Comic-Con 2016

UPDATED: Wed, Jul 13, 02:23PM
The Joker has menaced Batman for nearly 77 years. Since the Joker's first appearance in Batman #1 in 1940, he has appeared thousands of times in comics, films, video games, television series, toy aisles, and other arenas of mediated and material culture. While a powerful antagonist, the character is nevertheless fascinating to children and adults alike. Join the contributors to the first book-length scholarly study of the Joker as they ask why the Joker has become the most important and interesting supervillain in popular culture and what it is about the Joker that makes the character so iconic. Rob Weiner (Texas Tech University), Robert Peaslee (Texas Tech University), Travis Langley (Henderson State University), Hannah Means-Shannon (Dark Horse Comics), Len Wein (Batman) and Ryan Litsey (Texas Tech University) discuss the nature of the Joker, his history, and why Batman refuses to kill a character that causes so much misery to the citizens of Gotham.

Patricia Ayala (University of Colima) explores how the landscape of comics reflects the author's inner world and the elements that comics creators use to pull readers into each frame of story. Melissa Archibald (California State University, Long Beach) argues that the artistic representation of Metropolis challenges the popular trope of American cities as places of depravity and hopelessness by conceptualizing Metropolis as a place of progress. Chris Murray (University of Dundee) sees commentary on American culture in the works of British pop artists and examines the relationship between their art and comics in terms of content, political critique, and graphic design.

Award-winning writer and CAC special guest Trina Robbins (Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013) looks at how two women, Lily Renee and Tarpe Mills, presented their Brazilian fantasies to the North American public in the form of adventure strips starring capable, glamorous heroines. Braeden Jones (University of Iowa) demonstrates how contemporary artists recontextualize and reappropriate images, motifs, and themes from historical sources, and compares external artistic influence on Latin America to historical conquest. Nicole Larrondo (Brown University) takes this scholarly journey to Chile, where the comic format is a helpful tool for teaching history, and speculates on the challenges of having the state as the primary support for an artistic form.

In a series of concise presentations, Chilean comics writers, artists, publishers, and critics will provide insight into one of South America's most effervescent arts, discussing current comics production and how it intersects with topics of race, gender, national (alternative) history, and the international world of comics. Gonzalo Martinez (Road Story), Francisco Ortega (Mocha Dick), Gabriel Rodriguez (Little Nemo: Return to Slumberland), Miguel Angel Ferrada (Arcano IV), Bernadita Labourdette (Varua Rapa Nui), Maria Jose Barros (Corazon de Obsidiana), Carlos Reyes (Los años de Allende), and Rodrigo Elgueta (Los años de Allende) will present multidisciplinary approaches to current comic production in Chile, questioning recurring themes at visual and narrative levels, as well as providing insight into the local Chilean publishing industry and issues relating to artistic styles and the place of female comic creators within the current market. This panel will be presented in Spanish. Handouts will be provided with English translations of each presentation. The Q&A session will be interpreted as needed by panel moderators Sam Cannon (The University of Texas at Austin) and James Staig (The University of Texas at Austin).

Recent work analyzing comics has turned to scientific methods. Neil Cohn (Tilburg University) will chair this panel discussing projects that annotate properties of comics from around the world, and discuss growing efforts for analyzing comics within the cognitive sciences. Then, presentations by Jessika Axner (University of California, San Diego) and Michaela Diercks (University of California, San Diego) will explore the differences between the structures found in comics from America, Japan, Hong Kong, and various European countries, such as France and Sweden. Finally, Nimish Pratha (University of California, San Diego) will describe how sound effects differ across genres of American comics and Japanese manga. Together, these presentations show the benefits of a data-driven, scientific approach to studying comics.

Arguing that the visual narrative nature of comics requires recognizing and understanding the function of pictures in the medium, R. C. Harvey (Perpendicular Pronoun Press) shows how words and pictures function to create the unique narrative form that is comics. Derek Heid (Temecula Valley High School) demonstrates how Matt Fraction's Eisner Award-winning Hawkeye story, "Pizza Is My Business," makes heavy use of symbol and abstract storytelling techniques to communicate the thought processes of a dog and can be used to teach students, specifically at the high school level, higher-order analysis of literature and literary technique. Samantha Jakobeit-Meaux (Georgia State University) examines Bec Doux et ses amis, a dual language Cajun French and English comic strip with Kevin Meaux (Georgia State University), the son of the strip's illustrator Ken Meaux, to show how the strip subverts the established language/power dynamics of Louisiana speaking communities through the use of text placement, caricature, and trickster figures.

