various perspectives. We welcome case studies of adaptations between these two media, with particular emphasis on submissions focusing on the adaptation of films into comics (rare, therefore much less discussed; e.g. Alien, 1979, or Outland, 1981-2). Additionally, we encourage proposals examining how comics studies reference film studies. Comics studies often utilizes the vocabulary of film studies and we aim to organize a panel focused on analyzing these texts and discussion about how the vocabulary (and overall the references to film) are being used, and perhaps why – how do they enrich the comics studies?

Studies comparing specific formal aspects used in film versus comics are also welcome. These may include the use of close-ups, off-screen sound, work with space (including off-screen space); framing; sound-effects or ambient sound; use of flashbacks or flashforwards, and more.



Therefore, submissions for the conference "Comics and Film: An Uncanny Relationship" should offer new perspectives on the relationship between film and comics, whether discussing particular adaptations or focusing on visual storytelling in general, emphasizing both similarities and differences between the two media.



We welcome abstracts in English (max. 400 words) along with a short biography (max. 150 words) until May 15, 2024, at the email address petra.dominkova@famu.cz. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us.



The conference will be held at the Film and TV Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Czech Republic on Friday, 23rd of August, 2024. As the conference is the result of institution-supported research, there is no conference fee. The conference will last one day, with five panels, one of which will be online to accommodate participants who cannot be physically present in Prague for any reason.



Last updated April 1, 2024

Now Available IJoCA for Spring Summer 2023

The current issue of the International Journal of Comic Art was released last month. Please support the journal by checking out the contents list for Vol. 25, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2023) from its blog (accessible from this link) and consider placing an order for a print or digital subscription.

Out Now: IJoCA for Fall/Winter 2022

The current issue of the International Journal of Comic Art was released last month. Please support the journal by checking out the contents list for Vol. 24, No. 2 (Fall/Winter 2022) from its blog (accessible from this link) and consider placing an order for a print or digital subscription.

Katsiadas on Romanticism in Comics

Congratulations to advisory board member, Nick Katsiadas, on his new book from RIT Press. Here are the details.

Romanticism in Comics: Faith, Myth, and Mood 

By Nick Katsiadas

(full details and ordering information from the publisher at this link)

Price:
$34.95


DETAILS

Publisher: RIT Press (12/2022)
ISBN-13: 9781939125934
Binding: Softcover
Pages: 114
Illustrations: 9
Size: 7 x 10 in.
Shipping Weight: 1lb

Overview

Comics studies scholars engaging comparative mythology tend to limit critical approaches to superhero fiction and classical and religious texts. Even the popular argument that superheroes are a “modern mythology” typically does not venture outside these limitations. Tolkien’s legendarium, Lovecraft’s mythos, Tennyson’s revisions to Arthurian myth, and Blake’s mythology don’t quite fit the creative models that prevailing criticism considers in comparative studies. Nick Katsiadas explores a greater literary history of myth in comics in his examinations of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, Alan Moore and J. H. Williams III’s Promethea, and Mike Carey and Peter Gross’s The Unwritten. The Romantics particularly used myth to highlight ideas about the value of imagination and creativity, and Katsiadas traces how these ways of thinking about literature and the arts persisted up through twentieth- and twenty-first-century comics. In this way, Romanticism in Comics helps us better understand comics’ greater literary history and, also, helps us reread and better situate Romanticism’s legacy in twentieth- and twenty-first-century art forms and ways of life.

Reviews

“Katsiadas expounds his central thesis with insight and precision, placing modern graphic narratives plausibly and compellingly within wider literary traditions.”—Mike Carey, writer for The Unwritten, Lucifer, and Hellblazer

About the Author

Nick Katsiadas is an instructor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, Cultures, and Writing at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on European Romanticism, its echoes in later experimental narratology, and graphic narratives. He is the author of “Mytho-Auto-Bio: Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, the Romantics, and Shakespeare’s The Tempest” and “The Unwritten: Romanticism in Comics?”

New Issue of IJOCA for Spring/Summer 2022

The current issue of the International Journal of Comic Art was released last month. Please support the journal by checking out the contents list for Vol. 24, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2022) from its blog (accessible from this link) and consider placing an order for a print or digital subscription.

Inks for Summer 2022

The latest issue of Inks: The Journal of the Comics Studies Society, volume 6, number 2, for Summer 2022, arrived recently. It is available by subscription from the Ohio State University Press and on Project MUSE (from this link) if you're lucky enough to have access.

Here are the contents:

Inks Volume 6, Issue 2, Summer 2022

Table of Contents

Zooming in on Ben Passmore

Alexandra Chiasson

pp. 101-118

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0009

Barbarella: Sexual Revolution or Editorial Revolution?

Sylvain Lesage, Margaret C. Flinn

pp. 119-141

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0010

"It Was as Much Ours …": Reader Contributions to Teen Humor Fashion Comics

John A. Walsh

pp. 142-171

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0011

From the Field: Why Is Manga So Interesting?

