CFP Superheroes of the Squared Circle - Chapter Contributors (7/15/2026)

Superheroes of the Squared Circle - Chapter Contributors

deadline for submissions:
July 15, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Forrest C. Helvie / CT State Community College

contact email:
forrest.helvie@ctstate.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/06/12/superheroes-of-the-squared-circle-chapter-contributors



CALL FOR CONTRIBUTORS

Superheroes of the Squared Circle:

The Intersection of Comics and Professional Wrestling

An Edited Academic Collection for McFarland & Co. Publishing

Editor: Forrest C. Helvie, Ph.D.

Connecticut State Community College

About the Project

Professional wrestling and superhero comics have more in common than audiences might expect. Both rely on serialized storytelling, larger-than-life characters, clearly defined heroes and villains, and a shared grammar of spectacle and myth. Yet despite their obvious kinship, few sustained academic studies have examined the two forms side by side.

Superheroes of the Squared Circle aims to fill that gap. This edited collection will bring together essays that explore the rich connections between professional wrestling and superhero media — including comics, film, and television — from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Contributors might examine narrative structure, character archetypes, cultural significance, performance, identity, or any number of other angles. The goal is a volume that is rigorous without being inaccessible, and that will appeal to both scholars and serious fans of either (or both) forms.

Topics of Interest

Essays may address, but are not limited to, the following:

• The history of professional wrestling and its parallels with superhero narrative traditions
• Kayfabe and comic book continuity: shared logics of suspension of disbelief
• Heels, babyfaces, and the villain-hero binary across wrestling and comics
• Wrestlers and their superhero analogs (e.g., Hulk Hogan and Superman; the nWo and the Punisher)
• Lucha libre and its intersections with Latin American superhero and comics traditions
• Japanese puroresu, manga, and anime: shared themes of perseverance, honor, and the heroic struggle
• Gender and representation in wrestling and superhero media
• Race, ethnicity, and identity in the ring and on the page
• The evolution of both forms in the streaming era (WWE on Netflix; the MCU, DCU, and The Boys)
• The crowd as character: audience, kayfabe, and participatory culture
• Wrestling's influence on superhero comics, film, and television — and vice versa
• Disability, body politics, and the superhero/wrestling ideal
• Comics adaptations of wrestling figures and promotions

Submission Guidelines

Interested contributors are invited to submit a proposal consisting of:A 250–300 word abstract describing the essay's argument, methodology, and significance
A brief contributor biography (100 words or fewer), including name and institutional affiliation (if applicable)

Accepted essays should be approximately 6,000–7,000 words (excluding references) and formatted according to the Chicago Manual of Style (author-date system).

Co-authored essays are welcome. AI co-created or fully AI-generated work will not be accepted.

Contributors will be responsible for securing reproduction permissions for any images used in their chapters. The editor will provide guidance on fair-use standards and publisher image specifications.

Proposed Timeline

• Abstract Deadline: July 15th, 2026
• Contributor Notifications: August 1st, 2026
• First Drafts Due: October 15, 2026
• Final Drafts Due: December 15, 2026
• Manuscript Delivered to Publisher: Jan/Feb 2027

About the Editor

Forrest C. Helvie, Ph.D. is a Full Professor of English at Connecticut State Community College and an experienced editor of academic collections in comics and popular culture studies. He has written about comics for Marvel.com, Newsarama, Sequart, and Popverse, and is the editor of How to Review and Analyze Comics (Sequart, 2021) and Superheroes and American Exceptionalism (McFarland, forthcoming 2026). He holds a Ph.D. in English Literature and teaches composition at the college level.

How to Submit

Please send abstracts and contributor bios to:

Forrest C. Helvie, Ph.D.

forrest.helvie@ctstate.edu

Please use the subject line: Squared Circle Submission — [Your Last Name]

Questions about the project are welcome. The editor is committed to building a diverse contributor pool that reflects the global reach of both professional wrestling and superhero media, and actively encourages submissions from scholars working in international, cross-cultural, and underrepresented perspectives.



