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.
Read more
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!
At our recent Comics Studies Reading Group virtual meeting, we asked the question, “What comics are getting you through the pandemic and why?”. Some of the group’s responses are shared below, and reflect a range of genres and tastes, but more interestingly, a range of different needs and reasons for looking to comics during this time.
We’d love to hear from some of you in the comments about what you’re reading these days and why it’s important to you, especially now. Whether its for escapism, contemplation, comfort, provocation, or intellectual gratification, tell us how comics or graphic novels might be meaningful or valuable for you in the time of COVID. Read more
This Fall has been a busy one for many of our Comics Studies Reading Group members, who have been reading, teaching, reviewing, and writing about comics and graphic novels, among other things. So I thought this would be a great time to share some of the interesting work they’re doing or plan to do in the coming year. This group includes folks at UNT and TCU who have been meeting together or sharing ideas and events over the last year or so. They come from a range of disciplines and professional roles, so it’s especially valuable to see how comics intersect with all of these different perspectives and approaches to reading, writing, and thinking about the issues they study. If you’re interested in joining the reading group email list, or have updates of your own to share, contact john.martin@unt.edu Read more
The US federal government has been producing comics directly or indirectly ever since 1918, when the short-lived Bureau of Cartoons was used to encourage American cartoonists to create propaganda during the First World War. Still, few people seem to be aware of this unique and fascinating resource.
Government comics were the topic of a poster I presented at the 2019 Federal Depository Library Conference in Arlington, Virginia on October 22 of this year. It turned out that not only are nearly all non-document librarians unaware that government comics exist, even many document librarians have either never heard of government comics, or are unaware of just how many government comics there are in their collections.
Government comics are truly a hidden collection in most libraries, and my goal in creating this poster was to raise awareness of government comics and to suggest methods for a library to enhance its local collection and encourage patrons to use them.
Click poster to see full size.
After an interval this summer and a couple of postponements due to scheduling conflicts, the Comics Studies Reading Group started back up in November with a discussion of Diary of a Teenage Girl by Phoebe Gloeckner.Our conversation was pretty wide-ranging, but touched on issues of teenage sexuality, sexual abuse, diaries & confessional writing, the interplay between text and image, memory and authorial voice, teaching difficult subject matter, and creating comics.
Our Comics Studies Reading Group had a few more thoughts to share about Captain Marvel…
[Warning Spoilers for Captain Marvel and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season Five)]