Natsume Fusanosuke, Jon Holt, Teppei Fukuda

pp. 172-180

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0012

Two Chapters from Why Is Manga So Interesting: Its Expression and Grammar: (Manga wa naze omoshiroi no ka: Sono hyōgen to bunpō, 1997)

Natsume Fusanosuke, Jon Holt, Teppei Fukuda

pp. 181-198

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0018

Civilized Monsters: These Savage Shores and the Colonialist Cage

Ritesh Babu

pp. 199-215

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0013

Panthers, Hulks and Ironhearts: Marvel, Diversity and the 21st Century Superhero by Jeffrey A. Brown (review)

Christopher Lopez

pp. 216-219

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0014

The Comics World: Comic Books, Graphic Novels, and Their Publics ed. by Benjamin Woo, and Jeremy Stoll (review)

Zachary J. A. Rondinelli

pp. 220-222

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0015

Robin and the Making of American Adolescence by Lauren R. O'Connor (review)

Stephen M. Zimmerly

pp. 222-225

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0016

Contributors

pp. 229-230

DOI: 10.1353/ink.2022.0017

CFP Graphic Novels, Comics, and Popular Culture Area (10/31/2022; SWPACA 2/22-25/2023)

Call for Papers

Graphic Novels, Comics, and Popular Culture

Southwest Popular / American Culture Association (SWPACA)

44th Annual Conference, February 22-25, 2023

Marriott Albuquerque

Albuquerque, New Mexico

http://www.southwestpca.org

Submissions open on August 15, 2022

Proposal submission deadline: October 31, 2022



Proposals for papers and panels are now being accepted for the 44th annual SWPACA conference. One of the nation’s largest interdisciplinary academic conferences, SWPACA offers nearly 70 subject areas, each typically featuring multiple panels. For a full list of subject areas, area descriptions, and Area Chairs, please visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/call-for-papers/



The area chair seeks presentation proposals on formal, cultural, historical, and theoretical dimensions of sequential art in all its forms (comics, graphic novels, anime, etc.).



Presentations may focus on a single work, put works into productive conversation with one another, or investigate relationships between works of sequential art and their transmedia adaptations; in the latter case, however, significant emphasis should be placed on sequential art – those proposals focusing too much on film, television, gaming, or other formats will not be read favorably.



Authors may also submit field-provoking critical literature reviews intended to reframe scholarly discussion around major disciplinary themes or questions, works of sequential art history or historiography, ethnographic work concerning sequential art audiences, studies of the sequential art industry’s political economy, or investigations into new forms of sequential art storytelling, consumption, distribution, or marketing.



All proposals must be submitted through the conference’s database at http://register.southwestpca.org/southwestpca



For details on using the submission database and on the application process in general, please see the Proposal Submission FAQs and Tips page at http://southwestpca.org/conference/faqs-and-tips/



Individual proposals for 15-minute papers must include an abstract of approximately 200-500 words. Including a brief bio in the body of the proposal form is encouraged, but not required.



For information on how to submit a proposal for a roundtable or a multi-paper panel, please view the above FAQs and Tips page.



The deadline for submissions is October 31, 2022.



SWPACA offers monetary awards for the best graduate student papers in a variety of categories. Submissions of accepted, full papers are due January 1, 2023. SWPACA also offers travel fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students. For more information, visit http://southwestpca.org/conference/graduate-student-awards/



Registration and travel information for the conference will be available at http://southwestpca.org/conference/conference-registration-information/

For 2023, we are excited to be at a new venue, the Marriott Albuquerque (2101 Louisiana Blvd NE, Albuquerque, NM 87110), which boasts free parking and close proximity to dining, shopping, and other delights.



In addition, please check out the organization’s peer-reviewed, scholarly journal, Dialogue: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Popular Culture and Pedagogy, at http://journaldialogue.org/



If you have any questions about the Graphic Novels, Comics, and Popular Culture area, please contact its Area Chair, Rob Peaslee (Texas Tech University, robert.peaslee@ttu.edu). If you have general questions about the conference, please contact us at support@southwestpca.org, and a member of the executive team will get back to you.



We look forward to receiving your submissions!

Batman Brings His Mission to the World

Batman Day was officially earlier this month, but, if you're looking for an innovative approach to the character, check out the recent graphic novel Batman: The World (2021). It's created by an international group of writers and artists each presenting the Caped Crusader on their home turf. Most stories feature Batman/Bruce Wayne as a familiar figure; however, a few of the tales adapt him more distinctly as a more  "local" hero.

CFP International Comic Arts Forum (9/23/2022; Vancouver 4/20-22/2023)

CALL FOR PAPERS:
International Comic Arts Forum

University of British Columbia, Vancouver
APRIL 20-22, 2023

source: http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org/2023-call-for-papers.html

​ICAF invites proposals for scholarly presentations for its twentieth meeting, to be held on the Vancouver campus of the University of British Columbia on the Northwest Coast of Canada.

ICAF welcomes original proposals from diverse disciplines and theoretical perspectives on any aspect of comics or cartooning, particularly studies that reflect international perspectives. Studies of aesthetics, production, distribution, reception, and social, ideological, and historical significance are equally welcome, as are studies that address larger theoretical issues linked to comics or cartooning, for example in image/text studies or new media theory.

In addition to the general call for papers, we hope to offer panels and programming on the following subjects:

• Comics and Indigeneity, including but not limited to comics by Indigenous artists and comics on Indigenous issues, such as decolonization, Indigenous activism, sovereignty, language revitalization, and survivance
• Comics theory in the reading of early modern texts (and, generally, Shakespeare and comics)
• Comics pedagogy and comics in human rights education, including but not limited to comics on forced migration, the Holocaust, and genocide

Submissions in these areas are particularly encouraged but not required.

