CFP: MAD Magazine and Its Legacies / Studies in American Humor (October 1)

As currently posted on the Studies in American Humor website.

 

Call for Papers: 

MAD Magazine and Its Legacies

Special issue of Studies in American Humor 

Fall 2014

Since 1952, MAD Magazine has regaled humor lovers and inspired humor producers in many media. Studies in American Humor, the journal of the American Humor Studies Association, invites submission of scholarly papers devoted to MAD Magazine and its legacies for a special issue of the journal appearing in the fall of 2014, co-edited by John Bird (Winthrop University) and Judith Yaross Lee (Ohio University).

Topics might include, but are not limited to:

• humor, verbal and/or visual
• subversive humor
• satire (as technique, analysis of individual examples or themes, etc.)
• parody (as technique, analysis of individual examples or themes, etc.)
• individual artists and writers
• regular and occasional features
• one or mode recurrent themes (politics, technology, parenthood, suburbia)
• cultural impact and legacies
• influence, general and specific (including direct influence on individuals and genres)
• reception

Potential contributors should send queries and abstracts (500-750 words) by October 1, 2013 or complete manuscripts by June 1, 2014. Email queries and abstracts to studiesinamericanhumor@ohio.edu.

General information on Studies in American Humor and submission guidelines are available at http://studiesinamericanhumor.org/.

CFP: Backroom Business: The Production of Periodicals / Netherlands (October 1)

As posted on SHARP-L

Call for Papers

Backroom Business:
The Production of Periodicals

10-11 April 2014
Radboud University
Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Proposals deadline: October 1, 2013

This conference seeks to explore every aspect related to the production of European periodicals, from the early eighteenth century to the present day. Papers could address issues of financing, sponsoring, editing, designing, advertising, printing and digitization. We are for instance interested in what Barbara Onslow called the “back-room workers”: the printers, typesetters, engravers and illustrators who are often invisible in periodical histories. We invite scholars to send in proposals for 15 to 20 minute talks on the above themes, both dealing with individual magazines and discussing wider trends, such as the evolutions in the production of periodicals. We especially look for papers that reach beyond national borders and challenge traditional literary-historical boundaries. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Editors and editing
• Financing and sponsoring
• Printing and digitization practices
• Photography, illustrations, and advertising
• Periodicals as producers of culture

Please send a 250 word proposal for a 15 to 20 minute presentation by October 1 to the conference organizers at esprit@let.ru.nl. A selection of papers will be published in a special issue of the future ESPRit e-journal.

CFP: Comic Continuations and Adaptations / collection (Sept. 1)

As posted on H-Net

Call for Papers:

Comic Continuations

and Adaptations

Although multi-media tie-ins to television series are not a new phenomenon, there has recently been an upswing in the number of continuations and adaptations in comic book form of science-fiction and fantasy television shows. Joss Whedon, for example, has authored and authorized graphic novels continuing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Firefly. The Sci-Fi channel’s Farscape has a series continuation beginning just after the end of the mini-series The Peacekeeper Wars. The CW’s Smallville has similarly moved to comic books, picking up where the series ended. Patricia Briggs’ popular urban fantasy novel series featuring Mercy Thompson is augmented by the graphic novel Mercy Thompson: Homecoming (2009).

We invite submissions on comic-book and graphic-novel continuations and adaptations of works in other genres, particularly television, film, and novel, for a multi-contributor essay collection.

The following categories suggest possibilities but are by no means exhaustive:

• Fandom and/or Reception
• Transformation and/or Adaptation
• Visual media
• Televisual vs. Print Media
• Gender
• Race
• Sexuality
• Romance
• Desire
• Domesticity
• Power
• Monstrosity
• Hybridity
• Heroism
• Villainy
• Memory

What to Send:

300 - 500 word abstracts (or complete articles, if available) and CVs should be submitted by September 1, 2013. If an abstract is accepted for the collection, a full draft of the essay (5000 – 8000 words) will be required by March 1, 2013. Please include "Comic Continuations: Submission" in the subject line.

Abstracts and final articles should be submitted to:
Margo Collins: m.bond-collins@snhu.edu
Nadine Farghaly: nadine.farghaly@gmx.net

CFP: The Ethics of War and Conflict in Graphic Narratives / session; Netherlands (October 1; April 3-4)

As posted on COMIXSCHOLARS-L

 

Call for Papers:

The Ethics of War and Conflict

in Graphic Narratives

European Association for

American Studies (EAAS)

The Hague, Netherlands

April 3-6 2014

This session seeks papers by Americanists from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds who are interested in the ways that graphic narratives address the ethical dimensions of war and conflict. We are using the term “graphic narrative” (cf. Chute and deKoven) here to refer to a variety of genres in comic book format because it usefully covers comic strips, superhero comics, graphic reportage, autobiographical comics, etc. From the human rights reportage of Joe Sacco to the graphic memoirs of Art Spiegelman and Keiji Nakazawa, from the rhetorics of justice that structure superhero comics to the ways that culture wars get framed through political cartooning, all forms of comics art both reflect and participate in the production of various ethical considerations. These ethical considerations include but are not limited to: discourses of justice, recognition, and human rights; the politics of spectatorship and emotion; the costs of war on both the private level and in the public realm; the politics of nationalism, citizenship, and belonging; the construction of masculinity/femininity in the context of war; racial and ethnic stereotyping in war-related comics.