Last updated June 12, 2026

CFP Rise and Fall of Comics and Cartoons, and the Popularity of Graphic Novels in India (7/20/2026)

Rise and Fall of Comics and Cartoons, and the Popularity of Graphic Novels in India

deadline for submissions:
July 20, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Mahatma Gandhi Central Univeristy

contact email:
deepak@mgcub.ac.in

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2026/06/18/rise-and-fall-of-comics-and-cartoons-and-the-popularity-of-graphic-novels-in-india

Indian comics, cartoons and graphic novels occupy a unique and dynamic space within the country's literary, visual, and cultural traditions of storytelling, especially among children. Earlier, cartooning was a Western monopoly, when Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry were household names, which was later challenged by Japan’s Doraemon, Shin Chan, Kochikame, and Pokemon. India, until 1990, was a new but promising market, where most children preferred comics like Chacha Chaudhary, Tenali Raman, Akbar-Birbal, and Nagraj, as cable TV was not within reach of common people. By the mid-nineties, cable began reaching the common man, and the rise of cartoons and the decline of comics in India began with the launch of several cartoon channels, including Cartoon Network, Pogo, Nickelodeon, Hungama, Disney, Sony Yay, and Animax. These channels' established duopoly of West and Japan in Animation, and then entered Indian series like Chota Bheem and Motu-Patlu, which instantly captured the whole audience. As a result, several channels shut down operations, and now only two cartoon shows, Chota Bheem and Motu-Patlu, are shown all day, which further harms the Indian cartoon industry, as nothing new is created. Second, it limited children's options to only these two cartoons. Third, creating cartoon characters is costly, and most of their sources are in the West, which is already facing losses, resulting in a decline in the cartoon industry, especially after TikTok and Reels. In between, China has already emerged as a dominant player in the international market and captured the space left by Western and Japanese series with their Kung-Fu Panda series. As a result, China is gaining market share as Ne-Zha 2 breaks all previous earnings records.

By bringing diverse perspectives from across disciplines, this book aims to foster critical dialogue on the significance of Indian comics, cartoons, and graphic novels as both entertainment and cultural texts. Through this book, we understand how these genres illuminate the complexities of the past, present, and future, expanding the possibilities of storytelling in contemporary India.

Themes:

• The Evolution of Popular Visual Culture in India
• Rise and Fall of Comics
• Superheroes and common men
• Western and Japanese Cartoons in India
• History and Transformation of Japanese Cartoons
• Development of Chinese Cartoon Movies
• Sudden Rise Indian Cartoon
• Boom of Cartoon TV Channels
• Decline of the Indian Cartoon Industry
• Beginning of Graphic Novels
• Future of Cartoons and Graphic Novels

Kindly send an Abstract of 250 words at deepak@mgcub.ac.in by July 20, 2026

Bibliography

Dudrah, R. K., & Varughese, E. D. (2020). Graphic novels and visual cultures in South Asia. Routledge.

Jha, S., Gusain, A., & Krishnan, A. R. (2026). Documenting lives: Comics, representation, and activism across cultures. Springer.

Nayar, P. K. (2016). The Indian graphic novel: Nation, history and critique. Routledge.

Varughese, E. D. (2018). Visuality and identity in post-millennial Indian graphic narratives. Springer.





Whataspp Group:

https://chat.whatsapp.com/IdoPsvoCaL0L7RebTopJ9g


Last updated June 26, 2026

CFP Anthropocene Anxiety in Graphic Narratives (9/14/2025)

Anthropocene Anxiety in Graphic Narratives (An Edited Volume)

deadline for submissions: 

September 14, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Arpan Mitra and Dr. Bidisha Kantha

contact email: 

framingclimatecrisis@gmail.com

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/07/14/anthropocene-anxiety-in-graphic-narratives-an-edited-volume

Editors: Arpan Mitra (Ph.D. Research Scholar, St. Xavier’s University) and Dr. Bidisha Kantha (Assistant Professor of English, Xavier Law School, St.  Xavier’s University, Kolkata)

Publisher: DeGruyter Brill has expressed initial interest in this collection

We inhabit an era defined by the Anthropocene—a geological epoch marked by humanity’s irreversible planetary impact. This reality has precipitated a distinct psychological condition: "Anthropocene Anxiety" (Albrecht, "Solastalgia" 95; Lertzman 42). Unlike conventional eco-concern, this anxiety embodies an existential crisis rooted in temporal dissonance: the collision between human experiential timescales and the vast, often imperceptible, geological timescales of environmental consequence (Nixon 2; Morton 1–5). It manifests as paralyzing awareness of crossed ecological thresholds, the dual identity of victim/perpetrator, and the tension between individual helplessness and systemic urgency.