Moreover, this year’s ICAF will also invite accepted participants to take part in roundtables and seminars on current works in progress, comics pedagogy, and issues in comics studies scholarship.

The deadline to submit proposals is Friday, September 23, 2022.

PROPOSAL GUIDELINES: 

ICAF prefers argumentative, thesis-driven presentations that are clearly linked to larger critical, artistic, or cultural issues; we avoid those that are survey-like in character. We accept original 20-minute presentations that have not been presented or accepted for publication elsewhere and prefer those accompanied by images that illustrate the arguments made. Presenters can assume an audience versed in comics and the fundamentals of comics studies. Proposals should not exceed 300 words.

SEND ABSTRACTS by Friday, September 23, 2022, to Biz Nijdam, ICAF Academic Director, at icafcomic@gmail.com. The body of the email should include: contact information, a short bio, title of the proposal, and 3-5 keywords. Abstracts should be anonymized, as all proposals will be subject to blind review.

Receipt of all proposals will be acknowledged. Applicants can expect to receive confirmation of acceptance or rejection by Friday, October 7, 2022.

LENT AWARD: ICAF also sponsors the John A. Lent Scholarship in Comics Studies. The Lent Scholarship, named for pioneering teacher and researcher Dr. John Lent, is offered to encourage student research into comic art. Applications for this scholarship are due by December 1, 2022. For more details, please visit our website.

To help defray the cost of attendance for international guests (outside of the US and Canada), a limited number of registration waivers may be granted at the discretion of the Executive Committee. More information will be made available upon acceptance of proposals.

CFP The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies (JAMS) Third Volume (5/2/2022)

The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies (JAMS) Third Volume

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/01/07/the-journal-of-anime-and-manga-studies-jams-third-volume

deadline for submissions:
May 2, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Journal of Anime and Manga Studies

contact email:
animestudiesjournal@gmail.com



Volume to be Published in November of 2022

The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies (JAMS) is eager to announce a Call for Papers for our third volume.

The Journal of Anime and Manga Studies is a double-blind peer reviewed, open-access journal published by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. JAMS is dedicated to publishing scholarly works concerning anime, manga, cosplay, and the fandom surrounding these areas. As an open-access journal, JAMS aims to reach an audience of scholars both inside and outside the academe, encouraging public engagement through the digital humanities.

Because anime and manga studies is such a diverse field, JAMS welcomes papers regarding anime, manga, cosplay, and their fandoms as analyzed from any number of scholarly perspectives. Works published in JAMS first volume ranged from media industry history, to the intersections of disability and queer identity.

All papers published in JAMS are published with a Creative Commons license, Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0).

Submissions to JAMS average between 6,000 and 7,500 words. Please contact the editor-in-chief if you wish to discuss significantly longer or shorter submissions.

Please visit our site: https://iopn.library.illinois.edu/journals/jams/about, for information about the journal and our policies. We welcome inquiries and are glad to discuss ideas for potential submissions. Scholars interested in supporting anime and manga studies as a discipline as peer reviewers should also reach out to JAMS. Inquiries can be directed to animestudiesjournal@gmail.com.

Submissions will be accepted until May 2nd, 2022. While JAMS accepts submissions on a rolling basis, only papers submitted by the deadline will be guaranteed to be reviewed for this volume.




Last updated April 4, 2022

CFP Comics and Graphic Narratives Panel, PAMLA 2022 at UCLA (5/15/2022; PAMLA 11/11-13/2022)

Comics and Graphic Narratives Panel, PAMLA 2022 at UCLA

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/03/27/comics-and-graphic-narratives-panel-pamla-2022-at-ucla

deadline for submissions:
May 15, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Pacific Ancient Modern Language Association

contact email:
joseph.whatford@csusb.edu



PAMLA's Comics and Graphic Narratives panel seeks papers dealing with comics and other graphic narratives for it's annual in-person conference, which will convene at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) between Friday, November 11 and Sunday, November 13, 2022.

All papers dealing with comics and graphic narratives will be considered. Papers utilizing media specific analysis, and papers with a strong connection to this year's theme ("Geographies of the Fantastic and Quotidian") are highly encouraged. A visual component to the paper/presentation is also encouraged.

This in-person conference will convene at UCLA's Luskin Conference Center and Hotel between Friday, November 11 and Sunday, November 13, 2022. Please submit paper proposals by May 15, 2022.

To submit a proposal and view other great panels seeking proposals, please use the following link (account creation required): https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/.

We look forward to reading your proposals.




Last updated March 28, 2022

CFP Would Panel Scaffolding: Reflecting on Building, and Sustaining Comics Studies Programs, Library Collections, and Journals (2/1/2023; Spec Issue of SANE Journal)

Would Panel Scaffolding: Reflecting on Building, and Sustaining Comics Studies Programs, Library Collections, and Journals

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/02/03/would-panel-scaffolding-reflecting-on-building-and-sustaining-comics-studies-programs

deadline for submissions:
February 1, 2023

full name / name of organization:
Richard Graham/University of Nebraska-Lincoln

contact email:
rgraham7@unl.edu




SANE Journal is seeking: critical, evaluative, and reflective works from those engaged in the making, preserving, teaching, and studying of comics through the creation of comics studies programs, the stewardship of comics collections within libraries, and the establishing of comics studies-associated journals. We prefer writings that address the history, evolution, and dissolution of such entities. What is the story of your program, collection, or journal? How does it reflect a situatedness in its field and the ontological, teleological, and epistemologies surrounding it, both in relation to current exigencies but in relation to the past as well? What processes, people, and supports were in place – or not in place – to facilitate success or failure? Can the process of success and/or failure within these domains best be illuminated through a particular – or particular set – of critical lenses? In these reflections, articulate the issues regarding the proliferation of existing and future programs of study, collections, and journals within comics studies? Methodological approaches to addressing these questions are acceptable for consideration, as well as critical and reflective approaches.

