The Ages of Batman: Essays on the Dark Knight (1/10/2022)

The Ages of Batman: Essays on the Dark Knight

deadline for submissions: January 10, 2022

full name / name of organization: Joseph J. Darowski

contact email: agesofsuperheroes@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/11/02/the-ages-of-batman-essays-on-the-dark-knight

The editor of The Ages of Batman: Essays on the Dark Knight is seeking abstracts for essays that could be included in the upcoming collection. The essays should examine the relationships between the DC comic book adventures of Batman and the social era when those comic books were published. Analysis may demonstrate how Batman’s comic books stories and the creators who produced the comics embrace, reflect, or critique aspects of their contemporary culture. This will be a companion volume to existing essay collections in the series that have already focused on Superman, Wonder Woman, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, Hulk, the Justice League, Flash, and Black Panther.

Potential chapters include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Contextualizing the Bat: Influences and References in Batman’s First Year of Comics
• The Early Villains: Social Fears as Rogues Gallery
• Not-So-Grim-n-Gritty: The Silly Adventures of Batman
• The Cold War Hits Gotham: Social Influences on Popular Culture
• What Masculine Heroism Means in the Vietnam Era
• A Billionaire Hero in the 1980s
• It’s...Problematic: The Cultural Moment Surrounding The Killing Joke
• Sale and Loeb’s WhoDunnIt: Batman: The Long Halloween and Literary Mysteries
• A Death in the Family: Comic Books, Death, and Fan Interaction
• Barbara Gordon’s Changing Roles
• Batman as Corporation: The Expansion of the Batfamily
• Snyder’s Court of Owls and Changing the Face of Villainy in Gotham
• Batman/Catwoman and Romance in a (N)Everchanging Continuity

Essays should focus on stories featuring Batman from his own comic book series or team series. Issues of the Justice League or other teams that have included Batman as a member would be welcome for analysis, so long as the analysis focuses primarily on Batman, as would an analysis of any DC mini-series or event storyline that included Batman as a principal character. Similarly, essays focusing on characters that are closely associated with Batman would be acceptable. Robin, Batgirl, Nightwing, the Joker, and so one could serve as topics for essays in this collection.

Essays should solely focus on comic book adventures, not media adaptations of the characters. Furthermore, essays should look at a single period of comic book history, rather than drawing comparisons between different publication eras. For example, an essay that analyzed Batman comics from the early 1980s and contextualized them with what was happening in American society would be more likely to be accepted than an essay that contrasted 2020s comic books with 1940s comic books. The completed essays should be approximately 15-20 double-spaced pages in MLA format.

Abstracts (100-500 words) and CVs should be submitted by January 10, 2022.

This will be a peer-reviewed project.

Please submit via email to Joseph Darowski, agesofsuperheroes@gmail.com.

Publisher: McFarland & Company

 

Last updated November 2, 2021

CFP Gender Fluidity in Japanese Arts and Culture (1/31/2022)

Gender Fluidity in Japanese Arts and Culture

deadline for submissions: January 31, 2022

full name / name of organization: 

Dean Conrad, PhD and Sayuri Hirano / 平野早百合, MA.

contact email: japanbook@deanconrad.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/11/09/gender-fluidity-in-japanese-arts-and-culture

Brief

Abstract proposals are being sought from Japanese and non-Japanese scholars writing in English for a book exploring androgyny, ‘cross-dressing’, drag culture, trans-gender issues, sexual identities and other forms of gender fluidity that feature in Japanese arts and culture – past and present.

These may include, but are not limited to: male performances in female roles and plays on the traditional Kabuki and Nō theatre stages; in contrast to the modern Takarazuka Review, with its all-female company – a continuation of the traditional women-only companies that formed in response to restrictive, male-only theatre spaces. Modern pop-culture often inspires the fast-changing, gender-blending fashions of Harajuku with their unique play on media themes and icons. Those icons might in-turn include the androgynous manga and anime characters that seem to have inspired a generation of young film actors and J-pop idols.

Essays need not be confined to modern forms and ‘popular’ culture. Indeed, proposals are also encouraged from scholars offering historical perspectives on older arts, crafts and traditions. This may include religious stories, ancient myths and nature-based folklore – some of which gave rise to the hermaphroditic characters that have found their way, in one form or another, into those 21st century media. To what degree have these traditions served to disrupt a rigid society?

Proposals may draw on aspects of Japanese society by including forms of ‘forbidden love’ in poetry and literature, or the linguistic misunderstandings that can arise from non-gendered titles (san, sama, &c.) in an otherwise traditionally patriarchal society. There is evidence that the gender balance in Japanese society is shifting. As a result, proposals may make refrence to the recent trend for non-gendered clothes, make-up and accessories, the proliferation of bars hosted by transexual and transvestite women and men, or the growing phenomenon of the house-husband or stay-at-home dad. Are these societal responses to gender fluidity in arts and culture, or are they themselves agents of change?

Through the interplay of arts and culture, this book aims to explore the history, richness and complexity of cross-gender representation throughout Japanese society. We are open to proposals that examine any aspect of gender fluidity as it relates to that society – and its influence elsewhere.

A note on contributors

We value perspectives from scholars working within and outwith Japan, so we welcome proposals from both. In order to ensure opportunity for all, and a wide range of view-points, our intention is to divide chapter slots as evenly as possible between Japanese and non-Japanese scholars.

Abstract and final chapter instructions

Initial abstract proposals should be around 500 words. Please send these, together with a 100-word mini biography, to: japanbook@deanconrad.com by 31st Jan. 2022.