Before the comics, pulp magazines were the most popular and bestselling printed periodicals on the newsstands. Featuring genres ranging from westerns to heroic adventure to science fiction, the pulp magazines paved the way for the comics, providing much of the social, narrative, artistic, and financial groundwork, which inspired the nascent industry and helped it flourish into the popular culture phenomena it is today. This panel discusses the connections between the pulps and comics, from the creators who worked in both mediums to the direct lineage between the heroes of the pulps and their successors, so popular in today’s comics and films. Join Nicky Wheeler-Nicholson (Lost Hero: The Adventurous and Tragic Life of the Man Who Invented Comic Books), Harry Donenfeld, Brad Ricca (Super Boys: The Amazing Adventures of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster-the Creators of Superman), Michael Uslan (The Dark Knight trilogy) and Nathan Vernon Madison (Anti-Foreign Imagery in American Pulps and Comic Books) for this investigation into the birth of the comic book. Gerard Jones (Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book) moderates.

UPDATED: Fri, Jul 22, 09:41AM
From the Yellow Kid's expressive nightshirt to last year's Supreme Court ruling on Spider-Man's web shooters, what characters wear is an integral part of comics culture - and lawsuits. Professor Susan Scafidi (founder of the Fashion Law Institute, Fordham Law School), Jeff Trexler (Fashion Law Institute, Fordham Law School), and Cindy Levitt (Senior Vice President Merchandise and Marketing, Hot Topic) explore the legal dimension of comics couture, covering such issues as collaborations between the fashion and entertainment industries; fandom, cosplay, and emerging designers; the impact of comics on fashion; diversity and cultural appropriation; the representation of fashion-related intellectual property theft; the perception of comics and fashion in statutes and court cases; the regulation of identity and gender norms; and current controversies involving the translation of two-dimensional style to the physical realm.

A current wave of applied comics in health professions is drawing serious attention from comics scholars, medical journals, public health advocates, and health-care providers. Although health education and promotion comics have been used for decades, the emergence of "graphic medicine" as an area of scholarship has sparked newfound interest. This panel convenes health professionals and comics artists actively creating comics to educate patients and the public in the areas of diabetes, asthma, emergency preparedness, influenza, HIV/AIDS, and more. Alex Thomas (Booster Shot Comics), Gary Ashwal (Booster Shot Comics), Meredith Li-Vollmer (Public Health-Seattle & King County), Claire Berman (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health), and Catherine Leamy (Massachusetts General Hospital) introduce a variety of comics currently used in public health campaigns, patient education programs, and research studies. The session will conclude with an open, interactive discussion with attendees to consider new directions and collaboration opportunities for health-care comics for both practitioners and scholars.

Johnathan Flowers (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) uses the work of Sara Ahmed to analyze Bitch Planet's "non-compliance" as the phenomenological experience of being against the established order, using examples from the comic and the larger cultural movement to articulate non-compliance as an act of resistance. Ayanna Dozier (McGill University) examines how Bitch Planet's use of subversive humor, sartorial advertisements, and essay writing serve as a feminist disruption of the comic book canon, as a demonstration of the parodic that is only successful because of De Connick's thoughtful and careful interrogation of how gender affects bodies that exist on the intersection of race and class. Ajani Brown (San Diego State University) traces the history of Jill Trent, Science Sleuth, from the Golden Age to her recent reboot by Super Dames Comics, discussing the feminist commentary in select 1940s issues, the futurist aspect of the series, and the 2015 change in racial identity.