Pieces should follow MLA 8 format and may take a variety of forms, including essay, case study, auto/ethnography, interview, systematic program review.



Final submissions due: Feb. 1, 2023



Last updated February 6, 2022

CFP Technical Storytelling: Comics and Community (3/14/2022; Spec Issue of ImageText)

Call for Paper Proposals: ImageText Special Issue Spring 2023

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/02/09/call-for-paper-proposals-imagetext-special-issue-spring-2023

deadline for submissions:
March 14, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Alexander Slotkin & Laura Gonzales / University of Florida

contact email:
aslotkin@ufl.edu

TECHNICAL STORYTELLING: COMICS AND COMMUNITY

Special Issue of ImageTexT, Spring 2023

Guest Editors: Alexander Slotkin & Laura Gonzales

While the social justice turn in technical communication is relatively new, comics have long served as venues for coalition building. From Jen White-Johnson’s work on visual activism for Black Disabled communities (https://jenwhitejohnson.com), to Alfred Hassler’s Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, to the ongoing series El Viaje Mas Caro, a series of short comics documenting stories from Latin American migrant farm workers living in Vermont, comics have historically been used as a tool for community organizing. Taking up Natasha N. Jones’ call in “The Technical Communicator as Advocate” to integrate social justice advocacy into technical communication, we think it is important to highlight how comics have or might be used in technical communication to facilitate community and forward social justice movements by challenging, resisting, or calling attention to structural forms of White supremacy that continue to harm people of color.

This special issue of ImageTexT will consider how comics in technical communication have been or can be used to facilitate community and challenge everyday structures of oppression at the local or national level. Although there is no definite consensus on what constitutes a “comic,” we see comics as a broad genre of graphic storytelling that rhetorically structures text and imagery through juxtaposition to depict, demonstrate, and/or convey information, whether it be a joke or technical process (see Bahl et al.; Yu; McCloud). Building on Technical Communication Quarterly’s 2020 special issue on “Comics and Graphic Storytelling in Technical Communication,” we intend for this special issue to highlight how technical (and possibly scientific) communication in comic form might initiate or support localized community engagement and/or social justice movements.

The first issue of ImageTexT to explore comics in relation to technical communication studies, “Technical Storytelling: Comics and Community” works to constellate technical communication, comic studies, and community activism at a time when COVID-19 continues to disproportionally affect Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. It is perhaps no surprise then that we take inspiration for this issue from Josh Neufeld’s “A Tale of Two Pandemics,” a comic adaptation of a research article exploring the racial dynamics of the 1918 Influenza Pandemic to better understand racial disparities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Neufeld creates a text that is accessible and easily circulated while also highlighting Black voices and bringing greater attention to a problem facing Black communities. What other imaginative possibilities or futures are there for community engaged or socially oriented comic scholarship in technical communication?

We invite contributors—especially those from multiply-marginalized communities—to reflect on how technical communicators might use comics in their pedagogy, advocacy, and/or scholarship to support local or national communities and movements. To this end, we welcome a variety of genres and approaches to this topic, including but not limited to: comics, formal essays, ethnographies, case studies, video essays, and experiential reports. Contributors may address a variety of questions and issues, including but not limited to the following:

• How do technical communicators work with community members to design culturally informed comics that address localized concerns? And what does this process look like?
• How can we use comics to invite different cultural communities inside our technical writing classrooms, and why does that matter from a social justice point of view?
• How can we integrate social justice advocacy into our technical communication classrooms through comic writing and design?
• There are a variety of technical communication comics that, historically, have served as tools for coalition building. What might we learn about technical communication or social justice advocacy by studying one or more of these examples?
• How might comics and comic studies more generally help orient technical communicators toward social justice initiatives?
• How can or have communities used comics as a form of resistance?
• What specific affordances do comics as a genre of technical communication offer in support of community advocacy?
• How have technical communication comics served as an outlet or catalyst for community action during the COVID-19 pandemic?
• How do socially oriented comics in technical communication shift our understanding of technical communication and/or comic studies more generally?
• In what ways can comics in technical communication challenge White supremacy and other systematic forms of oppression?
• What might a socially informed comic in technical communication studies look like?
• How can we use comics in technical communication to center or highlight Black and Indigenous voices?

ImageText: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal that advances the academic study of an emerging and diverse canon of image-texts, including—but not limited to—comic books and strips, graphic novels, animations, illustrated fiction, picture books, zines, and other media that blend images and texts in complex ecologies. You can visit previous issues of the journal here: https://imagetextjournal.com/

All submissions should be made through the journal’s Submittable portal, the link to which you can find here: https://imagetext.submittable.com/submit

Publication Schedule

Proposals (500 words) due March 14th, 2022

Authors notified by April 4th, 2022

Full submissions due June 27th, 2022

Submissions sent to reviewers by July 11th, 2022

Authors notified by September 22nd, 2022

Revised submissions due November 22nd, 2022

Submissions sent to reviewers by December 2nd, 2022

Authors notified by February 8th, 2023

References

Bahl, Erin Kathleen, Sergio Figueiredo, and Rich Shivener. “Comics and Graphic Storytelling in Technical Communication.” Technical Communication Quarterly, vol. 29, no. 3, 2020, pp. 219-221.

