Subject: CAS #54 Date: Wed, 14 Dec 1994 20:10:21 -0500 (EST) From: "Peter M Coogan" <[c--ga--e] at [student.msu.edu]> Comic Art Studies: A newsletter from the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collection, no. 54 ISSN: 1062-6964 This newsletter is published to facilitate communication about the Comic Art Collection at Michigan State University, and communication about public comics collecting and scholarship in general. MSU now has over 100,000 comics items in its special collection, including 500 scrapbooks containing more than 300,000 daily comic strips, plus over 5,000 Golden Age comic books on microfilm. Donations continue at a rapid rate, and a catalog of the collection is available from Greenwood Press. Contents: Comics Scholars Directory Update (p.2) -- Fourth Annual Comic Arts Conference (p.3-4) -- Comics and Print History Research Centers (p.4-5) -- New Fax Number (p.5) -- Who's Who of American Comic Books Update (p.5) -- Topics Registry (p.6) -- Comic Book Documentation (p.6) -- Survey of Comics Scholars (p.7-8) -- Newsletter back issues Back issues of this newsletter are almost all available. However, unless you are requesting them for a research library, please don't ask for a complete run. It is most economical for all involved if we can select the issues that have the information you particularly need. Some highlights of the back issues are a list of the comic books in the Library of Congress (issues 13-16), and a list of books in the Harry "A" Chesler Collection at Fairleigh Dickinson University (issues 8-10) COMIC ART STUDIES, no. 54, December 1994. Quarterly. Randall W. Scott and Peter M. Coogan, editors. Address: MSU Libraries, East Lansing, MI 48824-1048. Phone (517) 355-3770. Fax: (517) 432-1445. Available in exchange for materials in any area of popular culture or fandom. BLB Collectors Club of America Member 219. Comic Art Studies, no. 54 MSU Libraries East Lansing, MI 48824-1048 USA MSU is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution! ___________________________________________________________ PAGE 2 2-1 Comics Scholars Directory Update December 1994 Please note the new category: Awards/Honors -------- Michael Brody M.D.: 10412 Crossing Creek Rd., Potomac MD 20854; Phone: (301) 585-1703; (301) 299-8969 Fax: (301) 299-8962 Publications: The Wonderful World of Disney--It's Psychological Appeal" American Imago Winter 1976; "Batman--Psychic Trauma and Its Solution" Journal of Popular Culture Areas of Interest: Popular culture and psychiatry, TV and children's characters, comics and Dr. Frederic Wertham Associations/Memberships: American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry; PCA Awards/Honors: NIMH Career Fellowship -------- Randall J. Paske: 415 North 17th Street, Manhattan KS 66502-4064 Phone: (913) 539-2575 Email: [r--nd--j] at [ksu.ksu.edu] Publications: mini-comics (no scholarly publications) Areas of interest: Mini-comics/small press; Alternative/Independent comics; Bizarro Superman; Fan practices/fandom; A. Moore; N. Gaiman Associations/Memberships: Mid-America American Studies Association Awards/Honors: (KSU) Cultural Studies Essay Contest winner for "Buy It, Bag It, Bank on It: The Commodification of the Comic Book" -------- Waldomiro C. S. Vergueiro: 19 Buckingham Drive, Loughborough, Leics., LE11 OTD, England (until Feb. 95); Rua Jorge Tibirica, 266 - Vila Mariana, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil, 04126-000 Phone: 44-509-264793 (England); 55-11-5702956 (Brazil/Home); 55-11-8184076 (Brazil/University of Sao Paulo Fax: 44-509-223053 (England); 55-11-5702956 (Brazil) E-Mail: [w c s vergueiro] at [lut.ac.uk]; [w d csverg] at [fox.cce.usp.br] Publications: Comics and cultural industry (master's dissertation); "Comics and national identity: the case of 'Perere'" (journal article, in Portuguese); "Brazilian comic artists in the United States" (journal article), "Comic books in Brazilian public libraries: the 'Gibitecas'"(journal article); Several other articles in Portuguese and Spanish Areas of Interest: Popular culture and comic books; comics and cultural studies; comic book history; Latin American comics Associations/Memberships: Asociacion Latinoamerica de Historietistas -------- Name: Address: Phone(s): ()-( )- Fax: ()- E-Mail: Publications: Areas of Interest: Associations/Memberships: Awards/Honors: ___________________________________________________________ PAGE 3 3-1 Fourth Annual Comic Arts Conference Chicago Comicon Thursday June 29, 1995 The Fourth Annual Comic Arts Conference will be held in conjunction with the Chicago Comicon on June 29, 1995. The Comic Arts Conference seeks to build bridges between academia and the comics industry by bringing together scholars and professionals for serious, vigorous, and friendly investigations of topics ranging over the world of comics. Founded in 1992 by Communications professor Randy Duncan and American Studies graduate student Peter M. Coogan the CAC has