On May 20th-22nd, UF will be hosting its 18th annual Conference on Comics and Graphic Novels, “Exploring the In-Betweens: Comics in Flux,” in an online format.
Friday, May 20th
6:00 Keynote: Desire Without End: On the Queer Imagination of Sequential Art, a Conversation with Ramzi Fawaz Moderated by Margaret Galvan
Ramzi Fawaz is Romnes Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of The New Mutants: Superheroes and the Radical Imagination of American Comics (NYU Press, 2016), which won the ASAP Book Prize. His second book, Queer Forms is forthcoming from NYU Press in September 2022. With Darieck Scott, he co-edited the American Literature special issue “Queer About Comics” (2018), named best special issue of the year by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. He is also the co-editor of Keywords for Comics Studies (NYU Press,2021), with Deborah E. Whaley and Shelley Streeby.
Saturday, May 21st
10:00 Historicity and Ideology Moderated by Logan Schell
The Amazing Disappearing Act: Female Representation and Comic Censorship, 1940 to 1970 – Viola Burlew, University of Colorado Captain Marvel, A Child and Yet a Man: Transitions to Adulthood in Golden Age Comics – Matthew D. Reese Comics Confront the Atomic Bomb – James Willetts, University of Colorado
11:40 Adaptation and Intertextuality
“After all, I’m just a peasant dog!”: Chronicling the graphic veneration of Karna in Rik Hoskin’s Karna: Victory in Death
– Rashmi Sharma, Panjab University
Treasure Hunt through the Uncanny Tunnel: A Retrospective Analysis of The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel
– Zakeya Sultana, North Dakota State University
In between the genres: discovering Joyce in Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home
– Francesco Lupatelli, University of Perugia
1:20-2:20 Lunch Break
2:30 Death, Wellness, and Liminal Spaces in Comics Moderated by Emily Hunsaker
“It is Big and Empty Here”: The Ocean as a Liminal Space in Graphic Narratives
– Amrutha Mohan, S.N. College, University of Kerala
“I’m not sick but I’m not well…”: Exploring the In-Betweenness of Eating Disorders Through Comics
– Tom Hey, Lancaster University
The defeat of death parallel to the constant passage of time in Akira Toriyama’s Dragon ball
– Petros Tsakaliadis Sotirakoglou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
4:10 Monsters, Gothic, and Comics Moderated by Lillian Marie Martinez
Hyde-ing in Plain Sight: Monstrous Masculinity in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
– Logan Schell, University of Florida
“Shapes Disastrous”: The Old World Register and American Gothic Identity
– Matt Crotts
5:40 Break
6:00 Keynote: Rob Sheridan
Rob Sheridan is an art director, writer, designer, illustrator, photographer, director, and editor, among other things. He is the writer/ creator of High Level, an original sci-fi adventure graphic novel published on DC/Vertigo, and he co-produced an original soundtrack album for the book with a limited vinyl release. He is co-founder (along with his wife Stephanie) and CCO of glitch goods, a fashion lifestyle brand featuring his original glitch art and designs. He regularly creates experimental projects on social media that explore new technologies and new ways of communicating: VIIR is a cosmic horror alternate reality story incorporating imagery created entirely by the latest A.I. text-to-image technology; and A Path Unknown is a science fiction choose-your-own-adventure story driven by Twitter polls, where the readers affect the direction of the narrative. He was the creative director for Nine Inch Nails and Trent Reznor for 15 years, defining the band’s distinct visual identity and creating award-winning package designs, stage productions, media campaigns, music videos, and more.
Sunday, May 22nd
10:00 Comics on and Off the Page: Pedagogy and Practice
Slavery in flux: Comics cartographies and the (in)visible enslaved other
– Kremena Dimitrova, University of Portsmouth
Comics in the Museum: Migrating from Page to Space
– Catherine Labio, University of Colorado Boulder
From Digital Display to Printed Page: An exploration of the use of digital comic adaptations and hybridisations in print comic formats
– Daniel Goodbrey, University of Hertfordshire
Children’s Art and Narrative World Building: What Grown-ups Can Learn
– Joshua Duncan
12:00-1:00 Lunch Break
1:00 Trauma, Parenting, and Childhood: How Comics address the Un-Addressable Moderated by Erika Rothberg
“Innocence Lost”: Unplanned pregnancy, child abuse, and survival through brutality in Halim Mahmoudi’s graphic novel Little Mama
– Debadrita Saha, Presidency University
Disposable Bodies: Memory, Mutation, and Monstrousness in Nimona and The Witch Boy
– Catharine Kane
The Liminality of Sexual Assault Recovery: Julia Lepetit’s The Matador
– Karen Libby, University of Florida
Motherhood as Crisis: Women Comics Creators Confront Identities in Flux
– Amaris Feland Ketcham and Nora Hickey
3:10 Queer Representation in Comics Moderated by Elijah Drzata
b.b. free and the Radical Possibilities of QTBIPOC Comics
– emerson l.r. barrett, Oregon State University
“We Have Such Sights to Show You:” The Queer Multiverse of Clive Barker’s Marvel Comic Books
– Spencer Chalifour, University of Florida
Venus Envy: Trans Webcomics Before the “Tipping Point”
– Fi Stewart-Taylor, University of Florida
4:40 Break
5:00 Keynote: Sequential Artists Workshop
The Sequential Artists Workshop is a 501 (c)3 non-profit grassroots comics school and creative community. SAW teaches people how to tell stories and make comics in Gainesville, Florida, USA, and around the world via online courses and resources. In 2011, acclaimed indie cartoonist Tom Hart founded SAW to help aspiring cartoonists from all backgrounds, identities, and walks of life to make great comics. SAW’s Comics Intensive is high-quality, very affordable alternative to expensive art schools. In addition to an enthusiastic, supportive community of artists, resources at SAW’s headquarters in Gainesville, FL include studio space, a well-stocked comics reference library, printing materials, access to exhibition spaces and first-rate instructors armed with knowledge, talent, experience and generosity of spirit. SAW brings celebrated cartoonists from around the world to Gainesville to lecture, teach workshops, and exhibit their work. SAW hosts art shows, draw jams, talks, and other events, helping to make Gainesville a vibrant oasis of creativity in the region.
Interactive Program is available here: 2022 Comics in Flux