ICAF 2013 Guests & Schedule Announced
May 20, 2013 by Colin Solan
Filed under Comic Books, Convention News, Oregon, Top Stories
The International Comic Arts Forum is an annual academic conference dedicated to promoting the scholarly study and appreciation of comic art, including comic strips, comic books, comics albums and graphic novels, magazine and newspaper cartooning, caricature, and comics in electronic media. This year’s speakers included Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon, Mike Allred, Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Greg Rucka, Megan Kelso, Brian Michael Bendis, Diana Schutz, Dmitry Yakovlev, and many more! RSVP on Facebook!
THURSDAY, MAY 23
9:00 AM: Opening Remarks: José Alaniz, ICAF ExCom Chair
9:30 – 10:30 AM: Plenary Speaker: Douglas Wolk
10:30 AM: Coffee Break
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Panel Session One
1A. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORM
Moderator: Toph Marshall
- Robert W. Lovejoy “Amusing Victorians: Nineteenth-Century Print Culture and the Rise of Respectable Comic Journalism.”
- Martha Kennedy, “Cover Art by Women Cartoonists and Illustrators for American Magazines: A Window into Women’s Professional Advancement and Gender Representation.”
- Walter Lai, “The Comic Book as a Work of Art – A Case of David Mack’s Kabuki: The Alchemy.”
1B. GLOBAL COMICS
Moderator: Carl Horn, Dark Horse Comics
- Jeremy Stoll, “Arguing the Auteur in New Delhi.”
- Azisa Noor Koesoema, “Alternative institutions in emerging national comic book industries: The case of Indonesia.”
- Héctor Fernández L’Hoeste, “On Historical Revisionism and The Chilean Experience: The Case of Historia de Chile en comic.”
12:30 PM: Lunch Break
2:00 – 3:30 PM: Panel Discussion: Contemporary Russian Comics. With Dmitry Yakovlev.
Moderated by Jose Alaniz.
3:30 PM: Coffee Break
4:00 – 5:30 PM: Roundtable: On the Theory and Practice of Comics Pedagogy. With Brian Michael Bendis, Diana Schutz, and affiliated teaching faculty within the UO Minor in Comics and Cartoon Studies. Moderated by Ben Saunders.
5:30 PM: Dinner Break
7:30 – 9:00 PM: A Celebration of Finnish Comics at Floating World Comics. With Ville Hänninen and Tommi Musturi at Floating World Comics (400 NW Couch Street). Pre-talk reception at 6:30pm. *Off-site venue*
2A. THE DISCIPLINE IN THEORY AND PRACTICE
Moderator: Toph Marshall
- Colin Beineke, “Disciplining Comics: A Case for the Institutionalization of Comics Studies.”
- Corey Creekmur, “Freud and the Funnies: The Psychoanalysis of Comics.”
- Franny Howes, “Drawing Comics in the Writing Classroom: A Decolonial-Disability Studies Approach.”
2B. PRESENTING GIRLHOOD
Moderator: Mark Heimermann
- Susan Kirtley, “Drawing Conclusions: Focalization in the Works of Lynda Barry.”
- Brittany Tullis, “The Angel in the House: A Critical Examination of the Feminine Ideal in Quino’s Mafalda (1964-1973).”
- Devon Kerslake, “Adolescence and Erasure in Mariko + Jillian Tamaki’s Skim and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home.”
10:30AM: Coffee Break
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Panel Session Three
3A. CHALLENGING FORM
Moderator: Mark Heimermann
- Bruce Mutard, “Out Of The Gutter And Into The Panel: Comics closure as qualia of art imitating life.”
- Jayms Clifford Nichols, “Scrolls, Codexs and Flippy-throughiness in (digital) Comics.”
- David Brame, “Personal Poetics: A comic book and spoken word community development.”
3B. WOMEN AND POLITICS
Moderator: Qiana Whitted
- Alisia Chase, “Matrixial Graphics: Motherhood and Politics in Megan Kelso’s Watergate Sue.”