Bennett, Marek, Julia Grand Doucet, Andy Kolovos, and Teresa Mares (Eds.). The Most Costly Journey: Stories of Migrant Farmworkers in Vermont Drawn by New England Cartoonists. Vermont Folklife Center, 2021.

Krishnan, Lakshmi, S. Michelle Ogunwole, and Lisa A. Cooper. “Historical Insights on Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, and Racial Disparities: Illuminating a Path Forward.” Annals of Internal Medicine, vol. 173, no. 6, 2020, pp. 474-481.

Hassler, Alfred. Martin Luther King and The Montgomery Story. Fellowship of Reconciliation, 1957.

Jones, Natasha N. “The Technical Communicator as Advocate: Integrating a Social Justice Approach in Technical Communication.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, vol. 46, no. 5, 2016, pp. 342-361.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Tundra Publishing, 1993.

Neufeld, Josh. “A Tale of Two Pandemics: Historical Insights on Persistent Racial Disparities.” Journalist’s Resource: Informing the News, https://journalistsresource.org/race-and-gender/pandemics-comic-racial-h....

White-Johnson, Jen. jenwhitejohnson. October 2018. https://jenwhitejohnson.com.

Yu, Han. The Other Kind of Funnies: Comics in Technical Communication. Routledge, 2016.



Last updated February 11, 2022

CFP Images of the Hero: Heroism in Literature (3/31/2022; East/Southeast Regional Meeting of the CCL 6/10-11/2022)

Images of the Hero: Heroism in Literature (East/Southeast Regional Meeting of the CCL)

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/02/21/images-of-the-hero-heroism-in-literature-eastsoutheast-regional-meeting-of-the-ccl

deadline for submissions:
March 31, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Conference on Christianity and Literature

contact email:
clgrewell@phc.edu



In The Hero with A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell asserts that the mythic figure of the hero is central to understanding the human experience. He argues that “the hero is symbolical of that divine creative and redemptive image within us all, only waiting to be known and rendered into life.” The hero, in other words, might be said to be the embodiment or archetype of the imago Dei raised to the highest pitch, functioning as an exemplar of what humanity at its level best can do. Thomas Carlyle also nods to the transcendently human nature of the hero in Of Heroes and Hero Worship, when he says that the hero is “he who lives in the inward sphere of things, in the True, Divine and Eternal, which exists always, unseen to most, under the Temporary, Trivial…”

The figure of the hero has perennially occupied a central place in the Western literary canon, from Homer to Tolkien. Yet in recent decades, the assumed virtues of traditional concepts of heroism and traditional depictions of heroes have been challenged and become subject to significant revision in popular culture. While the contemporary heroes of the Marvel Comics universe enjoy immense, culture shaping popularity, Homer’s heroes find themselves increasingly left out of secondary and post-secondary syllabi. These things raise the questions of what a hero is and what role the hero has yet to play in the 21st Century. Do the traditional heroes of the Western canon still have a role to play as transcendent ideals of humanity that carry us forward, or are they retrograde constructs in desperate need of revision?

This conference invites papers that explore the answers to these questions and attendant questions related to the mythic and the symbolic. Paper submissions might address the theme of literary heroism from any number of angles, but the following questions are offered as a starting point.

• What is the role of a hero, a traditionally aristocratic character, in a society that sets a moral premium on egalitarianism?
• Does the classical epic still have a place in the English curriculum, and if so, what is it? If not, has it been replaced? With what?
• How do literary heroes inspire differently from the heroes of history, and is the idea of a real-life Hero a contradiction in terms?
• What is behind our fascination with deconstructing heroes? Is the hero archetype, in fact, immoral?
• What is literature’s role in either upholding or interrogating the ideals of heroism?
• Is the Western ideal of the hero compatible with a Christian ideal of human virtue?
• What might a theologically informed reading of the hero archetype look like? Does it offer significant revision to the canonical Western Ideal?
• Any exploration of what might be considered the heroic in other mythic or symbolic literary figures is, of course, welcome.

The East/Southeast Regional Meeting of the Conference of Christianity and Literature will take place at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, VA (just outside of Washington, D.C.) on June 10-11, 2022. Please send paper abstracts/proposals of 400 words or less to Cory Grewell (clgrewell@phc.edu) by March 31, 2022.



Last updated February 22, 2022

CFP Folio: Stories of Australian Comics (4/30/2022)

Call for abstracts: Folio: Stories of Australian Comics

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/02/20/call-for-abstracts-folio-stories-of-australian-comics

deadline for submissions:
April 30, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Folio: Stories of Australian Comics

contact email:
australiancomicsfolio@gmail.com



CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

FOLIO: STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN COMICS

How are Australian comics made, read, contested, thought about, produced – what do Australian comics mean to you? We are a research team called Folio; we are academics from three universities working with a broader group of practitioners on an Australian Research Council project to tell stories of contemporary Australian comics 1980-now. The project entails putting together an interactive history and archive of the last 40 years of comics in Australia.