been attached to the San Diego Comicon for its first two years, and to the Chicago Comicon last year and this year. Currently the Conference organizers are seeking professionals and academics to participate in this year's Conference. Past professional participants have included Scott McCloud, Will Eisner, Donna Barr, Steve Bissette, R.C. Harvey, and Jeff Smith. Carl Potts, Scott McCloud, and Steve Bissette also presented slide shows. Academics from a variety of fields have participated, including both faculty and graduate students. If you would like to participate in the Conference, please look at the seminar offerings below. Submissions should be sent to: Peter M. Coogan, Comic Art Studies, MSU Libraries, East Lansing, MI 48824-1048; or by email: [C--ga--e] at [student.msu.edu], or call: (517) 485-8039. For further information contact: Randy Duncan at (501) 230-5042 or [d--c--r] at [holly.hsu.edu.] There is a registration fee of $20.00 ($10.00 for students). The deadline for participation is April 7, 1995. Seminars These seminars will take the form of panel discussions rather than paper presentations. If you wish to participate in one of the seminars listed below, send a letter of self-nomination, an academic vitae or short professional biography of involvement in the comics field, and a two page position statement on the topic. After acceptance, you will be given a change to expand your position paper before it is distributed to the other participants. The questions provided with each seminar topic are merely springboards for your thinking. Your position paper can answer all of the questions, focus on one question, or answer any other related questions. You may nominate yourself for more than one of the seminars, to do so send a position paper for each seminar you wish to participate in. Seminar I - Approaches to Studying the Comics Industry: What are the most significant and distinctive aspects of the comics industry? How does the nature of the industry affect the product? What approaches should be taken to study the industry? Seminar II - Responses to R.C. Harvey's Aesthetics of the Funnies: What are Harvey's most significant contributions to theory? Do you disagree with any of his conclusions? In what ways does his work need to be expanded? How can his work be applied to the actual production of comics? Seminar III - Closure: The Heart of the Art?: Is the concept of closure clearly defined as used in reference to comics? Is closure a valid concept to apply to comics? If closure is not the heart of the art, what is? Seminar IV - Teaching Comics: Is there any common ground to teaching about comics and teaching how to make comics? What is the most essential information conveyed to students in either type of class? What are some techniques for teaching this information? Seminar V - Comicsmatic: Is there a Comics Equivalent to Cinematic? Is it necessary to have a term equivalent to cinematic? What are the distinctive elements of the medium that would be referred to by such a term? How would such a term help us to understand the comics medium? Poster Sessions There will be two poster sessions, one for faculty and one specifically for students. The poster presentations will be on display throughout the day. Submit an approximately 100 word abstract and brief description of your display. Displays can consist of only a.) a 4 x 8 poster (easels will be provided) and b.) a folder or binder. Faculty Poster Session - This session is intended for scholars who want to share research in-progress and receive feedback from colleagues. At each station there will be notepads that conference attendees can use to make comments or suggestions. Student Poster Sessions - This session will be open only to graduate and undergraduate students. The display should present the research question, methodology, results, and analysis of a completed research project. There will be a cash prize for the best student poster presentation. ___________________________________________________________ PAGE 4 4-1 Comics and Print History Research Centers Peter Coogan recently became aware of two centers that might be of interest to our readers. The Director of the Brazilian Centre of Research on Comics sent a note, and the information on the other one is from email discussion lists. Centre of Research on Comics by Waldomiro C.S. Vergueiro My doctorate here [in England] is not focused directly to comics. I am originally a bachelor on Library Sciences and work at the Department of Librarianship and Documentation, in the School of Communications and Arts, as well as coordinating our Centre of Research on Comics (which is not in the same Department). Let me try to tell you very briefly what we achieved in Sao Paulo. In 1989, with a new management in my school, three professors that were interested in comics decided to propose the creation of a Research Centre, having as the main objective the coordination of all research activities in the