- Marni Stanley, “Where Do You Draw the (Front) Line: Women in War and Revolution.”
- Annabelle Cone, “Something to Laugh About(?): A Gendered Reading of Sexual Satire in the French Post-war Bande Dessinée.”
12:30 PM: Lunch Break
2:00 – 3:15PM: Roundtable: Beyond Auteurism - Creativity and Collaboration in Comics. With Gabriel Ba, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Matt Fraction, Charles Hatfield, Ben Saunders, Qiana Whitted.
3:15 PM: Coffee Break
3:30 – 4:30 PM: The John Lent Award Lecture: ”How to Think About Comics as Social Objects,”
Benjamin Woo, Simon Fraser University’s Centre for Policy Studies on Culture and Communities.
Abstract: Comics can be defined in many ways. They are art works that create aesthetic experiences for their readers, cultural objects reflecting the time and place where they are produced, and commodities with a value on the market. But they are also social objects. They are made, read, and talked about by people who exist in a relatively stable set of institutions and relationships. This lecture addresses some of the possibilities and problems of a social-scientific approach to comics, placing them in the context not only of the “comics world” but also of a wider social world of geeks, nerds, and fans.
7:30 PM – 9:00 PM: An Evening With Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon. Moderated by Matt Fraction.
4A. COMICS AND THE AMERICAN SOUTH
Moderator: Qiana Whitted
- Robert Loss, “Profluent Lingering, Trauma and the Individual in Mat Johnson and Warren Pleece’s Incognegro.”
- Jennifer Glaser, “Seeing Race in Comics: Photography, Drawing, and the Gaze in King and Incognegro.”
- Margaret Bostrom, “Graphic Narrative, Catastrophic Homelessness, and Stories from a Storm: Reading A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge.”
4B. GENDER AND SEXUALITY: EAST AND WEST
Moderator: Stanford Carpenter
- Tiffany Pascal, “Girl Power Gone Sour: Issues in Discussing Romantic Love Between Girls in Japanese Comics.”
- Nicholas Theisen, “Where the boys are[n’t]: the suspect gendering of shōnen manga (boys’ manga).”
- Amanda Murphyao, “From “I am gay!” in 1992 to “I’m gay!” in 2010: The Comics Code and Coming Out in Alpha Flight #106 and Veronica #202.”
10:30 AM: Coffee break
11:00 AM – 12:30 PM: Panel Session Five
5A. SUPERHEROES AND EXTREMES
Moderator: Jose Alaniz
- Joshua Plencner, “Scopophilia and Sixties Marvel: Lensing the Self as Losing the Self.”
- Brannon Costello, “Superbodies and Fascist Aesthetics in the Comics of Howard Chaykin.”
- Andrea Gilroy, “Queer Sexuality and the Superhero in Batwoman: Elegy.”
- Hend Alawadhi, “Reclaiming the narrative: Muslims in comic books and The 99.”
5B. SELF, MEMORY, PERCEPTION
Moderator: Stanford Carpenter
- Jennifer Anderson Bliss, “Real Memories, Surreal Experiences: Autobiographical Tensions in David B.’s L’ascension du haut mal.”
- Christophe Dony, “The Rewriting Ethos of Vertigo Comics, or, Critical Perspectives on Memory-Making, Canonization, and the Logic of Fields.”
- Josina Robb, “The Spatiality of Voice: How Joe Sacco’s Palestine Takes Up the Ethos of New Journalism.”
12:30 PM: Lunch Break
2:00 – 3:30 PM: Roundtable: Comics and the Pacific Northwest. With comics creators Megan Kelso, Greg Rucka, and T. Edward Bak. Moderated by Ben Saunders.
3:30 PM: Coffee Break with Documentary Film, “The Comic King of Guatemala”
4:00 – 5:30 PM: Plenary Speaker: Scott Bukatman, “Sculpture, Stasis, the Comics and (oh yeah) Hellboy.”