            Graphic narratives (comics, graphic novels, manga, bandes dessinées) have emerged as uniquely potent media for exploring this condition. Their visual-textual hybridity enables simultaneous depiction of microscopic damage (e.g., microplastics) and macroscopic shifts (e.g., glacial melt), creating an "aesthetic of scale" (Demos 17) that mirrors the cognitive challenge of grasping planetary crisis. The sequential architecture—panels, gutters, and layout—formally embodies the intersection of "slow violence" (Nixon 2–10) and sudden catastrophe. Crucially, the participatory "closure" required in reading comics—where readers actively construct narrative continuity between panels—mirrors the cognitive and ethical work needed to process fragmented environmental realities and envision pathways forward (Chute 12–15; Postema 45–68). Comics thus function not merely as representations but as training grounds for Anthropocene thought and action.

            This edited collection on representation of “Anthropocene Anxiety”incomics and other graphic narratives, seeks to establish comics as indispensable sites for analysing contemporary environmental consciousness. It aims to bridge Comics Studies, Environmental Humanities, Climate Psychology, and Environmental Justice scholarship, offering innovative frameworks for academics and actionable insights for educators, therapists, artists, and activists.

            Building on foundational comics theory (Scott McCloud; Hillary L. Chute; Barbara Postema) and ecocriticism (Lawrence Buell; Rob Nixon), this collection advances scholarship through interdisciplinary synthesis:

• Affective Ecocriticism & Climate Psychology: Integrating emotion in environmental narrative (Alexa Weik von Mossner; Glenn Albrecht, Earth Emotions) with research on eco-grief, solastalgia, and climate anxiety (Renee Lertzman; Caroline Hickman et al.; American Psychological Association).
• Multispecies Studies & Extinction Studies: Exploring more-than-human entanglement, loss, and agency (Thom van Dooren; Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing; Robin Wall Kimmerer).
• Visual Culture & Anthropocene Critique: Engaging counter-hegemonic strategies for visualizing hyperobjects (Timothy Morton) and systemic crisis (T.J. Demos; Nicholas Mirzoeff).
• Environmental Justice & Decolonial Ecologies: Centring frontline, Indigenous, and Global South perspectives challenging Western Anthropocene narratives (Kyle Powys Whyte; Leanne Betasamosake Simpson; Andreas Malm; Eve Tuck and K. Wayne Yang).

We invite chapters that move beyond thematic analysis to leverage medium-specific affordances:

• How do panel transitions/gutters model environmental temporalities (slow/fast catastrophe)?
• How do layout, colour, and visual metaphor make the invisible (CO₂, extinction, toxicity) visceral?
• How does reader "closure" become ethical engagement with crisis?

            While eco-comics scholarship exists, no volume systematically analyses comics’ formal capacity to mediate Anthropocene Anxiety through their unique structure. We seek chapters (7,000–8,000 words) offering original, theoretically grounded analyses. Contributions should engage with 1–2 primary texts and cite recent scholarship (post-2015).

            To advance this inquiry, we propose five interconnected thematic frameworks exploring how comics formalize ecological crisis through their visual grammar. Contributors are invited to anchor their analyses in one of the following dimensions:

Section I: Theoretical Foundations of Eco-Visuality

• How do comics formalize Anthropocene Anxiety (temporal dissonance, solastalgia, pre-traumatic stress) via sequence, scale, and reader engagement?
• Comics as sites of "environmental testimony" (extending Hillary L. Chute): Visualizing the invisible (toxins, extinction) and ethical witness.
• Integrating affective ecocriticism (Alexa Weik von Mossner) and multispecies frameworks (Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing; Thom van Dooren).

Section II: Manifestations: Formalizing Crisis

• Catastrophe & Apocalypse: Visualizing collapse (rising seas, ruins). Formal techniques: fragmented panels, overwhelming splash pages, toxic colour palettes. Balancing slow violence (Rob Nixon) with sudden disaster.
• Extinction & Absence: Visualizing the Sixth Mass Extinction, "shifting baselines" (Daniel Pauly), and ecological grief. Strategies for depicting loss/haunting.
• Toxicity & Alienation: Visualizing "toxic discourse" (Lawrence Buell) in landscapes (sacrifice zones, industrial decay). Environmental illness, injustice, and psychological alienation.
• Intergenerational Trauma & Future Dread: Depicting burden on future generations; techniques for uncertainty, despair/hope tension, inherited crisis.