Comics Arts Conference special guest Trina Robbins is a writer, cartoonist, and comics herstorian. A leader in the feminist underground comix movement with her landmark It Ain't Me, Babe Comix and co-founding of the Wimmen's Comix Collective, Robbins is also a renowned chronicler of the history of women in comics. Her work includesThe Great Women Superheroes, Pretty In Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896-2013, and The Brinkley Girls: The Best of Nell Brinkley's Cartoons from 1913-1940. Robbins, a Will Eisner Hall of Fame inductee, has also written Wonder Woman: The Once and Future Story, Honey West, GoGirl! and contributed to Sensation Comics and Girl Comics. Her latest opus, The Complete Wimmen's Comix, collects every issue of this first continuing all-woman produced comic book anthology. Jennifer K. Stuller (Ink-Stained Amazon, GeekGirlCon) moderates.

UPDATED: Wed, Jul 13, 12:35PM
The CAC's poster session gives attendees the opportunity to interact directly with presenters.

Timothy Stiven, Adrienne Rozells, Diane Kang, Charlie Spadone, and Justine Kwon of Canyon Crest Academy present the student-designed graphic novel Windy and the Spirit Skies and share with the audience the process the students and faculty went through to create this project.

Christopher Sperandio (Rice University) presents a range of the participatory comic books produced for institutions such as London's Institute of Contemporary Arts, New York's Museum of Modern Art, and Public Art Fund, Boston's Museum of Fine Arts.

Jeanine Webb, Shelley Streeby, and Pepe Rojo of the University of California, San Diego examine how recent independent comics have created alternate worlds and new forms of belonging.

Phillip Vaughan (Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design/University of Dundee) examines the graphic design of British comics from the 1960s to the present day.

Jason Bainbridge (Swinburne University of Technology) maps supervillains across the popular arts to explore their role in shaping our expectations of the superhero genre -and what being "super" really means.

Amanda Kennell (University of Southern California) analyzes the meanings and uses of Alice in Wonderland in comics today.

Ashley Bles (Henderson State University) presents an empirical test for analyzing the representation and role of women in superhero comics.

Damien Tomaselli (University of Kwazulu-Natal) analyses the digital reiteration of the printed comics of the Captain Stone series, with specific focus on the adaptation of medium and temporal sensitivities from the motion book to work within the printed medium.

Cathy Leogrande (Le Moyne College) addresses five positive and five problematic examples of how disability is glorified and patholigized in comics published after the Americans with Disabilities Act to examine how "disability" has been defined within comics.

Christina M. Knopf (SUNY Potsdam) explores how G.I. Zombie, which features both a zombie hero and a villainous zombie plague, directly and metaphorically presents issues of surveillance, drone warfare, biological weapons, domestic terrorism, and PTSD to an audience tired of war stories.

Lisa Jackson (University of California, Santa Cruz) highlights the ways that scholars can deploy the gendered discourse inherent in the superhero genre in order to enrich our understanding of 20th century white American manhood.

Michael Kersulov (Indiana University) demonstrates how students used autobiographical and historical comics as models to create their own memoir comics to find ways to counteract feelings of dispossession.

Adam D. Henze (Indiana University) demonstrates how comics and poetry can be useful as rich, multimodal classroom texts, sharing the findings of a qualitative study that uses poetry comics in a secondary learning environment.

Eric Bruce (Western Oregon University) investigates the "self-concept" of Bruce Wayne/Batman and how his self-concept influences his dimensions of wellness as well as how to assist students in a classroom setting to identify self-concept connections with dimensions of wellness to improve healthy behavior change.

Elizabeth Potter (Kansas State University) considers the transnational nature of TekkonKinkreet's structure, stylistics, and visual rhetoric while contemplating the latent content reading styles of Western readership.

Dylan Weaver, Katherine Russell, and Taylor Mcswain of Henderson State University look at three characters from The Walking Dead and their reaction to death, through the lens of the Kübler-Ross five stages of grief and other coping mechanisms such as dissociation, avoidance, repression, and post-traumatic growth.

June M. Madeley (University of New Brunswick, Saint John) analyzes individual interviews conducted with manga readers and anime viewers from outside of Japan to investigate their fan activity, readership, viewing, and meaning making practices.

