WonderCon Anaheim 2017

Daisy R. Herrera explores how Eduardo del Río (Rius) uses comic book art to encourage readers, especially those of Mexican descent, to ponder Mexico's history of conquest, corruption, and turmoil. Emily Rauber Rodriguez (University of Southern California) examines why two comics, The Montgomery Story and March, intended to disseminate a Civil Rights message have very different formal and structural elements that adapt to their eras and intended functions. Sarah D. Harris (Bennington College) explains how the blurred lines between real and imaginary, self and other, in Miguelanxo Prado's Ardalén allude to the Recovery of Historical Memory in Spain's early 21st century.

Johnathan Flowers (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) uses the concept of feminist killjoys to explain how the treatment of fans who criticize the representation of diverse bodies in comics is one of the primary ways that comics fail in their attempts to diversify. Law professor and IP specialist Marc H. Greenberg (Golden Gate University School of Law) provides guidance for fans wishing to navigate the confusing thicket of legal issues that surround the creation of fan fiction and art.

Susan Kirtley (Portland State University), Antero Garcia (Colorado State University), Peter Carlson (Green Dot Public Schools), David F. Walker (Power Man and Iron Fist), Shannon Wheeler (The New Yorker), Johnny Parker II (Neat-O Comics), and Rosie O. Knight present a roundtable conversation on the ways in which our various relationships to comics inform our thinking on the medium, and how we might work together to develop better comics, better comics criticism, and better comics education. Panelists will examine their own fandom while assessing how representations of agencies, identities, and actions in comics shape how readers define their world. Inversely, participants will explore how much the voices and experiences of readers can reciprocally influence comics.