We are putting together a proposed book that will grow out of the project in response to an invitation from an international publisher. We are interested in hearing from scholars of all kinds, Australian and international, such as comics-makers, creative practice researchers and artist-critics, scholars from other disciplines including but not limited to medical humanities, literary and cultural studies/ histories/ geographies, creative writing, visual arts and graphic design, print and digital publishing studies, media and film, on Australian comics topics of interest.

One of our guiding ideas is that Australian comics represents a complex intersecting ‘ecology’ of many different genres, networks and formats. We want our project to highlight the many nodes of this ecology, mapping and traversing the ways in which they interconnect.

As such, essays can be in a mix of forms, prose, comics or both, and can incorporate personal experience.

Essays might ask: What is 'Australia' in Australian comics? How does it look? How does it sound? What is the Australian comics ‘scene’? What places, people and atmospheres make this scene what it is? What are the limiting or excluding aspects of the Australian comics world? How has Australian comics tracked or offered counterpoint to social shifts as they relate to decolonisation and Indigenous sovereignty, gender and sexuality, understandings of environmental crisis, understandings of capital? What about changes in production and distribution format, including the digital? How is the Australian comics world situated within comics globally? How have key artists advanced the form? Which quality artists remain underread and under-described? How have you made comics? How has comics made you?

We are seeking abstracts of 200 words by 30 April 2022; abstracts should come accompanied with a short bio and an outline of how the work will be presented.

Timeline:

30 April 2022 – 200-word abstracts due
June 2022 – Editors respond to abstracts
December 20 2022 – Full essays between 3000 and 5000 words, or 10 and 20 comics pages, due (Instructions on format will be sent on acceptance of abstract)
Early 2023 – Essays and comics sent for peer review
2024 – Projected publication

Please send abstracts and queries to australiancomicsfolio@gmail.com.

About Folio and the research team: https://www.foliocomics.com/about



Last updated February 21, 2022

CFP Toronto Comic Arts Festival Academic Symposium (3/31/2022; Toronto 6/17/2022)

Toronto Comic Arts Festival Academic Symposium

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/03/13/toronto-comic-arts-festival-academic-symposium

deadline for submissions:
March 31, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Toronto Comic Arts Festival

contact email:
academics@torontocomics.com

TCAF 2022 Academic Symposium Call for Papers

The Toronto Comic Arts Festival is pleased to invite abstract submissions for our inaugural 1-day in-person academic symposium titled TCAF at Twenty: Histories and Futures of Comics Communities. The symposium will take place in person at the Courtyard Downtown Toronto Marriott on Friday, June 17th, 2022. For twenty years, TCAF has offered a vibrant meeting place for creators, scholars, educators, and readers to come together and celebrate their shared love of comics–a uniquely participatory medium that is adept at communicating both complex realities and transformative fantasies. Comics are communities, and communities are comics; the strength of one is the strength of the other. This symposium will consider the histories and futures of comics as vehicles and representations of community and communication. How and what do comics communicate, and how and where can they communicate better, to make comics communities more inclusive, accessible, and dynamic?

The symposium is open to all subjects and theoretical disciplines considering all aspects of comics, including cultural histories and formal concerns as well as politics of representation (including representations of gender, race, sexuality, etc.). We hope to explore and identify the strides comics and comics studies have made in the past two decades to enlarge their scope and scale as well as the boundaries they have yet to examine, push, or eliminate while providing a new platform to connect TCAF’s existing audience with communities of comics scholars. We welcome papers that engage with all forms of comic art (commercial, literary, alternative, zines, webcomics, etc.) and all comics genres (fiction, non-fiction, adventure, science-fiction, mystery, horror, superhero, children’s, etc.). Presentations should be academic in tone but accessible to non-academics.

The TCAF 2022 Academic Symposium is accepting abstracts for the following types of presentations:

1. Panel Proposal: A submission by 1 member of a panel as to the topic and discussion of that panel, in coordination with the other members of the proposed panel. All panelists listed must be confirmed participants at the time of submission. Maximum of 4 people including the moderator of the panel. Panelists will speak for 10 minutes each or provide a round table discussion on the topic from their respective experiences. Fifteen minutes will be reserved for the audience to engage the panelists in questions at the end.
2. Lightning Talk: A 5-7 minute quick presentation on one refined topic of analysis. We will gather approximately 5-7 individuals together to present their lightning talks leaving fifteen minutes for an audience question and answer period.
3. Single Panelist Proposal: A paper of 15 minutes in length to be included on a panel of similar content arranged by the organizers. Three panelists will present during a session leaving fifteen minutes for an audience question and answer period.
4. Poster Presentation: A casual gallery session to engage in multiple topics in a more exploratory discursive manner with the researcher present.

Please submit an abstract of 250-300 words along with a brief biography (approx. 150 words) for each participating panelist on your proposal by Thursday, March 31, 2022, to academics@torontocomics.com. Please include the following information at the top of your proposal:

Name:

Title/Affiliation (if applicable):

Email Contact:

Type of Presentation proposed (Lightning talk, panel, poster, etc.):

The abstracts and bios of accepted participants will be compiled into a symposium program and published (then later archived) on the TCAF website.

There will be a registration fee of $20 CAD for accepted applicants to help defray the costs of the symposium. To make the symposium as accessible as possible to all presenters, TCAF offers registration sponsorships for individuals wishing to present. If you wish to be sponsored by TCAF to present at the TCAF 2022 Symposium, please add “TCAF Sponsored Presentation” to your proposal with no other information necessary about the sponsorship. TCAF will sponsor your registration.

