San Diego, California
1. Defining Comics, Again?!”
Thursday, July 12 2:00-3:00 Room 7A
Often the debate over the definition of comics encompasses four assertions: comics as art, comics as literature, comics as communication, and comics as language. Communications professor Randy Duncan (Henderson State University), English professor Charles Hatfield (University of California at Riverside), art professor David Stoddard (Henderson State University), and linguist Neil Cohn (We the People: A Call to Take Back America) discuss the disciplinary dynamics of these various positions through which the comics medium is studied, and how each category carries particular cultural expectations, perceptions, and limitations.
2. Literary Archeology and Parascholarship
Thursday, July 22 3:00-4:00 Room 7A
Contributors to Creative Mythography: An Expansion of Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe, editor Win Eckert, Pete Coogan (Fontbonne University), and Wold-Newton scholar Chuck Loridans explain the literary archeology of works of parascholarship like Farmer’s hoax biography Tarzan Alive, Mark Gruenwald’s prozine Omniverse, and James Sturm’s Unstable Molecules. They discuss the theory and methodology of parascholarship and trace the composition of an article from their forthcoming book. Sociologist Clyde McDaniel (University of North Carolina, Wilmington) responds.
3. From Greeks to Geeks: Feminist Mythologies in the Comics
Thursday, July 22 4:00-5:00 Room 7A
Pioneering scholar in women’s studies and feminist criticism, Lillian Robinson (Concordia University, Montréal), author of Wonder Women: Feminisms and Superheroes looks at wonder women—Supergirl, Invisible Girl, Invisible Woman, She Hulk—and examines what these cartoon heroines mean for everyday life. Can you balance a home, career, and the struggle for justice? What about men? Does flying help? Drawing upon her long career as a formidable feminist critic yet wearing her knowledge lightly, Lillian Robinson finds the essence of wonder women in our non-animated three-dimensional world.
4. The Superhero in the Popular Culture: A Q&A Panel”
Friday, July 23 10:30-11:30 Room 7A
Contributors to The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes” Gina Misiroglu, Andy Mangels, and Adam McGovern, discuss the evolution of the superhero, the modern superhero, the strong heroine model, the gay hero, the non-mainstream hero, and multiculturalism in hero lore. These topics are framed around an overarching presentation of how the hero is a reflection of the popular culture, and how the popular culture has (and has not) served the hero over time.
5. Crossing Boundaries and Mixing Categories
Friday, July 23 12:30-2:00 Room 7A
Dave Sim on Guys
Anita McDaniel (University of North Carolina, Wilmington)
E is for Evolution: Grant Morrison's The Invisibles and The New X-Men.
Christopher Fan & Ashur Aiwase (Cornell University)
How Arkham Asylum Took Over the World.
Kathleen McClancy (Duke University)
The Evolution of Chemistry in Popular Culture: The Changing Role of Chemistry in the Origin of Superheroes.
Matthew Poslusny (University of Charleston)
6. Superman on the Couch
Friday, July 23 2:00-3:00 Room 7A
Danny Fingeroth (Write Now!, Spider-Man) presents a chapter from his insightful new book, Superman on the Couch, an original exploration of the reasons why the superhero is such a potent myth figure for our times. In this second summer of Spider-Mania, the adolescent's role in the superhero myth is more relevant than ever. In his chapter entitled "Changing Voices: from Robin to Spider-Man," Fingeroth explores the evolution of the teenager in superhero stories (in comics, film and television), from sidekick to headliner, and discusses what this tells us about how our society views the role of the adolescent.
7. The Comics of Comics: The Page, Interactivity, and Metacognivity
Saturday, July 24 10:30-12:00 Room 7A
Cellular Units: The Panel and the Shot
Benjamin Woo, Simon Fraser University
The Union of Text and Image
Neil Cohn, We the People: A Call to Take Back America
Pale Ink and Guqin: An Interactive Comic Book
Shuen-git Natasha Chow, Teo Kheng Chong, Etienne Durand
The Use of Sequential Art in Literacy Instruction.
Emilio Soltero, University of California, Davis
8. Spiritual Subtexts
Saturday, July 24 12:00-1:00 Room 7A
Christianity and Paganism in the Presentation of Resurrection Imagery.
Penny Shreve, Chaffey College
Ideomachia and the Socio-Historical Work of Allegory in Promethea.
Nicholas R. Eliopulos, University of Florida Press
The Marvel Age as Romantic Age.
John Walsh, Indiana University
9. Gendering Comics
Saturday, July 24 1:00-2:00 Room 7A
A Bit of a Queer Feeling: Drag, Performance and Gender Identity in Alan Moore’s Work
Chris Eklund, Purdue University
Heroes Wear Tights: A Look at Transgendered Characters in Comic Books
Justin Hall, All Thumbs Press
The Male Adolescent and the Transformation into the Hero
David James Cordes, California Baptist University
10. Social Commentary in Comics
Sunday, July 25 10:30-12:00 Room 7A
Peanuts and the Re-visioning of the Comic Strip Child
Charles Hatfield, California State University, Northridge
American Politics in Japanese Comics: Eagle and First President of Japan
Mikhail Koulikov, Anime News Network
Atomic Books: ‘One World or None’ as Rhetorical Narrative
Eric Holmes, University of South Dakota
Mobile Suit Gundam: Japanese Popular Culture Refights World War II
William Ashbaugh, SUNY Oneonta
11. The Modern and Modernizing Superhero
Sunday, July 25 12:00-1:00 Room 7A
The Adventures of Suburb Man: Superheroes and the Cultural Politics of Domestic Containment
Aldo J. Regalado ,University of Miami
Bright Lights, Dark City: Urban Dystopia in American Modernism and Superhero Comics
Alex Boney, Ohio State University
Women Superheroes in Comic Books: Changing Images and Women’s Liberation
Tom Schilz San Diego Miramar College
12. Freedom, Dissent, and Censorship
Sunday, July 25 1:00-2:00 Room 7A
Different Forms of Censorship in Manga: An American-German Comparison
Silke Niehusmann University of London
Triumph of the Quill: An Inked Query Into Socio-political Cartoons and Visual Dissent
Patrick Volz, Bond University
Pulp Facts About Comic Book Fiction
Terry Wilson