Proposals for this session can address any form of the comics medium from any time period and can also focus on non-American comics, although proposals must demonstrate how the topic comments or frames “America” in some way. We are particularly interested in papers that examine the links between comics ethics and comics form, the way the form itself (frames, gutters, drawing style, sequential effects, the interaction between words and images, the connections between drawing and photography etc.) has the potential to speak to larger ethical considerations. In addition, we are also particularly interested in papers that contextualize comics by using critical and cultural theory.

Papers can address the following, but we are also open to other, related research questions as well:

• How do particular graphic narratives frame issues of war and conflict, and in turn how do these frames shape images of America?
• How has the medium of comics been used as a tool for political propaganda during states of war and conflict?
• Are there particular aspects of the medium itself that speak in unique ways to the ethics of war, justice, and/or conflict? To related issues of trauma, witnessing, and spectatorship?
• How do particular graphic narratives contribute to American public culture’s ideas of human rights, justice, citizenship, and/or recognition?
• How might various cultural theories help us understand the links between comics, ethics, and images of America?

Note: Speakers must be members of their national Association for American Studies if there exists one in their home country. Speakers from Canada, Israel, Japan, and the USA must be members of their respective American Studies Associations, or of another organization with an appropriate focus (OAH, APSA, etc.).

All presentations will be 20-minutes. The conference allows for up to 2 sessions with 3-4 speakers in each session. We can therefore accept up to 8 papers.

Please send an abstract between 300 and 500 words by October 1st to the workshop chairs:
Rebecca Scherr: rebecca.scherr@ilos.uio.no  
Mihaela Precup: mihaela.precup@americanstudies.ro

CFP: Pulp Magazine Studies Area / PCA/ACA conference (Nov 1; Apr 16-19)

Call for Proposals

Pulp Magazine Studies Area

Popular Culture/American Culture Association

National Conference

Chicago, IL

April 16-19, 2014

 

Pulp magazines were a series of mostly English-language, predominantly American, magazines printed on rough pulp paper.  They were often illustrated with highly stylized, full-page cover art and numerous line art illustrations of the fictional content.  They were sold for modest sums, and were targeted at (sometimes specialized) readerships of popular literature, such as western and adventure, detective, fantastic (including the evolving genres of science fiction, fantasy, and horror), romance and sports fiction. The first pulp Argosy, began life as the children’s magazine The Golden Argosy, dated Dec 2, 1882 and the last of the “original” pulps was Ranch Romances and Adventures, Nov. 1971.

 

The Pulp Studies area exists to support the academic study of pulp writers, editors, readers, and culture.  It seeks to invigorate research by bringing together scholars from diverse areas including romance, western, science fiction, fantasy, horror, adventure, detective, and more.  Finally, the Pulp Studies area seeks to promote the preservation of the pulps through communication with libraries, museums, and collectors.

 

With this in mind, we are calling for papers and panels that discuss the pulps and their legacy.  Suggested authors and topics:

• Magazines:  Amazing Stories, Weird Tales, Wonder Stories, Fight Stories, All-Story, Argosy, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Spicy Detective, Ranch Romances and Adventures, Oriental Stories/Magic Carpet Magazine, Love Story, Flying Aces, Black Mask, and Unknown, to name a few.
• Editors and Owners:  Street and Smith (Astounding), Munsey (Argosy), Farnsworth Wright (Weird Tales), Hugo Gernsback (Amazing Stories), Mencken and Nathan (Black Mask), John Campbell (Astounding).
• Influential Writers:  H.P. Lovecraft, A. E. Merritt, Robert E. Howard, C. L. Moore, Fritz Leiber, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Donald Wandrei, Clark Ashton Smith, and Henry Kuttner. 
• Influences on Pulp Writers:  Robert Bloch, H. Rider Haggard, Arthur Conan Doyle, Jack London, and Edgar Rice Burroughs were all influences, along with literary and philosophical figures such as Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edgar Allen Poe, and Herbert Spencer.
• Popular Characters:  Conan of Cimmeria; Bulldog Drummond; Doc Savage; Solomon Kane; Buck Rogers; The Domino Lady; Jiril of Jiory; Zorro; El Borak; The Shadow; The Spider; Nick Carter; The Avenger; and Captain Future, among others.  Also character types: the femme fatale, the he-man, the trickster, racism and villainy (such as Charles Middleton’s Ming the Merciless), and more.
• Artists:  Popular cover artists including Margaret Brundage (Weird Tales), Frank R. Paul (Amazing Stories), Virgil Finlay (Weird Tales), and Edd Cartier (The Shadow, Astounding).
• Theme and Styles:  Masculinity, femininity, and sex as related to the heroic in the pulps; the savage as hero, the woman as hero, the trickster as hero, etc.
• Film, Television and Graphic Arts:  Pulps in film, television, comics, graphic novels and other forms are especially encouraged.
• Cyberculture:  Cyberpulps such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies and pulp-influenced games such as the Age of Conan MMORPG or the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
• International Pulp Fiction:  During the interwar period and after WWII American-style pulp fiction inspired native pulp traditions in Australia, Britain, and continental Europe.  Submissions covering pulp magazines, paperbacks, and writers in languages other than English are especially encouraged.

