Articles from and news about the premier and longest-running academic journal devoted to all aspects of cartooning and comics -- the International Journal of Comic Art (ISSN 1531-6793) published and edited by John Lent.

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

The Vault of Culture: a home for cultural criticism (with a comics bibliography!)

The study of comics has become too big for any one journal, even IJOCA, to cover, and other venues may be of interest to our readers. I was in an online conference recently with Shawn, and asked him to let IJOCA's readers know about his e-journal.

 by Shawn Gilmore

I edit a cultural criticism site, The Vault of Culture, “an edited, semi-scholarly space devoted to publishing a wide range of approaches to a variety of cultural objects, from comics to film to novels to video games and everything in between.” We aim to be a home for public scholarship, and while we publish on a variety of media, we have a strong tradition of presenting comics criticism, and I'd like to invite members of the IJOCA community to contribute.

 

The Vault of Culture publishes writing aimed at a broad audience that takes a scholarly (or semi-scholarly) stance on one or more aesthetic/cultural objects, giving those writings some editorial guidance, a nice visual presentation, and a home beyond individual conference presentations, blogs, facebook posts, twitter, etc. We’re quite open to the kind of work you may already be doing, including previously-written/-presented or new work, one piece at a time or in series.

 

To give a sense of the range of works we've published on comics, here are some highlights from the last year or so:

 

Feel free to take a look at the site and poke around. Or, like the facebook page to see new entries as they go up or follow along on twitter: @vaultofculture. If you are at all interested in participating, you can see ways to get started on the “about” page, including inquiring about one-off pieces or recurring series. Or, email vaultofculture@gmail.com and let us know what you’re working on.

 

Feel free to prompt those far and wide that might be interested in contributing—we always hope that VoC can include a wide range of voices and approaches.

 

Thanks for your time and attention.


Shawn Gilmore

Editor, The Vault of Culture

 

Here are the articles and features on comics that have appeared in The Vault of Culture through June 2021.

Akhauri, Aki. 2021. “on Kay Sohini’s ‘Pandemic Precarities’.” In Gilmore, Shawn (ed.). “On Comics: a U-C Comics Colloquium introduction to COVID Chronicles (2021).” The Vault of Culture (24 May 2021): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/covidchronicles

Ash, Evan. 2019. “Don't Know Much About Comic History: The Early Anti-Comic Book Movement, 1940-1944.” The Vault of Culture (29 September 2019): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/feature/ash/earlyanticomicsmovement

Babb, Tiffany. 2020. “The (Illusion of) Safety in Little Nemo’s Walking Bed.” The Vault of Culture (6 November 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/slumberland/babbsafety

Bryan, Peter Cullen. 2020. “The Endless Media Adaptations of Little Nemo’s Walking Bed.” The Vault of Culture (6 November 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/slumberland/bryanmedia

Gilmore, Shawn. 2019. “On Comics: Cole Pauls, Dakwäkãda Warriors (2016-19).” The Vault of Culture (11 November 2019): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/paulsdakwakada

Gilmore, Shawn. 2019. “On Comics: Emil Ferris, My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017).” The Vault of Culture (16 September 2019): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/ferrismonsters

Gilmore, Shawn. 2019. “On Comics: Fiona Smyth, ‘Skin of Fate,’ in Nocturnal Emissions #3 (1991) & #4 (1992).” The Vault of Culture (9 August 2019): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/smythskinoffate

Gilmore, Shawn. 2019. “On Comics: Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, Red: A Haida Manga (2009) and Alan Moore & JH Williams III, Promethea #32 (2005).” The Vault of Culture (26 August 2019): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/yahgulanaasmoore

Gilmore, Shawn. 2019. “On Comics: Jillian Tamaki, ‘SexCoven,’ in Frontier #7 (2015).” The Vault of Culture (4 October 2019): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/tamakisexcoven

Gilmore, Shawn. 2020. “‘Drake Waller’ (Arnold Drake & Leslie Waller), Matt Baker, and Ray Osrin, It Rhymes with Lust (1950).” The Vault of Culture (8 May 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/graphicnovels/itrhymeswithlust  

Gilmore, Shawn. 2020. “Don Freeman, It Shouldn’t Happen— (To a Dog) (1945).” The Vault of Culture (24 April 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/graphicnovels/itshouldnthappen