5:30 PM: Closing Remarks: Ben Saunders, University of Oregon
Small scheduling adjustments are sometimes necessary. Please check in before the event to catch any last minute updates.
The ICAF conference welcomes interested members of the public – but please note that any beverages and snack foods supplied on the premises are for speakers and panel participants only. Panel participants and speakers should further note that lunch and dinner will not be supplied. However, the UO in Portland building is conveniently located with access to several restaurants and diners within short walking distance.
OR – Daytripper Signing
April 29, 2013 by Colin Solan
Filed under Comic Books, Oregon, Signing and Appearance Profiles, Top Stories, Webcomics
Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon sign at Things From Another World on Wednesday May 22 from 7:00 till 10:00 p.m.
Press Release:
Superstar Brazilian artists–and twin brothers–Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon are signing at the Portland Things From Another World May 22 from 7 to 10 p.m. Meet the multiple Eisner Award-winning talents behind B.P.R.D. Vampire, Casanova, Daytripper, The Umbrella Academy, and more! Attendees will enjoy free food and beer (those 21+ with valid I.D.) and receive raffle tickets to win an original sketch by Fábio Moon (pictured in the event poster, above).
SIGNING POLICY: Get anything purchased at TFAW (with receipt) signed! Outside items (not purchased at TFAW) limited to three per customer.
Gabriel Bá rose to prominence as artist for The Umbrella Academy in 2007. Written by Gerard Way, it won the Eisner Award in 2008 for Best Limited Series. Fábio Moon delighted fans worldwide with Sugarshock, a one-shot written by Joss Whedon that won an Eisner Award for Best Web Comic. The brothers often work alongside one another, including on such acclaimed series as Casanova, with writer Matt Fraction, B.P.R.D. 1947, with Mike Mignola and Josh Dysart, and B.P.R.D. Vampire, with Mike Mignola. Their creator-owned series, Daytripper, won the 2011 Eisner Award for Best Limited Series.
In addition to their signing at the Portland TFAW, the brothers are also guests of The International Comic Arts Forum May 23-25, where they will have two tables on Friday, May 24th.
The Portland TFAW will have a wide variety of books by Gabriel Bá and Fábio Moon available for purchase. Mark your calenders for this signing May 22 for your chance to meet these talents in person and enter to win an original sketch!
Things From Another World
2916 NE Broadway, Portland, OR 97232
CA – Hawkeye Signing
March 29, 2013 by Colin Solan
Filed under California, Comic Books, Signing and Appearance Profiles, Top Stories
Marvel superstar writer MATT FRACTION (Hawkeye, FF, Fantastic Four, etc.) will make his way down to Beach Ball Comics on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 to meet fans and sign books. And he’ll be sitting alongside Marvel superstar-on-the-rise, Kelly Sue DeConnick (Avengers Assemble, Captain Marvel) from 5:00-7:00 pm that evening, so clear those calendars, people!
Beach Ball Comics
3024 W Ball Rd Ste G, Anaheim, CA 92804
CA – Captain Marvel Signing
March 26, 2013 by Colin Solan
Filed under California, Comic Books, Signing and Appearance Profiles, Top Stories
Please welcome Kelly Sue DeConnick, writer of Captain Marvel and Avengers Assemble for Marvel Comics, to Beach Ball Comics on Wednesday, April 24th from 5:00 pm until 7:00 pm! Come by, say hi, and maybe ask what’s next for the grounded Captain. See you there!
*JUST ADDED* Marvel superstar writer MATT FRACTION (Hawkeye, FF, Fantastic Four, etc.)