Offers of acceptance will be returned by the end of April 2022. Individuals will be notified by email. If you have any questions or concerns, please email symposium organizer Dr. Anna Peppard at anna@torontocomics.com

Like the general festival, this symposium will be held in-person and will be accessible to the public. TCAF is committed to following all Covid-19 regulations set out by the local, provincial, and federal governments at the time of the festival. TCAF will also be following site-specific regulations set out by its participating venues – The Toronto Public Library and the Courtyard Marriott – to ensure the safety of all guests and participants. We will actively update all presenters and attendees of any and all evolving safety protocols.



Last updated March 14, 2022

CFP EXTENDED: POWERS OF POP: Cross-Cultural Influences Between Japanese and American Pop Cultures (4/16/2022)

POWERS OF POP: Cross-Cultural Influences Between Japanese and American Pop Cultures

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/01/17/powers-of-pop-cross-cultural-influences-between-japanese-and-american-pop-cultures

deadline for submissions:
April 16, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Dr. Kendra Sheehan and Matthew Hodge

contact email:
rmhodge@peace.edu

POWERS OF POP: Cross-Cultural Influences Between Japanese and American Pop Cultures
To be published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Edited by Dr. Kendra Sheehan and Matthew Hodge

This edited collection aims to advance the intellectual exploration and interdisciplinary understanding of the cross-cultural influences between Japan and America. With the ever-evolving globalization of contemporary pop culture, Japanese and American consumers have continuously experienced cultural collaborations and collisions. This insightful volume will serve as a collection of multidisciplinary scholars who offer fresh perspectives of ongoing cross-cultural and cyclical influences evident in Japan and America, two of the most culturally dominant and impactful nations in modern history. The intention of this collection of scholarly chapters is to discuss subject matters within the scope of this edited book’s aim, including Japanese influences in American culture, American influences in Japanese culture, or cross-cultural influences between both nations. Potential topics include (but are not limited to):

• Entertainment media (film, television, video games)
• The Arts (music, theatre, art, dance)
• Literature, Poetry
• Folklore and fairy tales
• Comics and graphic novels
• Fashion
• Education
• Politics
• Sports
• Technology
• Cuisine
• Fandom
• Tourism, travel
• Merchandise, toys

SUBMISSION DETAILS
Submitted proposals should include a 200-300 words abstract, a CV, and a biographical statement (up to 150 words). Please email questions and proposals to Matthew Hodge at rmhodge@peace.edu

Proposal Deadline: March 1, 2022 (Accepted proposals will be notified by March 15, 2022).

Full Chapter Submission Deadline: July 1, 2022 (Approximately 5,000-10,000 words, referenced in Chicago endnote style).

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
This book is scheduled to be published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, an international academic publisher of original academic work across a wide range of subjects in four key areas: Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS); Health Sciences (HS); Physical Sciences (PS); and Life Sciences (LS). For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit https://www.cambridgescholars.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in early 2023.

ABOUT THE EDITORS
Dr. Kendra Sheehan is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Louisville and adjunct professor at Indiana University Southeast, teaching courses on global humanities, Asian studies, and Japanese culture. Her recent publications and research interests include topics of Japanese culture, literature, religion, film, the humanities, and East Asia.

Matthew Hodge, M.F.A., is an Associate Professor at William Peace University, where he teaches arts and humanities courses. His recent publications cover such topics as performing arts histories, pop culture, commercial tourism, entertainment media, belief systems, westernization, and cultural globalization.



Last updated March 12, 2022

EXPIRED CFP: Collections, Archives, Cultures (Comics Studies Society Conference MSU 7/28-30/2022)

EXPIRED CFP. (My apologies for having missed this earlier.)

Collections, Archives, Cultures

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2022/02/15/collections-archives-cultures

deadline for submissions:
March 4, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Comics Studies Society

contact email:
comicsstudiesorg@gmail.com

Call for Papers: DEADLINE EXTENDED
COMICS STUDIES SOCIETY CONFERENCE, JULY 28-30, 2022
In collaboration with Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI

COLLECTIONS, ARCHIVES, CULTURES

The fifth annual Comics Studies Society conference returns to an in-person format in 2022 at Michigan State University, home of the massive Murray and Hong Comic Art Collection. To mark this location and collaboration, we propose that the concepts of collections, archives, and their various cultures mark our gathering. What does it mean to form a collection, to curate a comics community, or inhabit collecting or archival cultures? What are the politics of collecting? What gets included, what gets discarded, and who gets to decide, and how? How do comics communities coalesce around collections, and how do they in turn create new ones that challenge those that have taken shape before them? We encourage our members to engage with these questions and concepts as they relate to their own innovative work in comics studies. We are particularly interested in proposals that address these questions of comics collections, archives, and cultures, and we especially welcome international approaches to this theme, though all submitted proposals will receive full consideration for inclusion in the conference program.

In recognition of some members’ preference for virtual participation in this year’s conference, we will accept proposals for virtual papers, panels, and roundtable discussions for a limited number of slots. Please also note that all presenters and attendees will be required to demonstrate proof of full vaccination (two shots and a booster) in order to participate in in-person events.