Section III: Global Perspectives: Justice, Knowledge, Resistance

• Global South & Climate Justice: Comics from frontline regions (Bangladesh, Pacific Islands, Amazon, Africa). Visualizing environmental racism, neo-colonial extraction, resistance, and the psychological toll of disproportionate impact.
• Indigenous Temporalities & Knowledges: Works by Indigenous artists. Visualizing cyclical/deep time, Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), resistance, ecological grief/healing. Challenging Western narratives.
• Postcolonial Ecologies: Visualizing colonial legacies in environmental degradation; resource extraction; decolonial futures.

Section IV: Genre Engagements: Narrative Strategies

• Superheroes: Limits of individual heroism vs. systemic collapse; environmental powers/corruption; wish fulfilment vs. critique.
• Memoir/Autobiography: Personalizing the planetary; visualizing eco-consciousness, illness, activism; trauma/testimony balance.
• Science Fiction/Speculative: World-building environmental futures (dystopian/utopian/adaptive); socio-ecological transformation; justice.
• Comics Journalism/Documentary: Visualizing data/testimony; ethics of crisis representation; advocacy strategies.

Section V: Applications: Pedagogy, Therapy, Agency

• Pedagogy: Using comics in environmental education (K–12 to adult); balancing honesty with psychological safety; fostering agency/critical hope.
• Young Adult Narratives: How YA climate comics help adolescents process anxiety, build identity, and visualize action.
• Therapeutic Frameworks: Comics as bibliotherapy for climate anxiety/eco-grief; facilitating processing; building resilience/community.

Submission Guidelines

Contributors should submit chapter proposals of 500-700 words addressing four key components. First, proposals must articulate a central argument and theoretical framework, drawing from relevant fields including ecocriticism, climate psychology, comics formalism, or decolonial studies. Second, authors should identify their primary graphic narrative(s) for analysis with appropriate rationale. Third, proposals must demonstrate contribution to one of five thematic sections. Fourth, engagement with recent scholarship from 2015 onwards is required.

            Proposals must emphasize medium-specific analysis examining elements such as panel transitions, visual metaphor, and reader closure. Authors should address how comics uniquely mediate Anthropocene Anxiety through their formal properties. A 150-word biographical note must accompany each proposal.

            Submissions should be sent to framingclimatecrisis@gmail.com by September 14th, 2025. Contributors will receive notification of acceptance by September 25, 2025. Full chapters are due February 15, 2026, followed by peer review and final revisions. Direct queries to mitra.arpan2023@gmail.com.

"The struggle is to make the crisis visible" (Nixon 17). Graphic narratives offer unparalleled tools for this struggle. We welcome your innovative scholarship.

Works Cited

Albrecht, Glenn. Earth Emotions: New Words for a New World. Cornell UP, 2019.

---. "Solastalgia: A New Concept in Human Health and Identity." PAN: Philosophy Activism Nature, no. 3, 2005, pp. 41–55.

American Psychological Association. Mental Health and Our Changing Climate. APA, 2017.

Buell, Lawrence. Writing for an Endangered World. Harvard UP, 2001.
Chute, Hillary L. Disaster Drawn: Visual Witness, Comics, and Documentary Form. Harvard UP, 2016.

Demos, T.J. Against the Anthropocene: Visual Culture and Environment Today. Sternberg Press, 2017.

Hickman, Caroline, et al. "Climate Anxiety in Children and Young People..." The Lancet Planetary Health, vol. 5, no. 12, 2021, pp. e863–e873.

Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass. Milkweed Editions, 2013.

Lertzman, Renee. Environmental Melancholia. Routledge, 2015.

Malm, Andreas. Fossil Capital. Verso, 2016.

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics. HarperPerennial, 1994.

Mirzoeff, Nicholas. "It’s Not the Anthropocene..." After Extinction, U of Minnesota P, 2018.

Morton, Timothy. Hyperobjects. U of Minnesota P, 2013.

Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Harvard UP, 2011.

Pauly, Daniel. "Anecdotes and the Shifting Baseline..." Trends in Ecology & Evolution, vol. 10, no. 10, 1995, p. 430.

Postema, Barbara. Narrative Structure in Comics. RIT Press, 2013.

Simpson, Leanne Betasamosake. As We Have Always Done. U of Minnesota P, 2017.

Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. The Mushroom at the End of the World. Princeton UP, 2015.

Tuck, Eve, and K. Wayne Yang. "Decolonization is Not a Metaphor." Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society, vol. 1, no. 1, 2012, pp. 1–40.

van Dooren, Thom. Flight Ways. Columbia UP, 2014.

Weik von Mossner, Alexa. Affective Ecologies. Ohio State UP, 2017.

Whyte, Kyle Powys. "Indigenous Climate Change Studies..." English Language Notes, vol. 55, 2017, pp. 153–62.

Last updated July 17, 2025

CFP Children's Literature and Graphic Narrative (10/1/2025)

Children's Literature and Graphic Narrative

deadline for submissions:
October 1, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Routledge

contact email:
ahalsall@yorku.ca

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/07/08/childrens-literature-and-graphic-narrative

In recent years, publishers and children’s book professionals have registered a new enthusiasm for comic and graphic narrative forms. Graphic narratives as children’s literature offer an exciting new type of text for children and youth, providing important insights into the interests and capabilities of these youngsters as readers and as potential agents of change. Curiously, children’s literature criticism has tended to ignore or, at best, marginalize comics and graphic narratives for young people. This “blind spot” in children’s literature and comics criticism, as Charles Hatfield has called it on a number of occasions, is now being addressed.

This reference text, Children's Literature and Graphic Narrative, will be a part of Routledge’s exciting new series, Introductions to YA and Children’s Literature. This volume, aimed at graduates / undergraduates new to the field as well as scholars of children’s literature and graphic narrative, will balance foundational information about these two fields and key topics with new developments and trends related to children’s literature and graphic narrative, broadly described.

Please consider submitting a proposal!

Chapter-length submissions may consider issues such as the following but are not limited by these suggestions:

• Format / target audience / length;
• The blend of word and image / different illustrative traditions;
• The lived experiences of childhood(s) and youth;
• Politics / politics of childhood / political activism / social justice;
• Race and ethnicity / diverse youth stories / immigration stories / migrant comics, refugee stories / postcolonial comics;
• Climate change / climate activism;
• Ideas of disability (physical, emotional, educational, etc.) / mental health;
• Indigenous comics; comics and Indigeneity;
• Adaptations / transmedial storytelling;
• Genres (superheroes; science fiction; romance; funny animal stories, etc.);
• Manga, shōnen (boys’ manga) and shōjo (girls’ manga); Tokyopop;
• Sex and sexuality / intersectionality / girlhood / boyhood / LGBTQ+ / queerness, etc.;
• Class and labor;
• Censorship / book bans;
• Comic book prizes and awards;
• Digital comics for kids;
• Series

Please send a 300-word proposal and 50-word short bio (as MS Word documents) by 1 October 2025 to Alison Halsall at ahalsall@yorku.ca. All submissions will be acknowledged.

Full chapter length academic submissions: approximately 15-18 pages double-spaced, 12-point font, addressing both a scholarly and an advanced general reader.

Contributors’ first drafts will be due by 1 February 2026, and final drafts by 1 April 2026 for a possible summer 2027 publication date.

Contributors are responsible for obtaining permission to reproduce images in their article and must pay permission costs. Permissions must be cleared before publication. Please send low-resolution images (small .jpegs) in separate attachments. If the article is accepted, high-quality images will be required.



Last updated July 14, 2025

CFP Critical Readings on the Silver Surfer (1/31/2026)

Critical Readings on the Silver Surfer

deadline for submissions:
January 31, 2026

full name / name of organization:
Mike Lemon and Rob Weiner

contact email:
mike.lemon@ttu.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/07/08/critical-readings-on-the-silver-surfer

Since his debut in Fantastic Four #48, the Silver Surfer has become an integral part of Marvel Comic’s sprawling universe. In his six-decade existence, the character has been featured in merchandise and Marvel’s transmedia properties, including cartoons, movies, video games, and podcasts.