Gilmore, Shawn. 2020. “Jules Feiffer, The Great Comic Book Heroes (1965).” The Vault of Culture (25 June 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/graphicnovels/greatcomicbookheroes

Gilmore, Shawn. 2020. “Mike Butterworth and Don Lawrence, The Trigan Empire (1978).” The Vault of Culture (20 April 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/graphicnovels/triganempire

Gilmore, Shawn. 2020. “On Comics: Chris Ware, ‘Rusty Brown’ in The ACME Novelty Library #19 (Fall/Winter 2008, collected 2019).” The Vault of Culture (28 January 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/warerustybrown

Gilmore, Shawn. 2020. “Otto Nückel, Destiny: A Novel in Pictures (1926, 1930).” The Vault of Culture (6 May 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/graphicnovels/destiny

Gilmore, Shawn. 2020. “Scale and Formal Presentation of Little Nemo’s Walking Bed.” The Vault of Culture (6 November 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/slumberland/gilmorescale

Gilmore, Shawn (ed.). 2021. “On Comics: a U-C Comics Colloquium introduction to COVID Chronicles (2021).” The Vault of Culture (24 May 2021): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/covidchronicles

Gilmore, Shaw. 2021. “on Zack Davisson and Lili Chin’s Yōkai Parade Presents Amabie!’” In Gilmore, Shawn (ed.). “On Comics: a U-C Comics Colloquium introduction to COVID Chronicles (2021).” The Vault of Culture (24 May 2021): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/covidchronicles

Peppard, Anna F. 2020. “‘Til Death Do We Part, at Least for a While: My Undying Love Affair with Undying Superheroes.” The Vault of Culture (9 March 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/feature/peppard/undying

Rondinelli, Zachary J.A. 2020. “On Comics: Even Batman Has (K)nightmares: An Analysis of Form and Communication in Tom King’s ‘Knightmare’ Arc (Batman #61-63, 66-69).” The Vault of Culture (17 March 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/kingknightmare

Rondinelli, Zachary J.A. 2020. “Sunken Treasure: Transformation, Mysticism, and the Father in Jeff Lemire’s The Underwater Welder (2012).” The Vault of Culture (1 May 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/feature/rondinelli/underwaterwelder

Rondinelli, Zachary J.A. 2020. “Trippin’ on a Prayer: Masonic and Anticlerical Readings of Little Nemo's Walking Bed.” The Vault of Culture (6 November 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/slumberland/rondinellitrippin

Rondinelli, Zachary J.A. 2020. “The #WalkingBedWeek Roundtable at the #WelcomeToSlumberland Social Media Research Project.” The Vault of Culture (6 November 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/slumberland/rondinelliintro

Smith, Axlan. 2021. “on Rivi Handler-Spitz’s ‘We made faces instead.’” In Gilmore, Shawn (ed.). “On Comics: a U-C Comics Colloquium introduction to COVID Chronicles (2021).” The Vault of Culture (24 May 2021): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/covidchronicles

Thacker, Mara. 2021. “on Mike Heinrich’s ‘Two Weeks’ Notice’.” In Gilmore, Shawn (ed.). “On Comics: a U-C Comics Colloquium introduction to COVID Chronicles (2021).” The Vault of Culture (24 May 2021): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/covidchronicles

Totten, Chris. 2020. “The Animated Legacy of Little Nemo’s Walking Bed.” The Vault of Culture (6 November 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/slumberland/tottenanimated

VanCalbergh, Michael. 2020. “On Comics: The Universe is Watching: Backgrounds in Tillie Walden’s On a Sunbeam (2018).” The Vault of Culture (23 June 2020): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/oncomics/waldenonasunbeam

Wigard, Justin. 2021. “Ludocomics: Play and Interactivity in Comics, Games, and You are Deadpool (2018).” The Vault of Culture. (12 April 2021): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/feature/wigard/youaredeadpool

Williams, Kelly. 2019. “Female Readership and Corruption in The Dark Phoenix Saga (1980) and Dark Phoenix (2019). The Vault of Culture (23 May 2019): https://www.vaultofculture.com/vault/feature/williams/darkphoenix

 

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