These are but suggestions for potential panels and presentations.  Proposals on other topics are welcome.

 

For general information on the Pulp Studies area, please visit our website:  http://pulpstudies.weebly.com/

 

Final Submission Deadline: November 1, 2013

 

How to Submit Proposals:  Submit proposals through the following website:  http://ncp.pcaaca.org/

Note:  Only papers submitted through the website will appear in the conference program.  If you have any questions, please contact the Pulp Studies area coordinators:

 

Justin Everett - University of the Sciences - j.everet@usciences.edu

Jeffrey Shanks - Southeast Archaeological Center - jeffrey_shanks@nps.gov

CFP: Italian Science Fiction / journal issue (September 30)

Call for Papers

Italian Science Fiction

Science-Fiction Studies Special Issue

Science-Fiction Studies* is gathering scholarly essays for a special issue on Italian Science Fiction. The projected publication date is 2015.  Articles on this topic that would be of interest include the following themes or approaches:

• analysis and discussion of important works of Italian SF (novels, short stories, film, comics, magazines, t.v. series, on-line journals, in the academy, etc.)
• profiles of important Italian SF writers
• works of SF written by authors who are considered part of the literary mainstream (e.g. Buzzati, Landolfi, Levi, Morselli, etc.)
• the critical debate around SF in Italian culture and the academy
• the socio-cultural impact of science fiction’s visions in Italy

Articles should be written in English, should be between 8,000 and 13,000 words (including endnotes and bibliography), and include a comprehensive bibliography. Authors should follow Science-Fiction Studies’s formatting guidelines (see below **).

Abstracts (max. 500 words) are due on or by September 30, 2013. They should be sent via email as an MS Word attachment, or included within the body of the email to Arielle Saiber (asaiber@bowdoin.edu) and Umberto Rossi (teacher@fastwebnet.it). 

If your proposal is accepted, you will receive a message no later than October 20. We will then need the complete article by May 31, 2014. All submitted articles will be sent for peer-review; final acceptance will be based on reviewer reports and those of the special issue’s editors.

* For information about Science Fiction Studies see http://www.jstor.org/page/journal/sciefictstud/about.html  and http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/

** Guidelines for formatting the article: http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/masthead.htm?47,34

CFP: The Comics of Hergé / essay collection (Jan. 1, 2014)

As posted on the Comics Scholars' list...

 

Call for Papers

The Comics of Hergé

The Comics of Hergé is a proposed volume in a new book series, Critical Approaches to Comics Artists, at the University Press of Mississippi. This volume will contain 12-16 new critical essays on Hergé, ranging from his work in advertising, illustrations for others' writings, and comics to film and television adaptations of his work. Essays from many disciplinary perspectives are welcome, including critical approaches from comics studies, art history, cultural studies, religious and ethical studies, literary studies, linguistics, history, political science, gender theory, postcolonial studies, and adaptation theory.

Essays (in English) might address the following questions:

• What important connections can be made between Hergé's non-comics work—for example, his illustrations for Léon Degrelle and his work in advertising—and the work for which he became famous?
• Although analysis of Hergé's work has focused almost exclusively on Tintin, how would our understanding of his masterpiece benefit from better attention to his lesser-known comics? How has the previous focus on Tintin denied important insights on these works?
• How did Hergé's growing interest in modern art change the work he did in comics?
• How has Hergé's ligne claire influenced or been challenged by subsequent artists, including those with whom he worked over his long career?
• How do Hergé's ideas of eastern religions come through in his interviews and/or art? To what extent were these ideas accurate, and how do those ideas illuminate other aspects of his life and art?
• To what extent does Tintin's nationality, increasingly obscured over the course of the series, matter? To what extent does his status as a citizen of Brussels signify in the ongoing internal tensions of Belgium?
• Some important comics creators—such as Edgar Jacobs and Jacques Van Melkebeke—benefitted from and have been overshadowed by Hergé. What new research can shed light on Hergé’s relationship with these creators and how that relationship affected comics?
• How does Hergé obscure sexual desire in his works, and where does it appear despite his efforts? Is there a difference between his treatment of desire in his works for different audiences?
• What other absences does Hergé enforce in his comics, and to what effect?
• Numa Sadoul’s book of interviews with Hergé—interviews Hergé edited before they saw print—remains pivotal to the study of Hergé long after its publication. What arguments, revisions, insights, expansions, or even corrections are now necessary?
• Other topics are also very welcome.

Please send a 500-word abstract along with CV and contact information to Joe Sutliff Sanders at joess@k-state.edu by January 1, 2014.