We’re excited to share the news that the 2023 Comics Studies Society Annual Conference, “Comics on the Margins“, is coming to the University of North Texas, July 27-29, 2023! Read more
Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh’s graphic novel Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (2019) reintroduces the DC comics antiheroine Harley Quinn as a teenage girl who arrives in Gotham after a childhood full of poverty, familial strife, and an already long rap sheet. As she begins to find her place in the world and discover more about who she wants to be, Harley learns valuable lessons about fighting for what’s right amidst profound structural injustice. Read more
Please join the UNT Libraries for a Digital Scholarship & Comics Studies Event:
Panels & Pixels: A Virtual Comics Exhibition
Are you a comics fan, collector, or artist? We’d love to see some of your art or your collection and hear about why comics are an important part of your work, your classes, your hobbies, or just your general interests!
This event aims to highlight both the popularity and relevance of comics and comic art in an academic setting, as well as envisioning the university and its campus as a creative space for artists, writers, and readers of comics. We also want to show how digital tools and technologies can be used to create communities of shared interest and study both inside and outside of the university. Read more
Among the many useful electronic databases and digital archival collections at the UNT Libraries are our Adam Matthew databases, some of which were only recently acquired. These databases are accessible online to UNT faculty, staff and students, using your EUID and password, or from a computer station inside the library. They provide access to thousands of historic documents and primary resources for scholarship and teaching. Among these resources are images from newspapers, serial publications, pamphlets, broadsides, and other documents that often include historic cartoons, comic strips, and even some early comic books related to the subjects covered by these databases, including African American history, gender & identity, children’s literature, Victorian literature, and more. Read more
For our first Comics Studies Reading Group meeting this Fall, we’ll be reading Mariko Tamaki & Steve Pugh’s multiple Eisner Award-winning graphic novel, Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass (2019). For fans of Harley, Birds of Prey, or the recent Suicide Squad films, this book offers a unique take on the coming-of-age story and on a character that’s broken through a lot of barriers in her history.
The reading group is open to UNT faculty, students, staff, or community members who want to read and discuss comics, graphic novels, manga, anime, film, grapnic narrative, or comic art for the purposes of research, teaching, creating comics, or just enjoying as fans and collectors. We ask that all participants be respectful, thoughtful, and open to the ideas, feelings, and experiences of others in the group.
We’ll be meeting via Zoom on Saturday, October 2, 2021, at 1 p.m. If you’re interested in joining us, please contact john.martin@unt.edu to receive the Zoom link.
Today is Earth Day, and in keeping with that theme we present this story about a team of six cartoon owl superheroes—the Whobuddies—whose job is to save the Earth from environmental disasters and encourage humans to become heroes themselves by conserving and protecting our precious natural resources.
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For those doing research at the UNT Libraries, there are several ways to access all of our Comics Studies materials. Some of these, like our electronic databases, ebooks, and e-journals, are restricted to UNT students, faculty, and staff. Others, like our physical collections, digital libraries, and online guides, can be used by anyone. And you can always consult with one of our subject specialist librarians to help with all your research questions. Read more
Despite the world falling into chaos, a pandemic raging, social movements on the march, an election swirling, and all the hectic busy-ness of a most unusual semester, the Comics Studies community at UNT managed to squeeze in some welcome comics-related activities that kept us all somewhat grounded, connected, and nourished by our shared love of graphic narrative. Read more
A member of our Comics Studies @UNT community, Dr. Joanna Davis-McElligatt, recently did a podcast for UNT Pod about diversity & inclusion in comics. She talks about the importance of recent efforts by comics creators to bring more diverse perspectives, characters, and stories into the mainstream comics industry, popular culture, and the classroom. See more details and listen to the complete podcast below. Read more
Comics Studies@UNT is excited to announce that we are partnering with comics studies groups at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Michigan State University, and with Digital Frontiers, to host the first virtual Flyover Comics Symposium, September 24-25, 2020.
This event was designed to fill the gap left by the cancellation of several comics studies conferences this year due to COVID-19. Papers already accepted to one of those conferences will be automatically accepted for the symposium.
New proposals for 20-minute papers, 60-minute panels, or conference posters will also be considered (submission deadline: August 2).
All are welcome to attend the event via Zoom, and registration is “Pay What You Will”, starting June 15, 2020.
You’ll have the opportunity to learn about a wide range of comics scholarship, creative projects, and comics-related pedagogy during each session, and participate in Q & A sessions with the presenters.
More details are available at the link above. Hope to see some of you there!
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