Organised by the editorial team of CLOSURE, Kiel University’s e-journal for comics studies, Kiel’s first comic conference will be held from the 9th to the 11th of September 2016 at the University of Kiel. The conference focuses on ›Beginnings‹ and ›Renewals‹ in comics and takes into account both formal and historical aspects of the genre. The conference explicitly seeks to approach this topic from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Panels consist of 11 papers delivered by international comics scholars, a keynote address by Silke Horstkotte, and a concluding panel discussion. On Friday night, the conference opens with a comic book reading at the art gallery in Kiel. Four comic book artists – Tanja Esch from Hamburg, Jul Gordon and Sascha Hommer (»Kontaktcenter Hamburg«) and Gregor Hinz (comic magazine »Pure Fruit«) – read from their respective works, thereby approaching the topics of Beginnings and Renewals from a performative perspective. Presentations and the comic book reading are free of charge and open to university members as well as to the general public.
Attending the conference is free of charge and open to the public. Lectures will be given partly in English and partly in German
On the conference’s topic:
“On your marks! More than any other narrative field, graphic storytelling is determined by beginnings. Case in point: 2012 saw the newest in a long line of reboots, as DC comics renumbered and restarted its series and its universe. It is not just the context of serial superhero stories, however, that is characterized by ›beginnings‹ and ›renewals‹ – any historical perspective requires both comics and comics studies to re-examine the question of beginnings.
The conference, held on September 9-11, 2016 in Kiel, Germany, will focus on the themes of ›beginning‹ and ›renewal‹ in comics, seeking a wide range of interdisciplinary approaches to the question of what constitutes a new start in comics and for comics. This includes ›beginning‹ as a formal device as well as related inquiries into the narratological, stylistic and theoretical implications of beginnings within the structure of comics. Further approaches include the question of beginnings of the medium, its discourses and the study of comics. Last but not least: ›beginnings‹, ›renewals‹ and ›fresh starts‹ will also be analyzed as themes and motifs.”
Programme:
Location: Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Düsternbrooker Weg 1, 24105 Kiel
| Friday, 09 Sep 2016 | |
| 17:30–18:15 h | Registration |
| 18:30–19:30 h | Welcome and Reception |
| 20:00–21:30 h | Comic Reading at the Kunsthalle Details |
Location: Kiel University, Leibnizstraße 1 (room 204), 24118 Kiel
| Saturday, 10 Sep 2016 | |
| 09:15–09:45 h | Conference Opening and Short Introduction |
| Panel 1 | |
| 09:45–10:30 h | Joachim Jordan (Berlin, Germany): The Sleepless Nights of Major Stefanov. Uncertain, Endless Beginnings in the Bulgarian Comic of the Eighties. |
| 10:30–11:15 h | Carmela Artime Omil (Barcelona, Spain): Claiming Truth: Beginnings in Spanish Graphic Novels on the Civil War (2005-2015) |
| 11:15–11:30 h | Break |
| Panel 2 | |
| 11:30–12:15 h | Paul M. Malone (Waterloo, Canada): Werbecomics at the Beginning of German Comics |
| 12:15–13:00 h | Camilla Murgia (Geneva, Switzerland): Speech Balloons, Bubbles and Captions: the Rise of Narrative in 18th-Century British Comics |
| 13:00–14:00 h | Lunch Break |
| Panel 3 | |
| 14:00–14:45 h | Janek Scholz (Aachen, Germany): Game Over and Reset. Serielle Neuanfänge im Comic Daytripper von Fábio Moon und Gabriel Bá |
| 14:45–15:30 h | David Turgay (Wörth, Germany): First Page, First Issue, New Volume: Starting a Character Again and Again |
| 15:30–16:15 h | Annina Klappert (Erfurt, Germany): Anders anfangen. Building Stories von Chris Ware |
| 16:15–16:45 h | Break |
| 16:45–17:45 h | Keynote: Silke Horstkotte (Warwick, UK): Textanfänge, Weltanfänge. Peer Meters Serienmörder-Trilogie |
| 17:45–18:15 h | Break |
| 18:30–open end | Conference Dinner |
| Sunday, 11 Sep 2016 | |
| Panel 4 | |
| 09:30–10:15 h | Lukas R. A. Wilde (Tübingen, Germany): On the Contemporary ›Mangaization‹ of Japanese Public Spaces: the Base-Narrativity of Manga-Pictoriality |
| 10:15–11:00 h | Jasmin Böschen (Hamburg, Germany): Neuanfang in der Wissenschaft? Comic als Initiator für Visuelle Bildung |
| 11:00–11:15 h | Break |
| Panel 5 | |
| 11:15–12:00 h | Pascal Lefèvre (Brussels, Belgium): Publication Format and Beginnings |
| 12:00–12:45 h | Bettina Egger (Salzburg, Austria): Aesthetics of Polemics: L’Association and the Transformation of the Comic Book in the 1990s |
| 12:45–13:15 h | Break |
| 13:15–14:00 h | Closing Discussion |
| 14:00 h | Farewell |
Contact:
closure@comicforschung.uni-kiel.de