While there exists a smattering of academic research on the Silver Surfer, this edited collection welcomes differing perspectives on this character. We welcome contributions from different disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives, including comics studies, film and media studies, communication, theology, literary criticism, and so on.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Silver Surfer’s role in Marvel’s space operas.
• Silver Surfer as a messianic figure.
• Silver Surfer as colonizer, post-colonial figure, or something in between.
• Surfer as “Other.”
• His relationship with other characters (Galactus, Heralds of Galactus, Fantastic Four, Thanos, Thor, Hulk, Dr. Doom, symbiotes, etc.).
• His relationship with different superhero teams (Fantastic Four, Defenders, Guardians of the Galaxy, etc.).
• His portrayal by creative teams (Lee/Kirby, Lee/Moebius, Straczynski/Ribic, Slott/Allred, etc.).
• Stand-alone graphic novels
• AU Surfer (Fantastic Four: First Steps/Shaballa, Ultimates, What If?, Marvel Zombies, DC/Marvel crossovers, etc.).
• Surfer’s transmedia portrayals (Animated Series, Films, Video Games, Novels, etc.).

Interested contributors are requested to submit their proposals (250–400-word abstract, 100–150-word bio, and 5-6 key words) to Rob Weiner (rob.weiner@ttu.edu) and Mike Lemon (mike.lemon@ttu.edu) by January 31st, 2026.



Last updated July 8, 2025

CFP Second Call for Chapters: Spider-Man's Villains - Specific Villains (5/1/2025)

 

Second Call for Chapters: Spider-Man's Villains - Specific Villains

deadline for submissions: 

May 1, 2025

full name / name of organization: 

Matthew McEniry, Robert G. Weiner, and Kevin Scott

contact email: 

matthew.mceniry@ttu.edu

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/02/25/second-call-for-chapters-spider-mans-villains-specific-villains.

We invite contributons to an edited volume that delves into the complex and often nuanced villains of the Spider-Man universe. We are specifically looking for chapters about the following villains: Kraven the Hunter, Carnage, Black Cat, Lizard, Sandman, Scorpion, Shocker, and Tombstone. Other submissions may be accepted, but we are not looking for chapters on Mysterio, Doc Ock, Electro, Vulture, Venom, Punisher, Green Goblin, Rhino, Kingpin, Jackal, Sinister Six, Spidey Super Stories, Spider-Man's War on Drugs, or J. Jonah Jameson.

This volume is being published by the University of Mississippi Press. We welcome a diverse range of scholarly analyses, including but not limited to: 

• Character Analysis: In-depth explorations of specific villains and their evolutions over time
• Cultural Context: How societal issues, such as class, race, and identity, shape villain narrative
• Psychological Perspectives: The motivations and psychological profiles of Spider-Man's villains
• Comparative Studies: Analyzing Spider-Man villains in relation to other superhero antagonists
• Media Adaptations: The portrayal of Spider-Man villains in films, animated series, and video games
• Feminist and Gender Studies: The role of female villains and their representation within the Spider-Man lore.
• Mythology and Symbolis: The archetypal elements present in the characterization of Spider-Man's enemies.
• Fan Culture and Reception: How fan communities interpret and engage with these villains.

Please submit an up-to 300-word abstract oulining your proposed chapter and a brief author bio by May 1, 2025 to matthew.mceniry@ttu.edu with the Subject "Spider-Man Villains Chapter Proposal_Author Name".

Chapters should be between 5,000 - 7,000 words and will use the Chicago Manual of Style with notes and bibliography.

Important Dates:

Second Call Abstract Submission Deadline: May 1, 2025

Notification of Acceptance: May 14, 2025

First Draft Submission Deadline: August 31, 2025

Final Draft Submission Deadline: November 30, 2025

We look forward to your proposed chapters for the impact and significance of these villains in the comic book world and broader cultural narratives.

Last updated April 16, 2025

CFP Avengers Disassembled: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Post-Endgame (4/1/2025)

Avengers Disassembled: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Post-Endgame

deadline for submissions:
April 1, 2025

full name / name of organization:
Dr Terence McSweeney, Dr Stuart Joy, Dr Adam Vaughan, Southampton Solent University

contact email:
terence.mcsweeney@solent.ac.uk

source: https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2025/01/03/avengers-disassembled-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-post-endgame. 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is the most financially successful franchise in film history. Between 2008 and 2019 not only did it become a commercial behemoth, redefining the landscape of blockbuster cinema, but also a cultural phenomenon, delighting fans all around the globe. Yet post-Avengers: Endgame (2019) and the conclusion of “The Infinity Saga,” the MCU has struggled to maintain the same level of success and no longer resonates with audiences the way it once did. The MCU, and the wider superhero genre, has faced mounting criticism from fans, critics and even notable industry professionals on a wide range of issues. This decline has sparked critical debate across the industry: has the MCU suffered from franchise burn out? Has the MCU become overly reliant on nostalgia and fan service? Has Martin Scorsese’s criticism of the MCU as “theme park” cinema been proven true? Has the MCU “gone woke” and what impact has this had on the films and TV shows produced?