Antero Garcia (Colorado State University) and Peter Carlson (Green Dot Public Schools) construct a visual representation of the forms of resistance presented in contemporary comic book culture, illustrating blind spots in civic engagement and resistance theory in comic books today.

Nima Rassooli, Shelley Streeby, Babak Rahimi, and Manel Palos Pons of the University of California, San Diego explore the ways superhero comics through their form and content represent or complicate various facets of neoliberalism.

Emily Blanton (Henderson State University) compares the communities ofThe Walking Dead and Wasteland to crime organizations to better understand the group dynamic of common crime.

Allen Thomas (University of Central Arkansas), Shuna Thomas (Arkansas Children's Hospital), Drew Morse (Arkansas Children's Hospital), Colby Morse (Incite Rehab), Molly Reynolds (The Pointe Behavioral Health Services), and Gurrie Frisbie (Miami University) provide a basis for establishing the use of comics in a wide variety of professional settings, whether helping children manage difficult procedures through popular characters, facilitating hope and change within mental health, or encouraging students to further engage in literary material.

Craig Agule (University of California, San Diego) and Sharon Dopak (Scripps Hospital) look at the two medical procedures in Superman's Girl Friend, Lois Lane #12 to show how the liberal values now firmly established at the core of medical ethics were overlooked in those operating rooms, and imagine a parallel narrative tracking modern principles of medical ethics.

Barbara Glaeser (California State University, Fullerton) and Bianca Woods (BMO Financial Group) illustrate how comics and graphic novels can be used effectively in a school or business context in ways that engage adults cognitively and affectively, tap life experiences, and spur internal motivation to learn.

Adam Golub (California State University, Fullerton) discusses strategies for teaching comics as literature in the university classroom. Deanna Heikkinen (Los Angeles Valley College) shares the lessons that she learned using superhero comics to teach a humanities course on 20th-century America. Michelle Lewis (Los Angeles Valley College) explains he she integrated Mendoza the Jew: Boxing, Manliness, and Nationalism, A Graphic History into the Western Civilization curriculum to teach historical techniques. These presentations are designed for teachers and a general audience interested in the changing views and uses of comics in American society.

The same qualities that make Batman one of the most famous characters in the world also make him an excellent vehicle for teaching a variety of topics and reaching students. Batman is the superhero with no superpowers, with a tragic origin that evokes feelings and understanding from anyone who reads it, and a character that occupies an environment that, while a bit bizarre at times, usually feels like it could be real. This session provides an exploration of using Batman to teach arts and science at the university level. Panelists discuss the relevance of Batman and the Bat-family in conveying concepts of psychology, kinesiology and neuroscience to undergraduates. E. Paul Zehr (Becoming Batman), Travis Langley (Batman and Psychology: A Dark and Stormy Knight), Chris Yogerst (University of Wisconsin), Hannah Means-Shannon (Dark Horse Comics), Michael Uslan (The Dark Knight trilogy), and Paul Levitz (DC Comics) discuss and dissect the role of the Caped Crusader on campus.

Emily Rauber Rodriguez (University of Southern California) uses the Star Wars: Shattered Empire miniseries as a case study of how licensed comics negotiate a curious transmedia space between adaptation, sequel, and promotion. Jeremiah Massengale (University of the Cumberlands) uses letters from readers to analyze the impact of a nine-day storyline about death and loss in the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip. Julia Round (Bournemouth University) uses the letters pages in Misty comic books to demonstrate how the comic, employing the dominant discourses of the horror genre, supported creativity, diversity, and community within the readership.

Comic-Con offers students of popular culture an amazing venue to study how culture is marketed to and practiced by its fans. Robin Holloway (Wake Forest University), Thaddeus Kimm (Wittenberg University), Alexandra Jenkins (Texas A&M University-Texarkana), Jodie McKaughan (Radford University), Joan Miller (University of Southern California, Annenberg), Morgan Mitchell (Wittenberg University), Glen Stamp (Ball State University), Alix Watson (Ball State University), and Stephanie Webb (University of Denver) present initial findings from a week-long ethnographic field study of the intersection of fan practice at the nexus of cultural marketing and fan culture that is Comic-Con 2016. Matthew J. Smith (Wittenberg University) moderates.