Beach Ball Comics
3024 W Ball Rd Ste G, Anaheim, CA 92804
OR – Hawkeye Signing
February 28, 2013 by Colin Solan
Filed under Art Show, Comic Books, Oregon, Signing and Appearance Profiles, Top Stories
Matt Fraction, Steve Lieber, and Jesse Hamm sign at Floating World Comics on Wednesday March 13th from 6:00 – 8:00 pm to celebrate the release of HAWKEYE VOL. 1 MY LIFE AS A WEAPON TP. They will also have copies of the Hurricane Sandy benefit issue, Hawkeye #7 for sale. 100% of the proceeds from the event will be donated to American Red Cross, to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy. Hawkeye #7 artists Steve Lieber and Jesse Hamm will be available to draw sketches for fans in exchange for American Red Cross donations.
Floating World Comics
400 NW Couch Street, Portland, OR 97209
(503) 241-0227
OR – Last Day in Vietnam Reading
February 22, 2013 by Colin Solan
Filed under Comic Books, Oregon, Signing and Appearance Profiles
Matt Fraction, Brian Michael Bendis, Michael Avon Oeming, Dylan Meconis, and Kelly Sue DeConnick appear at the Jack London Bar on Thursday, March 7th at 8:00 pm!
Press Release:
ON THURSDAY, MARCH 7, Comics Underground is teaming up with Dark Horse Comics for a Very Special Episode of our comics reading series.
In honor of Will Eisner Week, Dark Horse Editor Diana Schutz hand-picked a lineup of some of the best comics creators in the country to share stories from Will Eisner’s Last Day in Vietnam.
Brian Michael Bendis, Matt Fraction, Michael Avon Oeming, Dylan Meconis, and Kelly Sue DeConnick will be reading, and Erik Nebel will be accompanying a wordless story on violin. Basically, it’s a lineup that shouldn’t be allowed to get on an airplane together, because if that plane crashed, so would like 80 percent of the comics industry.
Here’s a bit more info on the participants. LIKE YOU NEED MORE INFO, C’MON.
• MATT FRACTION, architect of the Marvel Universe, writer of The Invincible Iron Man, and creator of the beloved high-concept spy comic Casanova.
• BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, yet another architect of the Marvel Universe, writer of Ultimate Spider-Man and creator of the beloved superhero noir comic Alias.
• MICHAEL AVON OEMING, a creator and artist on numerous projects including the Eisner-winning series Powers.
• DYLAN MECONIS, creator of the brainy historical graphic novel Family Man and the vampire-themed spoof Bite Me.
• KELLY SUE DECONNICK, writer of a number of Marvel Comics titles, including the well-received Osborn miniseries and Avengers Assemble.
• ERIK NEBEL, creator of War and Peace: The Comic, which is just what it says it is.
It all goes down at 8 pm on Thursday, March 7, at the Jack London (529 SW 4th, Portland, Oregon). Admission’s $3-5. Yes, it’s going to be as good as it sounds. See you there.
CA – Hawkeye Signing
January 23, 2013 by Colin Solan
Filed under California, Comic Books, Signing and Appearance Profiles, Top Stories
Writer Matt Fraction signs at House of Secrets on Wednesday January 30th, 2013 at 6:00 pm! Fraction has announced that he will donate all the sales incentives he receives from the sales of Hawkeye #7 to the Red Cross, earmarked for Hurricane Sandy relief.
House of Secrets
1930 W Olive St, Burbank, CA 91506
OR – Casanova: Avarita Signing
July 3, 2012 by Colin Solan
Filed under Comic Books, Oregon, Signing and Appearance Profiles, Top Stories
Writer Matt Fraction signs at Floating World Comics on Wednesday July 11, 2012 from 6:00 – 8:00pm.
Press Release:
The third volume of Matt Fraction’s psychedelic super-spy series has reached its conclusion and we are proud to celebrate the release of the trade paperback this Wednesday July 11th. What started as Matt’s take on a Diabolik/James Bond homage quickly took on a life of its own and is now regarded as Fraction’s magnum opus in the making.