This edited collection will explore the coordinates of this shifting landscape by charting film and television productions of the MCU post-Avengers: Endgame. Accordingly, the editors seek dynamic and vibrant essays on the MCU phenomenon for publication in a book currently entitled Avengers Disassembled: The Marvel Cinematic Universe Post-Endgame and invite proposals for essays of approximately 7000 words.

We welcome proposals on

individual films and televisions shows

films and TV shows grouped together by a particular theme (representation, industrial, cultural etc.)

characters that span multiple films and television shows

issues that the MCU has faced (narrative, technological, critical, cultural)

Films and Television Shows to be included in the collection

Films: Black Widow (2021), Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Eternals (2021), Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), Thor: Love and Thunder (2022), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2023), Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023), The Marvels (2023), Deadpool & Wolverine (2024), Captain America: Brave New World (2025).

TV Shows: WandaVision (2021), The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021), Loki (2021-23), Hawkeye (2021), Moon Knight (2022), Ms. Marvel (2022), She Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022), Secret Invasion (2023), What If… (2022-4), Echo (2024), Agatha All Along (2024), Daredevil: Born Again (2025), Ironheart (2025).

About Us

The volume is edited by

Terence McSweeney, the author of Avengers Assemble! Critical Perspectives on the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Wallflower, 2018) and the award-winning Black Panther: Interrogating a Cultural Phenomenon (Mississippi University Press, 2021). Terence’s new book will be published by Bloomsbury in 2025 and is entitled Battleground: Culture Wars in Trump Era American Film.

Stuart Joy, the author of The Traumatic Screen: The Films of Christopher Nolan (Intellect, 2020) and co-editor of The Cinema of Christopher Nolan: Imagining the Impossible (Wallflower, 2015).

Adam Vaughan, the author of Doing Documentary, Becoming Subjects: Performance and Performativity in Contemporary Nonfiction (Edinburgh University Press, 2025) and has published chapters and articles on subjects such as LGBTQIA+ representation in contemporary American film, migration in European documentary, and the sex scene in nonfiction film.

Terence and Stuart have previously edited three collections together: James Bond Will Return Critical Perspectives on the 007 Film Franchise (Wallflower Press, 2024: with Claire Hines), Contemporary American Cinema: The Science Fiction Film (Routledge, 2022) and Through the Black Mirror: Reflections on ‘the Side Effects’ of the Digital Age (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).

Deadlines 

The deadline for proposals will be 1st April 2025

Draft chapters of 7,000 - 8,000 words are due on or before 1st September 2025

Final versions in early 2026

Please send 500-word proposals (including a provisional title), along with a CV, to Terence McSweeney (terence.mcsweeney@solent.ac.uk), Stuart Joy (stuart.joy@solent.ac.uk) and Adam Vaughan (adam.vaughan@solent.ac.uk) by 1stApril 2025.  Queries are welcome should there be questions about appropriate submission topics, perspectives and dates. Please note that invitation to submit a full essay does not guarantee inclusion in the volume.


Last updated January 6, 2025

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 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 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 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

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.

 

 

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

CFP Futures of Cartoons Past: The Cultural Politics of X-Men: The Animated Series (Edited Collection) (6/30/2020)

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS — Futures of Cartoons Past: The Cultural Politics of X-Men: The Animated Series (Edited Collection)


deadline for submissions:
June 30, 2020

full name / name of organization:
Nicholas E. Miller

contact email:
nemiller@valdosta.edu


FUTURES OF CARTOONS PAST: THE CULTURAL POLITICS OF X-MEN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

Edited by Jeremy M. Carnes, Margaret Galvan, and Nicholas E. Miller.

Collection under Advance Contract with the University Press of Mississippi.

