I write this on what is the traditional land of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nations. I was introduced to comic books by my father and brother. Comic books are a traditionally male-dominated sphere and women trying to enter into this sphere experience misogyny, gate-keeping, bias and gendered microaggressions; I know this because I…
Comics Academe: 7th Anniversary Retrospective
The first Comics Academe was published 7 years ago yesterday, on January 28th, 2014. Francesca Lyn was at the time a second-year doctoral student in the Media, Art, and Text program at Virginia Commonwealth University, and has since then graduated and become a well-known figure in comics studies and a mentor to other graduate students…
Comics Academe: 2020 in Review
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…