The world’s sexiest and savviest superspy is back, killing his way from dimension to dimension in a high-stakes, action-packed adventure. The true identity of megasuperdupervillain NEWMAN XENO is now known to Casanova Quinn and E.M.P.I.R.E. – which means our man Casanova is now a pan-dimensional killer with one target hiding in an infinitely complex sprawl of realities.
CASANOVA: AVARITIA answers every question (almost), solves every riddle (kind of), and explains absolutely everything you ever wanted to know about the world of CASANOVA (in a way). Casanova Quinn, hated on all sides by tyrant and hero alike, must flee from time and space, aim one batch of enemies at the other, kill everybody and save everything simultaneously. Don’t be afraid: you are an apocalypse dreaming of butterflies + the first part of reincarnation is dying…
Floating World Comics
400 NW Couch Street, Portland, OR 97209
OR – Casanova Art Show & Signing
August 23, 2011 by Colin Solan
Filed under Art Show, Comic Books, Oregon, Signing and Appearance Profiles
Matt Fraction appears at Floating World Comics on Wednesday, September 14th, from 6-8PM!
Press Release:
Floating World Comics is getting a reboot. Recently voted “Favorite Comic Shop” in the 2011 Portland Mercury Reader’s Poll, we’re ready to expand into a bigger and better location. Same building; we’re moving just a block away to the corner of NW 4th and Couch.
Grass Hut Gallery will be joining us and gaining a lot more square footage. Also “the record store of comics stores” will finally be selling records. Paul Anson (from Discourage Records) is going to have his own area in the new shop, selling new and used vinyl as Landfill Rescue Unit.
To celebrate, we’re proud to host a book release party with multiple Eisner award winner, Matt Fraction. Casanova: Avarita is the long anticipated third volume in Matt Fraction’s acclaimed creator owned series. The world’s sexiest and savviest superspy is back, killing his way from dimension to dimension in a high-stakes, action-packed adventure. The true identity of megasuperdupervillain NEWMAN XENO is now known to Casanova Quinn and E.M.P.I.R.E. – which means our man Casanova is now a pan-dimensional killer with one target hiding in an infinitely complex prawl of realities.
TIMELINE UPDATE: Book signing with Matt Fraction rescheduled for Wednesday September 14th, 6-10pm.
Original art from the Casanova series by Gabriel Bá and Fabio Moon will be on display until Sept. 30th.
Floating World Comics
400 NW Couch Street, Portland, OR 97209
OR – Fear Itself Launch Party
March 15, 2011 by Colin Solan
Filed under Comic Books, Oregon, Signing and Appearance Profiles, Top Stories
Press Release:
Writer Matt Fraction (Uncanny X-Men, Casanova) Wednesday, April 6 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the TFAW Hollywood location at 4133 NE Sandy Blvd. Portland, OR. This event is free and features complimentary food and beer (with valid I.D.).
Marvel’s next milestone event launches April 6 with Fear Itself #1, the first of a seven-part miniseries by Marvel Architect Matt Fraction and artist Stuart Immonen (New Avengers). An ancient deity that thrives on terror is unleashed by Captain America’s oldest foe, and now the Marvel Universe must stand together or be torn apart by . . . fear itself. An earth-shaking, world-changing, mega-event that will rock the Marvel Universe to its core for years to come starts here!
“We’ve enjoyed Matt Fraction’s incredible stories for years, and we’re thrilled to have him in our store for such a landmark storyline,” said TFAW Marketing Manager Elisabeth Forsythe. “Plus, we’re excited that Marvel fans will be able to ask all of their burning questions.”
The Q&A with Fraction kicks off at 7:00 p.m., followed by the signing. Copies of Fear Itself #1, including the special blank variant edition, will be available for purchase, as will related titles Fear Itself: Home Front #1 and Fear Itself Spotlight. Guests will enjoy complimentary food from Clean Plate Catering and free beer with valid I.D. (21 and older).
