It really does seem like every year Comics Forum gets better and better. I say this every November, but the thing that appeals to me is the mixture of academic research and practice in the papers. Yes, there are a certain amount of “literary theory”-type papers, full of analysis and readings of comics, but there are always an equal number of papers about practice and projects as well. And, of course, Comics Forum segues into Thought Bubble, whose indie-focus compliments the conference completely.
Highlights from this year include: Carolina Gonzalez‘s paper on the political problematization of historical memory, Emma Varughese on combat and politics in the Indian graphic novel, Lydia Wysocki and John Miers on their comic project based on the Gertrude Bell archive, Andrew Godfrey on how acts of performance make good medical comics (with a nod to Damon Herd and DeeCAP, and a namecheck to Something Different About Dad – thank you, Andrew!)
Particularly noteworthy was the paper given by my co-presenter and chair of the session Constructing History with the Community, Paul Bristow. He talked about the projects he has been running with Magic Torch Comics on community heritage, something I’m doing more of these days. Both Tales of the Oak and Achi Baba are fascinating projects about how to tap into and help preserve the narrative of community identity. Another particular highlight was the paper given by Sarah McNicol on another pair of community heritage projects, this time on the theme of “social hauntings”; really interesting in the way they developed very sophisticated examples of community comics-making by exploiting the creative links with other media such as poetry, music, etc. Both of these papers had particular relevance to some of the comics work I’m doing at the moment.
Thought Bubble – always great fun, even in the rain. Always almost too much to absorb, but I suppose the key is to leave wanting more? I carried a handful of Applied Comics Network badge-flyers with me, and with that particular hat on, met – among others – science-comic maker James Evans, of Stumpycomics, and his series of science-biographies, “not” narrated by a certain famous TV scientist-presenter; and Sonya Hallett and Fergus Murray, science-comics makers, who charmed me with Sonya’s mini-comic about snowflakes (and check out the Atomic Arcade, too!).
And notable amongst the non-applied comics: a darkly-cute cut-out-window comic from Aimee Lockwood; the inspired Choose-Your-Own-Adventure comic Secret Gardens from Lizzie and Connor Boyle and Disconnected Press, set in the real-life grounds of Lowther Castle; Dust, by John Carvajal, whose creative solitude a group of us Comics Forum kids had already crashed during a drink-and-draw at The Brunswick a few nights before (sorry, John); poetry comics from Sidekick Books and Louise Crosby; and Tim Bird’s excellent (and award-winning) From the City to the Sea.
Plus, special shout-out to the awesome creative strangeness of @KawaiiKasai!