Guidelines for Submission
We are accepting submissions for the following:
1. Individual papers (20 min., presented in person or virtually)
2. Panels of three papers (presented in person or virtually)
3. Roundtables of short (5 min.) presentations by 4-5 presenters followed by discussion (presented in person or virtually)
4. Pop-ups (as panels, roundtables, talks, tours, etc.) related to archives and collections (presented virtually and later archived on the CSS website)

**Templates are available on our website: www.comicsstudies.org**

All proposals should be sent as Word files by email by March 4, 2022 to: comicsstudiesorg@gmail.com

The conference organizers will send out notifications of acceptance by the middle of March. Confirmation of intent to participate and copies of vaccination cards will be due by the end of March in order for accepted presenters to appear in the program. Please add our conference email to your trusted senders to ensure email delivery. A presenter's name may appear twice in the program. All presenters must be members of the Comics Studies Society at the time of registration. For more information on the Comic Studies Society, please check our website at http://comicsstudies.org/.



Last updated February 16, 2022

CFP Classics Illustrated: Adaptation and Appropriation in the Comics and Other Graphic Narratives (6/1/2022)

 CFP: Classics Illustrated: Adaptation and Appropriation in the Comics and Other Graphic Narratives

 

A collection organized to further the goals of Saving the Day: Accessing Comics in the Twenty-first Century, a joint outreach effort of the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain and the Association for the Advancement of Scholarship and Teaching of the Medieval in Popular Culture. (More information at https://accessing-comics-in-the-21st-century.blogspot.com/.)

 

Organizers: Nick Katsiadas, Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania; Carl Sell, Lock Haven University; and Michael Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

 

Proposals due by 1 June 2022

 

 

Our title deliberately evokes the comic book series Classics Illustrated to offer both an investigation and a reconsideration of the ways the comics medium engages with non-graphic literature and related texts. Comics have a long association with other literary works and connect to them in multiple ways by retelling, reworking, reimagining, or continuing their stories through deliberate or more nuanced approaches to their borrowing. In this collection, we seek to explore how and why different comics adapt or appropriate elements of classic literature and/or similar texts to different ends, different means, and different audiences, and why those myriad elements factor into their critical receptions.

 

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

 

Our title deliberately evokes the comic book series Classics Illustrated to offer both an investigation and a reconsideration of the ways the comics medium engages with traditional literature and related texts. Comics have long had an association with other literary works, as the medium often retells, reworks, reimagines, or continues many other narratives. Frequently, comics achieve their intended purpose by translating literary themes, elements, characters, story arcs, images, or callbacks from their referents—though sometimes the connections remain more subtle, more embedded than explicit.

 

This collection seeks to explore comics’ relationships with traditional literary texts and similar works by using the theoretical frameworks established by scholars, such as Linda Hutcheon and Julie Sanders. Specifically, this collection seeks to trace textual connections between comics and traditional literary classics and similar texts as well as to build and expand upon previous studies of comics adaptation.

 

Two definitions emerge from studies in adaptation and appropriation: On one hand, Hutcheon writes that, by calling a work an adaptation, “we openly announce its overt relationship to another work or works” and that an adaptation is “repetition without replication” (A Theory of Adaptation 6,7). On the other hand, Sanders defines “appropriation” as a text that “frequently effects a more decisive journey away from the informing text into a wholly new cultural product and domain” (Adaptation and Appropriation 35). By using these definitions as starting points, we can begin to explore how and why different comics adapt or appropriate elements of classic literature and related works to different ends, different means, and different audiences, and why those myriad elements factor into their critical receptions.

 

Papers can explore adaptations and/or appropriations of literary works, themes, characters, etc. as they appear in comics and other graphic narratives, and we welcome particular emphasis on papers highlighting the rationale and importance of the shift from one medium to another. Examples of such topics (as explored in previous scholarship) are, but are not limited to:

 

●       Adaptations of pre-modern mythology and literature (such as the Odyssey, Beowulf, or the Arthurian legend)

●       Adaptations of the works of Jane Austen, J. M. Barrie, Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft, Neil Gaiman, Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Mark Twain, Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, and others

●       Appropriation of literary characters in Fables and League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

●       Fairy and folk tales in Hellboy

●       The Hobbit graphic novel

●       King Arthur and DC’s Aquaman

●       Portrayals of Frankenstein’s Monster in DC and Marvel

●       Reimaginings of the biographies of writers, like H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allen Poe, William Shakespeare, Mary Shelley, and Mark Twain

●       Robin Hood and DC’s Green Arrow

●       Romantic ideals in The Unwritten

●       Shakespearean themes and characters in Kill Shakespeare

 

 

Suggested Resources:

 

George Kovacs and C.W. Marshall’s two-volume collection Classics and Comics and Son of Classics and Comics; Benoît Mitaine, David Roche, and Isabelle Schmitt-Pitiot’s collection Comics and Adaptation; Stephen Tabachnick and Esther Bendit Saltzman’s collection Drawn from the Classics: Essays on Graphic Adaptations of Literary Works; and Jason Tondro’s Superheroes of the Round Table: Comics Connections to Medieval and Renaissance Literature, as well as various essays by M. Thomas Inge and Derek Parker Royal. (William B. Jones, Jr.’s Classics Illustrated: A Cultural History might also be of interest.)

 

 

Send inquiries, proposals, and/or drafts of papers to the organizers at SavingtheDay2020@gmail.com. We also welcome suggestions for resources (in print or online) that might be of value to the collection and its audience.