2009 in the Comic Art Collection at Michigan State University Libraries.

2009 in the Comic Art Collection at Michigan State University Libraries. <http://comics.lib.msu.edu/>

The International Comic Art Collection continued to thrive in 2009. Some acquisitions highlights were the donation of nearly 1,000 British weekly comic books (Dandy, Beano, Victor) from the 1970s, the purchase of 1,000 issues if the Argentine magazine Tit-Bits (a children's magazine with lots of comics) from the 1940s and 1950s, and a quick buying trip to Mexico City which added 300 items to our still random, but ever larger, collection of over 5,000 Mexican comics. We completed or very nearly completed our runs of the Spanish comics Cimoc, Creepy, and 1984. Other donations continued to arrive, mostly American comic books in quantity. An important local development is the beginning of a studio art class, called Comics and Visual Narrative, which has now been taught for two semesters by autobiographical comics artist and MFA Ryan Claytor. His class is also being taught at the University of Michigan-Flint. The final projects of almost fifty students have been deposited in our collection, and with this it begins to feel like Michigan State is contributing to the future of comics and not just the preservation of comics. A two-day forum on comics was held in March, and was attended by 200 people. Undergraduate use of comics for class work remains strong, averaging one student per day. This has reoriented our priorities somewhat toward recent "mainstream" comic books, as that's what the undergraduates are asking for. We have welcomed traveling scholars from Australia, Indiana, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York, and Ann Arbor, Mich. Two graduate students in the History Department here began their programs this fall by volunteering in the comics collection, and another from the library school at Champaign-Urbana is now doing a three-week stint of volunteer comics cataloging. One big event was the finalizing of a gift of about about three million comic strips in proof sheet format from King Features Syndicate. Three publishers have used this new collection: IDW Publishing has released a volume of Rip Kirby, Classic Comics Press has published The Heart of Juliet Jones, with other titles in the works, and Hermes Press has a volume of The Phantom on the way. The King Features strip collection is almost completely organized and cataloged, and re-housing in acid-free boxes and Tyvek envelopes is under way. SPEC Productions used our scrapbook collection of George Wunder's Terry and the Pirates for a forthcoming reprint. Cataloging in general has gone well this year, with 3,500 new titles added to the library's online catalog.

Randy Scott

Dark Horse Comics archive to Portland State University Library

Here's a good overview article on the 2008 donation of Dark Horse Comics archives to Portland State University Library.

MAD MAGAZINE'S AL JAFFEE TO BE INTERVIEWED BY DANNY FINGEROTH AT COLUMBIA U, WEDS. DECEMBER 9 **FREE**

Nothing to due with IJOCA, but this should be fun.

AN EVENING WITH MAD'S AL JAFFEE, WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 9 AT 8:00 PM AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.

FREE ADMISSION

New York, November 30, 2009

From Danny Fingeroth:

Comics humor legend AL JAFFEE will be interviewed by writer and critic DANNY FINGEROTH.

"An Evening with MAD Magazine's AL JAFFEE"

If you've ever laughed aloud at AL JAFFEE's world-famous "Mad Fold-Ins" or "Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions," you must not miss this rare opportunity to hear this fascinating figure discuss his incredible life story and the people he met along the way, including other pop-culture titans such as: Harvey Kurtzman, Will Elder, Bill Gaines, John Severin, Stan Lee, and many more.

Audience Q & A to follow.

About AL JAFFEE:
A graduate of New York's High School of Music and Art, JAFFEE worked as an editor, writer and artist for Stan Lee at Timely (later Marvel) Comics during the 1940s. In 1955, JAFFEE joined "the Usual Gang of Idiots" at MAD Magazine, where he's been a mainstay ever since, entertaining generations with his Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions and Mad Fold-Ins. Join us as JAFFEE provides snappy answers to provocative questions about his art and life, including his new book, Tall Tales (Abrams) and his upcoming memoir.

About DANNY FINGEROTH:
Moderator DANNY FINGEROTH, a longtime writer and editor at Marvel Comics, has spoken about comics at the Smithsonian Institution and The New School. He's the author of Disguised as Clark Kent: Jews, Comics, and the Creation of the Superhero (Continuum) and The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels (Penguin). Fingeroth is Senior VP of Education at New York's Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (MoCCA).

Details:
Wednesday, December 9, 8:00 pm
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
ROOM 501, Schermerhorn Hall
New York, NY

[Enter the Columbia Campus at Broadway and 116th Street.
Schermerhorn Hall is close to Amsterdam Avenue, between 118th & 119th streets.]