school. We were very ambitious then and wanted to be the center of research on comics in the country, offering courses and organizing the documentation. Our first activities, a conference on the occasion of Batman's fiftieth year and our 360 hours course on comics. We had some difficulties later, principally due to changes in school's management, but we are persisting and trying to maintain our activities. Our newsletter is a form of publicizing our activities. We tried to publish a journal, but just managed to publish the first issue. Financial limitations are always big problems. Thank you. The address of our center is: Nucleo de Pesquisas de Historias em Quadrinhos Escola de Comunicacoes e Artes da Universidade de Sao Paulo Av. Prof. Lucio Martins Rodrigues, 443 Sao Paulo, SP - BRAZIL 05508-900 You can send the correspondence in the number of Prof. Dr. Gloria Kreinz, my secretary in the coordination of the Center. Waldomiro C. S. Vergueiro [w c s vergueiro] at [lut.ac.uk] ___________________________________________________________ PAGE 5 5-1 The Center For The History Of Print Culture In Modern America The Center For The History Of Print Culture In Modern America, a joint project of The State Historical Society of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is proud to announce a conference: PRINT CULTURE IN A DIVERSE AMERICA To be held in Madison, May 5-6, 1995. This conference will assess readers and their texts in the "other" America. Papers which illuminate the books, newspapers, periodicals, etc., produced by racial and ethnic minorities, women, political radicals, sexual minorities and others since 1876 will be the focus. We welcome both case studies of single group experiences and those that compare the historical sociology of print in the lives of a number of groups too often placed on the periphery of power. The Center encourages the interdisciplinary study of print culture history and welcomes scholars from all appropriate fields. The directors and advisory board will select a number of papers for the Center's initial book publication in 1997. Proposals for individual papers or entire sessions (up to 3 papers) are requested by December 1, 1994. For information contact: Wayne A. Wiegand or James P. Danky, Co-Directors Center for the History of Print Culture in Modern America University of Wisconsin 4217 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park Street Madison, WI 53706 (608) 264-6532 FAX (608) 263-4849 [James Danky] at [mail.admin.wisc.edu] 5-2: New Fax Number Please note that Comic Art Studies and the MSU Library Comic Art Collection have a new fax number: (517) 432-1445. 5-3: Who's Who of American Comic Books Update from Jerry Bails To Friends and Supporters of the Who's Who of American Comic Books: Good news. My publisher, Greg Theakston, has begun keylining the first volume. I was able to solve his computer problems from my end and have seen laser-jet printouts of the text entries for the first volume. We're on our way! Greg is still in need of art samples. He can bleach the color from old comics pages, but don't overlook any loose black and whites pages you might have. Scrounge around for any old books that are toss-away items and let us have them. Please give us the magazine title, strip, year, and art credits, if you know them. We intend to document the work of as many artists as possible. If you have the home address for any artist/writer/etc. whose last name starts with "B" through "G", please let me have it. I want to give them a chance to check over their listings before publication. My offer to provide short listings and cross-indexes still stands. Specify what sort of listings you would like to double check. Let's get this right, 'cause I ain't gonna be around for a third edition. Cross your fingers that we are really moving forward again. Bestest, Jerry Bails, 21101 E. 11 Mile, St. Clair Shores, MI. 48081 E-Mail: [j--yb--s] at [aol.com] ___________________________________________________________ PAGE 6 6-1: Topics Registry We are reviving this feature begun some years ago at the suggestion of Leonard Rifas and Ian Gordon. The idea behind it is to keep each other abreast of dissertation and thesis topics to help avoid duplication and the delays it can cause graduate students. The Topics Registry will be updated and made available as a Parallel Publication. The following notes are not official entries in the Topics Registry. Instead they are notes we have received from scholars beginning their thesis work. This first note arrived in Peter Coogan's electronic mailbox via Leonard Rifas and Howard Voland, and was originally posted to a discussion list: 6-1a: From: Christopher Nealon <[cn 15] at [cornell.edu]> Hi. I'm wondering if anyone on the list might know some comic book history. I'm looking for material for a dissertation on the impulse in American mass culture to repudiate one's family past in favor of a lost, mysterious, or alien ancestry. I'm primarily interested in two things: histories of particular comic heroes, especially Wonder Woman and Superman;and historical information about the publication lives of the comics themselves. The dissertation is dealing with the relationship between burgeoning mass culture and proto-les/gay culture in the first half of the century. 