“It’s a long way down” – page from Palau: An Archaeological Field Journal, and one of the images in my presentation at Comics Forum this weekend.
Just spent two excellent days at Comics Forum 2012 in Leeds, where I gave a paper on my Palauan field journal comic on Thursday.
This year’s theme was “Multiculturalism”, and prompted a range of extremely diverse papers, presenters and attendees – some fascinating presentations about comics I’d never imagined existed: Unexpectedly ambiguous crime information comics produced by the Omani Royal Police, comics about the workings and impact of the International Criminal Tribunals, sex, sexism and sexuality in Italian fumetto, black comic characters and creators in the US, comics in China, Slovenia, Israel and Canada; the papers ranged from the expected and familiar to the unexpected and unfamiliar and back again.
I presented my own paper on Thursday afternoon, alongside Mary Tabakow and her paper on the Royal Omani Police comics. It was voted “Pick of the Papers” for the day, and my prize was copies of Fluffy and Please God, Find Me a Husband! by Simone Lia. Even better, Simone Lia was Thursday’s keynote speaker, and so she happily signed – doodled – both books for me. Fluffy has always been one of my favourite graphic works, and so getting not only a signed copy but a chance to sit and talk with Simone while she drew in them for me was a real treat.
Simone’s keynote talk was actually an “in conversation” with Ann Miller. The format worked really well, and Simon chatted easily about all sorts of things – picking fluff off the carpet at Gatwick airport, her children’s book illustration work, the origins of Fluffy, and the unexpected backstory to the genesis of Please God, Find me a Husband!.
Friday’s keynote – in the same conversational format – was Charlie Adlard talking with Hugo Frey. Again, the conversational format was great, and Charlie talked at length about some of his earlier works – illustrating Doris Lessing’s Playing the Game and White Death before going on to talk about his work drawing The Walking Dead and hinting at what he might do next (nothing to do with Zombies – he was quite clear on that!).
Some highlights from the conference for me: Ian Horton on British colonialist “heroes”, Ana Merino on Latino identity and Love and Rockets, Frank Bramlett on the quotidian in comics, Rebecca Scherr on framing and Footnotes in Palestine, Keina Yoshida on comics and international criminal justice, Asta Vrecko on comics about Italian atrocities in annexed western Slovenia during the Second World War, Corey Creekmur on underground comix and race and William H. Foster III on the changing image of African-American and black women in comics.
As usual, there were the inevitable conflicts that meant you couldn’t go to everything – I was particularly sorry to miss Paul Harrison on Egypt in comics, but managed to catch up with him later, and Umar Ditta’s paper on representations of relationships between cultures. But perhaps it’s best to leave a conference wanting more!
Came away with some plans and projects for the future: I had an invitation from The Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics to submit my paper on archaeological comics, Ian Horton invited me to take part in a teaching symposium next year bringing together a variety of illustrators from different disciplines, Ian Hague and the Comics Forum committee are putting together some kind of “official body” to formalise the social networks the conference has generated, and wants to include “informational” comics of the kind I’m working on in archaeology as part of what they will cover, and Bill Foster has promised introductions to some comics writers and artists with Caribbean backgrounds, which might suggest a “next step” as far as my Caribbean archaeology comics are concerned.
As with last year, a great conference: diverse, dynamic, full of interesting people buzzing with interesting ideas. A big thank-you to Ian, Carolene, Hattie, Emily and the rest of the Comics Forum team for organising such a great conference – almost can’t wait until next year!
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john g. swogger 