Chapters should be 6,000-7,000 words, plus references and notes (the latter should be kept to a minimum), written in American English, using MLA style. These should be submitted by 31st Dec. 2022.

Timeline

31st January 2022:      Abstract proposal and biog. (500 + 100 words) deadline;

28th February 2022:    Decisions made and essay requests issued;

31st December 2022:   Final chapters due.

 

Please send any comments or questions – in Japanese or English – to Sayuri Hirano and Dean Conrad at: japanbook@deanconrad.com

Last updated November 10, 2021

Out Now: IJoCA's Spring/Summer 2021 Number

The latest issue of IJoCA for Spring/Summer 2021 arrived this week. It can be purchased directly from the journal's website.

Contents (reposted from the journal's blog site) are as follows:

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMIC ART
Vol. 23, No. 1 Spring/Summer 2021

In Support of Their Fathers' and Mother's Legacies: 13 Offspring of China's Prominent Cartoonists Explain

John A. Lent with Xu Ying

1

Coping with Conflict: Boxing Heroes and German Comics in the Aftermath of the First World War

William Hamilton

79

"Any Children?": "The Family Circus" and the Problems of Parenthood

Michele Ann Abate

138

"Fragging" The Afghan War: Red Blood

Jose Alaniz

168

All You Need Is Kill, Not Love -Considering the Romantic Relationship in the Manga and Film Adaptations of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's Novel

Artur Skweres

204

Jason Little Discusses The Vagina, His NSFW Webcomic

Mike Rhode

229

The Border Separating Us: Autobiographical Comics of an Australian World War I Internment Camp

Aaron Humphrey and Simon Walsh

254

Tintin and the Jews (of Contemporary Literature)

Toby Juliff

271

Within and Between the Visual Metaphoricity of Comics: A Semiotic Approach to the Mahabharata in Amar Chitra Katha

Shivani Sharma

288

Dramatizing Ontology in 18 Days: Grant Morrison's Mahabharata

and the Battle to Save Eternity!

Jeff S. Wilson

313

The Role of Fox Feature Syndicate in the Implementation of the Comics Code Authority

Ignacio Fernandez Sarasola

334

An Interview with 2021 Oscar Nominee: Icelandic Artist, Gisli Darri Halldorsson

Alexandra Bowman

Edited by Michael Rhode

374

Remembrances of Things Past: Childhood in Graphic Memoirs

Kirsten Mollegaard

385

The Social Functions and Impacts of Popular Manga in Contemporary Japan: A Case of GOLDEN KAMUY

Kinko Ito

403

Slaying the Monster: Heroic Lesbian Narratives in World's Finest

Chadwick L. Roberts

Anita K. McDaniel

421

Poems, Comics and the Spaces Between: An Examination of the Interplay between Poem and Page

Angelo Letizia

447

The Oriental Superheroes: Political Questions in G. Willow Wilson's Cairo: A Graphic Novel and Ms. Marvel

Noran Amin

458

The Maternal-Feminine and Matrixial Borderspace in Megan Kelso's ''Watergate Sue"

Alisia Grace Chase

471

Morpheus Aeternorum: Dreams, Androgyny, and Their Characteristics in Sandman (Preludes & Nocturnes), by Neil Gaiman

Felipe Rodolfo Hendriksen

492

When Le Chat Was Put Among the Pigeons

Musings by Wim Lockefeer

509

Obituary & Remembrance of Manga Historian Shimizu Isao

Ronald Stewart

513

On the Passing of Comics Scholar Tom Inge

Mike Rhode

Marc Singer

Jose Alaniz

Charles Hatfield

Joseph Witek

Vijay Shah

Joe Sutliff Sanders

Michael A. Torregrossa

Randy Duncan

Brian Cremins

John A. Lent

520

Research Prompts

John A. Lent

531

New Light on the Soon-to-Be Famous Marie Duval

A Review Essay

David Kunzie

536

Book Reviews

Hector Fernandez L'Hoeste

Stephanie Burt

John A. Lent

Jean Sebastien

Charles W. Henebry

John A. Lent

Maite U rcaregui

Michael Rhode

John A. Lent

John A. Lent

Chris York

Laura Sayre

John A. Lent

553

International Journal of Comic Art Manuscript Preparation Guide

John A. Lent and Jaehyeon Jeong

592

CFP Comics Arts Conference WonderCon (12/1/2021; Anaheim 4/1-3/2022)

Comics Arts Conference WonderCon

Source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2021/11/03/comics-arts-conference-wondercon

deadline for submissions: December 1, 2021

full name / name of organization:  Comics Arts Conference

contact email: comicsartsconference@gmail.com

The Comics Arts Conference is now accepting 100- to 200-word abstracts for papers, presentations, and panels taking a critical or historical perspective on comics (juxtaposed images in sequence) for a meeting of scholars and professionals at WonderCon, in Anaheim, CA, April 1–3, 2022.  We seek proposals from a broad range of disciplinary and theoretical perspectives and welcome the participation of academic and independent scholars.  We also encourage the involvement of professionals from all areas of the comics industry, including creators, editors, publishers, retailers, distributors, and journalists.  The CAC at WonderCon is presently scheduled to take place in person; however, this may change, and presenters should be prepared to adapt to a virtual format.  The CAC is designed to bring together comics scholars, professionals, critics, and historians to engage in discussion of the comics medium in a forum that includes the public.  Proposals are due December 1, 2021, to our online submission portal at forms.gle/9MQhZiML76v8bp9T7 or via email.  For more information, please contact Kathleen McClancy at comicsartsconference@gmail.com or see our website at comicsartsconference.wp.txstate.edu.

Last updated November 5, 2021