6-1b: Charles Hatfield sent Peter Coogan this note directly: From: Charles Hatfield <[C W H 93001] at [UConnVM.UConn.Edu]> I'm not exactly sure what my specific topic will be, but I'd like to avoid duplicating or echoing anybody's work too much. I'm currently interested in the history and dynamics of the comics market, and how the success of the superhero has influenced the economics of the market in dramatic ways. I may write a thesis focusing specifically on superheroes, or I may write a thesis which tries to show the continuity between, say, the mainstream hero market and the currently popular "alternative" market for autobiographical/confessional comics (not the DIScontinuity, which is what most people tend to emphasize). I may devote a lot of energy to the recent trend toward revisionist, "adult" superheroes, or I may not, depending on what my readings (in both primary and secondary sources) suggest. I can't quite make up my mind whether the superhero genre is promising or futile, vital or lifeless--the current scene is such a mix. But I'm sure to focus on a topic which acknowledges the superhero tradition while allowing me to look closely at the formal dimensions of comics as a medium. Both of those emphases are important to me. 6-2: Comic Book Documentation Dr. Thomas Alan Holmes of the English Department of the University of Tennessee sent this query: I am in the process of preparing a paper for the upcoming '95 convention, and I have a question about documentation styles for comics. The current MLA doesn't discuss the matter, and I don't think APA does, either. Has somebody established a standard, or are we working with current documentation styles for periodicals? If you could let me know what current documentation styles may exist, I would appreciate the feedback. I'm thinking of discussing the matter at the convention. Thanks for your attention. Sincerely, Thomas Alan Holmes, Box 8349, Knoxville TN 37996 [t--l--s] at [utkvx.utk.edu] ___________________________________________________________ PAGE 7 7-1: Survey of Comics Scholars This survey helped prompt the revival of this newsletter a few years ago. The updated and compiled responses will be published in the next issue. Send responses to Comic Art Studies or electronically to the survey's author Peter M. Coogan at [c--ga--e] at [student.msu.edu.] This questionnaire is an attempt to track what needs to be done as well as what has already been done in the study of comics, and to take stock of the current state of comics scholarship. It is my best attempt at a broad topic; I purposefully stayed away from narrow and specific questions, although I have narrowed some questions according to the responses already received. To some degree the questions reflect my own views and biases about what issues are important and in need of discussion, although these biases are being weeded out through revision according to the responses received. At an earlier point I eliminated questions which seem to have been answered, but retained them in the results; those questions have been returned to the survey for this new version Questions which have been obviated (M.3 on the need for a journal) are only in the results. The original numbering has been retained to avoid confusion. New questions, which haven't been answered, are obviously missing from the results, although the results may have inspired new questions. Please feel free to: deal with or address only questions or topics you are interested in, answer at any length, expand the questions as much as you want to, and answer questions not on the survey, and any areas or concerns that interest you and are not covered below. This survey has already sparked a polylogue among comics scholars, and is partially responsible for the existence of the Comic Arts Conference as it prompted Randy Duncan to call me, a call that eventually produced the CAC. I hope my efforts with the survey, in this newsletter, and at the CAC are helping to move comics scholarship along in its evolution. No matter what your involvement with comics, whether as creator, industry professional, retailer, librarian, academic, scholar, enthusiast, reader, or fan, your insight into the medium and the work done concerning the medium are valuable and need to be shared; this survey is one way for us all to share our opinions and discuss the various issues. This survey and its results will be continually updated and occasionally published, probably every year or two, in Comic Art Studies. A. DEFINING THE MEDIUM A.1. What is the definition of comics? and what is included in the term comics? (comic books, comic strips, single