Two quick posts today in an attempt to stay current. Here's the first:
2nd Global Conference: The Graphic Novel (September 2013: Oxford, United Kingdom)
Location: United Kingdom
Conference Date: 2013-09-23
Date Submitted: 2012-12-17
Announcement ID: 199598 (
at H-Announce)
2nd Global Conference
The Graphic Novel
Monday 23rd September – Wednesday 25th September 2013
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
Call for Presentations
“Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea… and ideas are bulletproof.”
(Alan Moore, V for Vendetta)
This inter- and multi-disciplinary conference aims to examine, explore
and critically engage with issues in and around the production, creation
and reading of all forms of comics and graphic novels. Taken as a form
of pictographic narrative it has been with us since the first cave
paintings and even in the 21st century remains a hugely popular, vibrant
and culturally relevant means of communication whether expressed as
sequential art, graphic literature, bandes dessinees, tebeos, fumetti,
manga, manhwa, komiks, strips, historietas, quadrinhos, beeldverhalen,
or just plain old comics. (as noted by Paul Gravett)
Whilst the form itself became established in the 19th Century it is
perhaps not until the 20th century that comic book heroes like Superman (who has been around since 1938) became, not just beloved characters,
but national icons. With the globalisation of publishing brands such as
Marvel and DC it is no accident that there has been an increase in
graphic novel adaptations and their associated merchandising. Movies
such as
X-men,
Iron man,
Watchmen and the recent
Thor have grossed
millions of dollars across the world and many television series have
been continued off-screen in the graphic form,
Buffy,
Firefly and
Farscape to name a few.
Of course America and Europe is not the only base of this art form and
the Far East and Japan have their own traditions as well as a huge
influence on graphic representations across the globe. In particular
Japanese manga has influenced comics in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong,
China, France and the United States, and have created an amazing array
of reflexive appropriations and re-appropriations, in not just in comics
but in anime as well.
Of equal importance in this growth and relevance of the graphic novel
are the smaller and independent publishers that have produced
influential works such as
Maus by Art Spiegleman,
Persepolis by Marjane
Satrapi,
Palestine by Joe Sacco,
Epileptic by David B and even
Jimmy
Corrigan by Chris Ware that explore, often on a personal level,
contemporary concerns such as gender, diaspora, post-colonialism,
sexuality, globalisation and approaches to health, terror and identity.
Further to this the techniques and styles of the graphic novel have
taken further form online creating entirely web-comics and hypertexts,
as in John Cei Douglas’
Lost and Found and Shelley Jackson’s
Patchwork
Girl, as well as forming part of larger trans-media narratives and
submersive worlds, as in the
True Blood franchise that invites fans to
enter and participate in constructing a narrative in many varied formats
and locations.
This projects invites papers that consider the place of the comic or
graphic novel in both history and location and the ways that it
appropriates and is appropriated by other media in the enactment of
individual, social and cultural identity.
Papers, reports, work-in-progress, workshops and pre-formed panels are
invited on issues related to (but not limited to) the following themes:
Just what makes a Graphic Novel so Graphic and so Novel?:
~Sources, early representations and historical contexts of the form.
~Landmarks in development, format and narratology.
~Cartoons, comics, graphic novels and artists books.
~Words, images, texture and colour and what makes a GN
~Format, layout, speech bubbles and “where the *@#% do we go from here?”
The Inner and Outer Worlds of the Graphic Novel:
~Outer and Inner spaces; Thoughts, cities, and galaxies and other representations of graphic place and space.
~ Differing temporalities, Chronotopes and “time flies”:
Intertextuality, editing and the nature of Graphic and/or Deleuzian time.
~ Graphic Superstars and Words versus Pictures: Alan Moore v Dave Gibbons (
Watchmen) Neil Gaiman v Jack Kirby (
Sandman).
~Performance and performativity of, in and around graphic representations.
~Transcriptions and translations: literature into pictures, films into novels and high/low graphic arts.
Identity, Meanings and Otherness:
~GN as autobiography, witnessing, diary and narrative
~Representations of disability, illness, coping and normality
~Cultural appropriations, east to west and globalisation
~National identity, cultural icons and stereo-typical villains
~Immigration, postcolonial and stories of exile
~Representing gender, sexualities and non-normative identities.
~Politics, prejudices and polemics: banned, censored and comix that are “just plain wrong”
~Other cultures, other voices, other words
To Infinity and Beyond: The Graphic Novel in the 21st Century:
~Fanzines and Slash-mags: individual identity through appropriation.
~Creator and Created: Interactions and interpolations between authors and audience.
~Hypertext, Multiple formats and inter-active narratives.
~Cross media appropriation, GN into film, gaming and merchandisng and vice versa
~Graphic Myths and visions of the future:
Sandman,
Hellboy,
Ghost in the Shell.
~Restarting the Canon: what are the implication of the restart in
universes such as Marcel and DC and do they represent the opportunity to
reopen ongoing conversations?
Presentations will be accepted which deal with related areas and themes.
What to Send:
300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 22nd March 2013. If an
abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be
submitted by Friday 21st June 2013. 300 word abstracts should be
submitted to the Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word,
WordPerfect, or RTF formats, following this order:
a) author(s), b) affiliation, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords
E-mails should be entitled: GN2 Abstract Submission
Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using any
special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or
underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals
submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should
assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace!
We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or
resend.
Organising Chairs
Nadine Farghaly:
Nadine.Farghaly@gmx.net
Rob Fisher:
gn2@inter-disciplinary.net
The conference is part of the Education Hub series of research projects,
which in turn belong to the At the Interface programmes of
Inter-Disciplinary.Net. It aims to bring together people from different
areas and interests to share ideas and explore discussions which are
innovative and challenging. All papers accepted for and presented at
this conference are eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected
papers may be invited to go forward for development into a themed ISBN
hard copy volume or volumes.
For further details of the conference, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/the-graphic-novel/call-for-papers/.
Please note: Inter-Disciplinary.Net is a not-for-profit network and we
are not in a position to be able to assist with conference travel or
subsistence.
Priory House
149B Wroslyn Road
Freeland, Oxfordshire OX29 8HR
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)1993 882087
Fax: +44 (0)870 4601132
Email:
gn2@inter-disciplinary.net
Visit the website at
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/the-graphic-novel/call-for-papers/
Another entry--lamentable again, I'm afraid--in the new line of Justice League products:
DC has begun to extend the Justice League franchise into alternate media, including a new ongoing series of children's books, of which the following is the first. Sadly. its not the best translation from the comics page:
Here's an older book (now out of print), but it finishes off the trinity of DC super stars for now. Unfortunately, it is extremely divergent from DC canon.
Occurring off page, the book opens with the murder of young Bruce Wayne’s parents, and, according to Puckett’s narrative, the boy becomes afraid of the night following their deaths.