For more information call:
212-854-2581

**FREE ADMISSION**



                                                       --30--

IJOCA 11-2 table of contents

Vol. 11, No. 2, Fall 2009

 

Indian Cartooning Symposium

Edited by John A. Lent

 

An Illustrated History of Indian Political Cartooning

John A. Lent

3

 

Vivalok Comics: Celebrating All That Is Small in India

Karline McLain

26

 

G. Aravindan's "Small Men and the Big World":

Re- Defining the "Comic" in the Strip

Gokul T. G.

44

 

Making People Laugh:

Toms and K. J. Yesudasan, Premier Cartoonists

in Kerala, India

Shevlin Sebastian

53

 

The Most Popular Polish Comics (1957-1989)

Radoslaw Bolalek

59

 

The Smartest Comic on Earth:

Metafiction in Chris Ware's Acme Novelty Library #16

Paul Cheng

88

 

Lessons My Father Taught Me about Komiks

Clodualdo del Mundo, Jr.

103

 

"Sex and the City":

The Graphic Novel Series Aya

as West African Comedy of Manners

Marla Harris

119

 

The Next Generation of Comics Scholarship

Sandino and Other Superheroes:

The Function of Comic Books in Revolutionary Nicaragua

Bram Draper

136

 

Both Everyman and Other:

"Dilbert" as an Exemplar of Newspaper Comics' Simultaneous Identification and Distance

Julie A. Davis

176

 

Chronicler of Most of a Century:

Cartoonist Ding Cong (1916-2009)

John A. Lent and Xu Ying

195

 

"The Greatest Story Ever Drawn!"

Cleopatra in American Comics

Gregory N. Daugherty

208

 

Press Cartoons in France: A Short History

Jean-Marie Bertin

English translation by Micheline Maupoint and Alex Noel Watson

231

 

Vive la France, Now Who Are We?

Bande Dessinée, the 16 July 1949 Law,

and the Political Re-imagining of Post-World War II France

Joel Vessels

272

 

 

Beyond High and Low:

How Comics and Museums Learned to Co-exist

Kim Munson

283

 

Affect and the Body in Melville's "Bartleby"

and Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki's Skim

Patti Luedecke

299

 

Working Around Words:

Rauf Talishinsky's Azerbaijani Web Cartoons

Interview and Commentary by Alison Mandaville

Translation by Nikki Talishinsky

322

 

Drawn to Distraction:

Comics Reading in Kevin Huizenga's "Lost and Found"

Benjamin Stevens

336

 

From Bumpkin to Blessed --

Comics and National Identity: A Brazilian Case Study

Gêisa Fernandes D'Oliveira

350

 

Comic Book Artists and Writers and Philosophers

Jeff McLaughlin

364

 

An Essay

The Spirit Passes:  The Second Coming

of the Comic Strip's Golden Age

Charles Natoli

372

 

"How to Draw Thinking" Panel,

Small Press Expo, Rockville, MD, Oct. 14, 2006

Isaac Cates

380

 

An Essay

From Cartoon Art to Child Pornography

Murray Lee Eiland

396

 

Hong Kong Manhua after the Millennium

Connie Lam

410

 

Moebius, Gir, Giraud, Gérard:

Self-Visualizations

Maaheen Ahmed

421

 

Political Commentary and Dissent

in the Tapestry and the Cartoon Strip

Jamie Egolf

432

 

The Printed Word

John A. Lent

447

 

<Book Reviews>

Starr Hoffman

Héctor Fernández L'Hoeste

Sol M. Davidson

455

 

<Exhibition and Media Reviews>

edited by Michael Rhode

Ian Gordon

R.J. Gregov

Pascal Lefèvre

 Michael J. Dittman

Ron Stewart

Sarah Lightman

Ariel Kahn

Michael Hill

Michael Rhode

Ofer Berenstein

Peter R. Sattler

Beth Davies-Stofka

Nathan Atkinson

Jose Alaniz

472

 

<Portfolio>

515

ICAF conference seeking new members

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS

The Executive Committee of the International Comic Arts Forum, one of
the longest-lived and most respected annual conferences in Comics
Studies, is actively seeking new members:

http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org/icaf/callforrecruitment.html

We invite applications from academics (including graduate students)
and independent scholars in various fields, including but not limited
to Comparative Literature, English Studies, Cultural Studies,
Communications and Media, Visual Studies, Art History, and Comics
Studies.