panel, editorial cartoons, etc.) A.2. Are comics unique? and if so, why? A.3. What are the particular strengths and weaknesses of the medium? A.4. Do we need a new term? A.5. What is included in the term comics? (comic books, comics strips, single panel, editorial cartoons, etc.) A.6. What are the extremes, in terms of balancing words and pictures, that are acceptable as comics? B. HISTORY B.2. What do you like or dislike about the histories that have been written? B.3. What kind of histories need to be written? B.5. What age are we in, and is ages a good way to continue to define historical periods? C. INDUSTRY C.1. What about the industry has been and needs to be studied? C.2. How is the comics industry similar to and different from other media industries (t.v., film, recording, etc.) and how do we know this? D. AUDIENCE D.1. What audience surveys have been and need to be done? D.2. What methodologies work for studying audiences? E. GENDER E.1. What work needs to be done on gender issues? E.2. Gay/Lesbian issues: E.2.a. What gay/lesbian comics are there? E.2.b. What about gay/lesbian professionals has been/needs to be done? E.2.c. How have gays and lesbians been portrayed in comics? E.3. What gender methodology can be imported to study comics? F. GENRE/FORMULA F.1. How can genre/formula theory be applied to comics? F.2. What impact have comics had on genre/formula in other media? and what impact has genre/formula in other media had on comics? F.3. How does genre/formula work in comics? and which ones work better or worse? F.4. Are the differences between comic books, comic strips, and the various kinds of cartoons generic differences or differences of media? What terms can be used to discuss these differences? G. COMICS AS AN ART FORM G.1. What questions are there about comics as an art form? G.2. What is at stake in claiming the status of art for comics? G.3. What can we learn from the movement of other media into the status of art? H. SUPERHEROES H.1. What about superheroes need to be studied and what methodologies work? H.2. What approaches or methodologies work? I. ACADEMIA I.1. Where, specifically, are comics being studied, taught (both academic and creative), and archived? I.2. How are comics being used in education (what is being taught and how, and what materials are being used?) I.3. How can libraries be encouraged to build comics collections? I.4. How can publishers be encouraged to donate comics consistently? I.5. How can a scholars' liaison be established at the companies? What would a scholars' liaison do? How would a liaison help the publishers and scholars both? J. GRANTS/SCHOLARSHIPS J.1. What money is available for studying comics? J.2. How can more be made available, and from what sources? J.3. Can people in the media (actors, directors, etc.) who have made money off adaptations of comics be approached for such money? K. ORGANIZATIONAL K.1. What comics related organizations exist? K.2. In what other organizations and associations are comics studied, and which ones accept comics related papers at their meetings? K.3. What needs to be done to form a comics studies organization, and would you support such an organization? K.4. How can email be used for scholarly communication? Would you subscribe to a comics scholars discussion list? L. BIBLIOGRAPHIC/INDEXING L.1. What bibliographies and indexes exist? L.2. What publications need indexing? L.3. Who publishes bibliographies and indexes? L.4. What software is most useful in indexing? M. PUBLICATIONS M.1. Where can comics scholarship be published? M.3. How is INKS doing in answering the need for a comics scholarship journal? M.4. What foreign publications and publishers exist? N. CRITICISM N.1. What would a rhetoric or poetics of comic contain? N.2. Do we need a rhetoric or poetics of comics? N.3. What makes for good criticism? N.4. Where can Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics be improved on? What did he overlook or deal with inadequately? O. SCHOLARSHIP O.1. What contact do and should scholars have with creators and other professionals? O.2. What do professionals think needs to be done? O.3. What articles and works, both comics related and from other media and disciplines, do you find useful, or would you recommend? O.4. Who has studied comics as a part of studying something else? O.5. How can comics (and comics scholarship and criticism) attain the respectability of film, literature, and art (and their scholarship and criticism), and should comics (scholarship and criticism) try to attain that? O.6. Do we need a comics studies department? What would such a department do and be like? P. OTHER P.1. What five things would help you most as a comics scholar? P.2. What five projects would you like to see done, like to help with, or like to have help with? Q. DIRECTORY OF SCHOLARS Q.1. See form above in newsletter; current directory available from newsletter address. R. OMITTED TOPICS R.1. What has been left out?