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.
Friday March 31, 2017 12:30pm - 2:00pm PDT
Room 210
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.
Friday March 31, 2017 2:00pm - 3:00pm PDT
Room 210
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.
Friday March 31, 2017 3:00pm - 4:00pm PDT
Room 210
What part has genre played in the rise of comics and comics-related TV and film? We all know that different types of stories exist, from superhero tales to horror, science fiction, mysteries, and more, but at what point do those categories help stories reach fans and at what point do they become limiting? Was Watchmen just a superhero story? What about Captain America: Civil War, or Netflix superhero shows like Luke Cage,Jessica Jones, and Daredevil that embrace wide-ranging social issues, gender issues, and much more? Christina Angel (Metropolitan State University of Denver), Hannah Means-Shannon (Neil Gaiman: The Early Years), and Ilan Mitchell-Smith (California State University, Long Beach) discuss the fan-embracing role that genres have played in the history and development of comics, and the ways in which assumptions about genre limitations may still stand in the way of comics and comics-based storytelling reaching their full potential.
Saturday April 1, 2017 10:30am - 11:30am PDT
Room 210
CAC special guest Genevieve Valentine (Catwoman), author of the novels Mecahnique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti and Persona, writer of Batman and Robin Eternal and Xena, and winner of the Crawford Award, presents a talk: "'The Empire of a Wicked Woman': Catwoman, Comics, and the History of Power." Catwoman has been a lot of things in the last 75 years: thief, hero, crime lord, community advocate. But Selina Kyle isn't just Gotham's first moral gray area; she's part of a long tradition of women in power, both on the page and off-and there are some surprising parallels in how their stories are told. Valentine explores some elements of those narratives amid Catwoman's various incarnations, parallels, triumphs, and absences.
Saturday April 1, 2017 11:30am - 12:30pm PDT
Room 210
Just in time for the heated and hated 2016 presidential election, Kelly Sue DeConnick and Valentine De Landro's Bitch Planet released its 9th issue, appropriately emblazoned with "VOTE" and "President Bitch." In this panel, Tara Prescott (University of California, Los Angeles), David Hall (Old Dominion University), Philip Smith (College of the Bahamas), and Maite Urcaregui (University of California, Santa Barbara), contributors to the upcoming collection Gender and the Superhero Narrative, will examine the role of gender in the superhero narrative, starting a discussion for the audience to delve into the larger issues of comics in a post-Trump America and beyond.
Saturday April 1, 2017 12:30pm - 1:30pm PDT
Room 210
Andrew Barton (Texas State University) discusses how Vision offers a unique insight into the position of The Other through the story of the Avenger android's attempt to fit into a small community in his own ideal America. Karma Waltonen (University of California Davis) explores Kill Shakespeare's representation of the intersections of female villainy with sex, gender, and sexuality. Michael Lee Gonzales (Texas State University) explores how the transition from animation to comics of KaBOOM! Studios' Steven Universe allow for the exploration of queer spatiality/temporality and pleasure not possible in the animated version.
Saturday April 1, 2017 1:30pm - 3:00pm PDT
Room 210
This panel considers the visual aspects of comics and the interactions of art and language. Kim Munson discusses the legacy of the groundbreaking 1967 exhibition Bande Dessinée et Figuration Narrative at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in the Louvre and its influential catalog, A History of the Comic Strip. Meghan Cartier (California State University, Fresno) compares the books of Pre-Columbian Central Mexico and the figure of Lady 6-Monkey, to modern comics to examine how symbols and iconography work in a cultural artistic consciousness. Wyatt E. Sarafin (Kenyon College) looks at Chris Ware's Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth, outlining how the text's diagrams, which reveal information otherwise excluded from the narrative, compensate for the text's failed masculinity, in the process commenting on the current history of the art of comics. Room 210
Sunday April 2, 2017 11:30am - 1:00pm PDT
Room 210
The comics universe is made up of powerful characters who are driven to accomplish a goal: to protect or conquer. When these individuals can't achieve the goal themselves, they often band together and form teams such as the X-Men, the Justice League, and the Legion of Doom. Joe Serrano (Adler University), Edgar Ramos (Concordia University), John Leffel, and Rebecca Lee (Adler University) explore teamwork dynamics within comic books and cinema. The panel will address the psychology behind what makes or breaks a team, the pivotal roles that specific characters play in the group dynamic, and the depiction of teamwork in comic films. Room 210
Perhaps more than texts in any other medium, comics have created worlds structured around coherent, long-term histories, generally referred to as their "continuity." These three presentations consider different aspects of how continuity works in serial graphic narratives. Tiffany Babb (Columbia University) considers how the rebranding of the trickster Kid Loki in Journey into Mystery: The Manchester Gods indicates that revolution cannot remain permanent in the circular narrative pattern of mainstream comics. Enrique Acosta (Spider Baby the Musical) discusses the balancing act of respecting continuity for both creators and for fans. Derek Heid (Temecula Valley High School) examines the transfer of superhero titles between characters and the idea of the hero avatar-the mantle that is passed from one individual to another, which defines the parameters of what we recognize as the superhero in question without tying that identity to a single flesh-and-blood person. Room 210