The members of the Executive Committee collaborate to plan and present
the ICAF conference, which since its founding in 1995 has been one of
the most important annual events in comics studies. Among the
qualities, backgrounds and/or specialties we are most actively seeking
in candidates are:

  * Web-mastering
  * Grant-writing
  * Fund-raising
  * Cultural diversity/expertise in non-Western comics, pursuant to
ICAF's international focus
  * Conference- or event-organizing

We plan to recruit several new members in academic year 2009-2010.

Applicants should each send C.V. and a 1-2 page statement of purpose
to Cécile Danehy (cdanehy at wheatonma dot edu) by January 4, 2010.

Please send all materials in Word 97-2004 format (with the extension
.doc, not .docx) if possible.

We recommend that applicants consult ICAF's mission statement and past
programs (at our website, http://www.internationalcomicartsforum.org)
to get a sense of ICAF's purpose and character. Commitments to
internationalism and interdisciplinarity are the backbone of ICAF and
we will be looking for prospective colleagues with these qualities. In
addition, we urge applicants to frame their statements of purpose in
not only intellectual but also pragmatic terms, with emphasis on
specialties and skills such as those noted above.

IJOCA 11-2 shipped today, and subscription followups

The new issue shipped today.

Also we don't have have new addresses for the following subscribers and cannot send their copies: David Goldweber, Gigi Hu, Solomon Davidoff, and Bobby Kuechenmeister.

Library of Congress Accepting Swann Fellowship Applications

Library of Congress
101 Independence Avenue SE
Washington DC   20540

November 2, 2009
Public contact: Martha Kennedy (202) 707-9115, mkenn@loc.gov

Swann Foundation Accepting Fellowship Applications
Foundation Supports Research in the Humorous Arts of Caricature and Cartoon

The Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon, administered by the Library of Congress, is accepting applications for its graduate fellowship for the 2010-2011 academic year.  Applications are due by close of business on Friday, Feb. 15, 2010, and notification will occur in the spring. 

The Swann Foundation seeks to award one fellowship annually (with a stipend of up to $15,000) to assist in continuing scholarly research and writing projects in the field of caricature and cartoon.  Depending on the number and quality of proposals, the advisory board may elect to make multiple, smaller awards.

A fellow is required to be in residence in Washington, D.C., for a minimum of two weeks, use the Library's extensive collections and deliver a public lecture at the Library on his or her work.  Each fellow must also provide a copy of his or her dissertation, thesis or postgraduate publication upon completion, for the Swann Foundation Fund files.

Guidelines and application forms are available through the Swann Foundation's website www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/swann-fellow.html, by e-mailing swann@loc.gov or by calling Martha Kennedy in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library at (202) 707-9115.

To be eligible, an applicant must be a resident of the United States and a candidate for a master's or doctoral degree at a university based in the United States, Canada or Mexico.  The applicant must be working toward completion of a dissertation or thesis for that degree or be engaged in postgraduate research within three years of receiving an M.A. or a Ph.D.  Individuals who are not U.S. residents but who otherwise meet these academic qualifications may also apply and be considered for a fellowship, contingent upon their visa eligibility. 

The applicant's research must be in the field of caricature and cartoon.  There are no restrictions on the place or time period covered.  To encourage research in a variety of academic disciplines, any university department may oversee a project proposed for the fellowship, provided the subject pertains to caricature or cartoon art.

Requirements for the fellowship applications include a statement of qualifications, a one-page abstract of the proposed project, a project description that specifies research needs and a budget, two letters of reference and official transcripts.

The Swann Foundation Fellowship in Caricature and Cartoon is one of a small number of scholarly fellowships that provide direct support for continuing graduate research in the field.  It has supported groundbreaking research on caricature and cartoon that focuses on a variety of subjects and topics such as the Cold War; representations of race, class conflict and disease; and the early origins of caricature and political satire, and the cultural and social forces that have influenced the development of prominent cartoonists' work.  For a list of research projects, visit www.loc.gov/rr/rint/swann/swann-fellowslist.html.

The Caroline and Erwin Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon is overseen by an advisory board composed of scholars, collectors, cartoonists and Library of Congress staff members.  The foundation's activities support the study, interpretation, preservation and appreciation of original works of humorous and satiric art by graphic artists from around the world.  New York advertising executive Erwin Swann (1906-1973) established the Swann Foundation for Caricature and Cartoon in 1967.

# # #

PR09-225
11/2/09
ISSN: 0731-3527