To close out 2020, Comics Academe asked contributors to write about the conferences, articles, and books that had the biggest impact on them. They attended virtual conferences and comic cons and read, wrote, and were recognized for groundbreaking work in and around comics studies.
REVIEW: Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel: Militarism and Feminism in Comics and Film
Higher. Faster. Further. More. Captain Marvel and Wonder Woman are icons in comics. Advertised as inspiration for girls and women. Except, sometimes, for me, but I could never articulate why. They both protected people who couldn’t protect themselves. Each is confident and fully realized. They are adult women. It was something… else. And Carloyn Cocca…
I Draw (A Graphic Dissertation), Comics as Method and Holding Environment
Last week, in “I Draw (A Graphic Dissertation), Therefore I Am,” I wrote about how I got to drawing my dissertation, drawing comics as scholarship, and about comics as a way to think. Building on that, this week I want to start with the concept of “holding environments” (term originally coined by Donald Woods Winnicott…
I Draw (A Graphic Dissertation), Therefore I Am
[Editors’ note: In part one of a two-part essay, Ph.D. candidate Kay Sohini writes about drawing a graphic dissertation, comics as scholarship, and comics as thinking. In part two, coming next week, Sohini builds on what she’s written here as she writes about comics as literary affordances and holding environments, key ideas in her graphic…
Reimagining the Personification of Death in Popular Culture
When people learn that I am studying death and comics they will invariably ask if I mean the grim reaper. Usually I say no, because that’s not at all what I’m doing, but sometimes I say yes, just to see where the conversation will go, to find out what they know about the thing that…
ComicCon@Home Teaching With Comics Panels Roundup
Hello! You may have noticed that there was not a Comics Academe this month, and that was because we elected to save this spot to review the Comics Studies and comics education panels at SDCC’s Comic Con @ Home. Well…some of them.
The Making of “The Blue Age of Comic Books”
Two years ago, I was presenting original research at the first annual Comics Studies Society conference. A week after that, I wrote my first WWAC article, in which I wrote about the paper I gave, “The Blue Age of Comic Books,” linking to an early version still (and for the foreseeable future) available online. A…
Community Spaces, Alternative Marketplaces: Indie Comics and Culture
Over the last decade, the growth of independent, “indie,” or creator-owned comics has broadened the comic book landscape and birthed a new wave of creators who aren’t adhering to conventional standards. The demand for non-superhero material from publishers outside of the Big Two (Marvel and DC) has empowered creators to carve out their own space…
#WomenOnPanels, One Year Later
Editors Note: Comics Academe is back for 2020! In 2019 we published 15 articles, the majority of which were essays and reviews from scholars from different disciplines, some which are traditionally excluded from comics studies annotated bibliographies, such as Spanish Language Instruction, and Archaeology. But nearly one-third of which were interviews with people who would…
Ladies-in-Waiting (Las meninas) Is a Docu-Drama about Murder, Ambition, Deceit, and Palace Intrigue
As a Spanish professor with an affinity for comics and graphic novels, I am known to make time to peruse the comic book stores whenever I get to Spain. But I also have a special affinity for the great masters of art, and so I also make sure I have time to visit El Prado…
Curating “Ladies First”: An Interview with Caitlin McGurk and Rachel Miller
The impact of comics and cartoon art made by women is often lessened or missing altogether from historical narratives, and Caitlin McGurk and Rachel Miller are out to set the record straight. Together they have curated a new exhibit at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum titled Ladies First: A Century of Women’s Innovations…
Unlikely Superhero: Margaret Atwood’s Angel Catbird
In 2016, before the first volume of the three-part graphic novel by world renowned Canadian author Margaret Atwood was released, a lot of interviews with her flooded comics news websites, as well as the literary subsections of major newspapers. Mike Richardson described it: “a bold and unforgettable new character, paying homage to both classic pulp…
