Another CFP

Again, I'm not affiliated with this collection, just sharing the wealth:

Over the course of the past two years, there has been a marked increase of academic interest in comic books and graphic novels, from a cultural theory perspective as well as from the fields of media studies and literature. However, there have been surprisingly few book-length studies on this topic published from any of these disciplinary perspectives. Hence, while Scott McCloud’s groundbreaking book Understanding Comics raised public and academic interest in this under- theorized and challenging medium, and helped to theorize the medium-specific qualities of sequential pictorial narratives, his book suspends the question of how specific disciplinary perspectives might be engaged.

This new interdisciplinary collection will bring together the work of scholars writing about comic books and graphic novels. Our collection of essays from a wide selection of academic perspectives will not only demonstrate the far-reaching influence of this exciting medium across disciplines, but it will also make this still-controversial subject accessible to a wider scholarly audience of teachers and students alike. Abstracts (1000 words) are welcome for but not limited to the following proposed chapters:

1: Origin stories: The history and development of the genre
2: What we talk about when we talk about comics: Theory and terminology
3: ‘Out of the gutter’: Graphic novel adaptations
4: Men in tights?: Superheroes in the graphic novel
5: Drawing history: Non-fiction in graphic novels

Please submit abstracts and/or full-length papers (±5000 words) no later than 15 Febuary 2008 to:

Dan Hassler-Forest
University of Amsterdam
Dep. Media Studies
Turfdraagsterpad 9
1012 XT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
d.a.hassler-forest_at_uva.nl

Dr. Joyce Goggin
University of Amsterdam
Dep. English Literature
Spuistraat 210
1012 VT Amsterdam
The Netherlands
j.goggin_at_uva.nl

I found this CFP by the way at http://cfp.english.upenn.edu/archive/20th/3305.html and if you hit that link and go back to their main page they have all kinds of English-related CFPs, which I thought you might dig, Chad.

Call for Papers on Chris Ware

Keep in mind that I am not at all affiliated with this CFP; I'm just sharing a message I received.

Call for submissions for _The Cult of Difficulty: Critical Approaches to the Comics of Chris Ware_, edited by Dave Ball, Dickinson College, and Martha Kuhlman, Bryant University.

_The Cult of Difficulty_ is a proposed collection of essays on the work of Chicago-based contemporary graphic novelist/comic book artist/cartoonist Chris Ware. Author of _Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth_ (2000, winner of the 2001 Guardian First Book Award), _Quimby the Mouse_ (2003), and _The Acme Novelty Library_ (2005), Ware has quickly emerged as one of the central figures in contemporary comics. We are currently seeking abstracts for 20- to 25-page articles that analyze Ware’s work, with particular interest in multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to his oeuvre. A university press has already expressed interest in this collection, and we are hoping to build upon the MLA panel on Ware’s comics this past December.

Essays that address the following questions are especially encouraged, but other topics are also welcome:

-- How do Ware’s texts raise questions about representations of race, gender, class, and disability? In particular we are eager to receive analyses of _Jimmy Corrigan_ and _Acme Novelty Library_ that engage with these topics.

-- How has Ware’s work as an editor, anthologist, and collector shaped the landscape of contemporary comics and informed his own corpus?

-- In what ways are questions of narrative and temporality engaged and complicated in Ware's texts? What insights do narratological and semiotic approaches offer to a reading of Ware’s comics?

-- How does Ware's work intersect with advertising culture, web sites, media, and packaging?

-- What is Ware's relationship to the literary canon (both in terms of graphic and conventional literature) and how does he re-imagine our relationship to the idea of literariness?

Please send 500-1000 word abstracts (or completed articles), c.v., and contact information in Word format to warecollection@gmail.com by March 10th.

Papers from a diversity of disciplinary orientations and methodological approaches are especially encouraged.

You may also contact Martha Kuhlman if you have questions: mkuhlman@bryant.edu

Two CFPs

I'll be posting, once Chad finishes up his exploration of cosmic comics done by Marvel, about the two conferences I attended in October. At both conferences I presented on comics to two very different crowds, and I'll tell you all about what I said and what I learned very soon.

For now I wanted to share some info about two upcoming conferences which I might be attending in the spring, for the purpose of... well, letting Chad know to see if he wanted to submit anything to one or both of them as well.

The first conference is held in conjunction with Wondercon in San Francisco during the last weekend of February. Their website is woefully out of date, since it doesn't even mention this year's conference at San Francisco, only last year's at San Diego. But I'm told by the coordinator, Peter Coogan, that the deadline for submissions is the end of November. If you want more info I can forward his email on to you; just let me know.

The other is held annually in Gainesville, Florida, and it focuses on a different theme each year. In past years it dealt with images of childhood in comics and world-building. This year the focus is on gender, sex, and sexuality. The conference is Easter weekend, March 21-22 2008, and the deadline for submissions is December 1st. For more info, check out this call for papers.

I've already submitted a paper to the one in SF, and I am currently trying to decide about the one in Gainesville, although I'm leaning towards going. More details on the abstracts I submitted (and whether or not they were accepted) in a future post.

(What do you think, Chad? Any interest?)