This volume will collect new scholarship on X-Men: The Animated Series (1992-1997), providing scholars and fans with an overdue assessment of the series from perspectives in comics studies, fan studies, and media studies. While the 90s have often been viewed as a “regressive” era for comics by creators and scholars alike (e.g. Trina Robbins), this collection carefully examines the complicated cultural politics of X-Men: The Animated Series across disciplines such as animation studies, childhood studies, comics studies, culture studies, fashion studies, gender and sexuality studies, media studies, and visual art. This collection will not only serve as a foundation for future scholarship on the animated series, but also on the transmedial landscapes of X-Men narratives specifically and “Saturday cartoons” more broadly. In addition to scholarly essays, we invite the contribution of original comics, zines, or transcripts of relevant interviews and podcasts.

Contributors may choose to consider (but are certainly not limited to) the following topics and issues in relation to X-Men: The Animated Series:

• Historical considerations of the series—including nostalgia and the legacy of 1990s comics culture
• Transmedia and adaptation—including considerations of technologies such as coloring and animation
• Artistic considerations related to costuming, design, fashion, merchandising and the music in/of the series
• Representation and mutant metaphors—including issues of race, ethnicity, indigeneity, gender, sexuality, disability, class, etc.
• Youth culture, girlhood studies and other considerations related to audience engagement
• Reception studies, fan studies, and the importance of fan fiction, fan art, and other types of paratexts
• Post- futures and the potential failures of the series—including the postcolonial, the posthuman, etc.

Please submit CVs and 300-word abstracts to Nicholas E. Miller at nemiller@valdosta.edu. Final essays will be limited to 6000 words. Questions and inquiries before the deadline are welcome.

ABSTRACTS DUE:
JUNE 30, 2020

NOTICE OF ACCEPTANCE:
JULY 30, 2020

COMPLETED ESSAYS DUE:
DECEMBER 15, 2020


Last updated October 8, 2019

CFP Volume on Feminism and Comics and Graphic Novels (2/1/2019)

Volume on Feminism and Comics and Graphic Novels Seeks Chapter Proposals
http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2018/10/25/volume-on-feminism-and-comics-and-graphic-novels-seeks-chapter-proposals

deadline for submissions: February 1, 2019

full name / name of organization: Missy Nieveen-Phegley, Sandra Cox, Susan Kendrick, Department of English at Southeast Missouri State University

contact email: scox@semo.edu



CALL FOR BOOK CHAPTER PROPOSALS

We’re seeking chapter-length contributions to an edited volume on feminism and comics and graphic novels. Though all proposals relevant to either theme are welcome, we’re especially interested in contributions that:

• amplify the voices/stories of female, femme and non-binary cartoonists
• provide a more balanced critical reception of underrepresented voices and perspectives in comics and graphic novel studies
• broaden the established canon of “literary” comics and graphic novels to be more inclusive of diverse perspectives
• using comics and graphic novels as a means to teach, explain or enact intersectional feminism
• apply conceptual and theoretical insights from feminist criticism to the medium of comics
• participate in discourse about feminist narratology of graphic novels
• extend theories of feminist interpretation from art, design, literature, historiography, or other relevant disciplines to an interdisciplinary analysis of comics and graphic novels

Routledge has expressed some interest publishing the volume, so we intend this project to speak to a variety of scholarly audiences: researchers across a range of disciplines (including faculty and graduate students), feminist critics, and a well-educated general reader. We particularly prize those contributions that are highly original and accessible, while remaining intellectually rigorous.

Such contributions may:

• posit feminist criticism of “mainstream” comics (e.g. the “big two,” feminist readings of superheroes/heroines)
• provide original critical readings of work by women, femme and nonbinary cartoonists, particularly cartoonists from historically underrepresented groups
• propose critical interventions in reading comics that represent gender, sex and sexuality
• suggest theories of interpretation specific to representations gender, sex and sexuality in comics and illustration
• consider how visual media determine/dictate rhetorical choices in comics and graphic novels

Some questions contributors might consider as they frame their chapters could include:

• How do graphic novels and comics imagine gender with regard to agency, authority, and power?
• In what specific ways might feminist cartoonists either enact a corrective or revisionist approach to androcentric messaging in mainstream comics or provide a counternarrative in their own indie, underground, and community-specific comics?
• In what ways do cartoonists’ imaginings of the present, past and future work to intervene in dominant constructions of the ways gender determines the reception or meaning of visual narratives?

Contributors are asked to send chapter title, abstract (+/- 250 words), and CV by February 1, 2019 to Dr. Sandra Cox at scox@semo.edu. Questions may be directed to the same address.

Last updated October 29, 2018