The Graphic Novel
Friday 7th September 2012 – Sunday 9th September 2012
Mansfield College, Oxford, United Kingdom
"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
Call for Papers:
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.
Papers can be accepted which deal solely with
Graphic Novels. This
project will run concurrently with our project on
Fear, Horror and
Terror – we welcome any papers considering the
problems or addressing
issues on Fear, Horror and Terror and Graphic
Novels for a cross-over
panel. We also welcome pre-formed panels on any
aspect of the Graphic
Novel or in relation to crossover panel(s).
Papers will be accepted which deal with related
areas and themes. 300
word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 16th
March 2012. If an
abstract is accepted for the conference, a full
draft paper should be
submitted by Friday 22nd June 2012. 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: GN1 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
Paris-Lodron University, Salzburg,
Austria
E-mail: Nadine.Farghaly@gmx.net
Rob Fisher
Network Leader
Inter-Disciplinary.Net,
Freeland, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
E-Mail: gn1@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 project, please visit:
http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/education/the-graphic-
novel/
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.
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